The team entered the second round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship with two Cadillac prototypes in the top GTP class.
Wayne Taylor Racing’s #10 V-Series.R wound up seventh with Ricky Taylor, Felipe Albuquerque, and Will Stevens while the sister #40 of Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz, and Brendon Hartley failed to finish.
The #10 was dogged by a throttle issue from the outset, which dropped them a lap down despite pitting at the first opportunity under yellow. At the same time, the team was delivered a 60-second incident responsibility penalty.
That was for the crash on the stroke of 55 minutes when the #023 Triarzi Competizione Ferrari 296 crashed at high speed into a concrete wall (timestamped video about).
At the time, the #10 Cadillac had been running immediately behind the #023 Ferrari. Commentators initially thought there had been nose-to-tail contact, but driver Ricky Taylor denied as much and footage supplied to officials by the team after the penalty was delivered seemed to prove as much too.
Inside the first 90 minutes, the #10 team found themselves three laps down and fought for the rest of the race to get back onto the lead lap.
A flurry of cautions helped the team to get time back but in the end the #10 wound up a lap down while the #40 failed to finish due to mechanical issues.
Team owner Wayne Taylor was left furious by the penalty that he said officials later conceded wasn’t warranted.
“That is probably the most disappointing Sebring 12 Hour I have been to,” said Taylor.
“It is sad because we have such great support from Cadillac and DEX. The team worked so hard, and the drivers did such a good job.
“Right in the very beginning, the #10 car had a problem with the throttle not opening fully, so we had to come in and fix it, dropping down two laps.
“Then, once out, the #10 car got a drive-through penalty of 60 seconds for something we didn’t do, and which put us down another lap. Three laps! Two were of our doing, the other one was because of the race director.
“We looked at the footage, he never touched the car. Ricky said he never touched the car. And the race director’s response was that he made a ‘bad call’. Well, then what is the protocol on making a ‘bad call’? That one lap cost us the chance to race for the win in the end.
“It is inexcusable. I am not going to put this kind of effort in, representing these brands, to have somebody make these kinds of moves.”
Taylor bemoaned the team’s qualifying effort but said the team’s set-up change allowed them to be on pace with the race-leading Porsches.
“For a long time in the race, we were 12th and 13th. But we started making our way back up, and at the same time running the same times as the leaders,” he said.
“So overall, in the end, we had a car that we could race and unfortunately, the race director didn’t allow us to race.
“No matter what, I love Sebring. It is a very special track and a very special event to me. We look forward to returning next year with a much stronger result.”
IMSA returns with a 100-minute race at the Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 13.
