Wayne Taylor Racing Sweeps Florida at Sebring's Famously Abusive Racetrack

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

Ricky Taylor pulled away from Joao Barbosa and gave Wayne Taylor Racing and Cadillac a victory during 36 Hours of Florida at Sebring Raceway. Taylor pushed his Konica Minolta-sponsored No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R to a 13.6 second win over Barbosa’s Action Express-backed entry, following a long mid-race battle between the two Cadillacs.

Much of the race was a recreation of the prototype duel between the Taylor family and Mustang Sampling Racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, with three hours to go at Sebring, Jordan Taylor passed Filipe Albuquerque for the lead in dense traffic and built up a sizable gap. Calling in the No. 10 Cadillac to pit and swap drivers in the final hour, just moments before the race’s final course caution, resulted in Ricky Taylor maintaining a commanding lead for the remainder of the event.

The Taylor’s previous win at Le Mans garnered some light controversy due to late-race contact made between Ricky and the Mustang Sampling Cadillac. “I really wanted this race win to be conventional,” said Ricky Taylor after the win at Sebring. “This was a dominant win, so nobody can question it.”

Endurance racing is never kind to cars and the grid of 46 saw nine retire due to mechanical problems before the final lap. Included in the fallout were both of the Nissan DPis fielded by last year’s victors Extreme Speed Motorsports. Many teams were forced into the pits for extensive repairs on front-suspensions and brakes badly damaged by Sebring’s notoriously abusive concrete. However, the Taylor’s Cadillac DPi-V.R. was not among them.

[Image: International Motor Sports Association]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • Ajla Ajla on Mar 19, 2017

    Overall winner : 6.2L naturally-aspirated pushrod V8 PC class winner : 6.2L naturally-aspirated pushrod V8 GTLM winner : 5.5L naturally-aspirated pushrod V8 GTD winner : 6.2L naturally-aspirated OHC V8 Q.E.D

  • Wallstreet Wallstreet on Mar 19, 2017

    Is DeadWeight still alive ?

  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Mar 19, 2017

    So does Cadillac actually still have engineers who design motors, or there just an LS (or Opel turboz) in that stock car and Cadillac sponsored it? Edit: I'll answer my own question. "The Cadillac DPi-V.R is propelled by a race-prepared, normally aspirated Cadillac 6.2 liter V-8 engine that shares inherent architecture with the engines of the third-generation Cadillac CTS-V (640 horsepower) and fifth-generation Cadillac Escalade (420 horsepower). The engine produces approximately 600 horsepower when tuned for racing as defined by IMSA-mandated air restrictors, with a maximum allowable RPM of 7,600. The engine transfers power to the rear wheels through an X-TRAC paddle-shift transmission. Cadillac and its designers collaborated with key partners including chassis builder Dallara, teams from Wayne Taylor Racing and Action Express Racing and ECR Engines to prepare the 6.2-liter V-8-powered Cadillac DPi-V.R over the past year." http://media.cadillac.com/media/us/ en/cadillac/news.detail.html/content/ Pages/news/us/en/2016/dec/1201-dpr-vr-race-car.html Christ on a bike, normal aspiration our of a Cadillac? Wait, is this even allowed? I also notice this is in the LS family. Why no 3.0 TWIN TURBOZ like in the CT6 Johann? Why real motors instead of fake ones on the stock car? Oh and why fake ones in production models I can buy? What about this Johann? Cadillac CTS-V 6.2L/376 cu in Supercharged V-8 Direct fuel injection 640 @ 6,400 RPM Cadillac DPi-V.R 6.2L/376 cu in Naturally aspirated V-8 -----> Fuel injection

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    • Tjh8402 Tjh8402 on Mar 20, 2017

      superchargers haven't worked well in endurance racing, and either way, its quite easy to get the needed power out of the small block without any forced induction. It's a proven endurance racing engine (a variant of it was used in the previous Corvette DP). When it was used in the PWC CTS-Vs, it also had the supercharger removed. Cadillac does race turbos in PWC today. Their entry there is an ATS-V with the 3.6 TT V-6.

  • Lou_BC Lou_BC on Mar 20, 2017

    "a recreation of the prototype duel" Shouldn't it be re-creation? Recreation - activity done for enjoyment when one is not working.

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