At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the brothers will once again be teammates, but in separate cars, for Corvette Racing in the Corvette C7-R GTE-Pro class entries. The Corvette Racing team already has momentum on the 2016 season after finished first and second in the IMSA GTLM class at last week’s Rolex 24 At Daytona. The team will be seeking its ninth class victory at this year’s 84th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“Daytona was another immense team performance where everyone had a flawless race and the car never missed a beat,” said Ricky Taylor, 24, the older sibling of the American brother pair. “The result was slightly disappointing after the great job the team did. However, it was fantastic to see such a dominating performance by the Corvette team with their 1-2 finish this year and the great battle right to the line. It definitely puts on some extra pressure to back up that result at Le Mans.”
“It was another great weekend at Daytona. It’s always nice to kick off the racing season in our backyard,” said Jordan Taylor, 22, based in the Orlando, Florida area. “Once again, the Wayne Taylor Racing guys did a great job, we had a near perfect race. It’s the fourth year in succession that we’ve completed every lap of the race. We’ve now finished second in three of the past four years, so it’s not a bad record, just a bit frustrating. It was great to see Corvette get a 1-2 finish in GTLM. It’s tough to finish an endurance race, let alone win it, so it just adds confidence to the team heading into the big race in June. Not only was the car reliable for all 24 hours, but it was also competitive. It makes me that much more excited for Le Mans later this year.”
Jordan Taylor will be returning to Corvette Racing for his fifth year and hoping to match the victory he and teammates Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin collected in the GTE-Pro class last year. Ricky Taylor will be making his third Le Mans appearance and first with the prestigious American Corvette Racing team.
In additional to Jordan’s 2015 victory, he and Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen paired for a second-place finish at Le Mans in 2014, a fourth place finish in 2013 and a fifth place finish in 2012, quite a record for a 22-year-old driver!
Ricky has driven twice at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, both times with the Labre Competition Corvette team in the GTE-Am class in 2013 to a fifth place finish and the LMP2 class in 2014 to a ninth place finish.
This year’s Le Mans race will be the first time the brother pair have raced together for Corvette Racing since September 2014, when they competed in a one-off FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) race at the Circuit of the Americas.
The Taylor Brothers will be joining the ranks of other famous racing brothers like Miles and Sam Collier from the 1950s and Pedro and Ricardo Rodrigues of the early 1960s, when they make their first laps around the 8.47-mile/13.63-kilometer Le Sarthe circuit for Corvette Racing in June.
