Taylor joins SA’s star league

He starts the year winning his second Rolex Daytona 24- hour race as an owner.

FAMILY AFFAIR. The Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPI that won this year’s Rolex Daytona 24-hour race.

East London-born Wayne Taylor, who won the 1986 South African Formula 2 championship, before leaving in 1989 to seek fame and fortune racing internationally, has been inducted into the South African Hall of Fame at Sun City.

He joins Sarel van der Merwe, brothers Jody and Ian Scheckter and Ferrari designer Rory Byrne as the only motorsport inductees.

Taylor, 62, has won many major sports car races globally, apart from competing 13 times in the Le Mans 24-hour race. His best overall placing was fourth in 1987, sharing a Porsche 962 with South Africa’s George Fouche and Franz Konrad, of Austria.

He is now a successful team owner in US sports car racing. That makes him the most successful South African in international motor racing if you discount Formula 1, where Jody Scheckter was world champion in 1979.

1994: Won the Exxon American Sports Car Championship.
1996: Won his class in the Daytona 24-hour race, the Sebring 12- hour race and four sprint races.
Won his class in the American Sports Car Driver’s Championship.
1998: Won the Prototype class in the Le Mans 24-hour race with a Ferrari 333, plus three sprint races.
2005: Won his class in the Daytona 24-hour race, plus five sprint races and the Grand-Am Prototype championship.
2007: Established Wayne Taylor Racing with Max Angelelli.
2008: Son Ricky joined the team, took six pole positions, and won his class at Lime Rock.
2013: Jordan won the GrandAm driver’s Championship in a Corvette as part of Wayne Taylor Racing.
2014: Wayne, his sons Ricky and Jordan, plus long-time friend Angelelli won the season finale 10-hour race at Road Atlanta.
2016: The team won at Long Beach, Belle Isle, and Austin (Circuit of the Americas).
2017: Wayne did a deal with Cadillac to run its Daytona Prototype International project. The Cadillac DPI won the Rolex Daytona 24-hour race, driven by Ricky, Jordan, Max Angelelli and four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon. Ricky and Jordan went on to win the Sebring 12-hour race, plus the races at Long Beach; Belle Isle in Detroit, and the Circuit of the Americas. This gave the team the driver’s championship and the team championship.
2019: The year started dramatically, with Wayne Taylor winning his second Rolex Daytona 24- hour race as an owner. Fernando Alonso, former two-time F1 world champion, was one of his drivers, together with Wayne’s son, Jordan, Kamui Kobayashi and Renger van der Zande.