For Ricky Taylor It’s All About Risk Management at Road America
Photo courtesy of IMSA
With three races remaining in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Ricky Taylor finds himself back in the hunt for the season title. Coming off a runner-up finish in last month’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park at Mosport, Taylor and co-driver Filipe Albuquerque are third in the season point standings. Such is the nature of the way points are awarded that the duo could take the championship lead with a win, Sunday, at Elkhart Lake’s Road America.
For Taylor, the approach the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport team is taking this weekend with its Acura ARX-06 has everything to do with managing risk.
“I think this season has all been about risk management. It’s been such a volatile season - the results either on the podium fighting for wins or DNF. I think Mosport was such a good reset for us, we just kind of went into it saying we just need a result, we can’t risk everything for the win, where before that - risk everything to win the race.
“Everybody’s had bad races and good races this year, every manufacturer has won. So, I think we need to carry that rhythm and momentum from Mosport, fighting for podiums, and if the wins are there, then we’ll go for it.
“But, so much can happen in the last three races, the points swing a lot. We’ve gone into Petit Le Mans (Road Atlanta) the last three years separated by a race win gap, so we’re just going to try and keep the pressure on, not lose this momentum that we have and hopefully let the performance on the track determine what the outcome is instead of excessive risk.”
Given the feast or famine nature of the season the team has had with the new and technologically complicated hybrid-powered cars in the renamed GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) class, Taylor is a little surprised the team is back in the running for the championship.
“If you would’ve told us just before Mosport that we’d be in this position, it would be unbelievable.
“Before the season, we just wanted a year - because we’ve been in the championship hunt every year and it’s been sort of tense going to Petit (Le Mans) and each year it’s just not gone our way. If there’s anything good to look at it, at least this year we’re coming from behind, something that we haven’t before.
“I feel like in the past, with the team’s Daytona success and we’re good the first half of the year, I feel like we were hanging on, where this year, we’ve got momentum going the other way.
“So, if you look at it from that perspective, it’s kind of exciting to be the chasers. But at the same time, the points swing is so fast, you could basically say we’re all tied because it’s just a race result separating us. I think by the time we get to Petit, it’s not going to be any less stressful than any other year, unfortunately, but I hope we’re the ones still, it’s in our hands to fight for it in the end because we want to be able to race for it on track.”
“The results came much more naturally when we weren’t, you know, gun to our head, trying to win races. ”
Taylor admits it’s a different mindset from the beginning of this season.
“I think we started off the year, wins were what we were about. Right out of the box at the Rolex 24, the car’s been the favorite most places we’ve gone to, yet we’ve come away with two wins. We’ve been going for wins in ways, Sebring wasn’t, you know, so clear, but Long Beach, you know, my mistake of going for a win, maybe taking too much risk.
“Then, sort of, we turned it back, like OK, let’s think about the championship. We went to Mosport and reset and that very well could’ve been a win when we went in just thinking let’s go for a podium. With one last last yellow, that was a win. The results came much more naturally when we weren’t, you know, gun to our head, trying to win races.
“So I think we’re just settling into our rhythm as Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport sort of does.
“We’re used to racing at the front and fighting for championships. When we’re under the pressure at the end of the season, we can always put ourselves in position to win. I think for the last three races we need to take that same mindset of, OK, we’re going for results. If there’s a win on the horizon we’ll snatch it, we’ll get it, but we’re not going to over-reach, hopefully.
“So, I think balancing risk is the name of the game this season and Road America should be a good one for us. It’s a bit of a reset for everybody, going to a new track, we’ll just see how we go and do our thing.”
Photo courtesy of IMSA
While Road America isn’t a new track, it’s surface is, having been repaved last fall.
“Yeah, it is a bit of an unknown,” said Taylor. “We didn’t test. MSR (Meyer Shank Racing) tested, but we haven’t, ourselves. We’ve got our Andretti Autosport teammates to lean on, so this has been an example of we call on them. Same with Indy where we don’t have the experience yet, and they’ve run a race distance at Road America with the new surface, so hopefully that works to our favor. Obviously, the real track time is always going to help.”
“Watching the INDYCAR race, everyone made a big deal of how it was one line,” Taylor continued. “I think when you get a multi-class series there it’ll be interesting to see how we sort of widen the track out. But everybody says it’s just super high grip, so I don’t know what it’ll be like.
“Road America is always a great track for racing because the way the corner layouts are, long straights, heavy braking, there’s a lot of places you can get really held up in traffic, which provides opportunity for inter-class battles.
“I think we’ll just see. I think that part of Road America shouldn’t change, but definitely it’ll mix up the field in terms of who adapts to the track change the best and how it is on tire degradation, and all that stuff.”
Old surface or new, Road America remains a favorite for Taylor, who knows what it takes to win there.
“In the two wins I’ve had there, I haven’t been the finishing driver. But it’s great to win from the pit lane, too.
“It can be really difficult. The weather’s always a variable, the (tire) pick-up’s always really bad, the GT traffic can be really unrelenting, and this year, with P2 cars, the way we race together, is going to be difficult.
“I think to generalize Road America, it gets into this rhythm where you just have to predict the traffic well. You can feel comfortable and then you catch the three wrong cars in the wrong segment of the track, and that’s going to be what can determine the race.”
It’s all a matter of how much you want to risk.