Jordan Taylor is, of course, looking forward to a shot at winning the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in consecutive years, but not much further up the road, he’ll be completing a milestone for the team that’s been almost 20 years in the making — helping take his family’s team to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
It was just a little less than two weeks ago that the Le Mans entry list for 2025 was revealed, and Wayne Taylor Racing (officially listed as Cadillac WTR) was part of the 21-strong entry list in the Hypercar class.
“I think ever since my dad started a racing program (back in 2004), the goal was always to go to Le Mans,” Jordan says. “Being a team that was in Grand-Am and then on the IMSA side, it’s difficult to get entries, especially when the class structure didn’t really accept cars from the prototype class back in the day. Once the GTP and Hypercar era started, that goal was a little bit more realistic.
“The first couple of years, it wasn’t an option,” he notes, in reference to the team’s previous partner Acura, which had no immediate plans to take on the FIA World Endurance Championship or Le Mans. “So being back with Cadillac and GM was a was a big part of that. Getting into Le Mans, it’s definitely a lifelong goal for my dad and his team, and everyone’s super excited and super motivated.
“It’s going to be a lot of work. Every team that’s been that’s going there this year has experience and Wayne Taylor Racing is probably the freshest of anyone. But we’ve got a lot of smart people on our team and a lot of motivation.”
It’ll be the Taylor brothers, Jordan and Ricky — and fifth-year WTR driver Filipe Albuquerque — driving the brilliant blue No. 101 Cadillac V-Series.R at Le Mans, 23 years after Wayne Taylor himself made his last start as a Le Mans driver, behind the wheel of a factory Cadillac Northstar LMP02.
Sure, the younger of Wayne Taylor’s sons has raced at Le Mans nine times as well as serving as the driver coach of the immensely popular NASCAR Garage 56 project in 2023. But this year it will feel special for Jordan — not only to race for his father’s team, but to race alongside his brother at Le Mans for the first time.
With this new endeavor comes new challenges as well, for a staff of people that has limited experience at Le Mans. “I think there’s just so many unknowns for a team going there,” says Taylor. “Our technical director, Brian Pillar, went there with Ricky a couple years ago to support Ricky and spent the whole race with the team to kind of get a head start and understanding. A lot of the crew guys and engineers have had some level of experience, but there’s just so many new things.
“It’s a completely new rulebook. You’re dealing with a whole different group of people, a small language barrier. I think just understanding all the different rules — we don’t have slow zones in America, all those little things.
“I think the good thing is we do have some time to prepare. Obviously, you’d always want some more, but I think everyone knows how big the challenge is and how big the undertaking is. They’re already doing their due diligence contacting people that have done the event before to kind of get some more insight.
“I’ve even been reaching out to some of the Garage 56 group to kind of get some help from them either from a logistics point of view or who they used, little things like that. I think everyone’s kind of all hands on deck.”
But before Le Mans, before nailing down Trans-Atlantic logistics, “Le Pesage,” scrutineering, testing, learning — there is a goal within reach tomorrow as Taylor seeks to win Sebring in his chrome silver No. 40 Cadillac.