Next Stop on Jordan, Ricky Taylor Reunion Tour Is IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

• Ricky and Jordan Taylor co-drove to three straight IMSA WeatherTech Championship victories from 2015-17 in the Daytona Prototype and DPi era.

• Ricky broke away from the family enterprise to join the Acura team of Roger Penske but is back this year with father Wayne Taylor's WTRAndretti team.

• This year, Ricky Jordan is co-driving once again with Felipe Albuquerque; Jordan is driving with Louis Deletraz.

In a tale of like father, like sons, the Taylor family will seek to re-establish their street fighting credentials at the the IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The race will be a SoCal reunion of team owner Wayne Taylor with his two sons, once again driving for the family team and now seeking to revive their previous success at Long Beach. Ricky and Jordan Taylor co-drove to three straight WeatherTech Championship victories from 2015-17 in the Daytona Prototype and DPi era before the oldest son, Ricky, broke away from the family enterprise to join the Acura team of Roger Penske.

Leaving behind his dreams of Formula 1 and eventually his home in South Africa, Wayne Taylor established himself in IMSA on street circuits. He won his first pole at the temporary Del Mar track in 1989 on board a Spice-Chevy and two seasons later scored his first IMSA victory on the bumpy streets of New Orleans in an Intrepid-Chevy. Currently in command at WTRAndretti as the team principal, he expects his cars to return to the winner’s circle in Long Beach, saying “I feel good about our driver lineup, feel good about the team.”

The occasionally quixotic father, a nonpareil perfectionist, was known to take extraordinary steps to win when behind the wheel—once refusing to allow his car owner Gianpiero Moretti into the cockpit of his MoMo Ferrari 333sp in order to finish a solo drive to victory. In his determination to finally make it to F1, in two weeks’ time Taylor will drive the vintage Wolf-Cosworth WR4 he owns through the streets of Monaco during the city’s Historic races.

It’s not possible for the family history to repeat itself this year at Long Beach when it comes to victory lane, because the brothers will be competing against each other in their family cars, two Acura ARX-06 hybrids, during Saturday’s 100-minute sprint.

Ricky, co-driving once again with Felipe Albuquerque, and Jordan, who will pair with Louis Deletraz, have often shared hotel rooms even after they split up to drive for other teams. Two years after Ricky left for Team Penske, Jordan moved to Corvette Racing in 2020 for four seasons.

“It’s hard for all four members of the family to be happy at the same time,” said Ricky, who was including his mom Shelley, a regular at the track. “With Jordan back, there’s a 50% higher chance that Dad will be happy. Of course, Jordan brings his sense of humor to the team. There was a lot of stress going to two cars, so all of the guys were happy to see Jordan back.”

Jordan's offbeat but on target humor is epitomized by his alter ego Rodney Sandstorm, a hilarious super racing fan well known to social media. By sharing hotel rooms with Ricky, who returned to his father’s team in 2021, helped Jordan get current with the appreciably more complex GTP hybrid cars. He noted that waiting for his older brother to emerge from driver meetings last year often meant two hours.

There was another benefit. “Sharing hotel rooms, I was always up to speed on what Dad was complaining about over the course of a weekend,” said Jordan, who is 21 months younger than Ricky. “The complaints were kind of a reminder of the past when I was on the team. The core group of guys are the same. It’s nice to go back to some familiar faces.”

On a new generation of softer Michelin tires and on a temporary racing surface shared with IndyCar, precious little track time puts an emphasis on data gathering. After prolonged tests prior to the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Sebring 12-hour, the second car inherited from Meyer Shank Racing, now numbered 40, will come into play at Long Beach.

“Having two cars and being able to trust the other car to run something different, we can learn as much as possible and accelerate our learning compared to last year,” said Ricky.

Last year was not so bad until the end for the WTRAndretti solo entry. Albuquerque won the pole, but a pit road mishap and the Penske team’s choice not to change tires on its Porsche 963s left Ricky to charge back from third place in his ARX-06. In what was clearly the fastest car on the track, his comeback ended with an ill-fated dive bomb offline on a treacherous patch of track at Turn 1, a classic late effort from the older brother. Of course, Ricky says he has no regrets, other than maybe not waiting for the next and final lap.

Jordan twice won poles with Corvette Racing on the mixed bag of long straights and tighter corners of Long Beach. “Long Beach is always a classic IMSA street fight,” he said. “It’s our shortest race of the year so the intensity is always high throughout the weekend. There’s no room for error and everyone has to be on it from the drivers to the crew to the engineers. The No. 10 car was very strong there last year, so hopefully we can pick up from where they left off last year. We are coming into the weekend with some great momentum after Sebring, so hopefully we can keep that going and leave with two Acuras on the podium at their home race.”

Look for Ricky Taylor and Albuquerque to be more aggressive after leaving the two season-opening enduros in eighth place in the points standings. Whatever the pit and tire strategies for the one-stop race, the drivers of the No. 40 of Jordan Taylor and Deletraz will be more mindful of being tied for the points lead with Porsche Penske Motorsports’ regular drivers Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron. That’s thanks to Deletraz’s sterling and stirring late-race drive to win at Sebring.

“I think the guys are very focused on this year because it’s so important for Acura and (team sponsor) HRC, it being their event,” said Wayne Taylor. “This is the first time we’re running two cars at Long Beach. We’re joint leaders in the championship with Penske. Strategy will be very important.”

A powder keg of familial pressure or a soap opera in the making just down the road from Hollywood? Given their past performance, the return of the close-knit Taylors is more likely a formula for success. Time will tell in the crucible that is Long Beach.