Ricky Taylor, Acura Out for Redemption at IMSA Petit Le Mans

• Entering this year’s race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Taylor once again finds himself in position to capture a DPi title in the WeatherTech Championship.

• This will not be the first time Wayne Taylor Racing has been the points leader late in the season—with some outcomes better than others.

• This year's race is scheduled for Oct. 1 and will televised on Peacock and USA Network.

They may not hear footsteps, but other drivers know Ricky Taylor is coming if he needs to overtake in the late stages of this year’s Motul Petit Le Mans.

“Sometimes you cannot wait for it to fall in your lap,” said Taylor, who was in the grass after making late-race pass attempts at the last two Petits in pursuit of a championship. “I think that’s the attitude of the entire team.”

Entering this year’s race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Taylor once again finds himself in position to capture a DPi title in the WeatherTech Championship, thanks to the late-race heroics of his co-driver Felipe Albuquerque at Watkins Glen and Road America. Those two come-from-behind victories helped elevate the Acura team and drivers of Wayne Taylor Racing to the points lead over the Acura squad of Meyer Shank Racing coming into the season finale.

This year's race is scheduled for Oct. 1 and will televised on Peacock and USA Network.

“I like making aggressive moves if there’s a race win on the line,” said Taylor. “Both (Felipe and I) share the same feeling. We’re not doing it for ourselves. The pressure is on our back. The team has put us in this position. What would Felipe do if he was in the car? Do they want us to sit back and wait for an easy chance or do they want us to make an opportunity here?”

This will not be the first time Wayne Taylor Racing has been the points leader late in the season—with some outcomes better than others. Last year, WTR gave up 30 points to Whelen Engineering Racing at the Petit and lost the title by 11 points after Taylor’s spectacular dive bomb on board his ARX-05 of Felipe Nasr’s Cadillac DPi three corners from the finish failed.

“Even in 2017, we won five straight to start the season but got into a coast mode and hung in there,” said Taylor. “But we almost lost the championship. The team has lost a lot of championships from the (points) lead. This year, everybody agreed there is no defending and just looking forward and going for the race win. That’s what’s put us in this position and I think we need to keep on that.”

There are no guarantees at the Petit. Taylor may be sports car racing’s late-race version of “The Intimidator,” but he has been on the other side of the coin. Drivers whose teams are seeking victory regardless of the championship standings can afford to be more aggressive. With the two Honda teams battling it out for the title this year, the Cadillac entries are free to take some risks in pursuit of a victory in the season finale.

That’s the way things go down in the North Georgia hills late in the season, particularly after sunset, as some teams vie to win one of endurance racing’s most prestigious trophies and others try to win the championship.

“Last year we started the race and were miles off on pace,” said Taylor. “The (number) 01 Cadillac was bullying us a little bit and we were ready to just let them go. At Mosport this year, I had a run-in with the (number) 02 Cadillac and they had nothing to lose and we had a lot to lose. So, things could go wrong. The Cadillacs are in position where they really want to have some success this year. We have to race for the win like we’ve been saying. There’s not a whole lot we can do as far as managing the risk they’re willing to take.”

Oliver Jarvis, who will try to move his Meyer Shank team to the top of the title chase along with co-driver Tom Blomqvist, knows about the freelancers. Last year, he co-drove Mazda Motorsports to the over-all win in the team’s final DPi appearance. Coming from three laps down, the Mazda drivers fought aggressively through traffic, including a collision in the final stint by Harry Tincknell with the Corvette C8R driven by friend Nick Tandy in the GTLM class.

“There’s a lot of talk about us and the (Taylor team),” said Jarvis. “But the Cadillacs are going to play a huge role in the outcome of this championship. They’ve got nothing to lose. They don’t care who wins it between us and the (Taylor team). They’re not going to be playing nice. They know they’ve got that advantage. They can play more aggressive.”

With so much on the line, fans can look for some “sidewalls to the wall” throughout the race, to paraphrase Hans Stuck’s favorite comment about intestinal fortitude. But the two Honda squads are likely to be ever-so-slightly more respectful to one another. “All due respect to the (Meyer Shank) team,” said Taylor. “They’ve raced an amazing season. We’ll always try to race as clean as possible. We’ve pushed ourselves up to one-two in the championship and I think that says a lot about both teams.”