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

• Ricky and Jordan Taylor shared three consecutive IMSA WeatherTech Championship wins from 2015-17 in the Daytona Prototype and DPi era.
• Ricky left the family business to join Roger Penske’s Acura team but is back with father Wayne Taylor’s WTRAndretti team.
• This year, Ricky Taylor is driving once again with Felipe Albuquerque; Jordan drives with Louis Deletraz.

In a tale of father like son, the Taylor family will look to renew their street fighting credentials at the IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The race will be the SoCal reunion of team owner Wayne Taylor and his two sons, once again driving for the family team and now looking to revive their early success in Long Beach. Ricky and Jordan Taylor shared three consecutive WeatherTech Championship wins from 2015-17 in the Daytona Prototype and DPi Era before the eldest son, Ricky, left the family business to join Roger Penske’s Acura team.

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

The occasional, imperfect father was known to take extraordinary measures to win behind the wheel—he once refused to let owner Gianpiero Moretti into the cockpit of his MoMo Ferrari 333sp to complete his solo trip to victory. In his quest to finally make it to F1, in two weeks’ time Taylor will drive his vintage Wolf-Cosworth WR4 on the streets of Monaco during the city’s historic race.

It’s unlikely that family history will repeat itself this year in Long Beach when it comes to winning, because the brothers will be competing in their family cars, two Acura ARX-06 hybrids, during Saturday’s 100-minute run.

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

“It’s hard for all four family members to be happy at the same time,” said Ricky, who included his mother Shelley, a regular on the song. “With Jordan back, it’s 50% more likely that Dad will be happy. Of course, Jordan brings his sense of humor to the team. There was a lot of stress going into two cars, so everyone was happy to see Jordan back.”

Jordan’s witty but on-target sense of humor is reflected in his new moniker Rodney Sandstorm, an extreme racing fan who is well-known on social media. Sharing hotel rooms with Ricky, who returned to his father’s team in 2021, helped Jordan to upgrade to more sophisticated GTP cars. He noted that his older brother’s wait from drivers’ meetings last year often meant two hours.

There were other benefits. “Sharing hotel rooms, I was always aware of what Dad was complaining about at the end of the week,” said Jordan, who is 21 months Ricky’s junior. . It’s good to get back to familiar faces.”

On the new generation of Michelin soft tires and on the race track shared with IndyCar, precious little track time puts the emphasis on data collection. After extensive testing prior to the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Sebring 12 Hours, the second car inherited from Meyer Shank Racing, now number 40, will debut in Long Beach.

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

Last year wasn’t bad until the end with WTRAndretti’s solo entry. Albuquerque won the pole, but a pit road error and the Penske team’s choice not to change tires on its Porsche 963s left Ricky to come back from third place in his ARX-06. In the fastest car on the track, his comeback ended with a dive bomb off the grid at the tricky Turn 1, a late effort from the big brother. Of course, Ricky says he has no regrets, other than maybe not waiting for the next and final round.

Jordan won the pole twice with Corvette Racing in a mixed bag of long races and the tightest 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 high all weekend. There’s no room for error and everyone has to be on top of 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 where they left off last year. We’re coming into the weekend with a lot of momentum after Sebring, so hopefully we can pick up two Acuras on the podium at their home race.

Ricky Taylor will join Felipe Albuquerque in Long Beach.

Look for Ricky Taylor and Albuquerque to be even hotter after leaving the two season openers in eighth place in the points standings. Whatever the stand-alone race strategies, the No. 40 drivers of Jordan Taylor and Deletraz will focus on closing in on points with regular Porsche Penske Motorsports drivers Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron. That’s thanks to Deletraz’s speed and late-race spurt to win at Sebring.

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

A familial pressure cooker or a soap opera on the road from Hollywood? Judging by their past performance, a return to the closely knit Taylors is likely to be a formula for success. Time will tell in the crucible that is Long Beach.