Ricky Taylor

Ricky Taylor (born August 3, 1989) is an American racing driver, most notably in the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship. His career highlights include an IMSA Series Championship in 2017, as well as marquee wins at the Daytona 24, 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans.

Ricky Taylor
Corvette DP of Ricky Taylor in the round of Road America of the 2012 Rolex Sports Car Series.
Nationality	American
Born	(1989-08-03) August 3, 1989 Surrey, England, United Kingdom
Related to	Jordan Taylor (brother) Wayne Taylor (father)
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship career
Debut season	2014
Current team	Acura Team Penske
Car number	7
Engine	Acura AR35TT 3.5 L Turbo V6
Co-driver	Hélio Castroneves Alexander Rossi
Former teams	Wayne Taylor Racing
Starts	65
Championships	1
Wins	14
Podiums	31
Poles	12
Best finish	1st in 2017
Finished last season	3rd

In 2017, he, along with his brother Jordan, won the 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the Prototype class with 5 wins.

In 2018, Ricky left his father's team, Wayne Taylor Racing, to join the new Acura Team Penske Prototype squad in 2018 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, partnering with Hélio Castroneves for the full season.

Ricky was also runner-up of GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype class in 2010 and 2011. Within that category, he earned seven wins and 20 podiums. He was also second in the 2014 24 Hours of Daytona and fifth in 2008, 2011 and 2013.

Early years

His father, Wayne Taylor, was driver of IMSA GT Championship in the 1990s, so his brother Ricky and Jordan Taylor grew up in Florida (USA). After competing in karting, Ricky was series champion of single seaters' school Skip Barber Southern in 2006 and runner-up of Skip Barber National in 2007.

In 2008, Taylor disputed the 24 Hours of Daytona for the Grand-Am series with a Riley-Pontiac of Daytona Prototype class of Wayne Taylor Racing, resulting fifth with Max Angelelli, Michael Valiante and his father Wayne Taylor. Months later, contested the round of Virginia with the Beyer's team, accompanied by Andy Wallace and Jared Beyer. Later, Ricky joined to Doran's team to participate in the final six races of the season with a Dallara-Ford, earning a fifth place with Burt Frisselle like best result.

Ricky became in regular driver of Beyer in the 2009 season of the Grand-Am series, using first a Riley-Pontiac and then a Riley-Chevrolet. He earned a fourth place, an eighth and a ninth in the last three races so that finished 18th in the drivers' championship in the Daytona Prototype class.

WTR and Spirit of Daytona

Wayne Taylor hired Ricky to contest the 2010 Rolex Sports Car Series with a Dallara-Ford. Accompanied by Max Angelelli, the driver captured one win and seven podiums and sixth place in the 24 Hours of Daytona. Thus, he was second in the drivers' championships and teams in the DP class, behind Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas and his nine victories.

In the 2011 Rolex Sports Car Series season, now at the wheel of a Dallara-Chevrolet. Scored three victories (one of them in the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen) and eight podium finishes and a fifth place in the 24 Hours of Daytona. As a consequence, was runner-up in the DP class behind Pruett and Rojas again.

Adopting the new Chevrolet Corvette DP in 2012, Taylor recorded three wins and seven top 5 in 12 appearances. Thus ended seventh in the driver standings and fifth in the teams in the DP class. Later, he contested the Gold Coast 600 of V8 Supercars in a Holden Commodore from Garry Rogers Motorsport alongside Greg Ritter, however he was sent into a frightening rollover several hundred metres after the start whilst trying to avoid two stricken cars.

Taylor became in driver of the Spirit of Daytona Racing for the 2013 Rolex Sports Car Series season, teaming with Richard Westbrook. He earned a third place, three-fifths and a sixth, so finished 11th in the drivers championship and eighth in teams in the DP. On the other hand, obtained a fifth place in the GTE-Am class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, driving a Chevrolet Corvette of Larbre Competition.

Team Penske

Beginning with the 2018 Roar Before the 24, Ricky Taylor will partner Helio Castroneves in one of two new works Acura ARX-05 fielded by Roger Penske.

Other competition

In 2012, Taylor was selected by Garry Rogers Motorsport to participate in the 2012 Armor All Gold Coast 600 event for V8 Supercars as an 'international' co-driver. In his first ever standing start he managed 200m before he rolled off a car that had stalled on the grid, totalling his #33 Holden VE Commodore and resigning himself and team-mate Greg Ritter to the sidelines for the rest of the weekend.

Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2013	Larbre Compétition	Julien Canal Patrick Bornhauser	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	GTE Am	302	29th	5th
2014	Larbre Compétition	Pierre Ragues Keiko Ihara	Morgan LMP2-Judd	LMP2	341	14th	9th
2016	Corvette Racing - GM	Antonio García Jan Magnussen	Chevrolet Corvette C7.R	GTE Pro	336	25th	7th
2017	Keating Motorsport	Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen	Riley Mk. 30-Gibson	LMP2	312	47th	20th
2018	Jackie Chan DC Racing	Côme Ledogar David Heinemeier Hansson	Ligier JS P217-Gibson	LMP2	195	DNF	DNF
2019	Jackie Chan DC Racing	Jordan King David Heinemeier Hansson	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	199	DNF	DNF

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

(key)(Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class)

Year	Team	Class	Make	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Rank	Points
2014	Wayne Taylor Racing	P	Dallara Corvette DP	Chevrolet 5.5L V8	DAY 2	SEB 7	LBH 2	LGA 2	DET 1	WGL 5	MOS 3	IMS 4	ELK 10	COA 7	PET 1	2nd	330
2015	Wayne Taylor Racing	P	Dallara Corvette DP	Chevrolet 5.5L V8	DAY 16	SEB 2	LBH 1	LGA 2	DET 6	WGL 6	MOS 1	ELK 8	COA 2	PET 4		5th	292
2016	Wayne Taylor Racing	P	Dallara Corvette DP	Chevrolet 5.5L V8	DAY 2	SEB 12	LBH 1	LGA 6	DET 1	WGL 4	MOS 3	ELK 3	COA 1	PET 3		3rd	309
2017	Wayne Taylor Racing	P	Cadillac DPi-V.R	Cadillac 6.2 L V8	DAY 1	SEB 1	LBH 1	COA 1	DET 1	WGL 6	MOS 7	ELK 2	LGA 3	PET 9		1st	310
2018	Acura Team Penske	P	Acura ARX-05	Acura AR35TT 3.5 L Turbo V6	DAY 9	SEB 15	LBH 6	MDO 1	DET 2	WGL 12	MOS 5	ELK 10	LGA 10	PET 5		7th	243
2019	Acura Team Penske	DPi	Acura ARX-05	Acura AR35TT 3.5 L Turbo V6	DAY 3	SEB 4	LBH 2	MDO 5	DET 3	WGL 5	MOS 5	ELK 7	LGA 2	PET 3		3rd	284
2020	Acura Team Penske	DPi	Acura ARX-05	Acura AR35TT 3.5 L Turbo V6	DAY 8	DAY 8	SEB 7	ELK 1	ATL	MDO	PET	LGA	SEB			6th*	105*

External links

• Ricky Taylor in Racing Reference
• Ricky Taylor in Driver Database
• Ricky Taylor in Race Database