Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R Duo Focused on Success Once Again

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 In the spirit of the iconic children’s educational show Sesame Street, this week’s race is brought to you by the letter W, and the number six.

 

W, for starters, is for Wayne Taylor, the three-time sportscar champion and father of the driver duo of Ricky and Jordan Taylor, as well as owner of the team that campaigns their No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

 

W is also for Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, the historic racetrack in New York’s Finger Lakes region where the Taylor brothers and their team kick off the second half of the season this weekend.

 

And finally, W is for winning, which is all the Taylor brothers and their team have been doing through the first half of 2017 in the most remarkable streak in recent North American sportscar racing history.

 

Moving on, six is the number of hours the Taylor brothers and their team will be competing Sunday in one of the crown-jewel events of endurance racing around the world. The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen also is the sixth event on the 2017 WeatherTech Championship tour. Most importantly, six is the number of consecutive race wins the Taylor brothers and their team hope to achieve by being the first to cross the finish line at 4:10 p.m. local time Sunday.

 

Oh, and six just so happens to be the number of years since the team last scored a victory in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, when older brother Ricky Taylor qualified on the pole and he and co-driver Max “The Ax” Angelelli led 128 of 174 race laps to win the 2011 Watkins Glen enduro in dominating fashion. For good measure, Taylor and Angelelli returned to The Glen 10 weeks later to score an equally dominating victory in the two-hour sprint race during that year’s NASCAR road course weekend, once again starting on the pole and leading 77 of 100 race laps along the way.

 

When last seen on the WeatherTech Championship trail four weekends ago on the Streets of Belle Isle circuit in downtown Detroit, Ricky and Jordan Taylor tied a North American-based sportscar series record by winning their fifth race in a row. In 2001, the Audi R8 prototype duo of Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen opened the season with five consecutive victories – Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway, Donington (England) Park, the Jarama Circuit in Madrid, and Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway – racing an American Le Mans Series schedule that included European Le Mans Series events. Capello and Kristensen won eight of the 10 events on that combined 2001 schedule.

 

As they head to Watkins Glen this weekend, the Taylor brothers and the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R team remain focused in their effort to continue their winning ways by combining the ingredients that have worked to perfection so far this season – heady driving, superior preparation and lightning-fast pit stops, and creative and opportunistic strategy.

 
Practice for Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen begins Friday morning with Prototype-class qualifying set for 12:55 p.m. EDT Saturday with live video provided by IMSA.tv beginning at 11:30 a.m. The green flag flies at 10:10 a.m. Saturday with live TV coverage set for FS1 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and FS2 from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Live timing and scoring during all on-track sessions is available at IMSA.com and the IMSA smartphone app.
Adam Sinclair
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