IMSA Points Leader To Represent America At Le Mans

Column By: JOHN DOUGLAS / RPW – LE MANS, FRANCE – Jordan Taylor is well-known on the internet for his often goofy social media postings. He’s also well-known for being the son of sports car legend Wayne Taylor, and the current IMSA DPi class points leader in IMSA competition. All that combined puts a lot of pressure on the Orlando, Florida native to represent America and IMSA in the biggest sports car event in the world. The 24 Hours of Le Mans

Taylor was born in 1991. His father Wayne was already a well established star of prototype racing in many forms. As Taylor grew up he watched his father race all over the world and he got hooked. Since 2008 Jordan has competed in various forms of IMSA and international competition winning some of the biggest events the sport has to offer, including this past January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The family race team now owned by his father has been a powerhouse in IMSA competition since day one, and their extremely fast Cadillac has shown no real weakness thus far. Jordan’s success may very well bring a bit of momentum to his Le Mans campaign.

Driving a factory Corvette entry in the GTE class, Taylor will most likely not be in competition for the overall win like he is in regular IMSA competition, but the class win is just as big at Le Mans. In fact the GTE class holds one of the more robust fields in the multi-class twice ’round the clock event.

Featuring Ferrari, Ford, Chevrolet and many more manufacturers, the GTE class is possibly the stiffest competition in the field yearly, as in recent years it has turned into a 24 hour long sprint race. This suits Taylor’s driving style, as a majority of the events IMSA runs are sprint race formats. He is used to pushing his car to the limit for an entire race. This will be a big advantage for the young American.

Qualifying for the 2017 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has already taken place with the Corvette team slotting in mid-pack. With faster Ferrari 488’s and Ford GT’s, Corvette seem to be taking the approach of setting a pace, and sticking to that pace, hoping the newer less reliable cars will fall by the wayside over the course of the event.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans can bee seen on the Fox Sports family of networks including Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 2 and the FS Go app starting Saturday at 9am eastern time.