Jordan Taylor says his transition into a full-time driver at Corvette Racing has been going well as he prepares for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Taylor, who took the overall victory together with Renger van der Zande, Kamui Kobayashi and Fernando Alonso in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-VR, will contest the full IMSA season on board the #3 Corvette C8.R after his departure from his father’s team.
“It’s been a big change,” Taylor said. “The teams work a lot differently, a lot of different personnel. Wayne Taylor Racing was a family team, so it felt like home. But the nice thing is, I was with Corvette Racing for six years as an endurance driver, so a lot of the guys were the same.”
Taylor is no stranger to Corvette Racing, having competed with the team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He won the 2015 edition in GTE Pro alongside Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner and finished third in 2017 partnering with Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen – his new partner and the man he is replacing respectively.
“I fit right back in when I walked back into the shop last year, so it hasn’t been too bad of a transition. Obviously, the way we do things – debriefs and stuff – are things to get used to, and working with different teammates, but all has gone well so far.”
With the move from Wayne Taylor Racing to Corvette, the Florida native has had to adapt his driving as he has gone from a top-level prototype back to a GT car. Taylor admits the Corvette C8.R is a different experience to drive and a learning curve.
“Yeah, it’s way different,” he says. “Just the feeling of the car, the way you feel it, the way it drives. The DPi’s got a bit more power, it’s got carbon brakes, it’s got way more downforce, so I’m just adjusting to that.
“Remembering to look in my mirrors a lot more is the biggest thing. I forgot that the closing speeds are so high at some places, like coming into the dogleg, so getting that kind of muscle memory and looking in the mirror is going to be a big part of it.
But the driving portion, I was able to learn pretty quickly on the simulator ahead of driving the real car.”
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