Jordan Taylor Faces Heartbreak at Rolex 24 Daytona as Mechanical Issues Strike First GTP

Just past the eight-hour mark of the highly touted 62nd Rolex 24 at Daytona, disaster struck down the 2017 DPi winner, IMSA champion Jordan Taylor. Joining his brother, Ricky Taylor, the NASCAR part-timer was ecstatic to etch down the Taylor family legacy, but as we get to the second day, things have gone from good to bad to ugly.

Wayne Taylor Racing lost one of its two Acuras just one race into Taylor’s highly anticipated jump up the ladder to the GTP class from the lower-tier GT class. But as it turns out, ill fate has yet again shot down his hopes as the team that had won the 2017–2019–2021 iteration of the endurance extravaganza failed miserably due to a catastrophic mechanical failure.

Jordan Taylor’s hopes end as the #10 Acura debut goes down in flames

For the first time in seven years, Jordan and Ricky Taylor are driving side by side under the same roof as their father, Wayne Taylor. While the two brothers had diverged paths with the elder Ricky going forward with Acura Team Penske, young Jordan left for a General Motors tie-up, siding with Team Chevy, but the two have united under Wayne Taylor Racing-Andretti Racing branding.

In fact, the team has gotten bigger in the off-season, adding a second entry in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and a new full-time Lamborghini in GTD. The newly added #10 Acura ARX-06 had all hopes riding on it, especially with Jordan in the driver’s seat, jumping up the class to the highly competitive GTP class alongside his big brother in his father’s team.

But as it turns out, the highly touted debut of the #10 Acura has gone south. The car fell more than 50 laps down Saturday night after it stopped on track without power just past the eight-hour mark of the endurance race classic. It was reported that the car’s hybrid powertrain died off, and consequently, electrical systems shut down, leaving it stranded in the middle of the track, unable to be towed into the garage, costing the team precious time to get it back on track.

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The #10 Acura was the first GTP-spec car to develop a significant issue in the endurance race. Meanwhile, Jordan’s former partners at Cadillac, with the support of their #31 Action Express Cadillac, took the lead back.

“It was just overwhelming”—Jordan’s  famous words before the classic

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Months before he returned to his father’s team alongside his brother, Taylor got real about how technical the prototype cars really are. For the uninitiated, these top-notch race machines are different, with a hybrid powertrain and a whole lot of steering-mounted controls that need to be figured out. Taylor, who will co-drive with Louis Deleetraz for the 2024 season in the team’s expanded second entry, received his first taste of the hybrid GTP in a test at Sebring International Raceway and opened up about the whole experience.

He said, “I think the steering wheel manual is about 30 pages, and once I started driving the car on the whole first day, I didn’t even look at the steering wheel because I was just trying to pay attention to how to drive the car and just drive it on its own without even focusing on the systems and the diff changes, TC changes, all that stuff. It was just overwhelming.”

While the 32-year-old was super impressed with the GTP spec car, praising its surge of unending power that propelled it forward, like water out of the floodgates, he was also candid about the level of complexity these cars come with. “All the systems are super impressive but understanding that was a lot of it. We only got two runs the first day and then had a night to kind of think on it and go back the second day. It felt way more natural, thankfully, on that second day to kind of get back into driving and making some adjustments on the steering wheel and getting a feel for it,” said the driver according to autosports.com.

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Now what remains to be seen is whether the older brother can avenge his sibling and bring home the title. What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.