Wayne Taylor Suggests Possible Dual Series Program in 2026

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Wayne Taylor has suggested the possibility of mounting a dual-series IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship program next year.

Speaking on an IMSA-hosted Zoom session to preview Wayne Taylor Racing’s upcoming run in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Taylor revealed that he could split its Cadillac V-Series.R effort between the two series in 2026.

The development comes after a difficult start to the team’s return to Cadillac in the WeatherTech Championship this season, which has seen only a single top-five finish between the two cars after four races.

“As far as the future is concerned, I would love to have an entry on both sides of the pond but I think JOTA are very well equipped over there; they’ve got a lot of experience.

“But I’ve had this thought over the last couple of days that maybe next year we’ll present Cadillac and GM and our partners… What about if we do one car in WEC next year and one car in America?

“I know it might not make my drivers happy but at the end of the day, we thrive on our passion, which is racing and to win.

“We’ve had four races this year, which I can tell you have been absolutely terrible.

“Given the fact that I got the offer to come back to GM last year in October and working with everybody, especially with Eric Warren to put the program together, I was more excited about this year that I’ve been about any years.

“I’m not getting any younger but the way it’s gone so far has been out of our hands and has been extremely difficult to accept because we are not used to not being up front.

“Every time I sell any program, you can’t ever guarantee, in any form of racing, a win. But I can guarantee you that I’ll race for the win in every race and this is the first year that it hasn’t happened.

“And that’s disappointing.

“However, we have to be positive and move forward and I think we might see some changes and get our competitive edge back when we get to Detroit.”

When asked by Sportscar365 on the reason behind potentially running in both series, Taylor indicated the extra experience full-season WEC teams have on one-off entries, such as themselves this year at Le Mans.

“It’s really just something I’m floating around in my own head,” he said. “I think this is probably coming a shock to the drivers and they probably haven’t heard this from me.

“Certainly I haven’t discussed it with our partners. I may get into trouble.

“It just seems to make sense to me. Le Mans is so important to General Motors and Cadillac. I’m thinking we have a great opportunity this year.

“But I’m a realist and sometimes things take more time. The way Le Mans is run and WEC, it’s a European culture which is different to an American culture of going racing.

“I think some of those little things that you would learn as a team in WEC will naturally help you when you get to Le Mans.

“Having said that, we’re good friends with JOTA. Ricky’s driven for them twice; they worked out of our race shop with us one year at Daytona.

“So we have a close relationship there. But you know how it is, when you get to a race, everybody’s for themselves.

“In this [case] we are four factory Cadillac programs and hopefully that’s the way it will all work out.”

Taylor Hopeful of Performance Turnaround for Remainder of IMSA Season

Taylor, meanwhile, insisted that WTR “has to get back to the front of the grid” following its disappointing start to the season that has seen domination by Porsche in the GTP ranks.

Last weekend’s Monterey SportsCar Championship, which ran caution-free, saw four cars — the Penske Porsche 963s and Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8s — finish on the lead lap.

“When did you ever hear of a race that’s two-and-a-half hours long and have every single person be lapped except for three cars?” Taylor questioned.

“I don’t know how that happens because we had nothing wrong with any of our executions in the pits.

“We had an incident where IMSA said the tire temperature was too low. The track conditions changed really quickly at the start of the race and the tires got cold.

“It’s nobody’s fault that happened.

“But even if we didn’t have that problem, we would have still probably been a lap down and it’s extremely hard to race like this under these conditions.

“But I do believe that everybody’s working to bring this back to… the speed we had in the past.”