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TUDOR UNITED SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP: ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONAJanuary 26, 2014Max AngelelliWayne TaylorRicky TaylorJordan TaylorDAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by the four drivers in the No.10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP, Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor, Wayne Taylor and Max Angelelli. Let's start with Max. Talk if you can about the last little run to the checkered flag, if you thought you had a shot at him, and just accomplishing a podium, a second‑place result here with these guys. MAX ANGELELLI: You want me to start from the most painful time of the race, the last four laps? I can tell you, I tried everything, adjust all I had in the car, to settle the car, to find a good balance, a good run. I thought I had an opportunity with the two PC cars, and pretty slow on the bus stop. Unfortunately I got caught in one of them. But I did not have enough for him. I thought I had when I picked up the car for the final two stints. Also because, again, a lot of seconds to him. But the final rush, unfortunately not. THE MODERATOR: Wayne, just maybe your emotions right now having, again, wound up on the podium, coming out of retirement with the well‑chronicled deal here with a long‑time friend and associate and obviously your two sons. WAYNE TAYLOR: Firstly, I'd like to just say that it was a heck of a race. It was an incredible weekend, an emotional weekend to be in a situation to have my kids and Max is like my oldest kid, to be together. We've been around each other for the last 20 years, whatever it is. And Chevrolet, Mark Kent, Mark Reuss, Jim Campbell and everybody at Chevrolet invested so much in this program, when the Corvette program first started some two years ago, that this win was for them. Obviously I wanted to do it‑‑ I wanted to be the team that did it first. You know what, those guys did a great job. They beat us fair and square, and they deserved to win, so I congratulate all those guys. But really, I'm still really happy to have had this experience and to have had everybody support it so much. It was just a great weekend. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Wayne. Jordan, obviously a really good run for you. Just talk about how it went. JORDAN TAYLOR: Yeah, it was a long race for everyone, I guess. Obviously starting off with the crash at the beginning was probably on everyone's mind the entire race. Hopefully Memo is doing okay. I haven't heard anything about Matteo, but obviously best wishes to those guys. But yeah, the race was a bit crazy. I think it was a unique year with a lot of drivers making questionable moves out there. It was very easy to make a mistake and hit someone who wasn't really paying attention. It was easy to get caught up in other people's trouble, and that's kind of what happened to us this morning when a DP lost it and I had to avoid it going off the track and we had to make an unscheduled stop to clean off the radiator. So that was a bit frustrating. We had a clean race, almost the exact same as last year where we didn't have one mechanical issue. We only came in for fuel, tires and driver. We never went behind the wall, so it's a testament to the team and we came away with second last year and second this year. Hopefully it's a good trend, and we can win the championship again. THE MODERATOR: Ricky, obviously you're returning to the team after a little bit away. Talk about getting back with the family team here. RICKY TAYLOR: Yeah, it's really cool. It had been a year, and we had been the enemy for a year, and now I came back and I felt like the family again. I mean, for the four of us to be up here, the relationship we have together, like Max is like our brother, and we're always teasing my dad. It's just kind of weird that we're on this big of a stage, and just us four weird guys up here. It's kind of cool. WAYNE TAYLOR: Speak for yourself. Q. Wayne, are you done on retiring for the 27th time? WAYNE TAYLOR: I found out during the race that you made a statement that I was the weak link in the team, so I'm not sure if I'm going to even answer that one. Q. Is this news to you? WAYNE TAYLOR: No, no, no. To be honest, these guys will support me in saying this, I didn't really want to do this. I didn't want to make an idiot of myself. If you drive race cars all your life you always want to be the quickest guy, and now suddenly I'm coming in being the slowest guy, buy so slow that I'm questioning should I be on the track or not. But actually it worked out to be really good. They put me in the car at a good time and I had a lot of fun. But I could never‑‑ you could never bring this moment back, and to try and make this another moment, it reminds me of a lot of racing drivers that just hang on and hang on and hang on and don't stop when they're getting slower, and for me this moment came, and it's here, and I could never make this happen again. Q. What's worse, finishing second or having your sons crack on you the entire race about everything involving your driving? JORDAN TAYLOR: That's every day. WAYNE TAYLOR: Ricky is a lot more gentle on me, but Jordan is really a terror. The first thing, we got out of the car, and I said, you need to smile because we have a good result. He said, I have nothing to smile about. The two of them are like really different. And unfortunately Jordan and I are the same, and Ricky is like his mother. It's quite a contrast, but that's how it is. Q. Max, on the last restart, he seemed to get a pretty good jump on you, and you had to wait until the green flew before you could go around the second‑place car. Explain that rule, where it is you get to finally make the move to pass and chase after him and how frustrating is that to watch him pulling away before you're even able to stomp on the gas? MAX ANGELELLI: Correct. I feel that rule is really unfair because, I could just (inaudible) on the throttle wide open, a lot earlier than me for a much longer time, so he basically pulled a couple of seconds, I think, and I couldn't do anything because the P2 car in the straight, he was wide open, as well, but I couldn't do anything. That was really frustrating. WAYNE TAYLOR: Yeah, I don't think he actually meant that it is unfair. I think what he was trying to say is that that rule is a little strange, and it makes it even more strange if you are a DP car and you get caught with 27 GTs between you and the leader, and then the leader can accelerate as soon as the lights go off and control the start. I wouldn't say it's unfair, but that's what the rule is now, but I think it's a rule that should maybe be looked at. Q. Without that rule do you think you would have had a chance? MAX ANGELELLI: Yes, we were very strong in turn No.1. That was the assigned place to try something. Q. 15 minutes before the race, something like that, the television shot your face, and you were talking to Max on the radio. As you mentioned, it was very emotional. Can you maybe say what you talked to him? Was it some kind of advice? And it was mentioned that you were running really a family team. In case your two sons have difficult opinion setting up a car than their father, is it difficult to convince them to change their minds? WAYNE TAYLOR: I talk to Max a lot but he doesn't listen every time. I just said to him, you know, you're the guy we think we need to have in at the end. You can make the difference. We all decided that. You know, when Jordan brought the car in, we looked like we had a car that could win the race. Early on in the evening Max had been in that same position, and I think had passed everybody in the field. We thought it was the right decision to be made at that time. As far as the setting up the car, I just got told how to drive it, so I had nothing to do with it. Q. Max, I've got two questions. The first is I know that the caution was your best chance to win the race, but were you surprised to see a full‑course caution there? MAX ANGELELLI: No, no, that happened already in the past. No, I wasn't surprised. We need a yellow. There was a lot of debris. Q. You're now getting out of a car, so you sort of made way for Ricky, and you're going to do only the endurance races. Are you going to miss doing this all the time? MAX ANGELELLI: I don't know yet. I may. I don't know. Maybe not. He's very happy not driving, so maybe I'll feel the same. Q. Is there any chance, could you guys put together a second team? I know Wayne wouldn't be your co‑driver, but is that possible and you would consider a full season? WAYNE TAYLOR: We say that every year, and we really do want to do that, but it's incredibly hard in this sport today to find the backing and the commercial partners that understand the business of racing. Now with this merger, which I think is great for the sport, the short‑term is difficult because the costs have gone up so dramatically that it's very hard to first find the budget for your first car, let alone the second car. We've been working for three years to build up the assets to run it, but we've always made the point that we wouldn't do it unless we had proper commercial partners and stuff. And if we did that, obviously Max would drive and for sure I wouldn't. Q. Ricky, the Richard Childress bunch seems pretty impressed with your stock car racing prowess. Any chance you might end up doing something with those guys? RICKY TAYLOR: I mean, it's a great connection, and I did like a truck test and a dirt test, and it was a lot of fun, but I think at the end of the day, it also comes down to money. You know, I'm really engrained in sports car racing, and with the new series, it's really a great time to continue my career here and try to build a life here rather than risking everything and going that way. But I'd love to always keep that option open for road courses or whatever, have somebody just put me in a car. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, congratulations. Thanks for joining us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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