Wayne Taylor Racing has announced their drivers for the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque will continue onboard the Konica Minolta-sponsored Acura ARX-06, which is the brand new LMDh car from Acura.
They need some additional drivers for the endurance rounds. Brendon Hartley will assist at the Rolex 24 at Daytona only, with him being busy in the FIA World Endurance Championship for the remainder of the season. Hartley made his race debut with the team at Petit Le Mans last weekend, and kept the car in contention for the race win until the very final minutes of the race.
Louis Deletraz is a new name in the team. He will join Taylor and Albuquerque for Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans. Deletraz pretty much races a sportscar every single weekend in 2022. He is active in the FIA WEC, ELMS and IMSA. This year he competed in IMSA with Tower Motorsport in the LMP2 category, so he knows the circuits already.
The team has chosen not to bring an extra driver for the 6 hours at Watkins Glen. Some teams bring in a third driver for that endurance classic, while others just stick to their regular, full-season drivers.
This will be the third season with Taylor and Albuquerque as teammates. The pairing was oh so close to winning the 2022 title, with the battle going right down to the wire, until Albuquerque clipped a slower GTD car with just a few minutes left of the race, in the quest to hunt down the leading Meyer Shank Racing Acura #60. Whoever finished on top of those two, would be crowned champion – so the Portuguese driver needed to take the risk, to try and win the title.
The team is testing today at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, along with most of the other GTP competitors.
The 2023 season opener will be held at Daytona International Speedway on 28-29 January, with the ROAR test being held one week prior to that.
