Jordan Taylor on Le Mans, Rejoining WTRAndretti & NASCAR (2024)

In sports car racing, there are few people as well known in the world of motorsports as Jordan Taylor.

He also has an alter ego, “Rodney Sandstorm,” that is a Jeff Gordon super fan and loves to wear jorts.

He did a walk-on appearance back in 2018 on NASCAR RaceDay at Talladega Superspeedway that nearly resulted in Darrell Waltrip calling security on him because he wasn’t in on the joke.

These days, after a number of years driving the factory Corvettes, Taylor is back with Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global, driving the No. 40 Acura ARX-06 in the GTP class. Frontstretch sat down with Taylor to talk about his transition back to prototypes and more.

Phil Allaway, Frontstretch: You had a last-minute deal to go race at Le Mans in the LMGT3 class in a Ferrari. How did that come together?

Jordan Taylor: Yeah, it was a bit of a late call. My buddy Marco Sorensen reached out and asked if I was interested in doing Le Mans.

I was free that weekend, and he knew of a team that was looking for a driver, a Danish group, and he’s Danish. I immediately said yes since I was free. We quickly got in contact with Johnny Laursen from the team, Formula Racing. Quickly made the deal, flew over to Paul Ricard for a one-day test, got to know the team, then I was able to go to the race. Good timing.

Allaway: We’re talking about a Ferrari 296 GT3 here. It’s a car that I don’t believe that you would have driven prior to that test. What did you think about it?

Taylor: It was much different. Much of my background is in [General Motors] cars in GT between Corvettes, Cadillacs and Camaros, so it was much different. The ergonomics and layout inside the car [were] much different.

Much more of [an] on-the-nose sensation, but at Le Mans, it’s a place where you’re always searching for front grip. I felt like it suited the track well. Unfortunately, the race didn’t go totally our way.

We got hit in the middle of the night. [Gregoire Saucy] just made a very late move in the first chicane, might have gotten in the water. Judging by how fast he went into the corner, he wasn’t going to make the corner anyway, even if I wasn’t there.

Note: Saucy was officially blamed for this incident by the stewards. He was punished with a time penalty and a penalty point on his license.

My teammate, Conrad [Laursen], who’s only 18 years old, set the fastest lap of the race. Definitely a guy that everyone’s going to be looking at in the future. He did a great job with the changing conditions in the night. It’s unfortunate that we got hit, but we ended up eighth with no issues other than the contact that we had there. The team performed flawlessly through the night.

Allaway: Outside of Le Mans, you’re back here in WeatherTech this year with WTRAndretti. You and Louis Deletraz are currently fifth in points with a sweet victory at Sebring. How would you describe your year to this point?

Taylor: I would say up and down. At Daytona, we didn’t have the pace to really battle at the front, but we finished third thanks to Louis’ … really strong stint at the end.

Sebring, Louis had the spectacular stint there at the finish to get the win there. Long Beach was a little disappointing. Detroit was disappointing. Laguna [Seca] was OK.

Up and down, overall. I’d say being fifth in points, we really need to start getting consistent podiums and fighting for wins again. We’ve definitely got our work cut out for ourselves to get back to the front of the field. I like our chances still.

Allaway: Here with WTRAndretti, your mount is the new Acura ARX-06. What’s it like to drive?

Taylor: It is very nice, very different as compared to the old DPis, which were the last prototypes that I drove. 30% less downforce, it’s got a lot more horsepower. Way more power, way more electronics with the Hybrid system, brake by wire and all those things. It was a lot to learn at the beginning of the year [to understand] all of the systems [and] how to work everything on the steering wheel.

It’s become a little more second nature while driving; you gotta use those tools to your advantage. I think it makes it fun for a driver to still have a big say in developing the car. For a driver, it’s very rewarding to be in this class and see that your feedback is being used.

Allaway: This year, you have Louis Deletraz as your teammate, who comes very highly recommended after a series of victories in LMP2 in Europe. You’ve had five races with him now, what’s it like working with him?

Taylor: He’s been great. One of the top prototype drivers in the world. He just got pole at Le Mans last week in LMP2 by nearly a full second. Definitely one of the quickest guys out there, and he showed that with us at Daytona and Sebring this year in those races so well.

He’s been great as a teammate and as a friend as well. He’s a super fun guy. We play video games together during the week when he’s back home in Switzerland.

It’s been going well, and our whole group of four drivers with Ricky [Taylor] and Filipe [Albuquerque] are a good core group of guys. We all get along well, and we all push each other as well, which is nice.

Allaway: What kind of gaming preferences do you guys have? Actual racing games, [First Person Shooters] or something else?

Taylor: We mix it up. We’ll do a bit of iRacing before the weekends and a bit of co-op Call of Duty to let some anger out.

Allaway: In addition to your exploits with Corvette [Racing] last year, you also had some NASCAR races. You raced Circuit of the Americas in place of the injured Chase Elliott along with two NASCAR Xfinity Series races for Kaulig Racing. What was the biggest takeaway from those experiences?

Taylor: I think it’s just not being afraid to jump into something new and challenge yourself. I think jumping into [Elliott’s car], I was obviously super excited at the opportunity, but as soon as I got the OK that I was going to do it, I went, ‘Holy cow, it’s actually scary that I’m going to do this now and figure out how to drive [the Next Gen car] in front of a worldwide audience with 50 minutes of practice.’

It was super intimidating going into it, and I almost regretted it at the beginning before I got to the weekend. But going through the whole experience with Hendrick Motorsports, they were so good to me, getting me up to speed and everything. The weekend itself went so well. Practice, we were quick. Qualifying, we were quick. The race, obviously, didn’t go super well, but I had a great time. It was a great experience.

That led to the Kaulig opportunity at Portland and Charlotte. That’s a great group of guys as well.

The late model [at North Wilkesboro Speedway], that one came out of left field. That stemmed off of working with Greg Ives from Hendrick. He got me in contact with a late model team to do North Wilkesboro, which is even further out of my comfort zone to do an oval.

That was honestly one of the most fun weekends that I’ve had, just going to an old school racetrack, old school weekend where everyone’s showing up to have a good time and try to qualify for the race.

The race itself was a blast. Racing on a short oval like that and bumping guys around to make moves. I was supposed to do it again this year, but the schedules didn’t line up to allow me to go back to North Wilkesboro, but that’s something that I want to do some more in the future.

Allaway: This was before the repave, so you were dealing with pavement that was older than either of us. How was it to deal with the extreme tire wear in the late model?

Taylor: It was quite shocking. I think the speed difference in practice from an old set to qualifying was like driving a different racecar. It was a good experience in order to understand when you watch a Cup race, it’s so easy to think, ‘Oh, they’re just driving around in a circle.’

Even driving on that little short oval in a late model with a quarter of the horsepower, you’re still … on the edge of grip and crashing the whole time. It gives you a whole new level of respect for when you’re watching those guys on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays on track [when] they’re on the limit, pushing and racing for every position. Gives you a new outlook on what they do and what [I] can take back to my own racing here in sports cars.

Allaway: In addition to your NASCAR exploits, you were also the test driver and reserve driver for Garage 56 last year. What is the most rewarding thing that came of that for you?

Taylor: I think the relationships that I made were the best thing. [I] was working very closely with Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear [on the effort]. Being involved with that program led to the Cup opportunity, which led to the late model opportunity and the Xfinity opportunity. It’s a bunch of guys that I keep in contact with.

I still do some stuff with Garage 56. I went and did the demo laps [during the MotoGP weekend] at COTA. We did the VIR lap for [Car and Driver] last year.

Since this interview, Jordan and Deletraz haven’t quite reached where they want to be. They were fourth at Watkins Glen International and eighth at Road America, leaving them 279 points back in fifth with two races to go.