WATKINS GLEN, New York (June 26, 2018) – It’s rally time for co-drivers Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande and their No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R team as they kick off the second half of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen endurance marathon Sunday at historic Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.

A year ago, the team arrived at the 3.4-mile, 11-turn layout that was once home to the Formula One United States Grand Prix on a remarkable five-race winning streak that made the 2017 driver and team championships all but a foregone conclusion over the final five events of the season.

The win streak came to an abrupt and shocking end less than 30 seconds into last year’s Sahlen’s six-hour race when starting driver Ricky Taylor was hit in the first turn of the race by another competitor who lost control. The impact damaged the right-front suspension of the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R and the elder Taylor brother ended up contacting the SAFER Barrier outside turn three, leading to more damage that cost a precious six race laps to repair. The Taylor brothers rallied as best they could but could manage only a sixth-place finish, three laps down.

Still, they left Watkins Glen with a comfortable 20-point lead in the standings and went on to win the championship by a 19-point margin.

This year, the younger Taylor brother and his new teammate van der Zande, the 32-year-old Dutch driving veteran, arrive at Watkins Glen third in the championship, 15 points out of first, after back-to-back fifth-place finishes at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington and The Streets of Belle Isle circuit in downtown Detroit. This season’s high points, thus far, have been back-to-back podium finishes of second at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and third on the Grand Prix of Long Beach (Calif.) street circuit that came on the heels of a disappointing 15th-place result at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Driving for a team that has been a perennial championship threat since its inception in 2007, Taylor and van der Zande know the time is now to turn up the heat in their defense of last year’s titles. They’ll no doubt look to rekindle the team’s magical summer of 2011, when Ricky Taylor and Max “The Ax” Angelelli thoroughly dominated both Watkins Glen races. In that year’s Sahlen’s six-hour, Taylor and Angelelli qualified on the pole and led 128 of 174 laps en route to the victory. For good measure, they came back 10 weeks later to score an equally dominating victory in the two-hour sprint race during that year’s NASCAR road course weekend, once again starting on the pole and leading 77 of 100 race laps along the way.

Jordan Taylor and van der Zande would love nothing more than a repeat of those performances this weekend, as challenging as it may be to pull off such a feat surrounded by the deep and competitive cast of drivers and teams in the Prototype class this season. But they know the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R team knows how to elevate their game when it matters the most.

Practice for Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen begins Friday morning with Prototype-class qualifying set for 12:25 p.m. EDT Saturday. The green flag for the six-hour race flies at 9:45 a.m. Sunday with FS1 providing live, flag-to-flag television coverage beginning at 9:30 a.m. Live timing and scoring during all on-track sessions is available at IMSA.com and the IMSA smartphone app.

JORDAN TAYLOR, driver, No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R:

We go back to endurance racing mode at Watkins Glen this weekend. Your thoughts about the six-hour race at Watkins Glen and the team’s chances of winning, or at least a solid finish?

“I always enjoy going back to Watkins Glen for the six-hour. It’s one of the coolest races we have on the schedule because it’s a good blend of sprint and endurance racing. It’s hard to know where we will line up on pace but, with it being six hours, I think it suits our team’s strengths with the added pit stops and strategy options.”

Renger had back-to-back wins at Watkins Glen with the Starworks team in 2015 and 2016. Safe to say the team will benefit from that this weekend, or not?

“I think it’ll be good to have Renger’s perspective on the Watkins Glen weekend. We have often had strong cars at the Glen but haven’t been able to seal the deal in the race. Renger can bring some different experiences from his history, which can give us some new perspective.”

Your thoughts about the Watkins Glen track, its history, the circuit itself, do you like it, what do you like about it, what is challenging about it, and where do you feel the team will be strongest there, etc.

“Watkins Glen is one of the few tracks left in the world that still has that old-school feel to it. It’s high speed with no room for error and requires a high level of commitment. It’s a lot of fun to drive but makes for an intense six hours.”

You had a nice, long layoff since Detroit with you not racing at Le Mans for the first time in a long time. Did that feel strange? How was that for you? Are you thoroughly energized as we head to Watkins Glen because of it?

“It was a little odd having the month of June off. I had gone to Le Mans for six years straight, so this was my first time watching in a long time. I had a great trip to the Bahamas with some friends, which was a great break to recharge for Watkins Glen. I am more than ready to get back to the track.”

Now that we are in the second half of our season, what are your thoughts about the championship and what the team must do to stay in contention and, ultimately, win it.

“We are still very much in the championship hunt. We are tied for third heading into the second half of the season. We have had a very consistent season up to this point with the exception of Daytona. We haven’t done anything flashy. There’s a long way to go in the championship.”

RENGER VAN DER ZANDE, driver, No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R:

We go back to endurance racing mode at Watkins Glen this weekend. Your thoughts about the six-hour race at Watkins Glen and the team’s chances of winning, or at least a solid finish?

“I think, going into Watkins Glen, I’d like to think we have a realistic chance to fight for the win. The next two tracks are going to be very challenging for us. But we’ll give our 110 percent and go into the weekend with the goal of maximizing our performance and focus on trying to do the best driving, getting the best out of the car, and getting the best of the of the team with strategy and pit stops – doing everything right. We performed to our limit at the last two races at Mid-Ohio and Detroit and we came out with fifth-place results at both races. I think after Detroit we’ve been looking a lot at where we can improve. I think we can improve, I think there’s room to improve. We’re going into Watkins Glen with some new information and some new things to try out and we’ll see if it works and what that will mean for the second half of our season”

Your thoughts about the Watkins Glen track, its history, the circuit itself, do you like it, what do you like about it, what is challenging about it, and where do you feel the team will be strongest there, etc.

“I really like the place. It’s one of those famous tracks in the U.S. In Europe, everybody plays it on the PlayStation. It’s a track with a lot of flow and lot of momentum, fast corners, and I don’t think we ever even get down to second gear. It’s always great to go there. The history of the track, it’s an ex-Formula 1 track and everybody likes to go there.”

How was your Le Mans experience this year, driving for an LMP1-class team for the first time in your career?

“It was a great experience. It was a big ‘tick the box’ kind of race for me. I’ve now done all the big races around the world. As far as endurance races go, Le Mans is one that you have to do. I feel like I grew up a lot in that one week there this year and being a part of everything. The race didn’t go as planned. With seven hours to go, our teammate had a big shunt and he crased into the wall and the race was over for us. But, altogether, the week was special. It was a nice race to do. Obviously, back to business with our main program, the Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R program.”

Now that we are in the second half of our season, what are your thoughts about the championship and what the team must do to stay in contention and, ultimately, win it.

“Championship-wise, we are still hanging in there. We need a win, now. We need to have a good result to not lose the connection to the front, in terms of points. It’s only halfway there, so there are a lot of races with a lot of points still to be gained, so we’ll see how far we can bring it up.”


WAYNE TAYLOR, owner, No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R:

We kick off the second half of the season with the six-hour Watkins Glen endurance race. Your thoughts?

“Watkins Glen, like I’ve always said, is my favorite track, and it’s even better since it’s been resurfaced. We tested there a while back and it went pretty well for us. It’s definitely going to be a very fast race with a lot of extremely fast cars that we will have to try and find a way to beat. For sure, we will have to once again do it with our pit stops and strategy if we are going to be there at the end. The beauty of this team is that we have the best drivers, as a unit, and the best team and strategists. So that should go a long way toward helping us try and bring home a win on Sunday. We certainly can use a win, right now but, like we do each and every race weekend, we’ll go out there and give it everything we’ve got.”