BROWNBURG, Ind. — Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport announced today its expanded plans for a two-car GTP effort with Acura and Honda Performance Development.
The two-car full factory supported program will compete for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar (GTP) Championship beginning with the drop off the green flag at the 2024 Rolex 24 At Daytona. WTRAndretti’s current GTP duo of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque will continue to pilot the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 with additional drivers for both cars to be announced in the coming months.
“It has always been our plan to go to a two-car program,” said Wayne Taylor, team owner, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport. “There are so many advantages in being a two-car team and now, going up against all the other factory backed two-car efforts, it is vital. HPD and ORECA have built an amazing race car.
“When you look back at the season so far, we’ve proved to be quickest almost wherever we go and I believe we now have the car to beat. With the combination of HPD, ORECA, Andretti Autosport and all our corporate partners, we have a really strong organization.”
“Expanding to a two-car program displays the progression and success of not only the WTRAndretti team, but our Acura and HPD relationship in the new GTP era,” added Michael Andretti, chairman & CEO, Andretti Autosport. “Our focus at Andretti Autosport, bringing our experience and reach, is to support WTRAndretti in finding the right people and providing the right resources to continue on our winning path.”
Acura is a three-time series DPi champion since joining the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2018, claiming the manufacturer, driver and team DPi titles in 2019, 2020 and again in 2022, the final season in the DPi era.
Their GTP debut in January 2023 ended with an historic 1-2 finish for the manufacturer. The No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 has been part of some of the fiercest battles to GTP competition this season and is currently third in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship fight for the title.
“Being a two-car team will allow us to really lean on our teammates to push us to be better, whether on the driver side or engineering side,” added Ricky Taylor, two-time IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar champion. “The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship weekends are so compressed now that getting multiple drivers through the car is difficult. Being able to take different paths and learn from each other is so important.
“Especially when everyone else has two cars. For us to get on the same program will be so beneficial. We have been dreaming about this for some time now. We have so many ideas on how to use it in a productive way and make us that much stronger.”