Wayne Taylor Racing is on the fast track to Le Mans, and Wayne Taylor himself couldn’t be more excited.

After facing unlikely circumstances in securing an entry to the 24-hour French classic prior to 2025, Taylor is now preparing to take on the Hypercar grid with determination.

“Well, one of the reasons I went back to my old family at Cadillac was I knew they would do everything to get me to Le Mans,” Taylor said. “To be honest, I resigned myself to the fact that we probably weren’t going to because WEC and the ACO are pretty strict about doing these races. But then again, I thought to myself, hang on, Cadillac is supporting WEC, IMSA, and Le Mans. Obviously spending a lot of money with all the sanctioning bodies. I know there was a special request that came from the head of GM and Cadillac. So we were always thinking, well, could we get in? We know the JOTA cars will be in. We’re sure the 31 was going to be in because they’ve been there for the last few years. We were a different story. So we couldn’t plan anything, which was the hardest part. We couldn’t really set a plan in place to start because we might have started down that road and then said no.”

“So, when it came through and it came through to Wayne Taylor Racing, for me personally it was a very big deal because Le Mans is everything to me. I have won it in a Ferrari 333 in the prototype class. My son Jordan won it in a GT car. But this is truly the first time we can go there with a legitimate shot of being in the top five, top six.”

The acquisition of a Le Mans entry has not come easy for Taylor and the team.

With aspirations of going to France and competing among the rest of the field for a chance at a race victory in one of the most historic endurance races, the announcement took a weight off the shoulders of both Wayne and the team.

“Yeah, it’s a humongous weight off my shoulders,” Taylor said. “Because I can’t keep my mouth shut, I was telling people privately, we’re going to go, we’re going to go. And then I kept saying, what if we don’t go? I’m going to look like a complete idiot. But both Travis and I have been working really hard on this. And I mean, if I remember correctly that day, I didn’t work that whole day. I just enjoyed knowing I’m going to Le Mans.”

WTR’s entry is just one of four Cadillacs on the grid and represents a strong contingency for the GM brand.

While the team only received one entry for this year’s race, Taylor isn’t ruling out a two-car effort for Le Mans or even a WEC full-season entry down the road.

“We knew from GM and we had to work with them and Cadillac. We didn’t want to overextend the ACO, which negatively could affect Cadillac. So we said we’d just take one car and decided to take the #10 car simply because that car has been around a long time. Ricky and Felipe have been together for like five years. And the 40 car is a new car. It’s a whole new ballgame. Unfortunately, we had to make a decision between Jordan and Louis, and from a family standpoint and from just everything, it was the right way to go. We’ve been trying to help Louis find another ride because he deserves one. But at this point, I don’t know.”

“Originally in the negotiations we were talking about WEC and we all decided that these cars are so different and that we’ve got to walk before we can run, and so certainly in the future the plan is definitely to go with two cars. There’s no pressure. And could we go to WEC? I can’t say because I haven’t had any further discussions with Cadillac about that, but it would be pretty cool to do that. I mean, for me, personally, I would like to run one car in WEC and one car over here, but I’m not the boss of Cadillac and I’m not the head of everything. Eric Warren is.”

While the team gets prepared for their quest at Le Mans, Sebring takes precedence with a busy slate leading up to tomorrow’s 12-hour race. Between four Lamborghini Super Trofeo Series entries and three WeatherTech efforts, the Taylor on-track will be roaring with a clean sweep in the single-make Lamborghini series to open the weekend.

However, even with the early success, Taylor’s thoughts on BOP have created an uncertainty with him to the point of it being a factor for his retirement.

“Four cars in ST, a GTD, and two GTPs. We won all three classes yesterday in the first Lamborghini race. So from that start, it’s working really well. Now we’ve got to just see where we pan out here. I’m still afraid and still nervous of that horrible letter BOP. I think IMSA is working hard to do it, but I think that IMSA and the ACO should work together on this one. I also don’t think that people should be penalized for building a fast car with the best chassis and the best engine. I don’t think you should be penalized. Otherwise, you could spend half the amount of money, build a shit box, and then they get enough BOP to compete against somebody who spent a gazillion dollars. I’ve been vocal about this before and people get tired of hearing it from me, but it’s a fact. I mean, it’s the one thing. It is probably the only thing that will cause me to retire. Otherwise, I could do this for the rest of my life. But if BOP stays intact, both in Europe and over here, I don’t know. It’s just very difficult.”

Nevertheless, the excitement surrounding WTR’s journey to Le Mans will be a fascinating one at that.

A team that has shown high interest in competing in sports car’s most prestigious 24-hour race to finally have an entry in the race brings a lot of excitement, especially given Taylor’s rich history.

“It’s an all-new ballgame for me because I did Le Mans 13 times as a driver and my last time I did it was 2002 and everything has just blown out of proportion. Everything’s got bigger, more manufacturers, hardly any pit area now with all these massive buildings built for all the manufacturers and it’s just become, as far as I’m concerned, the biggest and best race in the world. There’s nothing that comes close. Nothing. Just talking about, you know… No, I’m sorry. The only thing that comes close is the Monaco Grand Prix.”

“It will probably be emotional. I think for sure emotional, especially when we get to the pit lane and I see Ricky or Jordan getting in the car. That’s when it’s really… That’s when it’ll really be, OK, we’re here.”

Overall, it will be a new experience for a team that showcases an abundance of experience within sportscar racing.

While WTR is used to preparing for an IMSA weekend in the states, the trek overseas will be a new test and opportunity that is being sorted out even this weekend

“It’s a lot to learn for the team. They’ve never been there. Everything has changed over there so much. We’re having a meeting at 1:30 today just about logistics. When we’re there, we’re going to house all 85 people, all the drivers. But I can tell you, the morning I got the news, that was probably one of the happiest days I’ve had this year. In fact, the happiest day I’ve had this year. So yeah, can’t wait to be there. I want to try and do what I did in 2017, have my entire family win Daytona, Sebring and the championship. And we could never replicate that, which is why we moved Ricky and Jordan into separate cars here. But now for Le Mans we’re bringing them back together. So, this would be almost unbelievable.”