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South African racing driver and team owner
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(February 2026) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Wayne Taylor
Nationality👁 South Africa
South African
Born (1956-07-15) 15 July 1956 (age 69)
Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa
RelativesJordan Taylor (son)
Ricky Taylor (son)
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years1987–1993, 1996–1998, 2000–2002
Best finish4th (1987)
Class wins1 (1998)

Wayne Taylor (born 15 July 1956) is a South African sports car racing driver and team owner. He won the 1996 and 2005 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 2005 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype drivers' championship. He drove for SunTrust Racing with Max Angelelli. He co-drove in the 2006 International Race of Champions in the United States with Angelelli. Taylor now owns and manages his own team competing in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Racing career

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Taylor won the 1986 South African National Drivers Championship. In 1987, he finished fourth in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He moved to the FIA World Sportscar Championship. He competed in the C2 class in 1988, and moved to the C1 class in 1989. He also competed in the IMSA Camel GT series from 1989 through 1993. From 1991 through 1993, he was one of the lead drivers for the Intrepid RM-1 GTP program.

Taylor won the IMSA WSC class in 1994, with second-place finishes in the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. He also won the 1996 24 Hours of Daytona and 1996 12 Hours of Sebring with Scott Sharp and Jim Pace in a Riley & Scott Mk III Oldsmobile.

Taylor was once more IMSA WSC champion in 1996. In 1998 he won Petit Le Mans and the prototype class in the 24 Hours of Daytona.

Taylor competed in the American Le Mans Series in 1999. From 2000 to 2002, he was a central part of the Cadillac Le Mans effort. It was handled by his long-time technical partner in 2000 Bob Riley before the chassis program was moved in England and an updated car was built for 2001, followed by a completely new car, the LMP-02, in 2002. Unfortunately, it was not successful against Audi's R8 and even privately entered LMPs, so GM discontinued the program at the end of the year. Taylor tried to secure funding to run a privateer effort with the car, but instead eventually continued with Cadillac in the Speed World Challenge CTS-V effort.

With Max Angelelli, Taylor was co-champion in the Daytona Prototype category of the 2005 Grand American Road Racing Association Rolex Sports Car Series, and the pair also took the overall win in the 24 Hours of Daytona.

In 2006, Taylor and his Grand-Am teammate, Max Angelelli made IROC Series history becoming the first tandem of drivers to compete in one car during an IROC season. They each raced two races and points were combined for their tally as they are in the sportscar series.

In mid-2006, Taylor announced a split with car builder Bob Riley and formed Wayne Taylor Racing for the 2007 season with continued backing from SunTrust, and Angelelli as co-driver. The team is based in Indianapolis. Early in 2007, Taylor stepped away from full-time driving and used a host of fill in drivers before naming Michael Valiante to team up with Angelelli full-time in 2008. Taylor continues to drive in the long distance events. The team continued to field Riley Chassis in 2007 before switching to the new Dallara chassis after the 2008 24 Hours of Daytona. In May 2008, the team's transporter caught fire and destroyed it, the new Dallara and all of their equipment. The team fielded their old Riley with borrowed equipment until a new Dallara could be built and shipped to the US. On 23 August, the team scored their first win of the year and the first for Dallara in Grand-Am at Infineon Raceway California.

Taylor's team won its second Grand-Am championship in 2013 with Angelelli co-driving with his son Jordan Taylor. Wayne's older son Ricky Taylor is also a Grand-Am regular and was Angelelli's regular teammate until Jordan replaced him in 2013.

Motorsports career results

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24 Hours of Le Mans results

[edit]
Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1987 👁 Germany
Porsche Kremer Racing
👁 South Africa
George Fouché
👁 Austria
Franz Konrad
Porsche 962C C1 327 4th 4th
1988 👁 United Kingdom
Cosmik GP Motorsport
👁 Greece
Costas Los
👁 United Kingdom
Evan Clements
Spice SE87C-Ford C2 145 DNF DNF
1989 👁 United Kingdom
Spice Engineering
👁 Denmark
Thorkild Thyrring
👁 United Kingdom
Tim Harvey
Spice SE89C-Ford C1 150 DNF DNF
1990 👁 Australia
Team Schuppan
👁 Australia
Omron Racing
👁 United States
Hurley Haywood
👁 Sweden
Rickard Rydell
Porsche 962C C1 332 12th 12th
1991 👁 Switzerland
Team Salamin Primagaz
👁 Australia
Team Schuppan
👁 United States
Hurley Haywood
👁 United Kingdom
James Weaver
Porsche 962C C2 316 NC NC
1992 👁 United Kingdom
British Racing Motors
👁 Finland
Harri Toivonen
👁 United Kingdom
Richard Jones
BRM P351 C1 20 DNF DNF
1993 👁 Germany
Porsche Kremer Racing
👁 Germany
Jürgen Lässig
👁 Italy
Giovanni Lavaggi
Porsche 962CK6 C2 328 12th 7th
1996 👁 United States
Riley & Scott Cars Inc.
👁 United States
Scott Sharp
👁 United States
Jim Pace
Riley & Scott Mk III-Oldsmobile WSC 157 DNF DNF
1997 👁 Japan
Nissan Motorsport
👁 United Kingdom
TWR
👁 United Kingdom
Martin Brundle
👁 Germany
Jörg Müller
Nissan R390 GT1 GT1 139 DNF DNF
1998 👁 United States
Doyle-Risi Racing
👁 Belgium
Eric van de Poele
👁 Spain
Fermín Velez
Ferrari 333 SP LMP1 332 8th 1st
2000 👁 United States
Team Cadillac
👁 Italy
Max Angelelli
👁 Belgium
Eric van de Poele
Cadillac Northstar LMP LMP900 287 22nd 12th
2001 👁 France
DAMS
👁 Italy
Max Angelelli
👁 France
Christophe Tinseau
Cadillac Northstar LMP01 LMP900 270 15th 5th
2002 👁 United States
Team Cadillac
👁 Italy
Max Angelelli
👁 France
Christophe Tinseau
Cadillac Northstar LMP02 LMP900 345 9th 8th

WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

[edit]

(key)(Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class)

Year Team Class Make Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rank Points
2014 Wayne Taylor Racing P Dallara Corvette DP Chevrolet 5.5L V8 DAY
2
SIR LBH LS DET S6H MSP IMS ELK COA PET 42nd 33

International Race of Champions

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(key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.)

International Race of Champions results
Season Make 1 2 3 4 Pos. Points Ref
2006 Pontiac DAY
6
TEX DAY ATL
11
9th1 30 [1]

1 Ride shared with Max Angelelli

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Wayne Taylor – 2006 IROC Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved 3 August 2023.

External links

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Sporting positions
Preceded by South African National Drivers Championship
1986
Succeeded by
None
Preceded by IMSA GT champion
1994
Succeeded by
Preceded by Grand-Am Daytona Prototype Champion
2005
with Max Angelelli
Succeeded by