Ricky Taylor, Helio Castroneves and Alexander Rossi sent Acura Team Penske out on top.
Now, they’ve all joined the team they held off for this past season’s DPi title in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Ricky Taylor will partner with Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque to run the full season in Wayne Taylor Racing’s new No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05.
IndyCar regular Rossi, who supported Ricky Taylor and Castroneves as their entry’s third driver for Endurance Cup races, will now serve in the same role at WTR.
And Castroneves, who finally earned the first championship of his career, completes WTR’s lineup for the Rolex 24 on Jan. 30-31 at Daytona International Speedway.
“I am extremely excited about securing the three drivers that have been driving the Acura ARX-05 the past few years, as well as Filipe Albuquerque, who has been driving a similar car in Europe with great success,” team owner Wayne Taylor said in a statement.
“With us as a team changing manufacturers, I wanted to have consistency in the drivers and with this group, that is one thing we can tick off the list.
” ... It is certainly a new challenge, but I believe we have the right people and the right drivers in place to be competitive and win races.”
Ricky Taylor, the oldest son of Wayne Taylor, returns to the family team after previous stints from 2010-2012 and 2014-2017.
Ricky and brother Jordan Taylor, now at Corvette Racing, won the 2017 IMSA Prototype title for WTR before Ricky departed to Team Penske in 2018.
“I grew up with (WTR) and they helped develop me as a driver,” Ricky Taylor said. “It was a very difficult decision to leave the team in 2017 and join Acura Team Penske, but I was able to grow more.
“It’s always great to go somewhere and bring value to the team, so now that I feel like when I return, I can do that.”
Albuquerque ran a partial IMSA schedule for Action Express Racing in 2020, but had a banner year overseas.
Driving for the United Autosports team, Albuquerque claimed LMP2 titles in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series, and an LMP2 class win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
As for Castroneves, his Rolex 24 run adds to a busy 2021 for him that includes six IndyCar races for Meyer Shank Racing and appearances in the Superstar Racing Experience, the new all-star series from NASCAR Hall of Famers Tony Stewart and Ray Evernham.
WTR has made a full changeover from its 2020 roster, which included Ryan Briscoe and Renger van der Zande (full season), IndyCar champion Scott Dixon (Endurance Cup), and Kamui Kobayashi (Rolex 24).
That foursome won in January at the Rolex 24, while the trio of Briscoe, van der Zande and Dixon won last month’s Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Briscoe and van der Zande ended up finishing second in this past season’s DPi standings to Castroneves and Ricky Taylor by a single point.