Wayne Taylor retired as a championship-winning driver in 2014 and has enjoyed the fruits of leading his title-winning sports car team in the intervening years, but the South African couldn’t resist an invitation to don his helmet and racing gear to make a return to the cockpit of a special Formula 1 car for May’s Monaco Historic Grand Prix.
The May 10-12 event, which runs two weeks prior to Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix, will feature an entry for the co-owner of the WTRAndretti Acura IMSA GTP team in a 1978 Wolf Racing WR4 chassis raced by his countryman, Jody Scheckter, who went on to win the 1979 F1 world championship with Ferrari.
Having opened his career in the 1980s in open-wheel racing before turning his attention to Group C and IMSA GTP prototypes, buying the ex-Scheckter Wolf has been like a time machine for Taylor, who dreamt of racing in F1 – and came close at one point – and at the age of 67, is finally getting a chance to sample an F1 car.
“It’s a full 360 degrees in my life, and it’s the final piece to complete the circle of my career,” Taylor told RACER. “The only time I’ve been to Monaco was to attend a Pirelli function, and while I was there, I ran around the track, but that’s all, so this will be the first for me to race there in a car that’s incredibly special to me.”
As Scheckter and his brother Ian were proudly representing South Africa on F1’s international stage, Taylor – like many within the country – followed their progress with great interest. Living in the town of East London allowed a young Taylor to meet the family and team owner Walter Wolf, which is another full-circle moment for Taylor after buying one of his cars driven by one of his inspirations.
“I lived in East London, next door to Ian Scheckter, and over the New Year’s weekend, Jody came down to visit him with Walter Wolf,” Taylor said. “I was a young kid, but I was so in love with Formula 1 Grand Prix racing the earliest of ages.
“And then later in my career went from Formula Fords to Formula Atlantics, and then finally winning their South African Drivers’ championship, my pursuit was Formula 1. I came very close to racing in the South African Grand Prix with Brabham, but at the last minute, it didn’t happen. So this is my chance to make my Formula 1 debut in a way, in the Monaco Historics, of all events, which for me is such a fantastic honor.”
Due to the date of the Monaco event, Taylor will miss IMSA’s stop in California for the Motul Course de Monterey event which takes place on the same weekend. He’s gotten the all-clear from Acura to skip the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race, but that’s not the case for his sons Ricky and Jordan, who race for WTRAndretti. Although they are among the closest families in racing, the Taylor boys won’t get to be with their father or their mother Shelley for the patriarch’s big vintage F1 racing debut.
As he prepares to race the Cosworth DFV V8-powered F1 car, Taylor has tested the World WR4 at a road course near Indianapolis and sought the advice from Jenson Button, the 2009 F1 world champion who drove for him in January at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, and the great Mario Andretti, the 1978 F1 title winner.
“I tested it for the first time at Putnam Park, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I just wish I’d had the chance to do this back in my day,” he said. “I was telling Jenson Button at Daytona that I had this car and I was going to race it, and he looked at me and he goes, ‘No, I don’t think you should do that.’ I go, ‘Why not?’ He goes, ‘Because it’s dangerous.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but I’m not going to go fast.’ And so that made me think about it.
“Then I was up at the Andretti shop and the next day, I called Mario. And so we were chatting about the IMSA team and all sorts of stuff, and then I said to him, ‘You know, I bought this Wolf and I’m thinking about going to Monaco with it, and he literally start laughing. And I said, ‘Mario, why are you laughing?’
“He says, ‘Wayne, you’re the same as me and all other racing drivers. You’ll go there, and you’ll say to yourself, ‘Okay, I’m just gonna go around slowly, and the next thing, a car passes you and you’re gonna got after that car. You’ll forget about the safety. And you’ll forget about everything else.’ And I’m sure he’s right. I still can’t believe that I’m gonna race this car that has Jody Scheckter’s his name on it.”
