JORDAN TAYLOR, RENGER VAN DER ZANDE KAMUI KOBAYASHI, FERNANDO ALONSO Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R Team Report Round 1 of 10 – Rolex 24 – Daytona At-Track PR Contact: Laz Denes with True Speed Communication (256-717-8014 or [email protected]). Event: 24-hour IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (3.56-mile, 12-turn speedway road course). Live Broadcast (race time 2:35 p.m. EST Saturday): NBCSN – 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday; NBC Sports App – 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday; NBCSN – 9 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday; NBC Sports App – 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday; NBCSN – 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Thursday qualifying – 3 to 5 p.m. on NBCSN (DPi class at 4:25 p.m.). Driver Lineup in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R for the 57th Rolex 24 At Daytona: Driver: Jordan Taylor Driver: Renger van der Zande Birthdate: May 10, 1991 Birthdate: Feb. 16, 1986 Birthplace: Orlando, Florida Birthplace: Dodewaard, Netherlands Residence: Apopka, Florida Residence: Amsterdam Personal: Single Personal: Wife, Carlijn Daughter, Lola; Son, Lux Wolf Driver: Kamui Kobayashi Driver: Fernando Alonso Birthdate: Sept. 13, 1986 Birthdate: July 29, 1981 Birthplace: Amagasaki, Japan Birthplace: Oviedo, Spain Residence: Monte Carlo, Monaco Residence: Lugano, Switzerland Personal: Single Personal: Single Wayne Taylor Racing Rolex 24 Performance Profile: Year Drivers Event Start Finish Status/Laps Laps Led Renger van der Zande, 2018 Rolex 24 At Daytona 1 15 Retired/555 18 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Jordan Taylor Ricky Taylor, Jeff Gordon, 263 2017 Rolex 24 At Daytona 4 1 Running/659 Max Angelelli, Jordan Taylor (race-high) Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor, 152 2016 Rolex 24 At Daytona 4 2 Running/736 Max Angelelli, Rubens Barrichello (race-high) Ricky Taylor, Max Angelelli, 265 2015 Rolex 24 At Daytona 7 *16 Running/740 Jordan Taylor (race-high) Ricky Taylor, Max Angelelli, 2014 Rolex 24 At Daytona 6 2 Running/695 227 Wayne Taylor, Jordan Taylor Max Angelelli, Jordan Taylor, 2013 Rolex 24 At Daytona 12 2 Running/709 56 Ryan Hunter-Reay Max Angelelli, Ricky Taylor, 2012 Rolex 24 At Daytona 2 14 Mechanical/14 0 Ryan Briscoe Max Angelelli, Ricky Taylor, 2011 Rolex 24 At Daytona 2 5 Running/720 36 Ryan Briscoe Max Angelelli, Ricky Taylor, 2010 Rolex 24 At Daytona 1 6 Running/711 7 Wayne Taylor, Pedro Lamy Max Angelelli, Brian Frisselle, 2009 Rolex 24 At Daytona 7 4 Running/735 56 Wayne Taylor, Pedro Lamy Max Angelelli, Michael Valiante, 2008 Rolex 24 At Daytona 4 5 Running/687 10 Wayne Taylor, Ricky Taylor Max Angelelli, Wayne Taylor, 2007 Rolex 24 At Daytona 2 3 Running/666 30 Jeff Gordon, Jan Magnussen * Finished third but placed 16th due to maximum drivetime violation -more- Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R Team Report – 57th Rolex 24 At Daytona Page Two Wayne Taylor Racing History: Year Races Wins Podiums Top-5s Top-10s Poles 2018 10 1 4 8 8 2 2017 10 5 7 7 10 5 2016 10 3 7 8 9 1 2015 10 2 5 6 9 3 2014 11 2 6 8 11 0 2013 12 5 6 6 10 3 2012 13 3 4 7 11 2 2011 12 3 8 10 10 6 2010 12 1 7 7 11 3 2009 12 2 6 7 9 0 2008 14 1 4 5 10 4 2007 14 2 9 11 12 1 TOTAL 140 30 73 90 120 30 Notes of Interest: Full-time co-drivers Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande of the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R return to the scene of their team’s thrilling 2017 victory joined by two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso and former Formula One and current FIA World Endurance Championship star Kamui Kobayashi for this weekend’s 57th renewal of the iconic Rolex 24 At Daytona, the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener. Taylor and his older brother Ricky Taylor co-drove to the 2017 Rolex 24 win with now-retired Italian veteran Max “The Ax” Angelelli and four- time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon. It was the first of five wins in a row for the Taylor brothers to start the season, and it catapulted them to the series driver and team titles by a 19-point margin. Ricky Taylor, whose daring, late-race pass of race leader Felipe Albuquerque in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R earned the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R team the 2017 Rolex 24 win, left to join the new, two-car Team Penske Prototype-class entry for 2018 to open the door for van der Zande, the Dutch sportscar veteran, to join the younger Taylor as full-time co-driver a year ago this weekend. Van der Zande helped the team pick up where it left off on the 3.56-mile, 12-turn Daytona superspeedway road circuit when he qualified on the pole for last year’s Rolex 24 in his maiden qualifying voyage with his new team. He led the opening 18 laps of the race, and he and Jordan Taylor and IndyCar Series veteran Ryan Hunter-Reay stayed comfortably with the leaders over the first third of the race. But various issues ultimately cost several unscheduled pit stops and laps while making repairs, and the team retired during the 17th hour and left Daytona credited with 15th place. Taylor, van der Zande and Hunter-Reay rebounded with a solid runner-up finish in last year’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, and closed the season together with a thrilling victory thanks to van der Zande’s last-lap pass at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October. With the Petit Le Mans victory and four podium finishes in all, Taylor and van der Zande rallied to finish third in the final 2018 championship standings, seven points out of first. The 27-year-old Taylor will be making his 12th career Rolex 24 start this weekend and his seventh in a row with the team. Prior to last year’s disappointing 15th-place result, he and the team logged five consecutive race-weekend finishes on the podium, highlighted by the 2017 victory and runner-up finishes in 2013 (with Angelelli and Hunter-Reay), 2014 (with Ricky Taylor, his father Wayne Taylor and Angelelli), and 2016 (with Ricky Taylor, Angelelli and former Formula One star Rubens Barrichello). The team’s third-place finish in 2015 was amended to a 16th-place result five days after the race due to a maximum drivetime violation. In those five consecutive Rolex 24s from 2013 through 2017, the No. 10 Prototype led 963 of 3,359 laps – 27.2 percent, the last three showing race- high totals of 265 laps in 2015, 152 in 2016, and 263 in 2017, preceded by 227 laps led in 2014 that was second-highest for the race. This weekend’s race marks the sixth career Rolex 24 for the 32-year-old van der Zande. Prior to his third-place finish with Spirit of Daytona Racing in 2017, he scored LMPC-class finishes of fifth, sixth and fourth with the Starworks Motorsport team. Alonso, the 37-year-old Spaniard, will be making his second career and second consecutive Rolex 24 appearance and his first race of any kind since embarking on a sabbatical from full-time F1 competition after November’s 2018 season finale in Abu Dhabi. It was his 17th F1 season, the last four of which were spent with McLaren. Alonso’s first career Rolex 24 a year ago came with the United Autosport LMP2-car effort, which resulted in a 13th- place finish due to mechanical issues. Alonso owns 32 career F1 victories and back-to-back world championships in 2005 and 2006. He’s also enjoyed recent success in the WEC. His No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing team leads the WEC 2018-19 superseason standings after back-to-back victories at Spa- Francorchamps and in his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut, followed by consecutive runner-up finishes at Fuji and Shanghai. It will be the first career Rolex 24 for Kobayashi, the 32-year-old from Japan who is in his third season with Toyota Gazoo Racing and currently co- drives that team’s No. 7 entry, which is second in the superseason standings after runner-up finishes at at Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans, followed by victories at Fuji and Shanghai. Prior to his current success in the WEC, Kobayashi was a fixture on the F1 circuit. He made his F1 debut with Toyota at the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix and followed that with a points-paying finish of sixth at that season’s final race in Abu Dhabi. He then drove for Sauber from 2010 through 2012, highlighted by a podium finish at the Japanese Grand Prix – the first F1 podium by a Japanese driver in 22 years – followed by a season with Caterham in 2014. Wayne Taylor, the three-time sportscar-racing champion as a driver and two-time champion as a team owner, will be inducted into the South African Hall of Fame in his native country during special ceremonies slated for Feb. 24 in Sun City. He will join an elite list of inductees already enshrined that features philanthropist and former president Nelson Mandela, golfers Gary Player and Sally Little, racecar drivers Jody and Ian Scheckter and Sarel van der Merwe, surfer Shaun Tomson, and Olympic athletes Sydney Maree and Zola Budd.