Wayne Taylor Quotations

I do not think I want to go back. We had to swim under dirty water, where bodies were floating. It was something. If I can find a place here, I'll stay. We lost everything.

Certainly I understand a little better what it will be like during the race after practicing with the NASCAR guys and Frank Kimmel. They're certainly a little more aggressive, which is the nature of how they race.

Kevin had so many friends. Businesses and individuals have really stepped up to the plate for this project.

Kevin was a good friend to me. After his death, and seeing his little boy, I got to thinking ? I'm going to do it. Kevin started that house three years ago, and we joked with him about having to finish it for him. Then this happened.

I think it may have started as an electrical fire because I started smelling something in the cockpit,

I think the virus that Max had in Italy earlier this week and that some people have here is what I got. I was absolutely gone. I was really lame. There was no way I thought I could do the race. But I rested, had an IV and got some medication and was able to at least do my stint.

Long Beach has always been a very big event in racing. I think it is fantastic that we have been asked to come race here. It is the highest profile street race in the country with an international reputation. As the first street race, it's going to be new and pretty exciting. The most difficult thing will be finding places to pass cars. I think it will be a very good event.

I think going back this time, we will not be under the pressure we were last fall. We're looking forward to it and having some fun. We really enjoy the fans. They are real sports car enthusiasts and so many good fans and good crowds make it exciting.

We've built a new car for this year's 24 Hour. We have literally the entire team we had here last year - the same people, the same car package, the same drivers - although we've added a fourth driver with Ryan.

The only thing I could think about was the car and the bloody championship. It was a wake-up call, you know. You never think about these kinds of things. If anybody can get it back together, these guys can. One consolation is that the race isn't until 5:30 tomorrow night. So, I think we'll be okay for the race.

I've been doing it for a long enough time that I can get past it. The thing that makes it difficult is we knew we had a car that was capable of winning.

The whole of Bill Riley's group of guys were just unbelievable. The car was so badly damaged that everyone thought we were done for the weekend and if anyone could have got the job done, these guys were it. Max (Angelelli) did his magic like he always does and we couldn't get a better team effort than we did from this group.

These are superstars here. I just want to hang out in the back and wave to everybody.

Normally in a situation like that you would not get to race and you would lose substantial points. So to not only get the car back in the race but to finish on the podium, it was the ideal situation.

This is going to be the first time we're racing solo. I would think that there will be fewer yellows. This was also the race we had our first win last year. In fact, it's also the place I clinched my first U.S. title in 1994. So this track has some previous success for me. I'm looking forward to going back.

Absolutely nothing I've done in my form of racing can help in IROC. Absolutely zero. For me, this is a totally different way to go around a track. You drive flat-out, all the way. Then when you run into traffic, you have to figure out how that works. It's a completely different world.

It means a lot for the championship. We could have been out of the race. That incident with the fire could have happened this morning. If it had happened this morning in warm-up instead of yesterday we'd be done. I really believe things happen for a reason. The championship is not over, but today we didn't lose too many points, and that's thanks to Max.

It's quite daunting. The car becomes very light. You think you're going to lose the front end of the car, but you have to keep your foot down. And when you have a car come up behind you, you think you're going to lose the rear of the car. It's a bit terrifying the first couple times.

I'm really, really disappointed. I really thought we had a car to start in sixth position or so. We're starting further back than we had hoped, but we're going to take a look at the data. I'm not sure if it was tires or what, but we'll take a look at it and see where we can improve for tomorrow.

In the future I may concentrate just on the long distance races, but for now I plan to continue driving this year. The Grand American Series has grown so much in a few short years and it is great to be a part of that growth, in the past, present and into the future.

The goal for this race will be the same for every other racing. It doesn't change if we're on the pole or we aren't, we want to be ahead of the No. 01 car. These races go down to the last 20 minutes, so the priority is to bring the car in a good position and give Max a good car so we can do what we have to do at the end.

The goal for this race will be the same for every other racing, ... It doesn't change if we're on the pole or we aren't, we want to be ahead of the No. 01 car. These races go down to the last 20 minutes, so the priority is to bring the car in a good position and give Max a good car so we can do what we have to do at the end.

The fire marshals were there but didn't know where to point the fire extinguishers and they didn't last. The truck came with water and ran out of water. I was running around finding guys with more fire extinguishers. There was just not enough to put the car out.