Racing legends also shared grand marshal duties with four other racing greats at Daytona this year.
- Bobby Rahal and Wayne Taylor they’ve won Daytona’s 24 endurance race as a driver, an owner, and as a father watching their own sons win.
- Rahal won the race in 1981 driving a Porsche for Garretson Racing and twice in the GTLM class as a co-owner at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2019 and 2020
- Wayne Taylor has also won the Rolex as both an owner and driver. He won as a driver in 1996 with teammates Scott Sharp and Jim Pace.
Bobby Rahal and Wayne Taylor are a rare breed of racers.
They they’ve won Daytona’s 24 endurance race as a driver, an owner, and as a father watching their own sons win the prestigious race.
Rahal won the race in 1981 driving a Porsche for Garretson Racing and twice in the GTLM class as a co-owner at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2019 and 2020. While Taylor won the race as a driver in 1996 and 2005 and four-times as a team owner (2017, 2019, 2020, 2021).
Bobby Rahal knows what it’s like to win the Rolex 24 both as a team owner and a driver.
Brett Farmer
Rahal and Taylor are back at Daytona for the 60th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona as two of the six the grand marshals—a group that also includes Mario Andretti, Scott Pruett, Jack Roush and Hurley Haywood—who gave the start command to the race.
Both Rahal and Taylor will also be keeping an eye on the race as team owners—Taylor on the DPi entries, and Rahal on two entries in the GTD Pro class. Both men are among the few people on the planet that can answer the question: what’s more satisfying, winning the Rolex 24 as a driver, or as an owner.
“Winning in 1981 with Brian Redman, who I think is one of the best drivers in the history of the sport, and Bob Garson, that was really what I would consider my first major international win,” Rahal said. “That really opened up other opportunities in sports car racing for me.”
“That was a big day for me personally and professionally; a long day as you well know, anybody who stayed up, it’s not 24 hours that you’re awake, it’s 36 hours, that’s what I remember most.”
The win wasn’t the only thing memorable about that race.
Bob Garretson, Bobby Rahal and Brian Redman enjoy victory lane after driving Garretson’s Porsche 935K3 to the win in the 24 Hour race at Daytona International Speedway in 1981.
RacingOneGetty Images
“it’s kind of funny you know, I was what, 27, I think at the time,” Rahal said. “And wanted to qualify and Brian Redmond wouldn’t let me, he said, ’no, I’m gonna qualify’. And he qualified 16th. And I thought, ‘oh, that’s embarrassing’. You know, we should have been on pole. He started the race and had said to us before the race ‘we’re just gonna go out and we’re gonna just go around and we’re gonna go around. We’re not gonna get into any battles we’re gonna take care of car’.
“And sure enough, literally within an hour or two, the start of the race, I think there were probably something like 12 or 15, 935 Porsches in the race that year and within two hours, we’re probably missing, I don’t know, two or three of them. And the next two hours, another two or three dropped out.
“I remember coming back, it was in the middle of the night. It must have been, I don’t know, one o’clock, two o’clock in the morning and I’m walking back to try to get some rest in my rental car. We didn’t have motor homes in those days. And Brian’s coming the other way headed towards the pit lane. And he said, ‘where are we?’ And I said, ‘we’re leading.’ And he got mad at me. He started to chastise me, and said, ‘I told you, we’re not gonna race anybody’. And I said, ‘Brian, I haven’t passed anybody, they’ve all fallen out’. And I think we led, I want to say close to 15 hours, maybe a little bit more of that race. So, it went to exactly to plan as he had envisioned.”
Rahal said winning as an owner gives someone an appreciation for everything that goes into the race.
“You know, the drivers, of course,” he said with a laugh. “Every driver will thank his team, but of course every driver wants to believe that if it wasn’t for him, they wouldn’t have won as an owner.”
“When the spotlight’s off and you’re back in your shop and you’re hiring people and you brought good people in and they start to click and everything starts to come together, you really do get a much greater appreciation for all the things that have to come in place in order to win this race. You know, 24 hours is a long time and of course this race it’s dark for so much of the race as compared to Le Mans, for example. So, this is a real challenge and when you do win it you really do as an owner, I think you appreciate just everything that goes into it.”
Wayne Taylor has also won the Rolex as both an owner and driver. He won as a driver in 1996 with teammates Scott Sharp and Jim Pace. But his two sons Jordan and Ricky have also won twice.
Wayne Taylor was one of six grand marshals at this year’s Rolex 24.
Brett Farmer
“I didn’t think anything could top that,” he said of his first win as a driver. “But being a team owner that is able to run and win as an owner, having both my sons in the car I’ve got to say that is a bigger deal to me as an owner than it was for me to win that first 24.
“One of the hardest things as a team owner and as a father is that you always want your kids to succeed, but more importantly, you want them to be happy.”
But he said that happiness comes with a bit more pressure.
“Racing in America, you know, I tell the story that I put my cell phone in my pocket and put it on vibrate. And when we win it vibrates for about two days. When we come in second, it goes ‘phtt’ and that’s it,” he said laughing. “Whereas I came from South Africa and if we were on the podium, second or third, we were great. So, I’ve learned that Americans only know winners. That’s added pressure both to me and to my sons.”
Wayne Taylor, center, with racing sons Ricky and Jordan Taylor before the 2016 Rolex 24.
Brian ClearyGetty Images
Bobby Rahal has also experienced a Rolex 24 win by his son Graham. And he’s now looking toward a future that will involve his son more and more. Including a new facility, he and his partner Mike Lanigan are getting ready to open in Indiana.
“I just turned 69 years old,” Rahal said. “I look at that facility… I presume it’s going to be around for 50 years or so while I’m certainly not going to be around for 50 years.
“I fully expect that when Graham’s ready to retire from racing, that he’ll take over the leadership of this team. He’s already a leader. But I see that becoming more formalized, I guess. And of course, my partner, Mike Lanigan, his son Pat, same feeling. I think this will be the Pat and Graham show when Mike and I, decide we’ve had enough.”
Keyword: Bobby Rahal, Wayne Taylor Share Rare Hard-to-Top Record at Rolex 24