Ricky shattered IMSA's Prototype lap record at Circuit of The Americas on Friday. Taylors take Alonso references in stride

Friday, 05 May 2017


By Marshall Pruett

Ricky and Jordan Taylor recently came under friendly fire from an opinion column in the mainstream press arguing that the sports car stars would have been better choices for an Indy 500 opportunity than Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso.
As the wave of backlash started to build on social media towards the author for the Taylors-instead-of-Alonso suggestion, the brothers also took a bit of flak.
Although they've previously remained silent on the topic, the two admitted to feeling like "collateral damage" in an interview after Ricky shattered IMSA's Prototype lap record at Circuit of The Americas on Friday.

"We never said we were Fernando Alonso," Ricky said. Jordan added: "I didn't even know it happened until I started getting a bunch of tweets at me saying, 'I don't know who Ricky and Jordan Taylor think they are, but they're no Fernando Alonso!' I was like, 'I don't think I'm Fernando Alonso...so I don't know what you're talking about!'"
The Taylors were tempted to weigh in at the time of the social media storm, but made the wiser decision to avoid 140-character responses as the fake outrage ran its course.
"We wanted to defend the author because people were being mean, but also we didn't want people to think that [her] opinion was ours as well, so it was an awkward spot," Ricky said. "It's nice to see your name in print, but in that association [next to Alonso], it was tough."
Between the Taylors, Jordan is known for his sense of humor via Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat while Ricky, who leans towards a quieter existence, lets his younger brother deliver the punchlines. Asked if they watched the vastly popular live stream earlier in the week of Alonso testing for the first time in preparation for the Indy 500 (pictured), Jordan handled the response.
"We were watching it, and everyone was telling us we needed to Tweet: 'Hey Alonso, what are you doing in our car?', but we knew it would make so many IndyCar fans angry if we did..." he joked.
"On social media, things you say can be taken out of context so easily. I haven't posted an opinion in years. I just post pictures of my dog and things that make people happy."
With the incident now behind them, the current IMSA Prototype championship leaders will focus on winning their fourth consecutive race of the year on Saturday. Ricky could also have some hard decisions to make in the future if his career continues on its upward trajectory.
After testing for Roger Penske's IndyCar program earlier in the year, and further demonstrating his skills through poles and wins in the Prototype class, the elder Taylor brother has been mentioned by a few IndyCar team owners and team principals in recent weeks as someone to consider for an open-wheel opportunity.