Wayne Taylor has revealed that the chance of Fernando Alonso driving the Daytona 24 hour almost went away, after several months of discussions between the Wayne Taylor Racing team and Alonso.
In November it was announced that Alonso would race the Rolex 24 alongside co-drivers Kamui Kobayashi, Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande.
However, Taylor has revealed the deal almost fell through after several months of talks.
"Over the next several months, it looked like a possibility, and then it went away,” said Taylor in an interview on Crash.net.
"Then, sometime later, through McLaren and Zak, all of a sudden I got a text asking if there’s still a seat for Fernando.
“I said, ‘I’ll make one available.’”
Taylor also confirmed that the team continued their search for a new driver which is where Kobayashi comes in.
“In the meantime, we continued our search for a third driver and we went looking through the entire WEC and all forms of sports car racing for a driver who was not only fastest over one lap but over long periods of time, and clearly the person who came to the top of that list was Kamui Kobayashi.”