On Saturday, Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ricky Taylor won the overall pole for Sunday afternoon’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America. It is the fourth pole for the season for the older of the Taylor brothers.
Afterwards, Taylor didn’t really talk about his lap all that much. Instead, he talked a little about his car, a little about the race and a little about a friendly rivalry with brother/teammate Jordan.
“I have to have the upper hand on him somewhere,” Taylor said in the post-qualifying press scrum. “[Jordan]’s beating me on Instagram followers and likes. I’ll continue qualifying and hopefully continue to keep this one stat up on him. The car was beautiful today. The team just really executed and gave me a really good qualifying car. This is only one lap and we have 15 minutes to do it. I think tomorrow is going to be a different story there are so many really good cars. Once the finishing guys get in there, its going to make for an interesting fight.
Taylor’s time of 113.058 seconds (128.896 mph) is a track record for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Road America. It was eight-tenths of a second faster than the fastest practice lap of the weekend.
A full second and change slower than Taylor was PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ José Gutierrez, who will start second in the No. 52 Ligier JS P217. Tequila Patron ESM’s Scott Sharp will start third, followed by Visit Florida Racing’s Marc Goossens in their new Ligier. Tequila Patron ESM’s Johannes van Overbeek will start fifth.
In Prototype Challenge, Performance Tech Motorsports’ James French claimed his third consecutive class pole at Road America. French’s time of 119.149 seconds (122.307 mph) was nearly three seconds quicker than BAR1 Motorsports’ Don Yount.
The GT Le Mans class is usually quite close. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dirk Müller saw to it that that would not be the case. Müller claimed the class pole with a lap of 121.422 seconds (120.017 mph), good for tenth overall.
Müller’s lap was more three-quarters of a second faster than teammate Ryan Briscoe. BMW Team RLL’s Alexander Sims was third quickest, followed by Porsche GT Team’s No. 912 for Lime Rock pole sitter Gianmaria Bruni. Martin Tomczyk in the No. 24 BMW was fifth in class.
In GT Daytona, it was a back and forth battle over the full 15 minute session. Once the checkers flew, it was Change Racing’s Jeroen Mul who walked away with his first career class pole.
Mul’s lap of 126.649 seconds (115.064 mph) was one-sixth of a second faster than Turner Motorsport’s Jesse Krohn. Park Place Motorsports’ Patrick Lindsey was another three-tenths of a second back in third, followed by Scott Pruett in the No. 15 3GT Racing Lexus. Stevenson Motorsports’ Andrew Davis was fifth quickest.
Two teams did not turn in times in the session. Lone Star Racing’s No. 80 Mercedes failed to turn a time due to cooling issues, although they did attempt an out lap.
Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s No. 93 Acura did not venture out due to ongoing repairs from a Katherine Legge crash in Canada Corner. Team owner Michael Shank released this statement Saturday afternoon about the repairs.
PR – Mike Shank on the team's effort today to repair the No. 93 pic.twitter.com/SqQjOwET4w
— Meyer Shank Racing (@MeyerShankRac) August 6, 2017
The team will start the race at the rear of the field, but they’ll also company. The No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini of Madison Snow that qualified sixth in class has been moved to the rear of the field after getting busted with unhomologated parts. While they are not necessarily illegal, they are unapproved by IMSA. According to Sportscar365.com, the penalty assessed also includes a fine, 15-point penalties for both Snow and Bryan Sellers and an ECU confiscation.
Starting Grid for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Road Race Showcase
The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase is scheduled to go green at 2:35 p.m. EDT Sunday. Live coverage will air on FOX Sports 1.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.