On Saturday afternoon, Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ricky Taylor won the pole for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s America’s Tire 250 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Taylor’s lap of 76.853 seconds (104.834 mph) is a track record at the undulating 2.238-mile road course. It is Taylor’s fifth pole of 2017.
Afterwards, Taylor was at a bit of a loss as to how he ended up so much quicker than everyone else.
“Maybe a little bit in the corkscrew,” Taylor said after the session. “The guys have just prepared Jordan and me so well for this, in terms of giving us what we need in the car. The preparation on who gets the new tires in practice. And we’ve come to know what I like in qualifying. That’s the advantage of having a qualifying driver and a finishing driver. Now we know that Ricky likes this kind of car in qualifying and they can give that to me. So we’re continuing to hit our stride.”
Taylor’s lap was more than eight-tenths of a second quicker than Action Express Racing’s Christian Fittipaldi in a second Cadillac DPi-V.R. Visit Florida Racing’s Marc Goossens will start third in the best of the Global LMP2s. Goossens was just five-hundredths of a second off of Fittipaldi in the second race for the team’s Ligier.
Eric Curran will start the No. 31 Whelen-sponsored Cadillac DPi-V.R. fourth on the grid, while José Gutierrez will start fifth in the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier.
In GT Le Mans, Finnish racer Toni Vilander put the Risi Competizione Ferrari on pole with a lap of 81.914 seconds (98.357 mph). Vilander’s lap was nearly a quarter of a second faster than Ford Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dirk Müller. BMW Team RLL’s John Edwards will start third in class, followed by teammate Alexander Sims. Müller, Edwards and Sims were separated by a mere 22-thousandths of a second. Ryan Briscoe will start fifth in the No. 67 Ford GT.
GT Daytona saw a number of drivers take turns at the top of the charts. Once the 15 minute session was completed, it was Paul Miller Racing’s Madison Snow who claimed the class pole with a lap of 84.469 seconds (95.382 mph). That lap was a quarter of a second faster than Alegra Motorsports’ Patrick Long in the No. 28 Porsche.
Park Place Motorsports’ Patrick Lindsey will start third in GT Daytona in his Porsche, followed by Jens Klingmann in the Turner Motorsport BMW. 3GT Racing’s Sage Karam will start fifth.
Starting Lineup for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship America’s Tire 250
The America’s Tire 250 is scheduled to go green shortly after 5 p.m. EDT Sunday afternoon. Live coverage of the race can be found on FOX Sports 1.
About the author
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.
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