Tough Sixth-Place Finish at Belle Isle for Taylors

A third consecutive Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) victory in the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race on The Streets of Belle Isle near downtown Detroit just wasn’t in the cards Saturday for brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor and the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP for WTR.

A fourth consecutive top-two finish this season, however, was certainly looking like an eventuality in the final hour of today’s one-hour, 40-minute sprint race around the 2.36-mile, 13-turn temporary street circuit as recently turned 24-year-old Jordan Taylor grabbed the lead with a spectacular restart with 46 minutes to go.

Taylor, admittedly without the fastest racecar on this day, led just eight laps before Dane Cameron in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Corvette DP slipped past with 27 minutes remaining. Taylor continued in second place as final minutes approached and faced no serious threats from behind.

But that fourth consecutive top-two finish wasn’t in the cards, either, as it turned out. While following Cameron through GT-class traffic with 15 minutes remaining, Taylor was making his way inside the No. 63 Ferrari of Townsend Bell, and the two made contact at the apex of a right-hand corner. Bell’s Ferrari hit the wall before limping back to the pits, where it was retired, and Taylor was subsequently penalized for avoidable contact. He served a drive-through penalty with nine minutes to go that dropped him from second to seventh, and he was only able to make up one position before the checkered flag flew.

“It was a tough race,” said Taylor, who restarted third with 46 minutes remaining but found his way past second-place Richard Westbrook in the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP and race leader Joao Barbosa in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP. “We were struggling a bit for pace but we got a good restart when I got in the car. We led for a little bit, but I knew the other guys were strong and were coming aggressively. The 31 (Cameron) went by, and then I was catching him in traffic and got caught out by a GT car that, I don’t know if he didn’t see me, but I tried to back out and he just kept turning. I guess it was a mutual disagreement. A tough day for points, considering how much ground we were looking like we were going to make up. We only dropped one point to the leaders, but it could’ve been a lot better.”

The No. 5 Corvette of Barbosa and this weekend’s polesitter Christian Fittipaldi, who led the first 32 laps of today’s 59 laps contested, leaves Detroit tied atop the Prototype-class standings with the No. 90 Corvette of Westbrook and Michael Valiante. The No. 5 finished third today after a late-race spin dropped Barbosa from second to third, and the No. 90 finished fifth today after Westbrook spun early in his finishing stint. The No. 31 Action Express Corvette of Cameron and Eric Curran, who scored their first career Prototype-class victories today, leapfrogged past the WTR Corvette into third place in the championship, eight points back, while the WTR Corvette is in fourth place, 12 points back, with five races remaining.

“We didn’t have the fastest car today, but our guys never gave up,” said Ricky Taylor, who drove the opening stint after earning the team’s third consecutive front-row qualifying position Friday. “We were fighting hard and did our jobs, working as hard as we could. The guys made a great pit stop. We passed a car in the pits. That was basically the race – that, and when Jordan made a great restart that gave us the lead, temporarily. As I said, we didn’t have quite the fastest car today. We were looking good for a podium finish but, unfortunately, the drive-through penalty kind of sealed the deal. It wasn’t a terrible day for the championship, so we’ll just move on to the next one and see if we can make up this deficit over the last half of the season.”

“I think Ricky and Jordan said about all there is to say about everything that went on in the race today,” team owner Wayne Taylor said. “All I can really add is that I’m thoroughly disappointed in the penalty that cost us a solid podium finish and a chance to make up a good bit of ground in the championship. Ricky and Jordan and the team did their usual, exceptional job in every aspect of the race, today. We may not have had a winning car, but we most certainly did not have a sixth-place car. That’s unfortunate, but we must accept it and move on to Watkins Glen.”

Round six of the 2015 Tudor Championship will be the annual Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International on Sunday, June 28. FOX Sports 1 will provide television coverage of the first four hours of the endurance marathon beginning at 10 a.m. EDT while FOX Sports 2 will air the remainder of the race and post-race festivities beginning at 2 p.m.

Contact:

Laz.Denes@TrueSpeedCommunication.com

#tusc #WayneTaylorRacing