Ricky Taylor Leads Qualifying At Canadian Tire Motorsport Park In Corvette, Becomes First Two-Time T

Ricky Taylor set a fast time early in Saturday’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship qualifying at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

He then waited as the competition took repeated attempts to better his lap of 1:09.705 (126.998 mph) – which turned out to be good enough to claim the TOTAL Pole Award for Sunday’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix presented by Hawk Performance.

Taylor became the first two-time Prototype pole winner of the season, and joined his brother Jordan in giving the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP its third TOTAL Pole Award of 2015. Ricky Taylor also earned the pole position for the Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach in April.

Fittipaldi came up 0.159 seconds short of the pole after a best lap of 1:09.864 (126.709 mph) in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP co-driven by Joao Barbosa for Action Express Racing. After leading the early portion of the session, Scott Pruett wound up third on the grid in the No. 01 Ford EcoBoost/Riley with a best lap of 1:10.138 (126.214 mph). Pruett will co-drive the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates entry with Joey Hand.

Vancouver, British Columbia racer Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook enter the event as this season’s lone two-time Prototype winners, and carry a five-point lead over Fittipaldi and Barbosa in the standings, 192-187 into Sunday’s race. Valiante qualified fourth in the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP with a time of 1:10.399 (125.746 mph).

Eric Curran completed the top five in Prototype qualifying, posting a best time of 1:10.508 (125.552 mph) in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP he shares with co-driver Dane Cameron.

Late Lap Give French Second Consecutive PC Pole

Fighting hard to get the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA FLM09 up near the front, James French was surprised to hear his engineer tell him to slow down.

But engineer, Ryan McCarthy, had a good reason. He wanted French to create enough of a gap that he would be able to put together a flying lap without encountering traffic.

On his final lap, French posted a time of 1:12.667 (121.821 mph) to claim his second consecutive TOTAL Pole Award. It was similar to his performance at Detroit, where he won the pole on his final lap of the 15-minute session.

Canadian Chris Cumming led comfortably throughout qualifying in a bid for a second pole of the season. He turned in a best lap of 1:12.699 (121.768 mph) in the No. 11 RSR Racing ORECA FLM09 co-driven by Bruno Junqueira, and seemed poised for a pole on home soil before the late flyer by French.

The top contenders for the PC championship will start on the second row. Jon Bennett, who holds a one-point lead along with CORE autosport co-driver Colin Braun, qualified third with a lap of 1:13.007 (121.254 mph) in the No. 54 Flex-Box/Composite Resources entry. Mike Guasch, a two-time 2015 race winner with Tom Kimber-Smith in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Cuttwood ORECA, was fourth with a lap of 1:13.022 (121.229 mph).

Fifth on the PC grid went to Vancouver’s Mikhail Goikhberg with a lap of 1:13.169 (120.986 mph) in the No. 85 UndergroundCellular.com machine. Goikhberg’s co-driver with JDC/Miller Motorsports is Matt McMurry.

NOTES:

• After leading two of the three practice sessions prior to the qualifying, Michael Shank Racing’s No. 60 AERO Honda HPD/Ligier JS P2 will start sixth in the hands of John Pew after a qualifying lap of 1:10.725 (125.166 mph). Pew spent a majority of the qualifying session inside the top-five positions before getting nipped late.

• Renger van der Zande and Starworks Motorsport are seeking their third consecutive PC victory with the No. 8 Martini ORECA FLM09. The car was qualified seventh by co-driver Mirco Schultis with a lap of 1:14.458 (118.891 mph).

Ricky Taylor, Driver – No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP: “Qualifying has been really competitive this year, and I heard before this weekend that we hadn’t had a repeat pole winner. I wanted to be the first, and we wanted to rebound as well as we could after Watkins Glen (where they finished sixth). Our car has been strong all weekend, especially in race trim. We short-filled the car for qualifying, so I could only do eight or nine laps. Then I sat outside the car and watched. Christian Fittipaldi kept getting closer and closer, but my lap turned out to be fast enough.”

Christian Fittipaldi, Driver – No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP: “We were aiming for the pole, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. Hats off to the No. 10 guys – they did an excellent job. Still, it was a good run and I’m happy to be starting on the front row. Now we have a huge race ahead of us, and we want to capitalize as much as we can on the points.”

James French, No. 38 Ric-Man Construction/GO-PUCK/Braille Batteries ORECA FLM09: “It was strange hearing (engineer) Ryan (McCarthy) tell me to back off, back off. But that gave me a good enough gap, my tires came in at just the right time, and I was able to put it together for the pole. Up until that point, I was battling traffic – I just couldn’t seem to find a gap.”

Sunday’s on-track activity opens with a 20-minute warm-up session at 8 a.m. ET. The Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix presented by Hawk Performance will be televised live in the U.S. on FOX Sports 1 beginning at 12 p.m. ET. Live television coverage in Canada is available on FOX Sports Racing, with live worldwide coverage available through IMSA.com and the IMSA mobile app.

Contact:

nsiebens@imsa.com

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