Taylor Brothers Are Kings of ‘The Beach’

Score another dominating win from the pole for co-driving brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor, who for the second consecutive year took charge of the race from the drop of the green flag and never looked back in winning Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Bubba Burger Grand Prix of Long Beach in their No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP for Wayne Taylor Racing.

It was the second consecutive victory for the Taylor brothers on the legendary 1.968-mile, 11-turn Grand Prix of Long Beach (Calif.) seaside street circuit and their third consecutive top-two finish since unveiling Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. as primary sponsor of their sleek, black Daytona Prototype at this very event in 2014.

And, eerily similar to last year’s dominating run, today’s boxscore shows a race-high 72 of 75 race laps led for the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP as it rebounded from a thoroughly disappointing 11th-place finish at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring thanks to electronic issues and jumped from fifth to third in this year’s championship, now just four points out of the lead.

“I don’t know, ever since Konica Minolta has been with us, this race has been very good to us,” said Ricky Taylor, who with his brother Jordan led a 1-2-3 finish by Corvette DPs. “It was here three races ago that we announced they joined the team, and we always perform really well. The guys give us an awesome car. It was a Corvette DP 1-2-3, which is very special. We couldn’t be happier. Jordan did an awesome job. Everybody was fantastic.”

Identical to last year, Ricky Taylor led the opening 37 laps of today’s 100-minute timed race before handing the car over to his brother. But unlike last year, when he qualified on the pole, he did it with a smooth move from his No. 2 starting position entering turn one, where he ducked underneath polesitter Christian Fittipaldi in the eventual second-place-finishing No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP. He successfully navigated through traffic and held off Fittipaldi for his entire 48-minute opening stint.

“I was devastated after messing up in qualifying because I know how nice it is to start on pole at Long Beach because track position is so important,” Taylor said. “I was thinking about the start all night and, a 4 o’clock race start gave me all day to think about it. I had every situation planned in my head except for that exact one where he accelerated right out of (turn) 11 and was a bit early, I thought. We were a bit trimmed out, so I was able to stay close, and it’s actually easier sometimes to be second because you’re not the first one feeling the new grip, so I had a little bit of an advantage just being able to attack. He didn’t give me a whole lot of room, but that’s racing. It’s good stuff.”

A lightning-fast 25.5-second pit stop for driver change, tires and fuel enabled Jordan Taylor to re-assume first place once the remaining lead-lap cars completed their round of pit stops three laps later. He held off second-place Joao Barbosa now in the No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP, and the third-place No. 31 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Eric Curran and Dane Cameron for the final 35 laps and crossed the finish line 2.958 seconds ahead of Barbosa for the team’s first win since last August at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario.

“The 5 was on me pretty much from the get-go when I got in the car and was putting a lot of pressure on,” said Taylor, who methodically held off the field on the race’s only restart with 21 minutes to go. “When the yellow came, I really didn’t know what to expect on cold tires but, once we got going, I saw the 31 was behind the 5 and that kind of helped take his focus off me a little bit and he was probably having to look both front and rear. I was able to pull a little bit of a gap thanks to the 31 and kind of maintained that until the end of the race. Thankfully, we didn’t catch too much traffic in the last 10 to 15 laps and we were basically able to hold our pace and get to the end.”

The victory was the 12th major North American sports car championship victory for both Taylor brothers, and it was one that made their father and team owner, three-time sports-car-racing champion Wayne Taylor, a very happy man.

“First of all, yesterday was so disappointing for Ricky and it was really rough,” Taylor said. “Last night was a rough, rough night because he thought he should have had the pole and he made a slight mistake. You know, what those two boys do is something that’s unbelievable. And to have a team that supports us like this – Konica Minolta, Chevrolet – there’s so much focus on this team and it’s become a matter of there’s nothing but winning, anymore. And I’m just so ecstatic and so relieved for everybody.”

Next up on the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule is the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey, California on Sunday, May 1. Live race coverage begins at 2 p.m. EDT on FS1.

Contact:

Laz.Denes@TrueSpeedCommunication.com

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