Ricky Taylor's track record wins COTA IMSA pole
Friday, 05 May 2017
By Marshall Pruett (words & images)
Ricky Taylor shattered the lap record for IMSA's Prototypes at Circuit of The Americas on Friday as the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R claimed its second pole of the year. Taylor's otherworldly lap of 1m54.809s was well out of reach by the rapidly improving No. 22 Nissan Onroak DPi driven by Tequila Patron ESM's Johannes van Overbeek (+1.592s), and Eric Curran in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R (+1.620s). Taylor's pole was exactly 3.0s faster than the record set in 2014 by the No. 42 OAK Racing Ligier JS P2-Honda.
"This feels so nice," said Taylor, who also claimed pole at last year's COTA race. "We knew we were good at COTA with our Corvette DP [in 2016] and had to start fresh with our Cadillac DPi-V.R. it was a very intense qualifying session."
The humble Floridian refused to take credit for the gaudy gap to the rest of the Prototype field.
"One point five seconds isn't the driver; it's the car," he insisted.
Compared to where the ESM team started with its Nissans at the beginning of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, the steady climb toward competitiveness was a welcome sign under the warm blue skies at COTA's 3.4-mile facility.
"It's really a testament to the Patron ESM team," van Overbeek said. "Our guys have kept continually making the car better."
Despite having just two cars to beat to pole, Performance Tech Motorsports' James French says he drove like a dozen PC cars were breathing down his neck on the way to earning the top starting spot with a rapid 2m00.066s lap around the 19-turn circuit. His best in the No. 38 ORECA FLM09-Chevrolet was well clear of the No. 26 BAR1 Motorsports Pc driven by a cramped Stefan Wilson (+2.960s) and Don Yount in the sister BAR1 car (+4.198s).
"To be honest, I tried 100 percent as hard as I would in qualifying," French said. "It was pretty good, the car was handling really well; it was a blast."
BMW's big twin-turbo V8 M6s ruled GT Le Mans qualifying. The welcome turn of fortunes for the factory BMW Team RLL entries, which have struggled for pace this year behind the comparatively tiny supercars that dominate the class, was led by John Edwards in the No. 24 BMW with a lap of 2m02.833s.
"I have to say it was a little bit of a surprise, Edwards said. "Things have been a bit more competitive at COTA than we were earlier this year. There it was on Lap 2, and that was it. It's starting to feel like the good old days of DTM and GTLM here."
Home state favorites Risi Competizione held pole with Giancarlo Fisichella in the No. 62 Ferrari 488 until Edwards threw down his amazing lap (+0.032s), and it looked like Ford would hold onto third until Alexander Sims in the No. 25 BMW M6 snatched the position on the final lap (+0.157s).
"P2, just less than 300ths behind pole position is impressive, but it's better to be on pole," Fisichella said. "Sad for the team and crew, but the most important things is the race."
The mighty little Alegra Motorsport team continued its season-long campaign to spoil the plans of the more established GT Daytona teams by securing pole position with the No. 28 Porsche 911 GT3R. France's Mathieu Jaminet, a relative unknown in the class, used his Porsche Supercup experience at COTA to record a 2m06.531s.
"The lap was really good, as well as the car," Jaminet said of his star performance on his first IMSA appearance. "Just an amazing job from the crew and very happy for my debut to be on pole position here. The team is really a family team; it feels like home."