Date: May 30, 2014
Event: Chevrolet Sports Car Classic (Round 5 of 11)
Series: Prototype division of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship
Location: The Raceway at Belle Isle in Detroit (2.35-mile, 13-turn temporary street circuit)
Pole Winner: Richard Westbrook of Spirit of Daytona Racing (1:25.011 at 99.517 mph)
Wayne Taylor Racing: 5th by Jordan Taylor (1:25.586 at 98.848 mph)
The No. 10 Konica Minolta Chevrolet Corvette Dallara Daytona Prototype for Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) will start Saturday’s Tudor United SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Sports Car Classic from the inside of the third row after qualifying Friday at The Raceway at Belle Isle in downtown Detroit.
Jordan Taylor, who qualified on the pole here last year and co-drove to a dominating victory with Max “The Ax” Angelelli en route to the final GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series driver championship, turned a fast qualifying lap of 1 minute, 25.586 seconds (98.848 mph) around the 2.35-mile, 13-turn temporary street circuit. It was good for fifth among 32 Prototypes and GT Daytona-class entries set to take the green flag for Saturday’s one-hour, 40-minute race.
“It was frustrating,” said the 23-year-old Taylor, co-driving with his 24-year-old brother Ricky Taylor as he has been all season. “I touched the wall at some point during the session and I don’t think the car was the same after that. As the times were dropping, I wasn’t able to go any quicker because of the damage, I believe. It was probably my fault at the end of the day but, hopefully, we’ll have a good one tomorrow. We seem to have a really good racecar with what we were able to get done in practice, but starting fifth is not great because it’s really all about track position here. We’ve got the best pit crew in the business, so hopefully we can put it all together and bring home another win here.”
The top-five qualifiers for Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Belle Isle are:
1. Spirit of Daytona Racing (No. 90 Corvette DP) with Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante (1:25.011 at 99.517 mph).
2. Extreme Speed Motorsports (No. 1 HPD ARX-03b) with Ryan Dalziel and Scott Sharp (1:25.029 at 99.495 mph).
3. Action Express Racing (No. 5 Corvette DP) with Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa (1:25.139 at 99.367 mph).
4. OAK Racing (No. 42 Nissan Morgan) with Olivier Pla and Gustavo Yacaman (1:25.555 at 98.884 mph).
5. Wayne Taylor Racing (No. 10 Corvette DP) with Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor (1:25.586 at 98.848 mph).
Race time is 12:10 p.m. EDT Saturday with the delayed television broadcast provided by FOX Sports 1 beginning at 1:30. Live streaming video will be provided by IMSA.com beginning with a prerace show at 11:30 a.m. Live radio by the Motor Racing Network (MRN) will be streamed at IMSA.com, and MRNRadio.com, as well as select MRN affiliates beginning at noon. Check local listings. Live timing and scoring during all on-track sessions can be found at IMSA.com and via the IMSA smartphone app.
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