Date: Oct. 2, 2015
Event: 18th annual Petit Le Mans (Round 10 of 10)
Series: Prototype division of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship
Location: Road Atlanta (2.54-mile, 12-turn road course)
Pole Winner: Richard Westbrook of Spirit of Daytona Racing (1:27.860 at 104.075 mph)
Wayne Taylor Racing: 4th by Ricky Taylor (1:30.621 at 100.904 mph)

The defending race-winning No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP for Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) will start Saturday’s 18th annual Petit Le Mans from the outside of the second row after a wet TUDOR United SportsCar Championship qualifying session Friday at Road Atlanta.

Ricky Taylor, who with his brother and full-time co-driver Jordan Taylor became the first Americans to win this race a year ago this weekend, clocked a fast lap Friday of 1 minute, 30.621 seconds at 100.904 mph on the 2.54-mile, 12-turn road course. It was good for fourth among 37 car-and-driver combinations that will take the green flag for Saturday’s 10-hour endurance race.

“It was good,” said Ricky Taylor, who in addition to his brother is also joined this weekend by veteran Italian Max “The Ax” Angelelli, who was part of the 2014 Petit Le Mans-winning effort, as well. “It seemed like there were two groups of cars – the ones who might have committed to the rain (setup) and those who were looking at sort of an in-between car. We were part of the latter. I’m sure we’ll have a good car in the race. We’ll have to see what the forecast looks like. It looks like it’s going to be wet for at least some of it, but you never know. You wouldn’t want to be stuck in the dry with a full rain car (setup). That’ll be the big gamble tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to see which way people go. But our car was good in the rain, it was comfortable to drive, and I’m confident for tomorrow that we will have a good performance.”

The top-five qualifiers for Saturday’s 18th annual Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta are:

1. Spirit of Daytona Racing (No. 90 Corvette DP) with Richard Westbrook, Michael Valiante, Mike Rockenfeller  (1:27.860 at 104.075 mph)

2. Action Express Racing (No. 5 Corvette DP) with Christian Fittipaldi, Joao Barbosa, Sebastien Bourdais (1:28.920 at 102.834 mph)

3. Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (No. 01 Ford Riley) with Joey Hand, Scott Pruett, Scott Dixon (1:29.627 at 102.023 mph)

4. Wayne Taylor Racing (No. 10 Corvette DP) with Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor, Max Angelelli (1:30.621 at 100.904 mph)

5. Action Express Racing (No. 31 Corvette DP) with Dane Cameron, Eric Curran, Max Papis (1:30.884 at 100.612 mph)

Race time is 11:10 a.m. EDT Saturday with FOX Sports 2 providing live television coverage in three segments – from 11 a.m. to noon, 2:30 to 7:30 p.m., and 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. The race will also be streamed live in its entirety via IMSA TV at IMSA.com. A three-hour highlight package will be broadcast by FS1 at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Live timing and scoring during all on-track sessions is available at IMSA.com and the IMSA smartphone app.

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