Date: June 3, 2016
Event: Chevrolet Sports Car Classic (Round 5 of 10)
Series: Prototype division of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
Location: The Streets of Belle Isle in Detroit (2.36-mile, 13-turn road course)
Pole Winner: Christian Fittipaldi of Action Express Racing (1:23.815 at 100.9 mph)
Wayne Taylor Racing: 3rd by Ricky Taylor (1:24.253 at 100.4 mph)
 
The No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP for Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) will start Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic from the inside of the second row after IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying late Friday afternoon on The Streets of Belle Isle in Detroit.
 
Ricky Taylor, who with his brother and co-driver Jordan Taylor are looking to score the team’s third victory here in the last four seasons and the team’s fifth in its last seven races on temporary street courses, turned a fast qualifying lap today of 1 minute, 24.253 seconds at 100.4 mph on the 2.36-mile, 13-turn circuit located just a stone’s throw from the worldwide headquarters of partner Chevrolet. It was good for third overall among 29 car-and-driver combinations that will take the green flag Saturday for the one-hour, 40-minute race featuring Prototype, PC and GT Daytona-class competitors.
 
“We tried lots of stuff in practice today to make the car better and we weren’t too far off, but then we threw a bunch of big things at it before qualifying,” said Ricky Taylor, who closed out WTR’s 2014 victory at Belle Isle with a dramatic, last-lap duel with Joao Barbosa of the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP team. “I think we might have gone a bit too far with it because it was definitely a handful. But the good thing is, we definitely have a good idea about what we have to do for the warmup tomorrow morning and then in the race. The qualifying session showed us the direction we now need to go in. We’ll combine our two cars (setups) from today and ideally we’ll end up with a great car for the race.”
 
The Taylor brothers co-drove to the team’s 2014 victory here while Jordan Taylor was joined by veteran Italian Max “The Ax” Angelelli in the No. 10 WTR Corvette DP for the 2013 victory. Ricky and Jordan Taylor finished sixth here last year after a late-race penalty for contact deemed avoidable while running in second place.
 
The top-five qualifiers for Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Belle Isle are:
 
1. Action Express Racing (No. 5 Corvette DP) with Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa (1:23.815 at 100.9 mph)
 
2. Spirit of Daytona Racing (No. 90 Corvette DP) with Marc Goosens and Ryan Dalziel (1:23.863 at 100.8 mph)
 
3. Wayne Taylor Racing (No. 10 Corvette DP) with Ricky Taylor and Jordan Taylor (1:24.253 at 100.4 mph)
 
4. Action Express Racing (No. 31 Corvette DP) with Dane Cameron and Eric Curran (1:24.337 at 100.3 mph)
 
5. Michael Shank Racing (No. 60 Honda HPD Ligier JS P2) with Oz Negri and Katherine Legge (1:25.195 at 99.3 mph)
 
Race time is 12:40 p.m. EDT Saturday with a live television broadcast on FS1 beginning at 12:30 p.m. Live timing and scoring during all on-track sessions is available at IMSA.com and the IMSA smartphone app.
 
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