Date: April 30, 2016
Event: Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix (Round 4 of 10)
Series: Prototype division of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
Location: Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey, California (2.238-mile, 11-turn road course)
Pole Winner: Tristan Nunez of Mazda Motorsports (1:18.143 at 103.103 mph)
Wayne Taylor Racing: 4th by Ricky Taylor (1:19.119 at 101.831 mph)
 
The No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP for Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) will start Sunday’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix from the outside of the second row after IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying late Saturday afternoon Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey, California.
 
Ricky Taylor, who with his brother and co-driver Jordan Taylor scored a dominating victory two weekends ago on the Grand Prix of Long Beach (California) seaside street course for the second year in a row, turned a fast qualifying lap today of 1 minute, 19.119 seconds at 101.831 mph on the iconic 2.238-mile, 11-turn Laguna Seca hillside road course. It was good for fourth overall among 18 car-and-driver combinations that will take the green flag Sunday for the two-hour race featuring Prototype- and GTLM-class competitors.
 
“It was a good session – I think we’re in a good situation because the other teams started their fastest drivers to try to get track position and we’re pretty even as far as drivers go, so they’re going to slow down during the race and we should stay pretty steady,” said Ricky Taylor, who qualified on the pole here in the No. 10 WTR prototype in 2011. “Our car is good. We’re just struggling with little issues here and there. I made a little mistake on one of my best laps. Maybe we had third but definitely nothing for the front row. We’re going to make some changes for the race. Those, I’m confident, will improve our car over the long runs. I think we just need to be aggressive as far as track position, make some spots in the beginning, have two good pit stops and hold off the other Corvettes because we’re really not racing the Mazdas – we’ll just have to see where they come out and get all the points we can.”
 
The top-five qualifiers for Sunday’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca are:
 
1. Mazda Motorsports (No. 55 Mazda) with Tristan Nunez and Jonathan Bomarito (1:18.143 at 103.103 mph)
 
2. Mazda Motorsports (No. 70 Mazda) with Tom Long and Joel Miller (1:15.641 at 102.793 mph)
 
3. Action Express Racing (No. 31 Corvette DP) with Dane Cameron and Eric Curran (1:15.741 at 101.892 mph)
 
4. Wayne Taylor Racing (No. 10 Corvette DP) with Ricky Taylor and Jordan Taylor (1:15.133 at 101.831 mph)
 
5. Action Express Racing (No. 5 Corvette DP) with Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa (1:14.962 at 101.709 mph)
 
Race time is 2:15 p.m. EDT Sunday with a live television broadcast on FS1 beginning at 2 p.m. Live timing and scoring during all on-track sessions is available at IMSA.com and the IMSA smartphone app.
 
 
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. is a leader in information management focused on enterprise content, technology optimization and cloud services. Our solutions help organizations improve their speed to market, manage technology costs, and facilitate the sharing of information to increase productivity. Clients trust Konica Minolta to help them envision how they can achieve their goals and deliver innovative solutions to give shape to their ideas. Konica Minolta has won numerous awards and recognition, including placement in the Leaders Quadrant of the 2014 Magic Quadrant for Managed Print Services (MPS) and Managed Content Services (MCS). The company has also been recognized as the#1 Brand for Customer Loyaltyin the MFP Office Copier Market by Brand Keys for seven consecutive years, and “A3 MFP Line of the Year” award winner from Buyers Laboratory LLC for an unprecedented four consecutive years. In 2012, Konica Minolta received “Document Imaging Solutions Line of the Year” recognition from BLI. Konica Minolta, Inc. has also been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for two years in a row. For more information, please visit www.CountOnKonicaMinolta.com and follow Konica Minolta on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Konica Minolta, as title sponsor, highlights Wayne Taylor Racing’s existing lineup of partners featuring Chevy Racing, Siemens PLM Software, Dallara Automobili, and OMP America.