Date: Sept. 16, 2016
Event: Lone Star Le Mans (Round 9 of 10)
Series: Prototype division of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
Location: Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas (3.4-mile, 20-turn road course)
Pole Winner: Ricky Taylor of Wayne Taylor Racing (1:58.712 at 103.1 mph)
Wayne Taylor Racing: 1st by Ricky Taylor (1:58.712 at 125.9 mph)

The No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP for Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) will start Saturday’s Lone Star Le Mans on the pole after IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying Friday afternoon at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Ricky Taylor, who’s co-driving with his brother Jordan Taylor and is also taking part in Saturday night’s six-hour FIA World Endurance Championship race with the French No. 50 Larbre Competition LMGT-AM-class Corvette C7.R team, drove a fast lap of 1 minute, 58.712 seconds at 103.1 mph around the 3.4-mile, 20-turn layout that is home to the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix. It was the first pole of the season for the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP and the 13th career pole for Taylor thanks to the fastest lap overall among 44 car-and-driver combinations that will take the green flag for Saturday’s two-hour, 40-minute race.

“The track is very slippery in the heat – it changes a lot,” said Ricky Taylor, who earned two pole positions last season – on the streets of Long Beach, California in April and at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario in July. “It hasn’t been like this at all this weekend, so it was all about adapting to the track. You can overdrive some places and underdrive others trying to put together a lap. Hopefully, we have a good read on tomorrow and we’ll be on full attack. The heat is always a big factor here. These racecars are very hot inside. Physically, as well as performance-wise with the racecar, it’s hard on everything – tires, fuel, engine, everything. Hopefully, it’s a good representation of what we will see tomorrow with the pace. It will be all about conserving tires and making sure you’re in the hunt at the end. The Continental tires were really good. This is as close as we’re going to get to tomorrow in terms of the conditions. Hopefully, this is a good read on how we will stack up. It will be a tough race on tire wear and getting through the race cleanly.”

The top-five qualifiers for Saturday’s Lone Star Le Mans are:

1. Wayne Taylor Racing (No. 10 Corvette DP) with Ricky Taylor and Jordan Taylor (1:58.712 at 103.1 mph)

2. Mazda Motorsports (No. 55 Mazda) with Tristan Nunez and Jonathan Bomarito (1:58.715 at 103.1 mph)

3. Mazda Motorsports (No. 70 Mazda) with Tom Long and Joel Miller (1:59.120 at 102.7 mph)

4. Action Express Racing (No. 31 Corvette DP) with Eric Curran and Dane Cameron (1:59.199 at 102.6 mph)

5. Action Express Racing (No. 5 Corvette DP) with Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa (1:5.421 at 102.4 mph)

The green flag flies at 12:35 p.m. EDT Saturday with live television provided by 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.