America's Tire 250 at Laguna Seca Qualifying Report

Date: Sept. 23, 2017
Event: America’s Tire 250 (Round 9 of 10)
Series: Prototype division of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
Location: Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California (2.238-mile, 11-turn road course)
Result: 1st by Ricky Taylor (1:16.853 at 104.833 mph – track record)

The No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R will start Sunday’s America’s Tire 250 from the pole for the third race in a row and the fifth time this season after IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying Saturday at Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey, California.

Ricky Taylor, who with younger brother Jordan Taylor head into Sunday’s penultimate race of the season with a 26-point lead in the championship, turned a track-record lap of 1 minute, 16.853 seconds at 104.833 mph around the scenic 2.238-mile, 11-turn hillside road course for his 18th career pole, his fourth at Laguna Seca, and the 28th in team history. He will take the green flag at the front of the field of 33 car-and-driver combinations for Sunday’s two-hour, 40-minute race.

“We’ve got a lot of fast cars here at Laguna Seca, but I think this Konica Minolta Cadillac is really strong this weekend,” said Taylor, who also scored the 2011 and 2015 Laguna Seca poles with this team and the 2013 Laguna Seca pole with the team now known as VisitFlorida Racing. “The guys have done a lot of work since Road America. That’s what I love about all our Konica Minolta guys – they keep looking for more speed and they keep finding it and it makes my brother Jordan’s and my job so much easier to go out there and execute, takes a lot of the pressure off. At the same time, we see how hard they work. Tomorrow is going to be really important for the points, as well. We need to make sure we keep our noses clean and get through safely, but we want to win more than anything and we just want to go to Petit (Le Mans) with another win under our belts and we’ll want another win there, as well.”

The top-five qualifiers for Sunday’s America’s Tire 250 at Laguna Seca are:

1. Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R (No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R) with Ricky Taylor and Jordan Taylor (1:53.058 at 104.833 mph)

2. Action Express Racing (No. 5 Cadillac DPi-V.R) with Christian Fittipald and Joao Barbosa (1:17.682 at 103.715 mph)

3. VisitFlorida Racing (No. 90 Ligier LMP2) with Marc Goosens and Renger Van Der Zande (1:17.730 at 103.651 mph)

4. Action Express Racing (No. 31 Cadillac DPi-V.R) with Eric Curran and Dane Cameron (1:17.809 at 103.545 mph)

5. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports (No. 52 Ligier LMP2) with Jose Gutierrez and Olivier Pla (1:17.822 at 103.528 mph)

The green flag flies at 5:05 p.m. EDT Sunday with live television coverage provided by FS1 beginning at 5 p.m.