BOWMANVILLE, Ontario (July 6, 2016) – It’s back to sprint race mode for brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor and the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP team for Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) at Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario.
 
They left Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International scratching their heads a bit after their strong qualifying effort and trouble-free run during Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen endurance marathon netted no better than a fourth-place finish.
 
But, rest assured, they’re champing at the bit to return to the 2.459-mile, 10-turn road circuit that is the former home to the Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix and site of their second of two victories last season and a solid podium finish the year before.
 
On paper, last year’s thrilling victory in Bowmanville might appear to have been a dominating one as Ricky Taylor qualified on the pole and he and his brother combined to lead a hefty 35 of 128 laps around the lightning-fast circuit on race day.
 
While Taylor did spend the opening 28 laps of the race in the lead, the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP didn’t see the lead again until nine minutes remained in the two-hour, 40-minute event. That was when Jordan Taylor made a stellar pass of Dane Cameron in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Corvette DP and the two waged a tremendous battle, oftentimes through lapped traffic, all the way to the checkered flag. Taylor crossed the finish line .477 of a second ahead of Cameron to give WTR its second victory of the year to go with the one they scored on the seaside street circuit in Long Beach, California.
 
Added motivation for the WTR drivers and crew will be getting back atop the championship standings. After their second victory of this season on The Streets of Belle Isle near downtown Detroit, they arrived for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen tied for first with the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa. The latter pair drove to victory at The Glen last weekend and, coupled with the fourth-place finish by the Taylor brothers and veteran Italian Max “The Ax” Angelelli, dropped WTR to second in the standings, seven points back.
 
Safe to say, the fast and furious pace at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park will make for yet another thrilling Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix, and the Taylor brothers hope to be the ones hoisting the victory trophy for the second year in a row.
 
Practice for Sunday’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix begins Friday morning with Prototype-class qualifying set for 4:55 p.m. EDT Saturday with live video provided by IMSA.tv. The green flag flies at 11:05 a.m. Sunday for the two-hour, 40-minute race with FS1 providing live television coverage beginning at 11 a.m. Live timing and scoring during all on-track sessions is available at IMSA.com and the IMSA smartphone app.
 
RICKY TAYLOR, driver, No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP for Wayne Taylor Racing:

Your overall thoughts as we head to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for this weekend’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix?
 
“Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is always a great race. We always look forward to going to the old-school tracks like The Glen and Mosport, where we get to showcase what the cars can do with all of the new aero updates from recent years. It’s going to be a high-pressure weekend with all four classes being there, as well as the tight championship fight. We will have to execute well and not make any mistakes. Having all of the classes will put a premium on not making mistakes in traffic while not losing any time to the GTD cars.”
 
What is your recollection of last year’s thrilling victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park?
 
“It was a weird day but a great day, obviously. We started on the pole and everything was going smoothly. And then I started having some serious power-steering issues. But the guys never gave up and, somehow, the power steering fixed itself. Jordan just kept his head down and picked people off as they started having issues of their own. And, somehow we ended up leading the race with five minutes to go. I still don’t know how it happened, but it was extra special with all the Konica Minolta and DLL guests we had then, just like we will have this weekend. It was a good day and I hope we can recreate the magic.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, driver, No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP for Wayne Taylor Racing:
 
Your overall thoughts as we head to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for this weekend’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix?
“It’s good to be heading back to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in contention of the championship. Last year, we’ve headed there a bit back in the points, but this year we’re still right in the hunt. We’ve always had strong results there, with a third place two years ago and a win last year. Our car has been good all year and the guys in the pits have been flawless with both strategy and pit stops. We’re back to a sprint race that will have more than one stop, so I think that can cater to our team’s strengths. We had strong pace in 2014 and good strategy in 2015, so hopefully we can combine those two this year and come away with a good result.”
 
What adjustments do you have to make to go from six hours at Watkins Glen to essentially a sprint race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park?

“Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is an awesome place – a very high-speed, old-school track that’s really challenging and rewarding for the driver. We didn’t expect to win last year’s race because we didn’t have the fastest car. We ran our own race and we didn’t have any problems. Hopefully, we’ll be a little faster this year. It’s an intense race, and track position is important, so I think qualifying will be one of the keys to winning this race.”
 
WAYNE TAYLOR, owner, No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP for Wayne Taylor Racing:
 
No rest for the weary between the summer’s longest race last weekend and this weekend’s trip to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, where you won last year. Your thoughts?
 
“We’re looking forward to heading back to Mosport. We’ll have a lot going on with our sponsor Konica Minolta and that always makes us feel good. Because of that, and the fact we won there last year and finished on the podium the year before, we’re quite motivated to get back there. We won there last year even though we didn’t have the fastest car. The same thing happened at Detroit, where we won even though we didn’t have the fastest car. We thought we would come out of Watkins Glen with a better finish than we did, especially after qualifying, but it is what it is and we move on to Mosport. The guys have been doing everything they can, obviously, to make sure everything is right for this weekend. I’m really looking forward to it. We lost a little ground in the championship, but there are still four races to go at tracks we are good at and lot of things can happen, as we’ve seen thus far. There are not a lot of cars, so gaining a lot of points at any one race is more difficult, unless somebody has issues. We’ll just go into this weekend just like we will every weekend, and that is with the mindset of trying to win the race.”