Indeed, Ricky Taylor rocketed his way to a Road America pole for IMSA’s next race.
Taylor Rockets His Way to Road America Pole for Acura Team Penske
Acura Team Penske, thanks to Ricky Taylor, locked out the front row for Sunday’s Road Race Showcase at Road America.
Markedly, Ricky Taylor, in the No. 7, set the fastest overall lap during Saturday’s Motul Pole Award qualifying session. In fact, Taylor logged a 1:49.061-minute lap around the 4.048-mile course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Joining Taylor on the front row is Dane Cameron, his Acura Daytona Prototype International (DPi) teammate in the No. 6 Acura DPi. In this case, Cameron laid down a 1:49.379-minute lap during the 15-minute session.
Altogether, the second row consists of the Mazda Motorsports duo with Harry Tincknell and Tristan Nunez in the Nos. 55 and 77 entries. Tincknell’s lap was half a second off Taylor’s flying lap with a time of 1:49.607. However, Nunez found himself a second off the pole position with a time of 1:50.120.
Cadillac Cadence
All in all, the Cadillac teams occupy the final two rows in the DPi class. Still, Cadillac reigned victorious in two of the three races so far this season in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Certainly, Wayne Taylor Racing, this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona winner, led the way for Cadillac. Moreover, Ryan Briscoe logged a 1:50.216-minute lap around America’s “National Park of Speed”.
Joao Barbosa, Sebastien Bourdais, and the Mustang Sampling JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac starts sixth after Barbosa set a 1:50.742-minute lap.
Moreover, Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani won the most recent race in the WeatherTech Championship. Conversely, they’ll share the final row for Sunday’s two-hour, 40-minute race after Nasr paced a 1:51.391-minute lap.
Unfortunately, their No. 31 Whelen Engineering Action Express Cadillac ended the 15-minute session early.
Namely, Nasr locked up his brakes entering the course’s third turn. The Cadillac was trapped in the sand trap. Consequently, IMSA was unable to resume the session on time. Ultimately, Nasr’s fastest lap was eliminated by race control for causing the red flag.
Meanwhile, Chris Miller qualified the JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac last on the DPi grid with a 1:51.681-minute lap, an entire 2.6-seconds behind the fastest Acura.
Sunday’s Road Race Showcase during IMSA’s SportsCar Weekend kicks off on Sunday at noon EST (11 AM CT) on NBC, the NBC Sports App, and TrackPass.
