The No. 10 SunTrust Corvette Dallara DP of Wayne Taylor Racing will start Saturday’s GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Continental Tire 200 at The Glen from the pole after qualifying Friday afternoon at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
Ricky Taylor, the newly turned 23-year-old who with SunTrust Racing co-driver Max Angelelli swept last year’s Sahlen’s six-hour event and the August sprint race at Watkins Glen, both from the pole, turned a fast lap of 1 minute, 6.039 seconds (133.557 mph) around the 2.45-mile, 11-turn NASCAR short course, fastest among 25 car-and-driver combinations that will take the green flag for Saturday’s annual August sprint race.
“I think we have good cars here every time – every race we feel like we have a winning car,” said Taylor, who qualified on the pole at both Watkins Glen races in 2011 while Angelelli qualified the SunTrust car fourth at this year’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in June. “At this year’s six-hour, we had a little misfortune in the race. But we’ve had such good cars here on a regular basis, and the car once again in qualifying today was really good. We came here off a good Continental Tire test a few weeks ago that kind of set the stage for us coming here and unloading well. That was important for today because we ended up having no dry practice before qualifying. For me, as a driver, it was nice to have that confidence about brake zones and everything. I thank the team for giving me such a good car.”
It was Taylor’s second pole of the season to go with his fast qualifying effort in May at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, and it was the 10th Rolex Series pole of his career. Last year’s victory here by Taylor and Angelelli was the fastest race in Rolex Series history at an average speed of 122.308 mph from start to finish. Taylor and Angelelli combined to lead 77 of the 100 race laps.
Source : SunTrust Racing