DETROIT - Polesitters for Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic were determined conventionally in two of the three classes, but not in the primary Prototype class.
Quick reports are below.
PROTOTYPE
The No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R team faces an uphill battle tonight that the Wayne Taylor Racing team was not expecting.
Ricky Taylor set what was the fastest time of the session at a 1:24.530, but lost control of the car through Turn 4, smashing into the concrete barrier on the outside.
It leaves Taylor and brother Jordan Taylor now stuck starting 12th and last among the combined prototype cars (Prototype and Prototype Challenge cars), because they caused a red flag.
The situation was made a bit more complicated because the Taylors, on the heels of four straight wins to open 2017, lead the points. With the grid determined “by other means” as the Taylor crash brought out a red flag because it didn’t complete the minimum 10 minutes of required green flag time, the field would be set by points. But because the Taylors brought out the red, that meant they lost their fastest lap.
It leaves the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac on pole for Saturday’s race, for the car driven by Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi.
The No. 90 VISIT FLORIDA Racing Riley Mk. 30 Gibson was unlucky by the red flag timing. Renger van der Zande had what would have been the leftover top time of 1:24.693. He shares that car with Marc Goossens.
GT DAYTONA
Lawson Aschenbach has extended the streak of different drivers, teams and manufacturers to win a pole in GT Daytona this year.
After Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG, Lamborghini and Porsche had scored poles in the first four races this year, the Audi R8 LMS now has its first pole of the year courtesy of “Awesome Lawson,” in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Audi.
Aschenbach’s best lap was a 1:30.200, with a big gap of 0.341 to Katherine Legge, who did well to shoot up into the best starting position yet in IMSA for the No. 93 Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3.
Give the man a round of applause! Congrats @lawsonaracing on putting the @stevensonmotor Audi on the pole! His 1st career WTSC pole!! pic.twitter.com/op19tLF5LA
— Continental Tire (@continentaltire) June 2, 2017
Aschenbach shares his car with Andrew Davis and Legge will share her’s with Andy Lally on Saturday.
Two Lamborghini Huracán GT3s from Paul Miller Racing and Change Racing were next, with Lexus getting into the top five on home soil for the 3GT Racing team, not far from the team’s Lansing headquarters.
With the top Porsche in sixth, Ferrari in seventh and Mercedes-AMG in ninth, there were seven different manufacturers in the top nine.
PROTOTYPE CHALLENGE
James French has scored his third pole of the season as Performance Tech Motorsports looks for its fourth win in as many races to kick off the season.
Tip of the hat to @FrenchRacing38 & the @Perf_Tech team on their pole award @detroitgp! pic.twitter.com/edv9RyRUkL
— Continental Tire (@continentaltire) June 2, 2017
With young full pro-in-waiting French qualifying against the two gentlemen drivers for BAR1 Motorsports in Tomy Drissi and Don Yount, it was never really going to be a fair fight.
French’s best time of 1:28.494 in the No. 38 Oreca FLM09 was clear of the other two by 4.672 and 6.474 seconds, respectively.