Jordan Taylor set the fastest lap during qualifying for the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix to take his first pole position in the Tudor United Sportscar Championship.
Taylor, who is sharing the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype with his brother Ricky, set a 1:18.718s lap on the challenging 2.2 mile Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca.
“The best thing I think for us is that we have our qualifying car back. I think we were only in the top 3 one time last year,” Taylor told IMSA.com. “We were always good in the race but struggled in qualifying. It worked in Long Beach, it worked in Daytona, and it worked here.”
Chip Ganassi Racing will start second on the grid after Scott Pruett submitted a fastest lap of 1:18.940s in the #2 Felix Sabates backed Ford.
The #90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP of Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante will start from third, while the best of the P2 runners was the Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda of John Pew and Oswaldo Negri Jr, which qualified fourth.
In GTLM, Dirk Werner produced an unassailable 1:22.362s lap aboard the #24 Team RLL BMW Z4, becoming the 15th different GLTM pole winner since the United Sportscar Championship’s inception in 2014.
Werner will be joined on the front row by his German compatriot Lucas Luhr, who qualified the sister #25 BMW Z4 three tenths behind.
Pierre Kaffer will start third in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari, while Patrick Pilet (#911 Porsche 911 RSR) and Tommy Milner (#4 Corvette C7.R) round out the top five.
Werner heads the GTLM field (Photo courtesy of ISMA)
RSR Racing’s Chris Cumming left it late to steal pole position in the PC class. Cumming’s 1:22.565s lap at the end of the session eclipsed the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA of championship leader Mike Guasch by just four thousandths of a second.
Three tenths back was James French in the Performance Tech Motorsports entry, while reigning class champion Jon Bennett will start the #52 CORE Autosport ORECA that she shares with Colin Braun from fourth.
Pole position in GTD went to Patrick Lindsey at his home track. Driving the #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911, Lindsey set a blistering 1:27.040s to secure his maiden TUSCC pole position.
The Californian’s lap was almost a second quicker than Marc Miller in the #93 Riley/Mosing Dodge Viper GT3-R, while Dion von Moltke will start from third after posting a 1:28.031s best in the #48 Paul Miller Racing Audi.
Ben Keating qualified fourth in the #33 Viper, while John Potter completed the top five in the #44 Magnus Racing Porsche 911.
The TUSCC Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix will get underway later today at 21:00 GMT.
