Austin IMSA: Ricky Taylor grabs COTA pole by 0.003s

Taylor set the early pace in his Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette, but was soon topped by Tristan Nunez’s Mazda. That quickly became a Mazda 1-2 when Joel Miller lapped 0.574s off Nunez’s 1m58.715s.

Taylor was pushed down to fourth at this point, with Eric Curran also outpacing his opening effort in his #31 Action Express Corvette DP, but Taylor jumped back to pole position with 1m58.712s – grabbing the top spot by just 0.003s.

“The guys gave me a great car, I’m sick of those Mazdas on pole,” said Taylor. “It wasn’t a perfect lap, the track was very different from the other sessions. I’m really excited.”

Curran improved to third, ahead of Miller’s Mazda, but Miller responded to grab the place back to ensure a Mazda 2-3.

Behind Curran came the second Action Express Corvette of Christian Fittipaldi. The DeltaWing of Sean Rayhall starts sixth, ahead of Marc Goossens in the VisitFlorida Corvette DP.

Taylor and Fittipaldi each all had laps deleted for exceeding track limits during the session.

Robert Alon set the pole time in the Prototype Challenge class for PR1/Mathiasen, which was interrupted late on when a car went off at Turn 16.

Starworks duo Jose Gutierrez and Alex Popow were next up, with BAR1’s Matthew McMurry qualifying fourth.

Ford on top in GTLM

Ryan Briscoe set the GTLM pole time with a stunning lap of 2m04.188s in the #67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT he will share with Richard Westbrook, just over half a second clear of Toni Vilander’s Risi Ferrari 488.

Patrick Pilet’s Porsche 911 RSR qualified third, ahead of the second 911 of Frederic Makowiecki – who improved to fourth with a late lap.

The #66 Ford of Dirk Muller qualified fifth and the first of the Chevrolets, driven by Oliver Gavin, was over a second off the pace and will start sixth. Dirk Werner’s BMW M6, Jan Magnussen’s Chevrolet and the BMW of Jon Edwards rounded out the field.

In the GTD class, Alex Riberas will start from pole in his Alex Job Racing-run Porsche 911, qualifying almost four tenths clear of the Stevenson Motorsport Audi R8 of Lawson Achenbach.