Cadillac V-Performance racing team Konica Minolta Cadillac will start from the pole for tomorrow’s running of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP). The Cadillac DPi-V.R remains undefeated in IMSA DPi prototype competition.
Ricky Taylor had the controls of the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R for the 15-minute qualifying session around the 2.4-mile, 10-turn track located 45-minutes north of Toronto. Capitalizing on the team’s performance in open practice, first or second, Taylor put in a lap time of 1:08.459 good for the pole. The pole is Ricky’s third on the year.
In the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R, Christian Fittipaldi will start the two-hour-and-forty-five-minute race from the third row in fifth based upon his qualifying time of 1:09.173. In the team car, Eric Curran drove the No. 5 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R to a time of 1:09.895. This will have him start from the fourth row in eighth for tomorrow’s 12:05 p.m. EDT start.
Ricky and brother Jordan Taylor are poised to get the winning streak going again at CTMP.
“Our Cadillac DPi-V.R has been great all weekend,” Taylor said. “Our Konica Minolta team has been working hard with the Cadillac guys to put a fast car on the track. It is nice to rebound from a tough run at Watkins Glen and get the pole for the team. To come here, be fastest or in the top two each practice session, and then get the pole in qualifying is a big accomplishment for the team. It helps to reset our minds after The Glen. The possibility of rain, well that makes things unpredictable. We can perform in the wet. If it is up to us, we want it to go dry, but this team is 00prepared for anything.”
Fittipaldi and teammate Joao Barbosa are looking for a repeat win from last weekend at The Glen, but have some work to do on their Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R before the race.
“Although we are starting sixth, I think we have made some progress on the car since practice,” Fittipaldi said. “Is it ideal? Are we happy? Not really. Are we frustrated? Yes. But it is a long race tomorrow. A lot of things can happen. We have started a lot of races from third, fourth or fifth and we have won. We will work hard and try to make it better for the race. Thanks to the Mustang Sampling crew and Cadillac for all the help. Only thing we can do is to work harder and try to make it better and focus on the race tomorrow.”
Curran and Dane Cameron will make some changes to the Whelen Engineering Cadillac for the warm-up with a look toward moving to the front in the race.
“Overall, the Whelen Cadillac is heading in the right direction,” Curran said. “I haven’t done that many laps here this weekend, and we just don’t have a great handle on the Whelen Cadillac yet. We are fighting a lack of overall grip and haven’t made the big jump that we need to. We will keep working on it and keep tweaking away at it to be stronger in the race tomorrow.”
The race will be broadcast live on FS1 starting at noon EDT, Sunday July 9.
