Cadillac V-Performance racing team Konica Minolta headed the trio of Cadillac Dpi-V.R race cars in qualifying, seventh, for the IMSA WeatherTech Championship Motul Petit Le Mans to run tomorrow at Road Atlanta. The Mustang Sampling Cadillac will start ninth with the Whelen Engineering Cadillac set to take the green in tenth.
In the 20th running of the race founded by Don Panoz, the Konica Minolta Cadillac and Mustang Sampling Cadillac teams and drivers are competing for season ending honors:
– Ricky and Jordan Taylor need to take the green flag start to win the drivers’ championship.
– Cadillac will win manufacturer title with drop of the green flag.
– Mustang Sampling Cadillac and Konica Minolta Cadillac are competing for the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup (TPNAEC).
– *All championships are contingent on cars passing post-race inspection.
A lack of downforce and engine restrictions on the Cadillac, mandated by IMSA, affected the Cadillac DPi-V.R cars in the 15-minute qualifying session. Ricky Taylor had the wheel of the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R for the session under near perfect 80°F temperatures. He was able to post a lap time of 1:12.121 good for a fourth row starting position for tomorrow’s 11:05 a.m. ET start. The No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R was driven by Christian Fittipaldi in qualifying. He ran a time of 1:12.393 and will start from the fifth row. Eric Curran put in a lap of 1:13.051in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R that will have him going away from the fifth row as well.
Brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor are joined by IndyCar driver Ryan Hunter-Reay for the season finale. The trio are looking to clinch the drivers championship for the Taylors which can be accomplished by taking the green flag – and passing post-race technical inspection.
“It’s disappointing to know that we have that big of a deficit to the cars that are fast here this weekend,” Ricky Taylor said. “I think it just shows that when you get teams like Penske and Rebellion running these cars it shows what they are capable of on the track. I think you can see by the results that the Cadillac DPi-V.R cars have been really tuned back. But it’s a long race and we can rely on the reliability of the Cadillac and look to our incredible pit stops from the Konica Minolta Cadillac guys and make-up positions with race craft and by not giving up.”
Mustang Sampling drivers Fittipaldi, Barbosa and Albuquerque are in the hunt for the TPNAEC title and are focused on winning that trophy for the team.
“It was a challenging session for us,” Fittipaldi said. “The team gave it their very best. We tried our best and were realistic with our expectations, but we are further back than we thought we might be. But, I think we have a strong car for the race. All of the Cadillac cars are within a row of each other. We have ten hours of racing in front of us tomorrow to get a good result.”
Curran, Cameron and Conway still have some work to do on the set-up of the red Whelen Engineering Cadillac for the race.
“We have been trying a lot of different things on the Whelen Engineering Cadillac,” Curran said. “We were just a little off on the set-up for qualifying. I am not sure what went wrong and I just couldn’t get the speed out of it today. We are going to go back on our set-up and get it back to the practice setting because we were solid with what we had before. I am sure the Whelen guys will have a solution for the warm-up and it will help us through the ten hours.”
So far in 2017 Cadillac V-Performance teams have won the Rolex 24 Hours At Daytona, Twelve Hours of Sebring, Long Beach, Circuit of the Americas, Detroit, Watkins Glen, and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
The IMSA WeatherTech Championship Motul Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta will be televised in three segments. The broadcast will start on FS1 at 10:30 a.m. ET and go until 11:30 a.m. The race will switch to FS2 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. It will switch back to FS1 for the finish from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
