Cadillac V-Performance racing team Mustang Sampling will start the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Sahlen’s Six Hours at The Glen from the second row in third for tomorrow’s 10 a.m. start. Konica Minolta will start fourth with Whelen Engineering going away in sixth.
Under mixed weather conditions, from sunny and warm yesterday, to rain for practice this morning and a drying track in qualifying, the Cadillac V-Performance prototype teams have been chasing the track all weekend. In qualifying, Christian Fittipaldi posted a lap time of 1:35.306 that will have him starting the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R prototype from the second row in third. Ricky Taylor had the controls of the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R and put in a lap of 1:35.496 that will have him starting fourth. In the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R, Eric Curran drove to a lap of 1:36.103 good for a third row starting position in sixth.
Fittipaldi and his teammates Joao Barbosa and Filipe Albuquerque have worked on the set-up of the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R and are ready for a quarter day of racing tomorrow.
“The Mustang Sampling Cadillac is pretty good, we are the first Cadillac,” Fittipaldi said. “I am expecting a race tomorrow. It is a long event. We need to keep our nose clean. I am confident with the changes we made from yesterday to this morning and then this afternoon. I am happy right now. Can we make it better, yes. If you ask the No. 10, they will say the same thing. I am happy with the package we have for tomorrow.”
Ricky and Jordan Taylor know they are losing some time due to the downforce restrictions on the Cadillac DPi-V.R, but they will depend on the reliability of the Cadillac V-8 engine and the ability of the team to perform and strategize tomorrow.
“It is a long race,” Ricky Taylor said. “The car was pretty good. I think we still have some improvements we can make and we will try those in the warm-up. I don’t know if we have much on pure speed for the top two cars. I am confident in the reliability of the Cadillac and the execution of our Konica Minolta team. The other cars have a lot of downforce and with the amount of power they have they are able to get through the corners faster all that more grip.”
Curran and Dane Cameron are still getting their Whelen Cadillac DPi-V.R to handle the way they want around the 3.4-mile, 11-turn Watkins Glen circuit.
“I didn’t do much dry running this weekend,” Curran said. “I ran a lot wet laps this morning. We just need to keep tweaking on this Whelen Engineering Cadillac to get it better. We are a half-second off to our other Cadillac cars. P6 isn’t bad, it is a six-hour race and anything can happen. We need to make the car a little bit better than we are now. We will try the next set-up with this great team. We may not be the fastest today, but we really know how to execute the pit stops and strategy for a race like the six-hours of The Glen.”
In celebration of July 4, the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R and the No. 5 Mustang Sampling DPi-V.R are helping to commemorate the weekend with themed liveries.
The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen is the third round of the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Championship (TPNAEC). The Konica Minolta team leads the TPNAEC standings with 32 points, Mustang Sampling is second and Whelen Engineering is fifth.
The IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen will take the green flag at 10:10 a.m. on Sunday, July 2. The race will air on FS1 Sunday, July 2, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT and transition to FS2 from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
