Second Belle Isle win in three years for Ricky, Jordan Taylor
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| © General Motors |
2016-06-04
- Victory moves Chevrolet into Prototype Engine Manufacturer’s Championship lead
- Corvette Daytona Prototype now unbeaten in five Belle Isle races
- Fittipaldi, Barbosa place second after pole-position start
DETROIT (June 3, 2016) – Chevrolet and two of its Corvette Daytona Prototype teams were the big winners Saturday as Ricky Taylor and Jordan Taylor won the Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers on Saturday at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park. The Wayne Taylor Racing pairing won in their No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP on Belle Isle for the second time in three years.
With the victory, the Corvette Daytona Prototype is now 5-0 in its home race, which sits in the shadows of Chevrolet’s World Headquarters. Corvette DPs finished 1-2 with Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi finishing second in Action Express Racing’s No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP.
Saturday’s result moved Chevrolet into the lead of Prototype Engine Manufacturer’s Championship in the IMSA Prototype class as the Bowtie Brand seeks a fifth consecutive title.
“This is an exciting day for Chevrolet and our Corvette Daytona Prototype programs,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “Congratulations to Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor and everyone on the Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta Corvette DP team for today’s win. It was a great battle with the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi. Both teams had fast Corvette DPs, executed quick pit stops and were on top of race strategy.
“This gives the Corvette DP teams a 5-0 record on Belle Isle, and today also earns Chevrolet the lead in the Prototype Engine Manufacturer Championship standings.
“It was great to have the support of so many Chevrolet and Corvette owners here at the track and following the racing action on TV,” Campbell added.
The Taylors, Barbosa and Fittipaldi also are now unofficially tied for the Prototype Driver’s Championship lead after five races.
Fittipaldi started from pole position and led the first 47 minutes when most of the Prototype field made their lone planned stops for tires, fuel and a driver change. On the restart, however, Barbosa and Jordan Taylor were behind a group of slower cars as Barbosa was boxed in into the first two corners. Taylor, now a four-time winner on Belle Isle, took a different line to the race lead and won by 1.740 seconds.
Action Express Racing’s No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox and Visit Florida Racing’s No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DPs were involved in an accident 15 minutes into the race. Marc Goossens, who started second in the No. 90 Corvette DP, lost his rear wing and crashed into the Turn 12 tire barriers and collected Action Express’ Eric Curran while he was running fourth.
Corvette Daytona Prototype teams will race next in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen from Watkins Glen International on Sunday, July 3.
CORVETTE DP DRIVER QUOTES:
With the victory, the Corvette Daytona Prototype is now 5-0 in its home race, which sits in the shadows of Chevrolet’s World Headquarters. Corvette DPs finished 1-2 with Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi finishing second in Action Express Racing’s No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP.
Saturday’s result moved Chevrolet into the lead of Prototype Engine Manufacturer’s Championship in the IMSA Prototype class as the Bowtie Brand seeks a fifth consecutive title.
“This is an exciting day for Chevrolet and our Corvette Daytona Prototype programs,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “Congratulations to Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor and everyone on the Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta Corvette DP team for today’s win. It was a great battle with the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi. Both teams had fast Corvette DPs, executed quick pit stops and were on top of race strategy.
“This gives the Corvette DP teams a 5-0 record on Belle Isle, and today also earns Chevrolet the lead in the Prototype Engine Manufacturer Championship standings.
“It was great to have the support of so many Chevrolet and Corvette owners here at the track and following the racing action on TV,” Campbell added.
The Taylors, Barbosa and Fittipaldi also are now unofficially tied for the Prototype Driver’s Championship lead after five races.
Fittipaldi started from pole position and led the first 47 minutes when most of the Prototype field made their lone planned stops for tires, fuel and a driver change. On the restart, however, Barbosa and Jordan Taylor were behind a group of slower cars as Barbosa was boxed in into the first two corners. Taylor, now a four-time winner on Belle Isle, took a different line to the race lead and won by 1.740 seconds.
Action Express Racing’s No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox and Visit Florida Racing’s No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DPs were involved in an accident 15 minutes into the race. Marc Goossens, who started second in the No. 90 Corvette DP, lost his rear wing and crashed into the Turn 12 tire barriers and collected Action Express’ Eric Curran while he was running fourth.
Corvette Daytona Prototype teams will race next in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen from Watkins Glen International on Sunday, July 3.
CORVETTE DP DRIVER QUOTES:
RICKY TAYLOR, WAYNE TAYLOR RACING NO. 10 KONICA MINOLTA CORVETTE DP - RACE WINNER: “We weren’t the fastest car for sure. I think the 5 and the 31 were stronger than us on speed. But we woke up this morning, and we said these are the kinds of races that we win sometimes; when you are not fastest and sometimes it comes together and you win the race somehow. I think the move of the race was definitely Jordan on that restart. We had one opportunity to overtake, obviously from second to first, and he made great work through the traffic on the restart and controlled the race from there. It’s a really good day for Chevrolet with a 1-2 finish.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, WAYNE TAYLOR RACING NO. 10 KONICA MINOLTA CORVETTE DP - RACE WINNER: “It was kind of odd how we restarted in the middle of the pack. The first class leader was picked up by the pace car which wasn’t Prototype, so we were behind the GTD and P cars. I was behind (Joao) Barbosa, and the track went green and going through the kink I saw he wanted to go to the inside the PC cars. Both of them went to block each other so he got pinned in and I just kind of sailed around the outside on a clean line. I was able to get through a couple of GTD cars quicker than he did. From there I was just trying to manage the gap. They were definitely fast but I think in traffic we could definitely manage that better and I could pull away here and there.”
WAYNE TAYLOR, TEAM OWNER, WAYNE TAYLOR RACING: “This team does a good job wherever we go. We have two really good drivers with no difference in lap times. We have a really good engine partner in ECR and a really good partner in Team Chevy. This is really for them. We didn’t have a good car in qualifying. Of course our engineers and staff do what they need to do. The drivers and the pit crew do the rest!”
CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI, ACTION EXPRESS RACING NO. 5 MUSTANG SAMPLING CORVETTE DP – FINISHED SECOND IN PROTOTYPE:
ON THE RACE: “Actually I wasn’t sure what to expect after the spin yesterday. I flat-spotted three tires big time. We managed to change one because you can do that in the rules. Then we babied the other two. The car was awesome to drive on right-hand corners. It was a little bit harder to drive on left-hand turns. After about eight to 10 laps into the race the fronts started vibrating a little bit, but completely livable and Iain (Watt, engineer) kept reminding me just try to maintain this pace or maintain this gap to the No. 10 car. I was lucky enough to do that until we got to the 43- or 45-minute mark. At that point it was time to stop. We did a clean stop and that was it on my part.”
JOAO BARBOSA, ACTION EXPRESS RACING NO. 5 MUSTANG SAMPLING CORVETTE DP – FINISHED SECOND IN PROTOTYPE:
ON THE RESTART WITH THE TWO PC CARS AND OVERALL THOUGHTS ON MOVING INTO A TIE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP: “I think that is a very positive that we are back on top in the championship tied with the No. 10. We are hitting halfway in the championship so it’s always important to be in that position. It is going to be very tight until the end with four cars that have a real shot at winning the championship. Today was a good race. Christian (Fittipaldi) did an amazing effort in the beginning with the conditions he had getting the car in the lead. For the second year in a row to do a restart behind slower cars; last year was GT and this year was a bunch of cars. My hands were tied. I was trying to go on the inside of the two PC cars that were fighting for position. I picked one side and Jordan (Taylor) picked the right side at that point. I had nowhere to go. There was not much I could do there. My hands were tied at that point. Once we cleared traffic I was able to pick up a little bit the pace and run Jordan down, but I would say the pace was very similar so it was very hard to try anything. We just hit some traffic at the end. I’m a little bit disappointed on my side because we were in the lead at one point, but it’s very important that we finish strong in second place and we are right there in the championship. That is where we want to be.”
HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT TO HAVE TWO CORVETTE DPs FINISH 1-2 IN DETROIT: “It was a great day to finish 1-2 here for Chevrolet. They put in a lot to this program, and this great to reward them with his finish. Unfortunately our teammates (Eric Curran and Dane Cameron) had an incident early in the race because I think it could have been a pretty easy podium sweep here for Chevy.”
ERIC CURRAN, ACTION EXPRESS RACING NO. 31 WHELEN ENGINEERING CORVETTE DP – FINISHED SIXTH IN PROTOTYPE: “It’s a tough situation because we come in with a three-point lead, which is not much. Every point counts. It’s unfortunate that our Whelen Engineering No. 31 Corvette was so fast here. We won here last year; we wanted to duplicate that again. We think we had a shot at it. The No. 90 car broke a wing off and pitched into the wall, and I just had nowhere to go. It’s kind of disappointing, but it is what it is. We just have to keep moving forward. We got the car fixed, Dane (Cameron) was out there putting laps in. We will move on to Watkins Glen. It’s just unfortunate to have such a fast car. All the Action Express guys worked like crazy. The Whelen Engineering car was so fast. We were P1 in a bunch of practices. It’s just disappointing. It’s racing; I hate these days.”
MARC GOOSSENS, VISIT FLORIDA RACING NO. 90 VISITFLORIDA.COM CORVETTE DP – FINISHED SEVENTH IN PROTOTYPE: “On the initial start I thought I was going to be able to give the No. 5 car a run for his money there, but they obviously had more acceleration speed than we did. The 10 car (starting third) was right up on the No. 5 car’s gearbox and followed through. That was all I could do at that point to sit in third. It was just a cat and mouse game from there, on the straightaways they’d pull away and I just kept catching them under braking.
“It’s a shame we were out of it that soon because I thought a lot of it would be down to traffic and strategy, but didn’t get that far. A big apology to the team and Visit Florida. We had a good weekend going and unfortunately we didn’t have the result to show for it.”
RYAN DALZIEL, VISIT FLORIDA RACING NO. 90 VISITFLORIDA.COM CORVETTE DP – FINISHED SEVENTH IN PROTOTYPE: “The best news is that Marc seems OK. I’m sure he’s going to be bruised more in his head anything else. It’s a shame. He had no idea the wing had come off. A couple of corners before he was passing a GT car and took the wing off. He came over the radio and told us he had some damage, but he didn’t know the wing was gone. We were talking over each other and couldn’t get the word to him quick enough before the next corner. It shows how much these rear wings do and how much speed you carry into that corner. It’s a real shame for Visit Florida. We wanted to get a good result for Chevy here in Detroit. We had been strong all weekend; it was the best weekend we’ve had to date this season. We’ll take all the positives, regroup and go to Watkins Glen for the next one.”
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