Wayne Taylor Racing Post-Qualifying Report-92279

March 18, 2016

The No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP for Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) will start Saturday’s 64th annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring from the outside of the fourth row after IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying Friday afternoon at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway.

Formula One veteran Rubens Barrichello, who first joined the WTR effort at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, where he co-drove to a solid second-place finish alongside full-time co-drivers Ricky and Jordan Taylor and endurance race specialist Max “The Ax” Angelelli, turned a fast qualifying lap of 1 minute, 53.576 seconds at 118.546 mph on the 3.74-mile, 17-turn Sebring road course. It was good for eighth-fastest overall among 49 car-and-driver combinations that will take the green flag Saturday for America’s oldest sports car racing marathon.

“As I didn’t have a clear lap this morning, it was hard to understand where the car will be,” Barrichello said. “To be honest, it’s surprising that some people out there could do a low 51 (1-minute, 51-second lap). I just couldn’t quite get the balance to where I like it. It was a thin edge between understeer and oversteer, but I guess that was the same for everyone because the track was hot. Having said that, for this qualifying session, I guess it’s alright. Our times are close to some of the others and we’ll have 12 hours to get the job done.”

The top-five qualifiers for Saturday’s 64th annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring are:

1. Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian (No. 60 Honda HPD Ligier JS P2) with Olivier Pla, Oswaldo Negri and John Pew (1:51.217 at 121.061 mph)

2. Tequila Patron ESM (No. 2 Honda HPD Ligier JS P2) with Luis Felipe Derani, Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek, Ed Brown  (1:51.391 at 120.872 mph)

3. Action Express Racing (No. 31 Corvette DP) with Dane Cameron, Eric Curran and Scott Pruett (1:51.943 at 120.275 mph)

4. Action Express Racing (No. 5 Corvette DP) with Christian Fittipaldi, Joao Barbosa and Felipe Albuquerque (1:52.205 at 119.995 mph)

5. Mazda Motorsports (No. 55 Mazda) with Tristan Nunez, Jonathan Bomarito and Spencer Pigot (1:52.951 at 119.202 mph)