Taylor smashes IMSA field in Monterey qualifying

Ricky Taylor transformed into Ricky Ridiculous Saturday afternoon at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The soft-spoken Floridian, armed with his No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, absolutely throttled the Prototype opposition on the way to claiming pole with a lap (1m16.853s) that was staggeringly faster (+0.829s) than the rival No. 5 Cadillac driven by Action Express Racing's Christian Fittipaldi.

Almost a second clear of an identical car, Taylor also put the top WEC P2 driven by Visit Florida Racing's Marc Goossens well behind (+0.877s) in the No. 90 Ligier JS P217-Gibson.

• Starting grid

"I think this Cadillac is really strong this weekend," Taylor said, overstating the obvious. "That's what I love about my guys; they keep looking for speed and keep finding it. Maybe a little bit in the Corkscrew. The guys have prepared so well for this in terms of giving us what we need in the car. We've come to know what I like in qualifying."

Taylor's pole, a new record for the modern IMSA series, is only 5.559s off of the all-time prototype pole set by PJ Jones in 1992 with All American Racers' all-conquering Eagle Mk III GTP.

With the Prototype points lead heading into the final two rounds, Taylor expects he and his brother Jordan will drive intelligently during the 2h40m race on Sunday.

"Tomorrow is going to be really important for points," he said. "We need to be clean and get through safely."

GT Le Mans certainly didn't disappoint as the pole changed hands multiple times during the brief session.

BMW, Ford, and Ferrari traded punches, and in the end, Risi Competizione's Toni Vilander took his first WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole in the No. 62 Ferrari 488 (1m21.914s). It's Vilander's first WeatherTech pole and fourth IMSA pole.  

"I love going out on this race track," the Finn said after delivering Risi its 32nd sports car pole and first since VIR in 2014. "This car was prepared for Le Mans, and now this car is here showing the pace. I always enjoy this track a lot. It suits my driving style. We've had the pace [in the past] but always lacked the final result. This has nothing to do for tomorrow."

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing's Dirk Mueller (+0.242s) took second in the No. 66 Ford GT and BMW Team RLL's John Edwards claimed third in his No. 24 BMW M6 (+0.263s).

Young Madison Snow added to his accolades in GTD with his third career pole and second of the season in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3. His fast lap (1m24.469s) also delivered the fourth consecutive GTD pole for the Italian marque.

"Qualifying was great," said Snow. "We ended up on pole position. We topped the final practice, which gave us more pressure into qualifying. It made me even more nervous, knowing we had a car that was quick. We didn't know where anyone else was. We did some hard work between the sessions, and ended up being able to come out and do a really good lap when the tire was at its prime condition. The car was good, the tires were great, and everything just lined up great to give me that pole position."

Daniel Morad was second in his No. 28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (+0.252s) and Patrick Lindsey complete the top three for Porsche in his No. 73 Park Place Motorsports 911 GT3 R (+0.485s).

UP NEXT: Warmup, 9:10 a.m. PT.