Jordan Taylor was always in the hunt for the GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) Motul Pole Award on Friday at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. He just waited until the last possible instant to clinch it.
Through the first 10 minutes of the 15-minute IMSA SportsCar Championship qualifying session, Taylor’s No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD traded fast times with Connor De Phillippi’s No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW M4 GT3 and the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche GT3 R of Mathieu Jaminet.
All were within a tenth of a second of De Phillippi’s hot lap of 1 minute, 18.115 seconds. Figuring there was no more left in the BMW, De Phillippi pitted with under three minutes left in the session. Jaminet followed suit a minute later.
Undeterred, Taylor kept after it and hustled around the 11-turn, 1.968-mile street circuit in 1:18.048 to grab the pole just after the checkered flag waved.
“We definitely put a lot of emphasis on qualifying,” Taylor said. “It’s so difficult to pass here, and especially with ABS (anti-lock braking system used by both GTD PRO and GT Daytona cars), it’s that much tougher, so track position is very important. The times were really tight. I thought my first lap (1:18.173) was quite good, so I was a little disappointed when Connor beat it.
“I didn’t know that I could go quicker but I thought I’d give it a try. I knew the fuel load would burn off. As a driver, you can’t always feel that, but the car gets quicker. The balance also changed the more laps I did, it shifted to more oversteer, which is what I needed.”
De Phillippi finished second in qualifying, but the No. 25 BMW’s fastest laps were nullified for violating the maximum engine speed permitted by GTD technical regulations. That moved Jaminet to second on the class grid, with Ross Gunn slotting into third in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
The pole was the first for Corvette Racing in the new GTD PRO class, though Taylor did take qualifying honors last year at Long Beach in the No. 3 Corvette in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class that preceded GTD PRO.
Taylor and co-driver Antonio Garcia (along with endurance driver Nicky Catsburg) are coming off a class win last month in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts.
“Daytona was a bit disappointing,” Taylor said. “But we got a better understanding of the tires and ABS at Sebring. Sebring is similar to Long Beach with all the bumps, and I think some of what we learned at Sebring carried over to Long Beach.
“As the season goes on and we go to places like Watkins Glen and Road America, I’m sure there will be lots more to learn. But we’re making progress.”