Chevy Racing– All Corvette Daytona Prototype Front Row at Watkins Glen; Team Chevy Sweeps Top-Two in GT


All Corvette Daytona Prototype Front Row at Watkins Glen; Team Chevy Sweeps Top-Two in GT
 
WATKINS GLEN, NY – August 10, 2012 – Behind the wheel of the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype, Ricky Taylor will lead the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series field to the green flag Saturday after winning the pole today for the Continental Tire 200 at Watkins Glen International.
 
The 22-year old driver set a fast lap of 1:06.039 with a speed of 133.56 mph to secure the top-spot in the final qualifying order. It is the 10th career pole for Taylor, the second of the 2012 season and the third straight at The Glen for the team as teammate Max Angelelli qualified on the pole for the June  Sahlen’s Six Hours.
Starting alongside will be Antonio Garcia, No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette Daytona Prototype, to make it an all-Chevrolet front row for the two-hour race.
It is this sixth time this season that the Corvette Daytona Prototype has swept the front row of the starting grid for a Rolex Sports Car Series race this season.
 
In the Rolex Grand Touring class, Team Chevy also swept the top-two positions in qualifying. Boris Said turned in the quickest time in-class with the No. 31 Marsh Racing Corvette.  Starting second to the veteran Said will be John Edwards, No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R, who, with teammate Robin Liddel, won the class at The Glen in June.
 
The two-hour race is set for Saturday, August 11, 2012 at 6:00 PM ET. Live coverage will be on SPEED TV from 6:00 PM –8:30 PM ET. Fans can follow live on GRAND-AM.com timing and scoring where the MRN Radio Broadcast can be heard from start to Victory Lane.
 
CHEVROLET DRIVER POST QUALIFYING QUOTES:
 
RICKY TAYLOR, NO. 10 SUNTRUST RACING CORVETTE DP – POLE WINNER DP CLASS
WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS TRACK AND HOW WELL YOU DO?
“We have good cars here every time. I think every single year I feel like we have a winning car. At the 6-Hour we had a little bit of misfortune with that incident, but we’ve got such good cars. And the car once again in qualifying was really good. Coming off of a good Continental Tire test a couple of weeks ago kind of set us up well to come here and unload well. This is more important than we’ve ever had seeing is there’s no dry practice. For me, as a driver, it was nice just to have that confidence about brake zones and everything and I just thank the team that gave me such a good car.
 
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 90 SPIRIT OF DAYTONA RACING CORVETTE DP – QUALIFIED 2ND:
ON HIS RUN TODAY AND OUTLOOK FOR TOMORROW’S RACE
“It has been difficult. No actual run on the dry settings during practice at all. So, basically it was quite interesting. I just got out and tried to feel as soon as possible what the car was doing. It was more difficult for me because most of the guys and my teammate was here testing the Continental test here on this short track and basically I had to remember from last year where to brake into (Turn) 10 and some other things. But the car felt really good. It’s a shame I’m second. I was second behind Pruett at the 6-hours at The Glen here. So we are consistent. But we really need to be on pole one time (laughs).”
 
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT THE GLEN?
“It’s going to be really challenging. Two hours here with these running just a little bit above one minute it going to be really hard for drivers, cars, and especially the tires. I think so far it’s good. We need now to take advantage of the hour we have for testing now just to have to learn as much as we can. But so far, unless everybody is completely off-balance and they can tune it for the race, I think we are in good position anyway.”
 
BORIS SAID, NO. 31 MARSH RACING CORVETTE – POLE WINNER, GT CLASS
THE MARSH CAR HAS BEEN FAST ALL YEAR, BUT YOU FINALLY GOT IT UP TO THE POLE. WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE TODAY?
“Getting out of the Sprint Cup car and getting into the Corvette seemed easy because those were the first few laps I’d done in the dry. I love this place. It feels good to get the pole. I’d love to do it in the Cup car tomorrow but I don’t think we have a prayer with our team but hopefully I can be in the top 15 in the Cup car.”
 
THIS IS YOUR FIFTH CAREER GT POLE. TALK ABOUT THE SEASON
“GRAND-AM has done such a great job with the Rolex year. There’s not a lot of cars but in this day and age there’s not a lot of cars anywhere. But the cars we have are really competitive. It’s been exciting racing. It’s a blast to drive. I love racing. This is my 25th year racing and I can’t even believe it’s been that long. But I still feel like a little kid out there. The GT racing is so close and fierce and we’ll be pushing and banging kind of like the Sprint Cup race. I just like competing in any kind of car and the Corvette is a fun car to drive. It handles great. The Sprint Cup car is a lot of horsepower but it handles like a horse, basically. It has a mind of it’s own and you’re kind of riding along with it. The Corvette is like a go-kart. Wherever you put it, it goes. They’re both fun but completely different cars to drive.”