SunTrust Racing qualifies fourth at Laguna Seca

The No. 10 SunTrust Corvette Dallara DP of Wayne Taylor Racing will start Sunday’s GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Continental Tire Sports Car Festival from the outside of the second row after qualifying Saturday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca near Monterey, Calif.

#10 SunTrust Racing Chevrolet Corvette DP: Max Angelelli, Ricky Taylor

Photo by: Jeff Davidson

Ricky Taylor, who co-drives the SunTrust Racing Corvette DP with veteran Italian Max Angelelli, turned a fast lap of 1 minute, 21.540 seconds (98.81 mph) around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn hillside road circuit, good for fourth among 27 car-and-driver combinations that will take the green flag for Sunday’s 2-hour, 45-minute penultimate round of the 2012 Rolex Series schedule.

“Qualifying is going to be very different than the race,” said Taylor, who co-drove with Angelelli to a third-place finish at Laguna Seca last season after starting from the pole and leading a race-high 52 laps. “To be honest, we haven’t had the greatest of weekends, so far. We’ve been struggling a little bit. It would’ve been nice to get that third place in qualifying. Maybe I could’ve squeaked out a little bit better of a lap. In the race, you never know how the strategy is going to go. It’s a long race.

" We’ve got a lot of tires to go through, a lot of pit stops. It can go any way, I think. The 90 and the 99 are really strong. We’re going to try and work the strategy since we’re not in the championship, so we can take some risks in traffic and with our strategy. We won at New Jersey and Homestead without having the best car. I have confidence in these SunTrust guys. We’ve won a race every way possible so, tomorrow, we’ll have to see what we come up with.”

Source: SunTrust Racing