Jordan Taylor Leads Detroit Qualifying, Captures First DP Pole

Jordan Taylor already has enjoyed his share of success at Detroit Belle Isle, taking the Rolex Series GT class victory in last year’s inaugural Chevrolet GRAND-AM 200.

Taylor is looking to carry that success to the Daytona Prototype ranks for Saturday’s race. He captured the TOTAL Pole Award on Friday, running a lap of 1:27.675 (96.903 mph) in the No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette DP co-driven by Max Angelelli.

Taylor will lead the field for the start of Round 5 of the 2013 season Saturday at 12:30 p.m. (SPEED, same day, 5 p.m. ET).

The 22-year-old Floridian had to overcome the most successful qualifier in Rolex Series history to earn his first career Daytona Prototype pole. Jon Fogarty, looking for his 26th pole in the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Corvette DP shared with Alex Gurney, led the session early but will start second after running a best lap of 1:27.802 (96.763 mph) on the slightly reconfigured 2.36-mile circuit.

“We weren’t too confident going into qualifying," Taylor said. “We weren’t in the top five in either (practice) session. We got together and made some big changes and something worked."

Max Papis led the GT session with a lap of 1:35.171 (89.271 mph) in the No. 61 R. Ferri/AIM Motorsport Ferrari 458. While it was his first pole in GT competition, Papis was an eight-time DP pole winner in 2004, when he joined Scott Pruett in capturing the championship for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.

Boris Said broke up an all-Ferrari front row when he ran a lap of 1:35.583 (88.886 mph) in the No. 31 Marsh Racing Corvette – bumping Jeff Westphal in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 to third.

In GX, Tom Long captured his second pole of the season with a lap of 1:41.638 (83.591 mph) in the No. 70 MAZDASPEED/SpeedSource Mazda 6 co-driven by Sylvain Tremblay.

The Rolex Series will hold a 30-minute practice session Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. in final preparation for the two-hour race.