{"id":2764,"date":"2020-11-13T14:20:19","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T19:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=2764"},"modified":"2023-05-04T13:18:59","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T17:18:59","slug":"hagler-qualifies-ninth-in-sebring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/13\/hagler-qualifies-ninth-in-sebring\/","title":{"rendered":"Hagler Qualifies Ninth in Sebring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Qualifying run marks IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season finale at Sebring International Raceway\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sebring, Fla. (12 November 2020) \u2013 Completing her final qualifying run of the 2020 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge (IMPC) season, Taylor Hagler will take the green flag from ninth on the TCR class grid for the Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 on Friday (12:00PM ET, TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold).<\/p>\n

The final two-hour race of the year marks the close of a rookie season that saw Hagler make significant strides through the season, sharing the driving duties in the No. 77 L.A. Honda World Racing Honda Civic Type R TCR with teammate Ryan Eversley.<\/p>\n

Having never turned a lap at Sebring prior to her first practice run on Thursday, Hagler quickly got up to speed clicking off 43 practice laps in the opening sessions. Learning the 17-turn course helped Hagler get comfortable on the \u201cbumpy\u201d circuit as she improved her fast time by two-seconds in the second practice.<\/p>\n

Hagler turned her personal best lap of 2:19.262-seconds on lap six of her qualifying run. Hagler will make her first race start at the 3.74-mile course from the fifth row in ninth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe L.A. Honda World Racing crew have prepared the car well and we\u2019ve got a great car again this weekend,\u201d said Hagler. \u201cAll of the changes that we needed to make, the team has been able to get them applied quickly.\u00a0I am working to match\u00a0Ryan\u2019s (Eversley) pace, which feels great given this is my first time racing here. Sebring is a historic track and so far my favorite corners are turns 15 and 16.\u00a0I still haven\u2019t gotten fully comfortable on the fast, sweeping corners but they still are fun to race on with all the track\u00a0surface changes. It’s just a great\u00a0feeling to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tasked with qualifying for the entire IMPC season, Hagler made nine total qualifying runs in her debut IMSA campaign.<\/p>\n

Facing four new-to-her tracks, Hagler\u2019s pace continued to progress with each lap as she secured seven top-ten qualifying positions including the Motul Pole Award for Race Two at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. She took her pace from\u00a0Mid-Ohio and brought that to\u00a0Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta which saw her qualify eight – and with the top eight in the field split by less than 9-tenths of a second.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis season has gone by so fast despite the circumstances of this year,\u201d said the 25-year-old driver. \u201cI can see how my driving has improved through each of my qualifying efforts. Being able to sit on the pole at Mid-Ohio was the confidence boost and reassurance that I needed to continue pushing myself and the car. Even when our results don\u2019t look like much on paper, each session has been substantial for my growth as a driver. We always have our eyes on a win but if we drive a solid, clean race it will be a successful weekend at Sebring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hagler will take the green flag for the\u00a0Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 on Friday, November 13th\u00a0at 12:00PM ET. Live coverage of the season finale race will be available on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Qualifying run marks IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season finale at Sebring International Raceway\u00a0   Sebring, Fla. (12 November 2020) \u2013 Completing her final qualifying run of [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2766,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764\/revisions\/2766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}