Temperatures were slightly cooler to provide near ideal conditions for in qualifying for the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. And Ricky Taylor made the most of them to take the pole.

After winning the drag race out of the pits for the Prototype class’ 15-minute qualifying session and after working his Continental tires up to temperature, Taylor got the ball rolling with a 1m09.0 in the Wayne Taylor Racing No. 10 Minolta Cadillac DPi. He then lowered that to 1m08.571 and then 1m08.459s, which held up for pole

That’s still well off the all-time record for the track formerly known as Mosport of 1m04.0 set by Dindo Capello in the Audi R10 TDi, which had about double the horsepower of today’s Daytona Prototype international cars. But all 10 Prototype entries lapped under last year’s pole time.

“It is nice to rebound from a tough run at Watkins Glen and get the pole for the team,” Taylor said. “To come here, be fastest or in the top two each practice session, and then get the pole in qualifying is a big accomplishment for the team. It helps to reset our minds after The Glen. The possibility of rain, well that makes things unpredictable. We can perform in the wet. If it is up to us, we want it to go dry, but this team is prepared for anything.”

Late in the session, the JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA P2 of Misha Goikhberg came on strong, threatening Taylor’s time with a lap of 1m08.587s. That was as close as Goikhberg would get, but it was enough for a front-row start for the rapidly improving squad, which had set the pace in the pre-qualifying practice session. The two Nissan DPis of Tequila Patron ESM cars were also into the 1m08s, with Scott Sharp’s No. 2 leading Johannes Van Overbeek’s No. 22 by just 0.048s. Jonathan Bomarito was just 0.025s farther back in the faster of the two Mazda DPi entries.

In GTLM, the Porsche GT Team was quick right out of the gate, with Dirk Werner (above) taking his 911 RSR by the scruff of the neck to post a sensational lap of 1m14.085s. Bill Auberlen responded a few minutes later with a series of hot laps in the BMW Team RLL BMW M6 GT3, but his fastest of 1m14.103s fell just short of Werner’s best, which held up for the first IMSA pole scored by the mid-engined 911 RSR.

“I’m proud of all the team because they had a lot of work, not just yesterday and today but all through the winter to prepare this car,” Werner told IMSA Radio, acknowledging that CTMP’s fast, flowing corners are especially well suited to the new Porsche’s swoopy aero. Laurens Vanthoor will start third in the No. 912 Porsche RSR, at 1m14.251s.

Sage Karam ended the run of GTD pole positions for Acura by taking pole with a new class record of 1m16.563s in the No. 14 Lexus RCF GT3 (above) he shares with Scott Pruett. It provided a much-needed boost for the 3GT team, whose No. 15 car missed the session due to Jack Hawksworth’s crash in FP3. The car will start from the back in Sunday’s race.

“It’s obviously very good to get the first pole of the season,” Karam said. “I feel it’s been long awaited. We either made some mistakes in qualifying or something happened and we weren’t able to capitalize on the position. Today, everything went right and the (No.) 15 had rough day this morning. The Lexus was hooked up. The car was planted. I just had to drive it.”

Andrew Davis qualified second in the Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS GT3, 0.162s back of Karam, ahead of Jeff Segal in the No. 86 Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX, another tenth back.

Leading the three-car PC class was James French, taking his turn to qualify the Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA FLM09 he shares with Pato O’Ward, at 1m11.471s, which provided a comfortable 1.7-second advantage over Garrett Grist in the faster of the two BAR1 Motorsports ORECAs.

“We treat it as a chance to go out and learn while turning clean laps,” French said. “In the actual practice sessions, you only get so much clean track time. I probably had one lap Pato, maybe got two. To have 10 or 12 consecutive laps to get a feel for what the car has, is enjoyable.

“Beyond that, it’s another session really. We just try to get the setup for the car right and see what we can put together for the race. Today it felt comfortable, so I think we’ll have a good setup for the race.”

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UP NEXT: Race, Sunday, 12 p.m. ET