Qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona has seen a new track record over 20 years in the making. Oliver Jarvis piloted the #77 Mazda DPi to pole position in 1:33:685, breaking the record set by P.J. Jones back in 1993 by some two-tenths.
The battle for pole position was closer than some might have anticipated. Although it was almost entirely Mazda at the top of the timing sheets, Team Penske tried hard to knock the Mazdas of their porch. In the end, it was Ricky Taylor who came closest, with the #7 Acura having posted a time of 1:33:873.
Juan Pablo Montoya came third in the sister Acura, posting a 1:34:095 in the #6 Team Penske car. Jonathan Bomarito, who briefly held pole in the early stages of the session, completes the second row with a 1:34:212.
Qualifying proved a somewhat more difficult affair for Cadillac and Nissan. The quickest Cadillac was that of Felipe Nasr, although his 1:34:433 was nearly a second off the time set by Jarvis. The other Action Express car, the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac, had an even worse qualifying session. Filipe Albuquerque brought the car in after just a few minutes with a brake fire. As a result, the defending Daytona champions were unable to set a lap time and will have to start from the back of the grid.
Jordan Taylor qualified sixth in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing car, ahead of Juncos Racing’s Agustin Canapino in seventh.
The lone Nissan of CORE Autosport visibly struggled during qualifying, with Jon Bennett's 01:36:686 proving slower than two of the LMP2 runners.
Those two LMP2 runners were James Allen in the #81 Dragonspeed and Gabriel Aubry in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA. Allen's 1:35:904 proved half a second quicker than the Frenchman's best time of 1:36:427. The LMP2 grid was completed by the #18 Dragonspeed with 1:37:377 and the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA with 1:38:121.
Tandy flies to pole for Porsche in GTLM
Nick Tandy has captured pole position in the #911 Porsche 911 RSR with a time of 1:42:257.
The qualifying battle was a typically close one, with the top 8 separated by less then a second. The battle for the top spot was a fight between Corvette, Porsche, Ferrari and Ford. Davide Rigon in the #62 Ferrari was the first to set a significant time before Tandy was the first to set a 1:42 lap time.
Tandy's team mate Earl Bamber took the top spot one more time before the Brit set the lap time that would bring him his sixth GTLM pole position, an all time record.
Gomes grabs pole in GT Daytona
Marco Gomes, driving for Via Italia Racing has grabbed pole position in GT Daytona, ahead of Ben Keating in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Trent Hindman in the Meyers-Shank Racing Acura.
The top spot in GTD changed hands a number of times during the 15 minute session. Cooper Macneill (#63 Ferrari) was the first to set a quick time, but his effort was quickly topped by Spencer Pumpelly (#44 Lamborghini) and Mathias Lauda (#51 Ferrari).
However, it was Gomes who really got the session going by being the first driver to surpass the 01:45 mark. Giacomo Altoe (#46 Lamborghini) and Ben Keating then took over the lead one final time before Marco Gomes put in a definitive 1:45:257, a time that would not be beaten.
The pole position for the #13 Ferrari is the third consecutive pole position for a Ferrari in GT Daytona, following Alessandro Pier Guidi in 2017 and Daniel Serra in 2018.
