DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Defending IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP champion Pipo Derani won the pole Sunday (Jan. 21) in his Cadillac VSeries.R for next weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. He did so in record-setting fashion by turning in a lap at 138.318 mph, an all-time Daytona record for the 3.56-mile road course.
“Obviously, the Cadillac was flying out there today” Derani said during the post-qualifying press conference. “It’s a privilege to drive such a car. Today, the car felt like it was on rails and it was nice to feel the full potential of a GTP [car].”
Derani’s lap was .071 seconds faster than Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais in a similar Cadillac. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Felipe Nasr will start third, followed by BMW M Team RLL’s Connor de Phillippi. Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global’s Louis Deletraz was fifth. All nine GTP teams that participated in qualifying broke Oliver
As is the norm in GTP qualifying sessions, drivers took a while to get their tires up to temperature. Once that was done, it was not long before the track record was broken.
The first driver to do so was Deletraz. However, his time on the provisional pole lasted about three seconds before de Phillippi broke that.
With a little more than five minutes to go, Derani put down the gauntlet with the first-ever lap of the 3.56-mile road course in under 93 seconds, a full second faster than the previous record. The others tried their best, but could not best the champion’s time.
In LMP2, a dozen cars went out to do battle. Early on, there were three that were battling for the pole. These drivers were CrowdStrike by APR’s George Kurtz, United Autosports’ Ben Keating and AF Corse’s Luis Perez Companc.
Perez Companc was the first to set time and put himself on top before Keating usurped him. Kurtz took the provisional pole from them both.
Perez Companc’s session came to an end early when he lost control of his ORECA 07-Gibson and backed into the tire wall in West Bend. Perez Companc was able to drive his car away, but heavy smoke was coming off of the rear. As a result, he was forced to pull off in a safe place. No red flag was thrown here.
Keating eventually set a lap at 130.110 mph and let the rest of field take their cracks at him. While Inter Europol Competition with PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Nick Boulle got close, no one could prevent Keating from taking the class pole.
Keating was .102 seconds faster than Boulle. Kurtz will start third in class, then Riley Motorsports’ Gar Robinson. Dan Goldberg in the second United Autosports entry will start fifth.
The GT qualifying session didn’t even get started before trouble struck. Kellymoss with Riley’s David Brule spun on cold tires exiting the pits in his Porsche 911 GT3 R and smacked the wall to bring out a red flag.
The cleanup took long enough that IMSA was forced to reset the clock to just under eight minutes. That allowed for the mandated minimum of 10 minutes of on-track time that is necessary for the session to be official. That said, with more than 30 cars on-track at the same time, it was rather crowded.
In GTD Pro, the new Fords were fastest early on, but quite a bit off of the pace of the GTD runners. As the session continued, the times began to tumble.
Jack Hawksworth was quick in his Lexus later on, but it was AO Racing’s Sebastian Priaulx that won the pole in his Porsche 911 GT3 R. Priaulx set a lap at 122.780 mph to top the session.
Priaulx ended up .08 seconds ahead of Hawksworth. Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Antonio Garcia was four-tenths of a second slower than Priaulx, but ended up third in class. Iron Lynx’s Franck Perera was fourth, while Risi Competizione’s Daniel Serra was fifth in his Ferrari.
In GTD, MDK Motorsports’ Klaus Bachler, who was fastest overall in GTD on Saturday, put his Porsche on top of the chart early on. That was beaten by the Lamborghini of Forte Racing’s Loris Spinelli.
Gradient Racing’s Katherine Legge, who was fastest in class on Friday, put herself on the provisional pole with a couple of minutes to go. However, no one could beat Vasser Sullivan’s Parker Thompson.
Thompson put down a lap at 122.648 mph in his Lexus to win the class pole in his full-time debut for the team (Thompson and Aaron Telitz swapped roles for 2024). Thompson’s lap was .043 seconds quicker than Bachler. Legge will start third, then Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global’s Kyle Marcelli. Spinelli will start fifth.
Note that the GTD Pro cars will not necessarily start in front of the GTD cars. Since they are all GT3 cars, they will start in the order that they qualify. Garcia, who will start third in GTD Pro, will start ninth of all GT cars.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona Qualifying Results
Two teams did not set a time. One was the Kellymoss by Riley No. 92 Porsche of Brule due to his crash. The other was the Proton Competition No. 5 Porsche 963 that was supposed to be qualified by Gianmaria Bruni.
The Rolex 24 at Daytona weekend officially starts in earnest with practice on Thursday. The teams are staying over in Daytona, but won’t be in the garage for the next couple of days. Frontstretch will be on-site to bring you all of the action.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.