In a shortened GTP qualifying session Thursday (Jan. 23), BMW M Team RLL’s Dries Vanthoor won the overall pole for the Rolex 24 at Daytona with a lap at 136.493 mph. It is Vanthoor’s first career pole in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
“It wasn’t easy with the red flag. It made tire warming more difficult for everyone,” Vanthoor said during the post-qualifying press conference. “It was all about just getting the lap together and doing the best that I could. That worked out, luckily.”
Vanthoor’s lap was .291 seconds faster than the Acura of Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Nick Yelloly. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Felipe Nasr will start third, then Action Express Racing’s Jack Aitken and JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Gianmaria Bruni.
The red flag that Vanthoor was referring to came out before anyone could set a time. Vanthoor’s teammate Sheldon van der Linde stalled at the entry to turn 6 due to an undisclosed mechanical issue. Van der Linde’s car was flat-towed back to the garage and out of the session.
The session resumed with just less than six minutes remaining. Drivers just barely had enough time to go do an out lap, then do two laps at speed.
Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Tom Blomqvist, who was fastest in practice Thursday morning, was fastest on the first lap. His attempts to improve were badly balked by the Lamborghini of Mirko Bortolotti.
Blomqvist caught Bortolotti at the exit of the infield. He tried to go to the inside of Bortolotti and Bortolotti drifted to the inside. Contact was made, resulting in the Acura partially ending up on the apron. The two drivers ran side-by-side through turns 1 and 2 of the tri-oval before Blomqvist was able to get past.
As a result, Blomqvist was unable to back up his fastest lap in practice from earlier in the day. A potential pole lap ended up being a sixth-place qualifying effort.
LMP2 saw CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s George Kurtz go quickest early on. Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Chris Cumming and AO Racing’s PJ Hyett were on pace as well.
The best Bronze driver lap during the ROAR Before the 24 last weekend was at 127.367 mph, set by United Autosports’ Dan Goldburg. That time was eclipsed seven minutes into the session.
As the session continued on, PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Ben Keating set a lap at 129.455 (99 seconds flat) to put himself on provisional pole. He then locked up entering turn 1 on his next lap, preventing himself from improving.
That allowed Goldburg to take the class pole with a lap at 129.880 mph. The lap was .324 seconds faster than Keating. Hyett qualified third on the road.
However, with a minute left in the session, Hyett spun “Spike” exiting turn 1 and managed to high-center his ORECA 07-Gibson on the curb. That drew a red flag and ended the session a few seconds early. As per IMSA rules, Hyett lost his two fastest qualifying laps.
By virtue of Hyett’s penalty, Nick Boulle in the second United Autosports entry will start third, then Cumming and TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas. After the penalty, Hyett will start sixth.
Between the GTD and GTD Pro sessions, the wind picked up and rain briefly fell in Daytona. This did not affect the track surface, although it did make things a little more uncomfortable for those in attendance.
Here, the Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustangs came to the fore. Frederic Vervisch was able to put the No. 65 Mustang on top early on in the session, ahead of all of the GTD cars.
However, teammate Mike Rockenfeller put down a series of quick laps. The best of these laps was at 121.452 mph. That lap held up to give the Ford Mustang GT3 its first pole position in the GTD Pro class. It is also Rockenfeller’s first pole in IMSA competition since 2006, when he won the pole for the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Linder Industrial Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway in a Porsche-powered Crawford DP03 for Alex Job Racing.
Rockenfeller’s lap was .332 seconds faster than Vervisch. Paul Miller Racing’s Dan Harper will start third in his BMW, then Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Alexander Sims. Pfaff Motorsports’ Andrea Caldarelli, who was fastest in class in practice earlier in the day, will start fifth in his Lamborghini.
Connor Zilisch qualified the WeatherTech Chevrolet for Trackhouse x TF Sport in eighth, 1.056 seconds off of Rockenfeller’s class pole.
In GTD, Wright Motorsports’ Elliott Skeer was fastest early on in his Porsche. However, Wayne Taylor Racing’s Trent Hindman and Inception Racing’s Frederic Schandorff were right there in the hunt.
The three drivers would trade quick laps through much of the session. Hindman put himself on top with six minutes to go and looked like he was going to claim the pole. However, Skeer came back and set a lap at 120.187 mph. That lap held up to win the pole.
Skeer won the pole by .024 seconds over Hindman. Team Korthoff Competition’s Maximilian Goetz was third in his Mercedes, then Vasser Sullivan’s Parker Thompson. Forte Racing’s Franck Perera was fifth.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona Qualifying Results
Three teams did not set times in the session. One is the No. 25 BMW of van der Linde. Another was the Proton Competition Porsche 963, which suffered a suspension failure in practice. The third was Triarsi Competizione’s No. 023 Ferrari in the GTD class.
The Rolex 24 at Daytona is scheduled to go green at 1:40 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon. Coverage is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. ET on NBC. At 2:30 p.m. ET, coverage will move to USA Network until 6:30 p.m. ET. At that point, the race will be exclusive to Peacock. NBC coverage will resume at Noon ET Sunday and run through the finish.
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.