Derani Leads All-Cadillac Front Row in New Track Record

Pipo Derani delivered Action Express Racing pole for next weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona with a new track record, leading an all-Cadillac front row.

Not long after Oliver Jarvis’s 2019 pole record was unofficially broken in the final test session of the Roar Before the 24, Derani established a new official benchmark of 1:32.656 at the wheel of the No. 31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R.

That was more than a second up on Jarvis’s record, and was enough to beat Cadillac stablemate Bourdais in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing-run car by 0.071 seconds.

Best of the rest was Felipe Nasr, who recovered from an early spin in the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 to grab third, 0.220 seconds off the pace.

Connor De Philippi enjoyed a spell at the head of the times for BMW before finally slipping to fourth place in the best of the M Hybrid V8s, the No. 25 car.

The two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06s were fifth- and sixth-fastest in the hands of Louis Deletraz and Filipe Albuquerque respectively.

Nick Tandy was seventh in the No. 6 Penske Porsche, while the order was completed by Jesse Krohn in the No. 24 BMW and Tijmen van der Helm in the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche.

All nine GTP cars that participated in qualifying were underneath the old pole record, with the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche sitting out the session following Neel Jani’s crash in the earlier test session.

Ben Keating was fastest in the LMP2 qualifying session aboard the No. 2 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson, with the Texan driver scoring his fifth consecutive pole.

Keating’s best time of 1:38.501 was good enough to take the top spot by 0.101 seconds ahead of Nick Boulle in the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports.

George Kurtz was third-fastest in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR car, albeit 0.751 seconds off the pace, while Gar Robinson was the last driver to get within one second of Keating aboard the No. 74 Riley entry.

AO Racing, Vasser Sullivan Take GT Poles

An extended GT qualifying was topped by Seb Priaulx aboard the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

What was planned to be a 15-minute session was interrupted almost immediately by a crash for another Porsche, the No. 92 Kellymoss with Riley car of David Brule, at Turn 3, leading to a 12-minute suspension.

With the clock reset to the regulatory minimum 7:30 of green flag running, Priaulx set the quickest time of the session of 1:44.382, beating the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth to GTD Pro pole by just 0.080 seconds.

Lexus topped the times in GTD courtesy of Parker Thompson in the No. 12 RC F GT3, with Klaus Bachler his nearest rival in the No. 86 MDK Motorsports Porsche, 0.043 seconds behind.

Katherine Legge enjoyed a brief spell atop the times in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 but ultimately ended up third ahead of two Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2s, the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti car of Kyle Marcelli and Loris Spinelli in the No. 78 Forte Racing car.

Third in GTD Pro, but only ninth overall in GTD, was the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports machine of Antonio Garcia.

The new Ford Mustang GT3s proved off the pace, with the No. 65 car of Dirk Mueller ninth in GTD Pro and the sister No. 64 car of Harry Tincknell rounding out the class in 13th.

RESULTS: Qualifying