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.
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.
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…
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