Grand-Am, Rolex 24 at Daytona - Qualifying Report
Rileys Rule The Roost As Ganassi Goes 1-2

The schedule for Thursday here at Daytona pretty much had it all - all in a very compressed timeframe.  Practice, practice and qualifying – all in one day.

As we had seen in the practice sessions, the cars to have have been a Riley in DP and a Porsche in GT.  There were separate 15 minute qualifying sessions for each class – DP first, followed by GT/GX, and neither class saw many surprises.  In DP, it was a 1-2 for Ganassi BMW-Riley, while in GT it was a Porsche 1-4, led by Nick Tandy for Konrad Motorsport.  GX also was a Porsche show, as the Cayman is just too strong for the very new Mazdas.

After the initial laps in the first session, it was Scott Pruett who set the pace.  He established a fast time early, momentarily lost the top spot to Dane Cameron (Sahlen BMW-Riley), and then reclaimed it with a 1:40.553. 

After setting that time, the car was parked and the Ganassi team leader waited to see if anyone would challenge.  The only challenge came from the second Ganassi entry of Scott Dixon, whose last-lap challenge fell short.

Scott Pruett – “The Grand-Am officials took a look at the performance of the cars from last year and made some adjustments.  They throttled back the Corvettes and the Fords a bit and gave the Rileys some drag with the addition of small wings both front and rear.  I think they are doing a good job of equalizing the performance, which gives the fans an exciting show to watch.”  The session ended a BMW-Riley 1-2-3, as the Sahlens #42 ended up third.

For Pruett, this was his third Rolex 24 Hour pole position.

Nick Tandy ended up the GT session as the fastest of the Porsches, thus becoming the fastest of the class.  Entering into this session, there wasn’t much doubt that a Porsche would be up front – it was just a matter of which one it would be.  For Tandy, this pole was important – “We’ve started further back and it always seems to be an issue, even in a 24 hour race.  It’s really good for us as a team and it’s really good for a Porsche to get pole on what is the 50th year for the 911 line.”

Andy Lally and Sean Edwards all had turns at the front of the class, but in the end, neither could match the pace that Tandy had established.

While the final result was a pretty dominant Porsche show, the Ferraris (especially the #63 Scuderia Corse) and the AJR Audi showed some good pace in the session. 

This bodes well for the race, at least early on.

As far as the Audi effort goes, this is much improved over last year.  Last year showed that they were not ready for prime time, but this year looks to be another thing all together.  Audi is serious about making this work and we’ll be watching.

In the new GX class, it was Shane Lewis getting the inaugural class pole for the Napleton Racing team.  “This one is for the team and the crew.  It’s a long race and it’s good to get this for the crew.  They work hard and put in very long days in order for us to race.  It’s good to be able to reward them.

“I actually was able go faster in the earlier sessions.  I just couldn’t find anyone to draft in qualifying.  The speed difference between the cars is pretty good here.  It’s not as extreme as when IMSA ran here, but there is enough difference down the straights that the competitors have to make the desperation “dive bomb” moves into the corners.”

In honor of the “hippie” markings on the Cayman, Shane tried to grow out his sideburns to the length that was popular back in the ‘70’s.  “Unfortunately I just couldn’t pull it off in time.”

Next up is night practice, to be followed by a pretty quiet Friday – the Rolex series entries only have one chance to wreck their cars on Friday, which will be a one-hour session.  If it’s like the years in the past, that session may very well be underutilized.

Update - the #30 MOMO Porsche and #25 Freedom Autosport Mazda6 both had their times annulled following post-qualifying tech owing to an incorrect wing position.

GH