Rolex 24, Daytona – Friday Report
Quiet Progress

Friday was a low-key day for the 24 Hour contenders, with the focus being on race set-up rather than looking for fast times. 25 cars took to the track for the 45-minute morning practice session, and 44 for the afternoon session – the Brumos Porsche #59 again setting the fastest times in both sessions.

In between, six cars took part in the second qualifying session, which fixed the final grid places.

One of this half dozen was the #6 Michael Shank Racing Riley Ford, which had seemingly clinched a second-row starting place on the Thursday. Alas for Michael Valiante, his efforts were in vain and his DP joined the #22 Alegra car in the naughty corner after being found to be too wide by the stewards. The Canadian set a 1:42.856 – more than two seconds slower than his original time – and the #6 will start 17th.

In 18th will be the #2 Childress-Howard Motorsports Pontiac Crawford, which failed to participate in the first session - Andy Wallace taking it steady as he set a 1:45.070 – with the Alegra BMW Riley starting 19th after electing not to take part in the second session.

The only casualty of the day was the #45 Victory Junction – Orbit Racing BMW Riley, which tasted concrete after Bill Lester put the power down too quickly. Damage was light and the car will take the start.

In the GT second qualifying, the #21 MCM Pontiac GTO.R of Jason Daskalos and Jim Stout was the quickest of the participating quartet.

With the Rolex business done for the day, the fans had the opportunity to check out the cars on display in the Daytona Heritage Exhibition in the FANZONE and also to sit back and watch the Florida 200 KONI challenge race, which was won by Bill Auberlen and Matt Bell in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M3.

Despite the lack of dramas during the day, several teams were quietly confident that preparations for the race had gone well:

“I think the preparation from Krohn Racing has been exceptional,” enthused Darren Turner of his #76 Lola Ford. “We’re in a really good position right now. The cars are running fast, are reliable and all three drivers are very happy with the current balance of the car and its drive-ability basically. I think we can go into tomorrow feeling quite confident that we have everything in place to have a successful 24-hour race. Whether the lot will run into us will be another story. We just need to stay out of trouble and keep pounding around and putting in consistent, fast and safe laps. Hopefully that means we’re there at the end of the race.”

It was a similar story from Alex Gurney, who will start the #99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Pontiac Riley; "We are ready to go and are all really excited to get this thing kicked off.  We actually made a gain today.  I only drove a few laps in the afternoon session, we did a few last minutes systems checks and we did a lot of driver changes.  Everyone is feeling good and happy that we made another step forward today."