BMW continued their strong run of form in the leadup to the 24 at Daytona to qualify on pole for Sunday’s race.
Dries Vanthoor salvaged a good result for BMW M Team RLL in the #24 entry he shares with Philipp Eng, Kevin Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello in this morning’s 15-minute qualifying session; the team left on the back foot early when the #25 sister car driven by Sheldon van der Linde came to a halt in the opening five minutes without setting a time.
A red flag briefly delayed proceedings, and Vanthoor’s pole-setting lap came on his final tour, a 1:33.895 flyer eclipsing Meyer Shank Racing Acura driver Nick Yelloly’s best effort by three-tenths for the top spot.
The #93 Acura ARX-06 shared by Yelloly, Renger van der Zande, Alex Palou and Kaku Ohta will start from the front row, ahead of 2024 Daytona winner Porsche, the #7 963 shared by Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor starting third, with Nasr qualifying the car.
Earl Bamber’s Cadillac Whelen team will start from the second row of the grid for this weekend’s Daytona 24-Hour, with Jack Aitken delivering a 1:34.350 flyer for the team, putting them fourth overall. Bamber and Aitken are sharing the #31 Cadillac V-Series.R with Frederik Vesti and Felipe Drugovich.
Scott Dixon and Tom Blomqvist’s #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing team will line up from sixth, with Blomqvist qualifying the car and surviving a late scare for a best time of 1:34.432.
That effort had sat atop the time sheets entering the final laps, but on his last tour, Blomqvist came across the solo Lamborghini SC63 LMDh, the two cars appearing to make light contact and forcing Blomqvist to abort his lap. Dixon and Blomqvist are sharing their car with Colin Braun and Felix Rosenqvist this weekend.
Brendon Hartley’s Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing team will start from seventh, Filipe Albuquerque’s 1:34.933 just over one second off the pace of the pole-setting BMW entry. Hartley and Albuquerque have Will Stevens and Ricky Taylor alongside them in the #10 Cadillac V-Series.R.
In LMP2, Hunter McElrea’s TDS Racing will start from 5th in class and 15th overall on the 61-car grid. Joining McElrea in the #11 Oreca LMP2 07 is Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen and Charles Milesi, with Thomas qualifying the car for a best time of 1:39.389, an effort some seven-tenths shy of United Autosports USA’s LMP2 pole-setting time of 1:38.676.
Trackhouse by TF Sport’s Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, shared by Shane van Gisbergen, Scott McLaughlin, Connor Zilisch and Ben Keating, will line up eighth in class from grid 30.
Zilisch was handed qualifying duties by the team, completing seven laps for a best time of 1:46.579, just over one second behind Ford Multimatic Motorsports GTD-Pro pole-setting time of 1:45.523 in a Ford Mustang GT3.
The Daytona 24-Hour race begins at 7.40 am NZST on Sunday morning, finishing at the same time a day later.
New Zealand viewers can tune in via IMSA.tv or on IMSA’s official YouTube channel.
Header Image: Trackhouse Racing
