Scott Dixon and Shane van Gisbergen have put themselves in contention for a win in this year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Dixon will begin the twice around the clock race from fifth for Wayne Taylor Racing. Ryan Briscoe (Australia) set a 1:34.442 to be 0.731s away from pole position. They’ll race alongside Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) and Renger van der Zande (Netherlands).
Top qualifier in the DPi ranks was Mazda Team Joest with Oliver Jarvis (Great Britain), Tristan Nunez (USA) and Oliver Pla (France) with a 1:33.711, the only sub 1minute34second time.
“What a car [the team] just gave me,” Jarvis said.
“I cannot say ‘Thank you’ enough. This year feels different. This year feels business-like. Last year, there was a huge amount of emotion.
“This year, it feels like we came in to do a job and this is just a small part of what we want to achieve this weekend.”
Four tenths adrift of the top time in second place was Dane Cameron (USA), Juan-Pablo Montoya (Colombia) and Simon Pagenaud (France) for Acura Team Penske.
Just 0.015s split them and the third-placed Mazda Team Joest entry of Jonathan Bomarito (USA), Harry Tincknell (United Kindom) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (USA).
The leading Cadillac DPi of Felipe Nasr (Brazil), Mike Conway (United Kingdom), Pipo Derani (Brazil) and Felipe Albuquerque (Portugal) lay half a second off the top.
Further afield, in the GTD ranks, Pfaff Motorsport led the way. A 1:45.237 put them nearly half a second clear of the field in their Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Driving the Lexus RC F GT3, van Gisbergen lay seventh in class. Frank Montecalvo (USA) set the time for AIM VASSER SULLIVAN. Townsend Bell (USA) and Aaron Telitz (USA) will also share the car in what is an 18-car GTD field.