Rolex 24: Blomqvist’s Acura beats Nasr’s Porsche to Daytona pole

GTP

Due to poor weather and only two of the new GTP cars taking to the track in Saturday’s two-hour evening session, the class was granted an extra 15mins’ prep before qualifying.

Sebastien Bourdais and Alex Lynn were installed in the #01 and #02 Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-LMDh entries, Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr took charge of the Team Penske-run Porsche 963s, Philipp Eng was wheeling one of the BMW M Hybrid V8s run by Rahal Letterman Lanigan, Pipo Derani was driving the Action Express Racing Cadillac, Ricky Taylor pedaled the Acura ARX-06 of Wayne Taylor Racing, while the similar car of Meyer Shank Racing was driven by Tom Blomqvist. The #25 BMW missed the session because the car was still in the IMSA tech line.

Tandy was the first to get into the 95sec range, with a 1min35.530sec, then lowered the mark to 1:35.349sec, then 1:35.228. Then Blomqvist and Nasr set identical times to each other to draw within 0.08sec, and next time by Blomqvist was on top with a 1:35.081 for MSR Acura.

That wasn’t the final roll of the dice though, because Nasr cracked the 95sec barrier with an impressive 1min34.926sec around the 3.56-mile Daytona course. The session showed that Wayne Taylor Racing Acura (fifth overall) was fastest in Sector 1, Nasr’s 963 was quickest in Sector 2, and Meyer Shank’s Acura was top in Sector 3.

Some 75mins later, after the lower classes had qualified, the GTP cars were back on track for their 20min qualifying session.

The two Acuras were first out, and Taylor delivered a 1min34.783sec effort on his third lap and 1:34.295 on his fourth. Blomqvist then pitted for fresh tires, while Taylor let his tires cool before going for another fast one – an impressive 1:34.198.

Nick Yelloly in the #25 BMW got within 0.9sec, but he was pushed down to fifth, by Nasr, Tandy and teammate Eng.

Tandy had set the fastest two sectors of all on his next lap, but braking for the Bus Stop chicane – where LMP2 drivers had reported a severe tail wind – Tandy lost control on turn-in and struck the tire wall. That brought out the red flag and cost the #6 car its two fastest times.

That left the cars with just one chance of a flying lap, and it was going to be tough to make an impression without tire warmers, but Nasr delivered an excellent 1min34.114sec to beat Taylor… only to see his time shaded by a 1min34.031sec from Blomqvist’s MSR Acura!

Bourdais had sat idle for the majority of the session, but emerged from the pits in determined mood to land a 1min34.262sec and fourth on the grid alongside Taylor, and within a quarter-second of the pole.

Teammate Lynn will start from fifth alongside Derani of AXR, while the BMWs of Eng and Yelloly were a respectable seventh and eighth, within 1sec of pole.

#52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07: Ben Keating, Paul-Loup Chatin, Alex Quinn, Nicolas Lapierre (Photo by: Art Fleischmann)

LMP2

With the amateurs onboard to qualify, Steven Thomas led the field on track and on the times at first, the TDS Racing driver getting down to a 1min41.813sec. Ben Keating of PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports was looking increasingly frustrated right behind him, finally found enough clear air to slam in a 1:40.541 to go fastest by 1.2sec ahead of Francois Heriau in the second TDS car.

Before anyone could try and close the gap, the red flag flew. Almost simultaneously, Fred Poordad had gone into the tires at Turn 6, taking a front fender off his Proton Competition entry, while John Farano had piled the Tower Motorsports entry he shares with Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden and Kyffin Simpson hard into the tires at Turn 7.

Once the crumpled Oreca had been retrieved and the tire wall rebuilt, there was no time left for the action to resume and so Keating had Rolex 24 pole in the handsome Wynn’s car.

#33 Sean Creech Motorsport, Ligier JS P320, LMP3: Lance Willsey, Joao Barbosa, Nico Pino, Danny Soufi (Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images)

LMP3

Cameron Shields set a strong benchmark for Performance Tech Motorsports with a 1min43.824sec with seven minutes to go, but he was closely pursued by Dakota Dickerson of Andretti Autosport and Guilherme de Oliveira in the #43 MRS GT entry. Nico Pino in the Sean Creech Motorsport moved to the top, Dickerson responded to shade him by 0.1sec, before Pino got his best down to 1min43.197sec. Shields drew to within 0.16sec to temporarily claim second.

Dickerson made a valiant effort to displace Pino from P1, setting his own best in sector 1, best of everyone in sector 2, but then the Andretti car lost a couple of tenths in the final sector to come up 0.110sec short, and so it was pole for Sean Creech Motorsport. Shields retained third for Performance Tech, and De Oliveira was fourth, yet only 0.36sec off the top spot.

Gar Robinson’s final run for Riley Motorsports saw him jump to fifth, completing a 1-2-3-4-5 for the Duqueine D08 chassis. He will start alongside Luca Mars – top Ligier JS P320 driver – who suffered a spin in the JDC Miller MotorSports that flat-spotted his tires.

#57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3: Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, Lucas Auer, Indy Dontje (Photo by: Art Fleischmann)

GTD Pro and GTD

New for this year, GTD teams were allowed to run their Platinum and Gold drivers to run qualifying. With 33 cars in total – nine GTD Pro, and 24 GTD – the track was extremely busy.

The Acura NSXs of Mario Farnbacher (Gradient Racing) and Kyle Marcelli (Racers Edge) were 1-2 with 5min30sec to go but a minute later Fabian Schiller of SunEnergy1 Racing slotted his Mercedes AMG GT3 into the top spot with a 1min46.659sec, with the similar car of Team Korthoff just 0.046sec behind driven by Mikael Grenier.

Suddenly, Philip Ellis of Winward Racing delivered a 1min46.267sec to make it a Mercedes 1-2-3, and as he took the checkered flag he extended his advantage to 0.219 with a 1min46.093. Schiller had no answer to that, but was a hefty 0.4sec clear of Grenier.

Remarkably Maro Engel of WeatherTech Racing made it a Mercedes 1-2-3-4 by topping the GTD Pro class, although he was a surprising 0.7sec slower than the GTD polesitter. The Aston Martin Vantages that had looked so strong in practice looked somewhat underrepresented in the top 10, Ross Gunn (GTD Pro) and Roman De Angelis (GTD) putting their Heart of Racing cars into fifth and 10^th overall. They were separated by Marcelli’s Acura, Ben Barnicoat in the GTD Pro Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F, Farnbacher’s Acura and Marvin Kirchhofer’s Inception Racing McLaren 720S.

2023 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona qualifying times: 

Cla	Nº	Driver	Car / Engine	Time	Delay	Laps
1	60	Tom Blomqvist Colin Braun H.Castroneves Simon Pagenaud	Acura	1'34.031		8
2	7	Matt Campbell Felipe Nasr M.Christensen	Porsche	1'34.114	0.083	6
3	10	Ricky Taylor F.Albuquerque Louis Delétraz Brendon Hartley	Acura	1'34.198	0.167	7
4	01	S.Bourdais R.van der Zande Scott Dixon	Cadillac	1'34.262	0.231	4
5	02	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn R.Westbrook	Cadillac	1'34.389	0.358	3
6	31	Pipo Derani Alexander Sims Jack Aitken	Cadillac	1'34.608	0.577	6
7	24	Philipp Eng Augusto Farfus Marco Wittmann Colton Herta	BMW	1'34.723	0.692	6
8	25	C.De Phillippi Nick Yelloly S.van der Linde Colton Herta	BMW	1'34.846	0.815	7
9	52	Ben Keating Paul-Loup Chatin Alex Quinn Nicolas Lapierre	ORECA/Gibson	1'40.541	6.510	6
10	35	François Heriau G.van der Garde Josh Pierson Job van Uitert	ORECA/Gibson	1'41.751	7.720	6
11	11	Steven Thomas Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker R.Van Kalmthout	ORECA/Gibson	1'41.813	7.782	6
12	88	François Perrodo M.Vaxivière Julien Canal Nicklas Nielsen	ORECA/Gibson	1'41.942	7.911	5
13	04	George Kurtz Ben Hanley Matt McMurry E.Gutiérrez	ORECA/Gibson	1'41.951	7.920	6
14	51	Eric Lux D.Defrancesco Austin Cindric P.Fittipaldi	ORECA/Gibson	1'42.111	8.080	6
15	20	Dennis Andersen Ed Jones Anders Fjordbach R.Marciello	ORECA/Gibson	1'42.277	8.246	5
16	33	Lance Willsey João Barbosa Nico Pino Danny Soufi	Ligier/Nissan	1'43.197	9.166	9
17	36	Jarett Andretti Gabby Chaves Dakota Dickerson Rasmus Lindh	Ligier/Nissan	1'43.307	9.276	8
18	38	John DeAngelis Chris Allen Connor Bloum Cameron Shields	Ligier/Nissan	1'43.351	9.320	8
19	43	S.Álvarez Alex Vogel Guilherme Oliveira Danial Frost	Ligier/Nissan	1'43.557	9.526	8
20	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Josh Burdon Glenn Van Berlo	Ligier/Nissan	1'43.840	9.809	9
21	85	T.Bechtolsheimer T.van der Helm Luca Mars Mason Filippi	Duqueine/Nissan	1'43.883	9.852	7
22	18	Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel C.Rasmussen Oliver Jarvis	ORECA/Gibson	1'43.965	9.934	5
23	87	Yu Kanamaru A.Serravalle Nick Boulle James Vance	Duqueine/Nissan	1'44.237	10.206	8
24	13	Orey Fidani Matthew Bell Lars Kern Moritz Kranz	Duqueine/Nissan	1'45.822	11.791	9
25	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Indy Dontje Lucas Auer	Mercedes	1'46.093	12.062	7
26	17	Anthony Mantella Wayne Boyd Nicolás Varrone Thomas Merrill	Duqueine/Nissan	1'46.187	12.156	8
27	75	? Fabian Schiller Axcil Jefferies	Mercedes	1'46.312	12.281	7
28	32	Mike Skeen Mikaël Grenier Kenton Koch Maximilian Götz	Mercedes	1'46.705	12.674	7
29	79	Cooper MacNeil D.Juncadella Jules Gounon Maro Engel	Mercedes	1'46.784	12.753	8
30	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas David Pittard	Aston Martin	1'46.825	12.794	8
31	93	Ashton Harrison Danny Formal Kyle Marcelli Ryan Briscoe	Acura	1'46.867	12.836	8
32	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Mike Conway	Lexus	1'46.923	12.892	8
33	66	Sheena Monk Katherine Legge Mario Farnbacher Marc Miller	Acura	1'46.960	12.929	8
34	70	Brendan Iribe F.Schandorff Ollie Millroy M.Kirchhöfer	McLaren	1'46.979	12.948	7
35	27	Roman De Angelis Marco Sørensen Ian James Darren Turner	Aston Martin	1'47.088	13.057	7
36	12	Aaron Telitz F.Montecalvo Kyle Kirkwood Parker Thompson	Lexus	1'47.361	13.330	7
37	3	Antonio García Jordan Taylor Tommy Milner	Chevrolet	1'48.077	14.046	7
38	64	Ted Giovanis Hugh Plumb Matt Plumb Owen Trinkler	Aston Martin	1'48.081	14.050	8
39	63	A.Caldarelli Mirko Bortolotti Jordan Pepper Romain Grosjean	Lamborghini	1'48.233	14.202	8
40	47	Roberto Lacorte G.Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco A.Balzan	Ferrari	1'48.309	14.278	6
41	19	R.Giammaria Franck Perera C.Schiavoni Rolf Ineichen	Lamborghini	1'48.432	14.401	8
42	95	Bill Auberlen Chandler Hull Bruno Spengler J.M.Edwards	BMW	1'48.505	14.474	6
43	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis Maxime Martin	BMW	1'48.526	14.495	5
44	96	P.Gallagher Robby Foley Michael Dinan Jens Klingmann	BMW	1'48.756	14.725	6
45	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin	1'48.820	14.789	8
46	16	Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen Z.Robichon Dennis Olsen	Porsche	1'48.942	14.911	7
47	9	Klaus Bachler Patrick Pilet Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche	1'48.977	14.946	7
48	83	Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Doriane Pin	Lamborghini	1'48.991	14.960	7
49	78	M.Goikhberg Loris Spinelli Benjamín Hites Marco Mapelli	Lamborghini	1'49.075	15.044	7
50	21	Simon Mann L.P.-Companc Miguel Molina F.Castellacci	Ferrari	1'49.265	15.234	8
51	77	A.Brynjolfsson Trent Hindman Maxwell Root Kévin Estre	Porsche	1'49.358	15.327	8
52	92	David Brule Sr. Alec Udell Andrew Davis J.Bleekemolen	Porsche	1'49.373	15.342	7
53	62	A.P.Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra Davide Rigon	Ferrari	1'49.495	15.464	7
54	91	Alan Metni Kay van Berlo Jaxon Evans Julien Andlauer	Porsche	1'49.507	15.476	8
55	80	PJ Hyett Seb Priaulx Gunnar Jeannette Harry Tincknell	Porsche	1'49.644	15.613	8
56	8	John Farano Scott McLaughlin Josef Newgarden Kyffin Simpson	ORECA/Gibson	1'49.679	15.648	4
57	023	Onofrio Triarsi Charles Scardina Alessio Rovera Andrea Bertolini	Ferrari	1'49.763	15.732	8
58	53	Mark Kvamme Trenton Estep Jan Magnussen Jason Hart	Porsche	1'50.628	16.597	7
59	42	Don Yount Jaden Conwright Kerong Li Alessio Deledda	Lamborghini	1'50.873	16.842	8
60	55	Fred Poordad Francesco Pizzi James Allen Gianmaria Bruni	ORECA/Gibson	1'50.969	16.938	4
61	6	Mathieu Jaminet Nick Tandy Dane Cameron	Porsche	-	-	3