Dries Vanthoor's late charge wins Rolex 24 pole for BMW

In a frantic finish, Dries Vanthoor has given BMW M Team RLL pole position for the 63rd annual Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Driving in bitterly cold conditions, Vanthoor sneaked up to the top of the timesheets in his No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 with a top time of 1m33.895 — right at the checkered flag. It’s the younger Vanthoor brother’s first career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole position, and the first IMSA pole for the BMW M Hybrid V8 in GTP.

Vanthoor’s triumph counter-balanced the misfortune of the No. 25 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde, who came to a stop during his out laps and brought out a red flag — preventing him from setting a representative time.

That red flag set up a six-minute scramble for pole in GTP, which appeared to be going the way of Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06. But on his final lap, Blomqvist was caught out by the No. 63 Lamborghini SC63 of Mirko Bortolotti, and the two even made contact in the transition to Speedway Turn 1.

One of the Acura MSR cars did consolidate a front row start — but instead of the No. 60, it was Nick Yelloly in the No. 93 Acura, with a 1m34.186s, coming in second.

Reigning GTP champion Felipe Nasr was third quickest in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, followed by Jack Aitken, who made it four makes in the top four with his No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R.

Gianmaria Bruni was a solid fifth in the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche, followed by Blomqvist in the No. 60 MSR Acura.

Bortolotti was ninth fastest, behind the two Wayne Taylor Racing cars — the No. 40 of Louis Deletraz and the No. 10 of Filipe Albuquerque — but the No. 63 Lamborghini had its time deleted for blocking. The No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche did not take part in qualifying, rendering IMSA’s decision to rescind its penalty from Practice 1 earlier today redundant.

LMP2 qualifying at Daytona has long been the domain of Ben Keating, but his streak of five consecutive class pole positions has come to an end at the hands of United Autosports USA’s Daniel Goldburg.

Goldburg, in the No. 22 ORECA 07, snatched the top time during the final minutes of LMP2 qualifying with a 1m38.690s. Despite the track conditions, he was within two-tenths of the pole time Keating set last year for United Autosports.

Keating will start second in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA with his best time of 1m39.000s, three-tenths behind Goldburg.

PJ Hyett had a time that was quick enough for third place, but with a minute to go, he spun his No. 99 “Spike” machine at Turn 2 and got stuck in the grass to bring out a red flag in the final seconds. Hyett lost his two fastest laps and was demoted to sixth.

That elevated Nick Boulle to third in the No. 2 United Autosports car, followed by the returning Chris Cumming in the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECA in fourth, and Steven Thomas in the No.11 TDS Racing ORECA in fifth.

Ford Multimatic Motorsports made a serious statement of intent to kick off the second year of its GTD PRO program, qualifying 1-2 with Mike Rockenfeller on pole in the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3.

Rockenfeller took provisional pole from the sister No. 65 Ford of Frederic Vervisch with a 1m45.810s, then improved to a 1m45.523s to put the top spot out of reach of the rest of the pack. It’s the Mustang GT3’s first GTD PRO pole position, and a front-row lockout with Vervisch in second with a 1m45.855s.

Paul Miller Racing’s new recruit, Dan Harper, and the No. 48 BMW M4 GT3 EVO put together a solid qualifying run to take third on the grid with a 1m46.005s.

Alexander Sims was fourth quickest in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, ahead of Andrea Caldarelli in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 in a strong fifth, with Tommy Milner seventh in the No. 4 Pratt Miller Corvette.

After a pre-qualifying gearbox change, defending GTD PRO champion Laurin Heinrich qualified seventh in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Three different manufacturers were separated by mere milliseconds in GTD qualifying, but Elliott Skeer held off strong challenges from Trent Hindman and Philip Ellis to claim pole position for Wright Motorsports.

Skeer took provisional pole in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche with a 1m46.825s, then retook the top spot away from Hindman with a 1m46.634s, for his first career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole position. The reigning GT World Challenge America pro champion withstood a last-minute flyer from reigning GTD champion Philip Ellis, who set a 1m46.652s in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Hindman, in the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini, held onto third with his 1m46.658s, as 0.024s separated the top three qualifiers in GTD. Maximilian Götz qualified fourth in the No. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG, followed by Parker Thompson in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus.

Only one GTD car, the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari, elected not to qualify.

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