At the front of a grid of 46 cars, Stevan McAleer and Eric Filgueras will lead the field to the green flag for Friday’s BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona, the first round of the 2023 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge.
Continuing the dominant form that began with a win in this event last year, and continued in the SRO-sanctioned GT4 America series, McAleer drove the black and green #28 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport to pole position in Grand Sport (GS), setting a time of 1’52.157.
It’s McAleer’s first pole position in 73 previous starts in the Michelin Pilot Challenge for the 2015 ST class champion.
Behind McAleer, 16-year-old phenom Luca Mars qualified second in the #59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4, just 0.038 seconds off the top time. Mars and Bob Michaelian will go from the outside of the front row in Friday’s four-hour race.
Defending NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Zane Smith qualified third in the #42 PF Racing Ford, the car he’ll share with second-generation NASCAR Cup Series driver Harrison Burton. Kenny Murillo was fourth-quickest in his #72 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4, followed by Sean McAllister in the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Porsche completing the top five among a robust 32 car GS class grid.
Henry O’Hara went off through the Le Mans Chicane in the new #58 Crucial Motorsports McLaren Artura GT4 with less than five minutes left. O’Hara went off again on the transition to oval turn one, while Jenson Altzman brought his #13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford to a stop at turn three. Despite these issues the GT4 qualifying session was completed without any stoppages.
In the TCR class, the #37 LA Honda World Civic TCR of Matt Pombo and Ryan Eversley won the pole in their class. Pombo’s pole-winning time was a 1’56.837, a new track record by over one and a half seconds – good enough for his second straight pole in the LA Honda World Civic, going back to the 2022 season finale at Road America, and his third in total.
Three makes occupied the top three positions, as the black and gold #5 KMW Motorsports with TKR Engineering Alfa Romeo Giulietta of Tim Lewis timed in second, less than a tenth of a second back of Pombo. Chris Miller was third in the #17 Unitronic/JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi RS3 TCR.
Chad Gilsinger was fourth-fastest in the #89 HART Honda, and the fastest Hyundai Elantra N TCR was the #33 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian car driven by Harry Gottsacker, co-driver to Robert Wickens.
Two-time and defending TCR class champions Taylor Hagler and Michael Lewis in the #1 BHA Hyundai were only 11th-fastest out of 14 teams.
Green flag for the BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona is scheduled for Friday at 1:45 PM EST.
