After setting the best time of the Roar earlier this month, Oliver Jarvis was once again the class of the field in today’s Qualifying, the Briton setting a record-breaking 1:33.685 to take pole position for the 2019 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona in the #77 Mazda Team Joest RT24-P.
His time was a couple of tenths faster than PJ Jones’ AAR Toyota GTP 1993 circuit record, but interestingly, wasn’t as fast as his 1:33.398 set at the Roar.
“It’s been a crazy journey, the guys have worked so hard,” John Doonan, head of Mazda’s DPi programme said. “Today is an example of the results of that effort.
“This goes out to Dan Gurney. Since the Roar I’ve been in touch with Justin, we’re pleased to honour them with the track record. We’re appreciative to be able to showcase our brand here.
“This is good, but we hope we can get a great end to this month in the race. Multimatic, AER, everyone at Joest, have been non-stop, I’m proud of what we’re seeing in the results. That’s what today is, it’s another piece of this month that shows the effort that’s gone in. It’s resulted in Mazda’s first overall pole in this event.”
Jarvis added: “Most important for us, was getting pole after the Roar. I was really surprised how important that record was, at the Roar, and between the Roar and here I was thinking a lot about that lap, for a record to stand for 26 years is amazing. I read a report that the drivers were hoping for rain so the record would stand a little longer, I’m glad it didn’t.
“For Mazda, this is amazing, this is a result of the hard work from back in the workshop since Petit Le Mans.
“It was nice at the Roar, this is where it counts, this is special, my first pole with Mazda, my first pole at Daytona, and to break the record is really special.
“I built steady confidence, the tyres were there straight away, I went all out on my third lap and that was the record. Had I pushed on Lap 2 I may have gone quicker, but luckily I still had life in the tyre for a big third lap.”
Ricky Taylor came closest to beating Jarvis to pole, the American steering the #7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 to second spot with a 1:33.873 shortly after Jarvis set his benchmark time. Despite multiple tenths at improving, he came just shy of two tenths short.
Third in the times was Juan Pablo Montoya, who put the sister #6 Acura third with a 1:34.095, which pushed Jonathan Bomarito in the #55 Mazda to fourth.
The fastest of the Cadillacs came next, the #31 Action Express DPi V.R, with a 1:34.433 right at the end of the session, with Felipe Nasr setting the time, 0.748 off the pole time.
In LMP2, the #81 DragonSpeed ORECA topped the times, James Allen setting a 1:35.904, to go half a second faster than Gabriel Aubry in the #52 PR1 ORECA. The top two in LMP2 ran faster than the slowest DPi in the field, the CORE autosport Nissan which ended up 12th overall with a 1:36.686.
“It definitely felt fantastic,” said Allen. “This is my first pole eve in prototypes. Getting pole won’t make much difference over 24 hours but it’s a nice feeling.
“Its a very impressive track, the banking is something special, it’s taken some getting used to.”
One DPi didn’t set a time, the #5 Action Express Cadillac, which suffered a loss of power on its out-lap.
Porsche takes GTLM pole
Nick Tandy in the #911 Porsche 911 RSR set a new GTLM lap record with his 1:42.257 pole lap even after a brush with the wall in pursuit of the time and the tow, more than half a second quicker than last year’s best time. Jan Magnussen in the #3 Corvette C7.R was three-tenths of a second behind the #911 Porsche, the Danish veteran putting in a 1:42.583.
Third in the class was the #67 Ford GT with Ryan Briscoe with a time of 1:42.634. Making it four manufacturers in the first two rows was the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE of Davide Rigon, he set a time of 1:42.712
The only team to run into issues in GTLM was the #66 Ford GT of Joey Hand who complained of a loss of power steering. That car ended the session in sixth with a 1:42.920 after running wide at Turn One at the very end of the session.
“It’s nice to be at the front and puts us in a position that should keep us out of trouble – It’s always better to be defending from the front than fighting your way through to get there.”
Via Italia Ferrari on top in GTD
Marcos Gomes, the former Brazilian Stock Car driver put the #13 Via Italia Racing on pole in GT Daytona. Gomes’ time of 1:45.27 beat out last year’s pole time, and set a new GTD lap record. The former lap record was set last year by Daniel Serra, it was a 1:46.049.
“I’m really happy with the pole… we are here with a lot of Brazilian mechanics this week.” Gomes said. “Daytona is a very difficult track, with the oval, and then the low speed turns… the car needs to have good grip. The engineers from Ferrari did a fantastic job of setting the car up.
This is the third straight pole for Ferrari in GTD at Daytona and nine cars in the class went quicker than the previous lap record.
Second in GTD was Ben Keating in the #33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Mercedes AMG-GT3, his best time was a 1:45.324. Trent Hindman in the #86 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura NSX GT3 Evo was third quickest.
