Jarvis Takes Rolex 24 Pole for Mazda

Jarvis sets record to win pole

Team Joest driver Oliver Jarvis broke the Daytona International Speedway lap record to clinch pole position for the Rolex 24.

After setting the best time of the Roar earlier this month, 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.

“It’s been a crazy journey, the guys have worked so hard," John Doonan, head of Mazda’s DPi program 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 honor 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."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]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 tires 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 tire 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, James Allen took pole in the No. 81 DragonSpeed Oreca 07 Gibson, recording a time half a second quicker than PR1/Mathiasen’s Gabriel Aubry.

Tandy Puts Porsche on GTLM Pole

Nick Tandy

Nick Tandy set a new GT Le Mans qualifying track record and scored pole position for Porsche in qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Tandy, driving the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR, was a full 0.326 seconds clear of last year’s GTLM pole sitter Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R.

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 Racing Takes GTD Pole

Marcos Gomes

Marcos Gomes set a new GT Daytona track record en route to taking the class pole position in the Via Italia Racing Ferrari 488 GT3.

Gomes put the #13 Via Italia Racing on pole in and his 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.

Lineup (Top-42 only)