Daytona 24 Hours: Alex Gurney puts GAINSCO Corvette DP on pole
Alex Gurney claimed Daytona 24 Hours pole position for the GAINSCO/Bob Stallings team as the Daytona Prototypes blocked out the first seven positions on the grid
Gurney came out on top in the three-way, Chevrolet-powered battle for pole the inaugural United SportsCar Championship event with Spirit of Daytona driver Richard Westbrook and early pacesetter Christian Fittipaldi from the Action Express team.
Gurney finished on 1m38.217s aboard his Riley-Chevrolet Corvette DP, which was two tenths quicker than Westbrook's best in his Coyote 'Vette-lookalike.
Fittipaldi's Chevy-powered Coyote was initially in the hunt but was ultimately bumped to fourth by Brendon Hartley in the Starworks Motorsport Riley-Dinan/BMW.
The Kiwi ended up with 1m38.525s, which was just four hundredths slower than Westbrook.
Daytona preview: US sportscar racing's moment of truth
Gurney, who also took pole at Daytona in 2007, said: "I'm really happy and pretty excited about this, because this is the biggest race of the year for me.
"All through testing we have concentrated on full-tank runs and when we took the fuel out, the time came."
Best of the rest behind the DPs in the Prototype class was the DeltaWing-Elan/Mazda DWC13, in which Katherine Legge ended up eighth - exactly one second from the pole.
P2 CARS STRUGGLE FOR PACE
The best P2 car was the Pickett Racing/Muscle Milk ORECA-Nissan 03 in 11th place with a time of 1m39.829s set by Lucas Luhr.
The Muscle Milk entry was the only P2 to end up ahead of the fastest contenders in the one-make Prototype Challenge class.
The Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b driven by Johannes van Overbeek was the second-fastest P2, albeit two seconds slower than Luhr.
Colin Braun was quickest in the PC division for the ORECA-Chevrolet FLM09. His best in the CORE-run entry of 1m41.777s just edged out Renger van der Zande for the top spot in class.
VIPER TOPS GT PACK
Marc Goossens claimed pole in the GT Le Mans class for Chrysler's SRT Viper squad with a time of 1m44.505s.
That put the Belgian less than a tenth of a second up on the factory CORE Autosport Porsche 911 RSR, which finished on a 1m44.582s.
The second Riley Technologies-run Viper GTS-R ended up third in the hands of Jonathan Bomarito, who was a further six hundredths in arrears.
A tenth back was the best of the new Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs, which was fourth quickest with Oliver Gavin at the wheel.
Honours in the GT Daytona class went to the Paul Miller Racing Audi team and Christopher Haase. The German's time of 1m46.973s put him less than a tenth ahead of Toni Vilander's Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia.
Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time 1. P Gurney/Fogarty/Gidley/Law GAINSCO Corvette 1m38.270s 2. P Westbrook/Valiante/Rockenfeller Spirit Corvette 1m38.487s 3. P Mayer/Popow/Hartley Speedworks Riley-BMW 1m38.525s 4. P Barbosa/Fittipaldi/Bourdais/Frisselle Action Express Corvette 1m38.658s 5. P Frisselle/Frisselle/Martin/Giroix Action Express Corvette 1m38.838s 6. P Dixon/Kanaan/Franchitti/Larson Ganassi Riley-BMW 1m38.948s 7. P Taylor/Angelelli/Taylor/Taylor Taylor Corvette 1m39.023s 8. P Meyrick/Legge/Rossi/Chaves DeltaWing 1m39.270s 9. P Pruett/Rojas/McMurray/Karam Ganassi Riley-Ford 1m39.424s 10. P Pew/Negri/Allmendinger/Wilson Shank Riley-Ford 1m39.761s 11. P Graf/Luhr/Brundle Pickett ORECA-Nissan 1m39.829s 12. P Curran/Said/Smith/Papis Marsh Corvette 1m40.570s 13. P DeFoor/Pace/Beck/Hinton Highway Riley-BMW 1m41.587s 14. PC Bennett/Gue/Braun/Wilkins CORE FLM 1m41.777s 15. PC Schultis/Lux/van der Zande/Bird Starworks FLM 1m41.815s 16. P Brown/van Overbeek/Pagenaud/Lazzaro Extreme Speed HPD 1m41.885s 17. PC Ende/Junqueira/Heinemeier Hansson RSR FLM 1m41.932s 18. PC Ostella/Matos/Drissi/Casagrande/Campos Performance FLM 1m42.053s 19. P Sharp/Dalziel/Brabham Extreme Speed HPD 1m42.157s 20. PC Cumming/Tagliani/Mitchell/Daly RSR FLM 1m42.187s 21. PC Rayhall/Kovacic/Bielefield/Kearby/Kasemets BAR1 FLM 1m42.416s 22. PC Montecalvo/Jeannette/Cheng/Guasch PR1 FLM 1m43.156s 23. P Pla/Rusinov/Yacaman/Webb OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m43.420s 24. PC Popow/Fuentes/Tutumlu/Marcelli/Kaffer Starworks FLM 1m44.126s 25. GT Farnbacher/Goossens/Hunter-Reay SRT Viper 1m44.506s 26. GT Tandy/Lietz/Pilet CORE Porsche 1m44.582s 27. GT Bell/Bomarito/Wittmer SRT Viper 1m44.617s 28. GT Gavin/Milner/Liddell Corvette 1m44.729s 29. GT Long/Christensen/Bergmeister CORE Porsche 1m44.746s 30. GT Mucke/Turner/Lamy/Stanaway/Dalla Lana Aston Martin 1m45.439s 31. GT Muller/Edwards/Rahal/Werner RLL BMW 1m45.667s 32. GT Auberlen/Priaulx/Hand/Martin RLL BMW 1m45.672s 33. GT Krohn/Jonsson/Bertolini/Dumbreck Krohn Ferrari 1m46.863s 34. GTD Miller/Rast/Haase/Bell Miller Audi 1m46.973s 35. GTD Balzan/Westphal/Vilander/Case Corsa Ferrari 1m47.028s 36. GTD Putman/Espenlaub/Jarvis/Walker Fall-Line Audi 1m47.050s 37. GTD Longo/Serra/Negrao/Gomes Corsa Ferrari 1m47.052s 38. GTD Block/Carter/Davis/Davison TRG Aston Martin 1m47.055s 39. GTD Tucker/Sweedler/Bell/Segal/Pier Guidi Ferrari 1m47.062s 40. GTD Keating/Bleekemolen/Bleekemolen Riley SRT Viper 1m47.255s 41. GTD Tucker/LaMarra/Borcheller/Cosmo Level 5 Ferrari 1m47.348s 42. GTD Norman/Stanton/Siedler/Bernhard Park Place Porsche 1m47.354s 43. GTD Rotenberg/Zlobin/Mediani/Salo/Aleshin SMP/ESM Ferrari 1m47.361s 44. GTD Lockie/McIntosh/Nimkroff/Riddle TRG Aston Martin 1m47.404s 45. GTD Cameron/Dalla Lana/Farfus/Palttala Turner BMW 1m47.418s 46. GTD Foster/Dempsey/Davis/Lieb Dempsey Porsche 1m47.490s 47. GTD Amos/Bamber/Blum/Imperatori/Zitza Muehlner Porsche 1m47.561s 48. GTD Potter/Lally/Henzler/Dumolin Magnus Porsche 1m47.572s 49. GTD MacNeil/Keen/van Gisbergen/Lewis Alex Job Porsche 1m47.647s 50. GTD Snow/Heylen/Seefried Snow Porsche 1m47.649s 51. GTD Cisneros/Giermaziak/Nielsen/Thiim NGT Porsche 1m47.742s 52. GTD Lindsey/Estre/De Phillippi/Hart/Vess Park Place Porsche 1m47.749s 53. GTD James/Farnbacher/Holzer/Riberas Alex Job Porsche 1m47.952s 54. GTD Canache/Pumpelly/Pappas/Winkelhock Flying Lizard Audi 1m48.045s 55. GTD Faulkner/Huisman/Faieta GB Porsche 1m48.049s 56. GTD Neiman/von Moltke/Latif/Albuquerque Flying Lizard Audi 1m48.140s 57. GTD Welch/Sofronas/Stippler/Basseng GMG Audi 1m48.381s 58. GTD Griffin/Cioci/Rugolo/Gerber Spirit of Race Ferrari 1m48.438s 59. GTD Engelhart/Ineichen/Bachler/Willsey Dempsey Porsche 1m48.741s 60. GTD Randall/Farano/Wilden/Empringham Corsa Ferrari 1m48.758s 61. GTD Doyle/Gewirtz/Kvamme/Michaelian Muehlner Porsche 1m48.821s 62. P Tremblay/Long/Hinchcliffe Speedsource Mazda 1m49.734s 63. P Miller/Nunez/Vautier Speedsource Mazda 1m50.251s
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