Donohue takes Rolex 24 pole
David Donohue continued the Brumos team's excellent practice form by taking pole position for the Daytona 24 Hours - albeit by only 0.001 seconds over Penske's Timo Bernhard
Brumos's Porsche-engined Rileys had topped the pre-race test and both practice sessions, and their impressive form continued in qualifying as Donohue - whose father Mark won the 1969 race - set a 1:40.540 lap in the car he shares with Buddy Rice, Antonio Garcia and Darren Law.
But that was only just enough to pip Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Ryan Briscoe's Penske Riley-Porsche, as the American Le Mans Series converts made a fine start to their Grand-Am campaign.
Last year Michael Shank Racing had swept the front row for the Rolex 24, and Michael Valiante came close to putting the team on pole position again. But the Canadian, who will share the No.6 Ford-powered Riley with AJ Allmendinger, James Pew and Ian James, was edged back from his early provisional pole to third, albeit just a tenth of a second slower than Donohue.
Oswaldo Negri Jr had put the second MSR car on pole in 2008, but was only 12th on the grid this time - one place behind former champions GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing.
Ricardo Zonta's Krohn Racing Lola-Ford and Ryan Dalziel's Alegra Motorsports Riley-BMW complete the top five on the grid, ahead of the lead Ganassi entry of series champions Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, and guest driver Juan Pablo Montoya.
The No.02 Ganassi car, driven by Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon and Alex Lloyd, will start eighth, behind the SunTrust Dallara-Ford.
The Childress-Howard entry, which includes Danica Patrick in its driving squad, missed qualifying due to a practice engine failure, so will start at the rear of the DP field.
In the GT class, Sylvain Tremblay put 2008 pole and race winners SpeedSource Mazda on pole again, fending off a strong challenge from Andy Lally (TRG Porsche) and Martin Ragginger (Autometrics Porsche).
Leading qualifying positions:
Pos Qualifying driver Team Car Time 1. David Donohue Brumos Porsche/Riley 1:40.540 2. Timo Bernhard Penske Porsche/Riley 1:40.541 + 0.001 3. Michael Valiante Michael Shank Ford/Riley 1:40.651 + 0.111 4. Ricardo Zonta Krohn Ford/Lola 1:40.892 + 0.352 5. Ryan Dalziel Alegra BMW/Riley 1:40.915 + 0.375 6. Scott Pruett Ganassi Lexus/Riley 1:41.016 + 0.476 7. Max Angelelli SunTrust Ford/Dallara 1:41.311 + 0.771 8. Scott Dixon Ganassi Lexus/Riley 1:41.316 + 0.776 9. Joao Barbosa Brumos Porsche/Riley 1:41.375 + 0.835 10. Christophe Bouchut Level 5 BMW/Riley 1:41.569 + 1.029
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