Daytona 24: Jarvis takes pole, Alonso to start sixth

With six minutes and 10 seconds remaining in the 15-minute qualifying session Thursday afternoon, Jarvis took the Motul Pole Award with a lap of 1:33.685 seconds (136.792 mph) in the No. 77 Mazda RT24-P DPi car. And with that, PJ Jones’ track record of 1:33.875 (136.521 mph) set in 1993 in the No. 98 Toyota Eagle Mk III for Dan Gurney’s All American Racers was broken.

Two-time F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso and his teammates Renger van der Zande, Jordan Taylor and Kamui Kobayashi will start from sixth in the Wayne Taylor Racing #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi.

At the front, it wasn’t quite as fast as Jarvis went back at the Roar a couple of weeks ago. On that picture-perfect Sunday afternoon, with near-perfect track conditions, Jarvis went 1:33.398 (137.212 mph) in the car he will share with Tristan Nunez, Timo Bernhard and Rene Rast in the twice-around-the-clock classic. But on a day that started with thunderstorms, with rains falling until midday, it was fast enough.

Speaking after taking pole, Jarvis said, “I just feel proud that I was able to reward the boys and girls who've worked so hard. This has been a serious effort to come here, over the winter, all of last year. To put it all together, to put it on pole, we know it doesn't mean much in a 24-hour race, but I think it represents what we're here to do.”

Jarvis’ qualifying run continued what has been a terrific 2019 so far for Mazda Team Joest. In fact it’s been a good couple of months for the program, as it finished a program-best second and third at Motul Petit Le Mans to close out the 2018 WeatherTech Championship. But Mazda is still looking for that elusive first victory in the series and all involved are hoping it finally comes this weekend.

“We're here to show that we're capable of winning races,” Jarvis said. “Hopefully we can do it here, but I think people now realize we've made that step that we needed to make last year. For (Mazda Motorsports Director) John (Doonan) I'm just so happy, he's put his heart and soul into this project, so it's a special day for us.”

Ricky Taylor qualified second in the No. 7 Acura Team Penske Acura ARX-05 DPi at 1:33.873 (136.518 mph), quicker on the clock than Jones’ previous record, but slightly slower in miles per hour owing to a minor change in track configuration. Nevertheless, the No. 7 will start second for the second consecutive year with Taylor and Indianapolis 500 winners Helio Castroneves and Alexander Rossi.

When they take the green flag at 2:35 p.m. ET on Saturday, the second row of the grid will feature cars from the same manufacturers and teams, but in a different order.

Juan Pablo Montoya qualified third in the No. 6 Acura DPi at 1:35.095 (136.198 mph) that he will co-drive with Dane Cameron and Simon Pagenaud. Jonathan Bomarito qualified fourth in the No. 55 Mazda DPi with a lap of 1:34.212 (136.027 mph). Bomarito’s co-drivers will be Harry Tincknell and Olivier Pla.

Felipe Nasr, the 2018 WeatherTech Championship Prototype co-champion, rounded out the top five with a lap of 1:34.479 (135.642 mph) in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R. Nasr will share the car with his 2018 co-champion, Eric Curran, and his new-for-2019 season-long co-driver, Pipo Derani, the 2016 Rolex 24 At Daytona winner.

The top seven qualifiers in the DPi class were covered by less than one second.

1. Mazda Team Joest Mazda DPi (Jarvis/Nunez/Bernhard/Rast) 1m33.685s
2. Acura Team Penske Acura DPi (Taylor/Castroneves/Rossi) + 0.188s
3. Acura Team Penske Acura DPi (Montoya/Cameron/Pagenaud) + 0.410s
4. Mazda Team Joest Mazda DPi (Bomarito/Tincknell/Pla) + 0.527s
5. Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi (Nasr/Curran/Derani) + 0.748s
6. Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi (van der Zande/Taylor/Alonso/Kobayashi) + 0.794s
7. Juncos Racing Cadillac DPi (Owen/Binder/Cannapino/Kaiser) + 0.994s
8. JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi (Goikhberg/Vautier/DeFrancesco/Barrichello) + 1.684s
9. JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi (Trummer/Simpson/Miller/Piedrahita) + 1.757s
10. DragonSpeed Oreca 07 Gibson (Hedman/Hanley/Lapierre/Allen) + 2.219s
11. PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson (McMurry/Aubry/Kvamme/Guibbert) + 2.742s
12. CORE Autosport Nissan DPi (Bennett/Braun/Dumas/Duval) + 3.001s
13. DragonSpeed Oreca 07 Gibson (Gonzalez/Maldonado/Saavedra/Cullen) + 3.692s
14. Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson (K Masson/R Masson/Cassels/Wright) + 4.436s
15. Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi (Barbosa/Conway/Albuquerque/Fittipaldi) + 8.572s

Australian driver James Allen proved to be a quick study on Thursday afternoon as he took the Motul Pole Award for the LMP2 class in qualifying for his first Rolex 24 At Daytona. Allen posted a best time of 1:35.904 (133.627 mph) in the No. 81 DragonSpeed ORECA LMP2 machine.

“That was really good, quite the ride,” said Allen, who will share the car with Henrik Hedman, Ben Hanley and Nicolas Lapierre in the race. “I trust the team to build the car up to last the 24 hours. It should be good, its good, year.”

Gabriel Aubry qualified second in LMP2 at 1:36.427 (132.902 mph) in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA. Qualifying third in LMP2 was Roberto Gonzalez in the No. 18 DragonSpeed ORECA at 1:37.377 (131.606 mph).

1. #911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR (Pilet/Tandy/Makowiecki) 1m42.257s
2. #3 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R (Magnussen/Garcia/Rockenfeller) + 0.326s
3. #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT (Briscoe/Westbrook/Dixon) + 0.377s
4. #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE (Rigon/Molina/Pier Guidi/Calado) + 0.455s
5. #912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR (Bamber/Vanthoor/Jaminet) + 0.539s
6. #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT (Hand/Muller/Bourdais) + 0.663s
7. #24 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE (Krohn/Edwards/Mostert/Zanardi) + 0.696s
8. #25 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE (Farfus/De Phillippi/Eng/Herta) + 0.729s
9. #4 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R (Gavin/Milner/Fassler) + 0.982s

1. Via Italia Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 (Longo/Franzoni/Gomes/Bertolini) 1m45.257s
2. Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Keating/Bleekemolen/Stolz/Fraga) + 0.067s
3. Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 (Farnbacher/Hindman/Marks/Allmendinger) + 0.139s
4. EBIMOTORS Lamborghini Huracan GT3 (Busnelli/Babini/Altoe) + 0.218s
5. Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 (Ineichen/Bortolotti/Engelhart/Breukers) + 0.559s
6. Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 (Dalla Lana/Lamy/Lauda/Serra) + 0.595s
7. Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 (Potter/Lally/Pumpelly/Mapelli) + 0.598s
8. PFAFF Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (Hargrove/Robichon/Kern/Olsen) + 0.688s
9. Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 (Sellers/Hardwick/Lewis/Caldarelli) + 0.783s
10. Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 (Lindsey/Long/Campbell/Boulle) + 0.846s
11. Heinricher Racing Acura NSX GT3 (Legge/Beatriz/De Silvestro/Nielsen) + 0.859s
12. AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 (Heistand/Hawksworth/Cindric/Cassidy) + 0.957s
13. Black Swan Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (Pappas/Seefried/Cairoli/Werner) + 0.974s
14. AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 (Montecalvo/Bell/Telitz/Segal) + 1.013s
15. Montaplast by Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 (Morad/Miles/Vanthoor) + 1.052s
16. Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 (MacNeil/Vilandner/Farnbacher/Westphal) + 1.064s
17. NGT Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (Haering/Bacler/Muller/Goerig/Renauer) + 1.412s
18. Starworks Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 (Chase/Dalziel/Perez Companc/Haase) + 1.453s
19. Moorespeed Audi R8 LMS GT3 (Davis/Riberas/Hardeman/Winkelhock) + 1.524s
20. WRT Speedstar Audi Sport Audi R8 LMS GT3 (Vervisch/van der Linde/James/DeAngelis) + 2.111s
21. P1 Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Buhk/Schiller/Baumann/Perez) + 2.190s
22. Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini GT3 (Dunn/Lundqvist/Pavlovic/Yount) + 2.552s
23. Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 (Auberlen/Foley/Machavem/Klingmann) no time*

Source: IMSA Media