Ricky Taylor fended off Richard Westbrook to secure pole position for next weekend’s 24 Hours of Daytona in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing.
Conditions were dry and bright at the Daytona International Speedway before the crucial qualifying race which will set the grid for next weekend’s 24 Hours of Daytona.
At lights out, the front of the field was full of action in DPi as Tristan Vautier fended off his front-row spot from the #2 Cadillac Racing of Earl Bamber.
In LMP2, the #52 kept its pole position ahead of the sister car, piloted by Steven Thomas.
Also at the beginning, LMP3 drama struck including the likes of the #48 with a suspected alternator issue, and the #54 who did not start, and the #74.
Both WeatherTech Racing cars in GTD-Pro were battling side-by-side at the beginning in the middle of the category.
The #10 started in 7th after failing post-qualifying checks, but charged up to fifth at the opening stage in the hands of Filipe Albuquerque.
After 10 minutes of racing, another LMP3 faced drama when the #74 suffered mechanical issues and went behind the wall to the garage.
The first scheduled pit stop was the #31 Whelen Engineering DPi with an hour and 17 minutes left.
Both GTD fields battled out fiercely in pursuit of track position, but there was drama between the #27 Heart of Racing of Tom Gamble who had contact with the #96 Turner Motorsport.
Their BMW M4 GT3, debuting at Daytona, suffered a front-right puncture and Ben Auberlen nursed the car back to the pits and did not return to the circuit.
The #27 immediately stopped behind a wall after the contact and retired, thus not triggering a safety car.
For the final 15 minutes, it was an intense battle for the overall lead with the #10 Ricky Taylor fending off his lead to the #5 pole-sitter of Richard Westbrook.
Meanwhile the #31 of Pipo Derani lost his third place after having to make a splash-and-dash pit stop for fuel in the final minutes.
The #10 was put to the back of the DPi field (of seven cars) and the car which won the last three Daytona 24 Hours races was fighting for pole position.
Their nose-to-tail battle was kept together with the draft on the ovals, and with the GTD traffic.
On the final lap, Westbrook clipped the rear of Taylor approaching Turn 1, sending him into a spin whilst the Acura continued unharmed to the pole position.
The #10 has won the last three editions of the 24, so they will be pursuing a fourth win next weekend.
Rene Rast asserted the strongest LMP2 pace in the #68 with a fastest lap of 1m35.789s.
Ultimately, the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports landed LMP2 pole ahead of their #11 sister Oreca 07.
In LMP3, it was the #36 who starts at the front of their field for next week’s main race.
GTD-Pro had the #63 Lamborghini Huracan take the win for pole, whilst the #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 took its GTD-class pole position.
Reminder: DPi, LMP2s and LMP3s will start in their seperate fields but GTD will be mixed.
| Overall Position | Category | Team |
| 1 (61 Laps) | DPi | #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 |
| 2 | DPi | #5 JDC Miller MotorSports |
| 3 | DPi | #48 Ally Cadillac |
| 4 | DPi | #60 Meyer Shank Racing W/Curb-Agajanian |
| 5 | DPi | #2 Cadillac Racing |
| 6 | DPi | #2 Cadillac Racing |
| 7 | DPi | #31 Whelen Engineering Racing |
| 8 | LMP2 | #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports |
| 9 | LMP2 | #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports |
| 10 | LMP2 | #68 G-Drive Racing By APR |
| 11 | LMP2 | #20 High Class Racing |
| 12 | LMP2 | #81 DragonSpeed USA |
| 13 | LMP2 | #29 Racing Team Nederland |
| 14 | LMP2 | #68 G-Drive Racing By APR |
| 15 | LMP2 | #8 Tower Motorsport |
| 16 | LMP2 | #22 United Autosports |
| 17 | LMP3 | #36 Andretti Motorsport |
| 18 | LMP3 | #6 Muehlner Motorsports America |
| 19 | LMP3 | #13 AWA |
| 20 | GTD-Pro | #63 TR3 Racing |
| 21 | GTD-Pro | #97 WeatherTech Racing |
| 22 | GTD-Pro | #9 Pfaff Motorsports |
| 23 | GTD | #57 Winward Racing |
| 24 | GTD | #59 Crucial Motorsports |
| 25 | GTD-Pro | #97 WeatherTech Racing |
| 26 | GTD-Pro | #15 Proton USA |
| 27 | GTD-Pro | #27 Heart of Racing Team |
| 28 | GTD-Pro | #12 VasserSullivan |
| 29 | GTD | #16 Wright Motorsports |
| 30 | GTD | #12 VasserSullivan |
| 31 | GTD | #75 Sun Energy 1 |
| 32 | GTD | #32 Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports |
| 33 | GTD-Pro | #4 Corvette Racing |
| 34 | GTD | #28 Algera Motorsports |
| 35 | GTD | #70 Inception Racing |
| 36 | LMP3 | #7 Forty7 Motorsports |
| 37 | GTD | #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing |
| 38 | GTD-Pro | #3 Corvette Racing |
| 39 | GTD | #44 Magnus Racing |
| 40 | GTD | #98 Northwest AMR |
| 41 | GTD-Pro | #2 KCMG |
| 42 | GTD | #47 Cetilar Racing |
| 43 | GTD-Pro | #62 Risi Competizione |
| 44 | GTD-Pro | #24 BMW M Team RLL |
| 45 | GTD | #19 TR3 Racing |
| 46 | GTD-Pro | #25 BMW M Team RLL |
| 47 | GTD | #99 Team Hardpoint |
| 48 | GTD | #34 GMG Racing |
| 49 | GTD | #66 Gradient Racing |
| 50 | GTD | #21 AF Corse |
| 51 | LMP3 | #33 Sean Creech Motorsport |
| 52 | GTD | #42 NTE Sport |
| 53 | LMP3 | #26 Muehlner Motorsports America |
| 54 | GTD | #64 TeamTGM |
| 55 | LMP2 | #18 Era Motorsport |
| 56 | GTD | #96 Turner Motorsport |
| 57 | GTD | #23 Heart of Racing Team |
| 58 | LMP3 | #38 Performance Tech Motorsports |
| 59 | GTD | #71 T3 Motorsport North America |
| 60 | LMP3 | #74 Riley Motorsports |
| 61 | LMP3 | #54 CORE Autosport |
