Duell with contact on last lap in qualifying race for IMSA’s inaugural 2022 24 Hours of Daytona – First GTD Pro pole goes to Lamborghini
Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Alexander Rossi and Will Stevens in the Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) Acura ARX-05 DPi are the pole setters for the 60th running of the 24 Hours of Daytona, the opening race of the 2022 IMSA season.
As has been the custom since 2021, the pole for the endurance race at Daytona International Speedway was not determined in a classic qualifying session, but in the qualifying race. As in the previous year, this qualifying race marked the climax and conclusion of the official Daytona pre-test, the so-called “Roar before the 24”. (Photos: Daytona pre-test with qualifying race for the 24h Daytona 2022)
The qualifying race over a distance of 1:40 hours saw a thrilling duel for victory on Sunday in sunny but cool conditions (twelve degrees Celsius). Ricky Taylor in the WTR-Acura was leading when he was attacked by Richard Westbrook in the JDC-Miller-Cadillac (Vautier/Westbrook/Duval/Keating) in turn 1 of the last lap.
At said scene, a slight contact occurred. While Westbrook spun but still finished second, Taylor took the win and with it the pole for the 24-hour race for himself and fellow drivers Albuquerque, Rossi and Stevens.
And this was the 𝙇𝘼𝙎𝙏 𝙇𝘼𝙋 pass attempt that determined the qualifying race outcome 🤯💥#IMSA / #Roar24 / #Rolex24 pic.twitter.com/5irNSZ9JdU
— #IMSA (@IMSA) January 23, 2022
While the 61 cars for the 24-hour race next weekend are filled with three or four drivers, only the two drivers per car who are seeded for the entire season entered the qualifying race. Background: The qualifying race also brings points for the IMSA overall standings. (Result: Qualifying race for the 24h Daytona 2022)
Van der Zande for Ganassi first fast – then too fast
Tristan Vautier started from the front in the JDC Miller Cadillac. But right behind him, Renger van der Zande in the 01 Ganassi-Cadillac (Van der Zande/Bourdais/Dixon/Palou) stormed forward from sixth to second position before the end of the first lap.
After his rocket start, van der Zande did not take his eyes off Vautier for several laps. In the heavy lapping traffic, there was indeed a change of positions after almost half an hour – but not in the fight for the lead. Van der Zande lost the second position to Filipe Albuquerque in the Wayne Taylor Acura.
Directly after the position change, the 01 Ganassi-Cadillac was called into the pits. Sebastien Bourdais took over the wheel. But the Frenchman was immediately informed that van der Zande had been too fast at the entrance to the pit lane. The consequence: drive-through penalty, which Bourdais had to serve.
Meanwhile, JDC-Miller’s first pit stop went smoothly. Front-runner Vautier came in a lap after van der Zande and handed over to Richard Westbrook. Another lap later, Albuquerque handed over the Wayne Taylor Acura to Ricky Taylor. And he was a touch quicker than Westbrook in the second of three stints of the 100-minute race.
Duell with contact on the last lap
But the lead in the second stint was held by the Shank-Acura (Jarvis/Blomqvist/Castroneves/Pagenaud) after Tom Blomqvist had handed over to Oliver Jarvis after just over 20 minutes. Using the same strategy, the 31 Action Express Cadillac (Derani/Nunez/Conway) was second. Here, newcomer Tristan Nunez had handed over the wheel to defending champion Pipo Derani early on.
Accordingly, the Action Express and Shank camps made their second pit stop early. After this had been completed by the entire field, Ricky Taylor in the Wayne Taylor Acura led the field into the final stint just ahead of Westbrook in the JDC Miller Cadillac.
The duel between the two, which was well worth seeing and culminated in contact in turn 1 of the last lap, was ultimately decided in Taylor’s favour. Westbrook was left with P2 and thus for him, Tristan Vautier, Loic Duval and Ben Keating the place on the outside of the front row of the grid for next weekend’s 24-hour race.
For the 2022 IMSA season opener, the top DPi class features seven cars. Behind the Wayne Taylor Acura and the JDC Miller Cadillac, the 31 Action Express Cadillac, which rounded out the DPi field in the qualifying race after a late extra fuel stop.
First GTD Pro pole goes to Lamborghini
The top class in the GT field of the IMSA scene in 2022 is the new GTD Pro class. In this class, which has 13 cars for Daytona, victory in the qualifying race, and with it the class pole for the 24-hour race, went to Lamborghini.
Andrea Caldarelli and Mirko Bortolotti in the TR3 Lamborghini (Caldarelli/Bortolotti/Mapelli/Ineichen) edged out Julien Andlauer and Alessio Picariello in the WeatherTech Porsche (Andlauer/Picariello/MacNeil/Cairoli) in a duel that was equally worth watching. P3 went to Matthieu Jaminet and Felipe Nasr in the Pfaff Porsche (Jaminet/Nasr/Campbell).
BMW finished last with both cars in the 13-car GTD Pro field on the M4 GT3’s USA debut. Corvette, too, arguably hasn’t revealed all its cards yet with P8 and P9.
More class poles for PR1, Andretti and Mercedes
In addition to DPi and GTD-Pro, there are three more classes in the 2022 IMSA season: LMP2, LMP3 and GTD.
The Daytona pole-setters in these three classes after respective class wins in the qualifying race are: 52 PR1-Oreca (Keating/Jensen/Huffaker/Lapierre) in LMP2, Andretti-Ligier (Andretti/Burdon/Lindh/Chaves) in LMP3 and Winward-Mercedes (Ward/Auer/Ellis/Grenier) in GTD, which is the most comprehensive with 22 cars.
The start of the 60th edition of the 24 Hours of Daytona will be next Saturday (29 January) at 13:40 local time (19:40 CET). Compared to last year, the race has thus been moved forward two hours. (Livestream, TV times, starting list and co.: All info on the 24h Daytona 2022).
