#911 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy and Frederic Makowiecki
Driving the #911 Porsche 911 RSR, Nick Tandy put together a brilliant lap in qualifying at the Daytona 24 on Thursday when he set a new qualifying record for the GTLM class at Daytona during the 15-minute session of 1:42.257 minutes. This makes Tandy the best qualifying driver in the history of the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Earl Bamber qualified the #912 sister car in fifth grid spot.
#912 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Earl Bamber, Mathieu Jaminet and Laurens Vanthoor
Clearly Tandy was ‘in the zone’ as everything came together for one perfect lap, as he was able to capitalise on slip-streaming at just the right moment, and the execution of his drive was just right. It’s a long race, make no mistake, but if you start off on the right foot then that is all to the good.
#911 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy and Frederic Makowiecki
(L-R) Porsche GT Team: Nick Tandy, Frederic Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet
In the GTD class, Porsche test driver Lars Kern secured eighth position on the debut of the new Porsche 911 GT3 R fielded by the Canadian team, Pfaff Motorsports. The #73 car run by Park Place Motorsports recorded the tenth fastest time in class while the #540 Black Swan Racing car is three places further back, with the #99 NGT Motorsport car will start from 17th place in class.
#9 PFAFF Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Scott Hargrove, Zacharie Robichon, Lars Kern and Dennis Olsen #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Patrick Lindsey, Patrick Long, Matt Campbell and Nicholas Boulle #540 Black Swan Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Timothy Pappas, Marco Seefried, Matteo Cairoli and Dirk Werner #99 NGT Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Jürgen Haering, Steffen Goering, Sven Müller, Klaus Bachler and Alfred Renauer
In addition, we have compiled a selection of images from the pit lane and around the paddock, sent in by our intrepid all-rounder, Martin. We hope that you enjoy the gallery…
Waiting in line for night practice – the rain has gone, temperatures have cooled
Joest Team Mazda, one of which broke the track record in qualifying Peter Gregg’s 1972 914-6 in the historic display This is 962-HR1, the first Holbert Racing built car which ran in IMSA in the mid 1980s The Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GTD – odd placement for the brake and clutch reservoirs, a hit to the door by a tyre could be problematic This is the AMG Mercedes (GTD class) based on a ‘street unibody’ car Action Express Cadillac-Dallara Porsche 911 RSR GTLM at the pit exit Penske Acura of Rossi, Taylor and Castroneves Long-time Porsche and Mercedes driver, and all around good guy, Bernd Schneider, currently a Mercedes advisor and sometimes driver The 1984 winning car at Daytona, the Kreepy Krauly Porsche engined March, driven by Sarel van der Merwe, Graham Duxbury and Tony Martin Rob Dyson’s Porsche 962-101, the first customer 962 sold in 1984
The 24-hour race at Daytona takes off on Saturday, 26 January, at 14h35 local time (20h35 CET). Make sure you have the armchair booked for the start tomorrow, with a good supply of snacks and frosties at your side…enjoy!! Written by: Glen Smale and Martin Raffauf Images by: Porsche Motorsport and Martin Raffauf
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