By alley - Jan 26, 2017, 3:21 PM ET

Rolex 24 Thursday notebook

NISSAN PLEASED WITH QUALIFYING
Tequila Patron ESM’s week got off to a rough start when its new No. 22 Nissan DPi was hit by a camera crew and sustained radiator damage during a Wednesday car-to-car photo shoot. The troubles continued during Thursday’s practice, with the No. 22 running out of fuel near the end of the second session.

Then everything fell into place for the defending Rolex 24-winning team during qualifying. Brendon Hartley was fifth in the No. 22 Tequila Patron Nissan DPi (1m37.609, 0.706 seconds behind the pole-winning No. 5 Cadillac), with Ryan Dalziel clocking sixth fastest in the No. 2 (1m38.251s).

“We really don’t have a lot of expectations for this weekend,” admitted team owner Ed Brown, who co-drives the No. 22 car. “Our cars are brand new, and everybody has way more laps than we do. So it was a very solid performance in qualifying. We made big leaps today; we’re very pleased with the speed. It’s such a new car, and we haven’t had them very long, and we’ve made big gains. We’re really looking forward to the season – I think we’re going to be solid.”

DRAGONS UNDER FIRE
Elton Julian’s DragonSpeed Racing team was forced to miss qualifying after driver Loic Duval went off in FP2 and damaged the team’s ORECA 05 tub beyond immediate repair. A quick visit to the ORECA spares transporter resulted in a brand-new ORECA 07 tub being wheeled into the garage, and the long process of transferring everything over from one tub to another, along with installing all of the components that attach to the tub externally will push DragonSpeed’s mechanics into Friday before the fresh No. 81 car is ready to go.

SWEEPY GOODNESS
Cadillac went 1-2 thanks to Action Express Racing to

capture the first-ever pole

for Daytona Prototype internationals; Ford claimed a 1-2-3 in GT Le Mans – after running 1-2-3 in multiple sessions at the Roar Before the 24 – and Ferrari swept the GTD front row with the 488 in the hands of Spirit of Race and Scuderia Corsa.

In GTD, where Acura, Lexus and Mercedes-AMG are making their WeatherTech Championship debuts, the NSX GT3 led the trio (P7), followed by the best Lexus RC F (P13) and the top Mercedes-AMG GT3 (P18) in a significant reversal of fortune from recent testing at Daytona where the German cars were fast right out of the box.

MELLOW MAZDAS
One surprise from qualifying involved the pace, or rather, the newfound lack of pace by Mazda’s pair of RT24-P DPis. Coming off a strong Roar performance that ended with P2 for the event on the (1m38.363s), seeing the Mazdas take ninth and 10th in a class of 12 cars with a best of 1m39.940s would suggest significant problems were being experienced. Not the case, according to the team.

After securing multiple poles in 2016 and suffering multiple failures while leading or contending for the win, the SpeedSource-led team has taken a different approach to open the season by focusing on the finish line. The team pushed hard at the Roar and gauged the RT24-P’s speed relative to its rivals, and with that benchmark in place, Mazda appears to be planning for a 24-hour race where its cars play the unfamiliar role of tortoise among the hares.

With every Prototype team dealing with reliability concerns, the RT24-Ps have been set on a path of endurance instead of lap records. Come Sunday afternoon, we’ll know if it’s the winning strategy.

SOMEONE LEFT THE SAND AT THE BEACH
The mysteriously missing speed among the Cadillac DPi-V.R camp at the roar Before the 24 magically appeared during the

first

and

second

practice sessions. Rising winds have kept top speeds in check, but that hasn't stopped the trio of Cadillacs from locking out the top three in that department so far, or from running 1-2-3 in FP1 and FP2.

The margin from the fastest Cadillac to the best non-Cadillac in FP1 was 2.160s (Rebellion Racing's WEC ORECA 07-Gibson), and in FP2, it was a similar 1.926s (DragonSpeed's ORECA 07).

Seeing the Cadillacs up front is far from a surprise. Having it happen straight away in the event ... not so much.

SPARES
The Nissan team encountered unexpected adversity while doing tracking shots around Daytona. Side-to-side contact between the Patron-sponsored Nissan Onroak DPis left one of the cars with a crumpled left intercooler and bodywork in need of repair. Owing to the late delivery of the cars, spare parts production has been slightly behind, and with the need to dip into the team's spares after the clash, new spares are being carried over from Onroak's base in France to Daytona by plane.

PART-TIME MAYOR
IndyCar star James Hinchcliffe has an interesting schedule heading into Saturday's 24-hour race. The "Mayor of Hinchtown" isn't scheduled to get into his No. 55 Mazda RT24-P DPi until night practice, leaving most of Thursday open for his general amusement, and once the session is over, he's off to New Orleans for a pre-arranged promotional stop on behalf of IndyCar.

The most significant stretch of time he'll have in the 2.0-liter turbocharged prototype will come after the green flag waves.

15-YEAR OLD TAKES RRDC AWARD
Neil Verhagen, a 15-year-old Connecticut native, was recognized as the youngest winner of the Mark Donohue Award at the annual Road Racing Drivers Club dinner Wednesday evening at the Dayonta 500 Club. Verhagen was voted the honor for his efforts in the 2016 SCCA Runoffs at Mid-Ohio in winning the Formula F championship.

Verhagen is now residing in Holland to prepare for joining the Red Bull Junior team in 2017 Formula Renault two-liter competition on premier European circuits. His goals are to compete in Formula 1 or IndyCar, with the Rolex 24 also on his bucket list.

"Neil Verhagen is a superstar – a record-breaker and record-maker," Dorsey Schroeder said during the award presentation.

Other awards included the Phil Hill Award,

to Chip Ganassi

, and the Bob Akin Award,

presented to Murray Smith

GUASCH HAPPY TO BE BACK HOME
Mike Guasch admits that his successful bid to win the ELMS P3 championship wore him out, involving 15 round trips to Europe. This year, he's running a new Ligier – the only JSP217 in the Rolex 24 field. Guasch returns with Tom Kimber-Smith for the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup in the No. 52 Gibson-powered entry.

"I'll have a lot more time at home and catching up on life," Guasch said. "This new car is a monster. It really comes on like a bat out of hell."

EXPERIENCE PAYING OFF FOR STEVENSON IN GTD
Andrew Davis returns for Stevenson Motorsports, co-driving with Robin Liddell, Lawson Aschenbach and Matt Bell in the No. 57 Audi R8 LMS GT3.

"We're one of the few teams with the same car and same driver lineup," Davis said. "We hope the lessons we learned last year will help us. We're far ahead of where we were here last year. We're optimistic, but it's going to be very tough. It's exciting to see all the manufacturers here with strong cars and strong driver lineups. It's at a new level – maybe the toughest competition ever – and it's going to be a very exciting race."

GURNEY FAMILY STILL HOLDS DAYTONA SPEED MARK

While Alex Gurney’s three-year old IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Challenge Prototype class record was shattered during Thursday’s qualifying session, his father still holds the Rolex 24 all-time mark.

Joao Barbosa ran 1m36.903s as the top six eclipsed Gurney’s 2014 mark of 1m38.270s, with the No. 5 Action Express Cadillac DPi driver the fastest qualifier at Daytona in 24 years.

However, the all-time Daytona mark remains in the grip of Dan Gurney’s All American Racers, with P.J. Jones running a sizzling lap of 1m33.875s in the No. 98 Toyota Eagle back in 1993 – a prelude to that year’s victory co-driving with Ricky Moran and Mark Dismore.

C.J. WILSON TRADING MITT FOR HELMET
C.J. Wilson told Radio Le Mans that he will be concentrating on cars in 2017. The former all-star lefty pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels will be racing in the Porsche GT3 Cup this season, in addition to overseeing his racing team and auto dealerships.

“For the past 16 years, I’ve been a pro baseball player,” Wilson said. “But my whole life I wanted to be something completely different.”