No. 93 Acura to start Rolex 24 At Daytona from pole after No. 31 Cadillac fails tech inspection

Acura Meyer Shank Racing will now start on pole position for the 64th annual Rolex 24 At Daytona after the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R failed post-qualifying technical inspection. 

The No. 31 Cadillac was found to have exceeded the allowable wear on the rear skid block, stripping Jack Aitken of the pole and moving him to the rear of the 11-car GTP field.

It means that the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 will start on pole, and Renger van der Zande will be awarded the Motul Pole Award, his first at Daytona since 2018 when he drove for Wayne Taylor Racing. Van der Zande’s lap time of 1m34.041s originally put him second on the grid in the red and black No. 93 Acura.

Instead, van der Zande, Nick Yelloly, Alex Palou, and Kakunoshin Ohta will start on the pole position, sharing the front row with the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R – Louis Delètraz set a 1m34.069s to at least keep one Cadillac on the front row for the start of the race on Saturday.

Two-time and defending Rolex 24 winner Felipe Nasr set a 1m34.183s to put the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 third on the grid in his quest for a Daytona three-peat.

In fourth was Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 MSR Acura, then Kévin Estre in the No. 6 Penske Porsche, Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 WTR Cadillac – and Nico Pino, a surprising seventh, in the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports 963.

Dries Vanthoor, last year’s pole winner, was only eighth in the No. 24 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, followed by teammate Marco Wittmann in the No. 25 BMW – who recovered from an early spin at the first corner.
Ross Gunn now rounds out the top 10 in the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie.

In addition, the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO has been stripped of its second-place qualifying result in GTD PRO for  exceeding the maximum allowable camber limit.

That will move the No. 59 RLL Team McLaren 720S GT3 EVO to the front row of GTD PRO, starting second next to the pole-winning No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R.