Yahoo Autos Wayne Taylor Racing Take Daytona 24 Qualifying Race
Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque have won today's IMSA qualifying race at Daytona for Wayne Taylor Racing and Acura. The race, which was introduced last year to combat sandbagging for balance-of-performance reasons, sets the grid for next weekend's prestigious 24 Hours of Daytona.
The No. 10 WTR Acura took pole in dramatic fashion, winning a side-by-side battle with the No. 5 JDC-Miller Cadillac of Richard Westbrook that saw Westbrook spin in turn 1 on the final lap. Westbrook recovered to second, but could not catch the Acura. The part-time No. 48 Action Express Racing Cadillac will start third in next Saturday's race.
In the new-for-2022 GTD Pro category, Mirko Bortolotti beat out Alessio Picariello's No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche for victory and pole by less than half a second. That puts Bortolotti's No. 63 TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan on pole for the race, while a finish within two seconds of the leaders puts the No. 9 Pfaff Porsche in third. Lucas Auer took pole for the No. 57 Mercedes in the pro-am GTD category that does not have a suffix, fourth overall among GTD entries.
Notably, Chevrolet's new-to-GTD Corvette C8.R and BMW's new-for-2022 M4 GT3 both struggled in pace throughout today's sprint qualifying race. Both cars already got a small balance-of-performance break after similar struggles in earlier practice sessions.
The No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen team will start on pole in LMP2, while the No. 36 Andretti Autosport car takes top class honors in LMP3.
The Rolex 24 at Daytona will be held on Saturday and run through early Sunday afternoon.
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