Mazda Sets Track Record With Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Pole, Penske’s To Start Behind

The Mazda’s came out swinging. Earlier this month, they set the “unofficial” track record for IMSA competition at the Daytona International Speedway. On Thursday, the “official” track record is now theirs.

Oliver Jarvis and his Mazda Team Joest turned a lap of 1:33.685-seconds around the 3.56-mile road course en route to the pole for the 57th annual Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. The lap broke PJ Jones’ previous track record of 1:33.875-seconds set back in 1993 for Dan Gurney.

Jarvis, will start P1 on Saturday in his No. 77 Mazda DPi car.

His lap in the Roar was 1:33.398-seconds but that day was about as perfect of track conditions as one can get.

Ricky Taylor qualified second in the No. 7 Acura Team Penske Acura ARX-05 DPi at 1:33.873 (136.518 mph), quicker on the clock than Jones’ previous record, but slightly slower in miles per hour owing to a minor change in track configuration. Nevertheless, the No. 7 will start second for the second consecutive year with Taylor and Indianapolis 500 winners Helio Castroneves and Alexander Rossi.

When they take the green flag at 2:35 p.m. ET on Saturday, the second row of the grid will feature cars from the same manufacturers and teams, but in a different order.

Juan Pablo Montoya qualified third in the No. 6 Acura DPi at 1:35.095 (136.198 mph) that he will co-drive with Dane Cameron and Simon Pagenaud. Jonathan Bomarito qualified fourth in the No. 55 Mazda DPi with a lap of 1:34.212 (136.027 mph). Bomarito’s co-drivers will be Harry Tincknell and Olivier Pla.

Felipe Nasr, the 2018 WeatherTech Championship Prototype co-champion, rounded out the top five with a lap of 1:34.479 (135.642 mph) in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R. Nasr will share the car with his 2018 co-champion, Eric Curran, and his new-for-2019 season-long co-driver, Pipo Derani, the 2016 Rolex 24 At Daytona winner.

The top seven qualifiers in the DPi class were covered by less than one second.

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