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Derani, Nasr Rally at Motul Pole Award 100 Victory in Cadillac No.31
By Jeff Olson
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida. – The rain and a penalty did not pose a problem on Sunday for Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani.
Relegated to sixth starting place after the technical inspection of Whelen Engineering’s # 31 Cadillac DPi VR failed on Saturday night for underweight, the duo rallied to win the first Motul Pole Award 100, which went determined the starting order of the 59th Rolex 24 next weekend. In Daytona.
Motul Pole 100 Prize Results
The race started in wet conditions but quickly dried up. 48 minutes from the end of the 100-minute race, Nasr completed the charge in the lead, passing Tristan Vautier for the lead.
Harry Tincknell gathered his own load in the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports Mazda DPi Mazda to finish second, while Vautier co-driver Loic Duval finished third in the Daytona Prototype International (DPi) class.
In the end, the wet conditions and the passage from first to sixth place for the start of Sunday’s race did not affect the pair. In fact, the challenges may have provided an incentive.
“Rules are rules, but we didn’t let the frustration wash over us,” Nasr said. “It was about putting our heads down. When we saw the weather change (before the race) we knew there was an opportunity. It’s racing. We took whatever came and went and made progress in the peloton. It was awesome. “
Derani, who finished the victory by 3.664 seconds, said the team treated the qualifying race – a new format for the Rolex 24 – like any other.
“We used this as a normal race,” said Derani. “For us, it’s really important to try everything we can so that we can get here next week and understand all of our needs for a good race.… A race win is a race win, be it 35 points or 350 points. That’s how we run. We always do our best. “
Nasr, Derani, defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott and Mike Conway will share the No. 31 Rolex 24 car, set to depart at 3:40 p.m. ET on Saturday with live television coverage on NBC . Tincknell, Oliver Jarvis and Jonathan Bomarito will co-drive the No.55 car, which will start alongside the No.31 in the front row.
Duval, Sébastien Bourdais and Vautier will share the Cadillac DPi VR # 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports, which will benefit from a second row start.
As Nasr and Derani teamed up to claim the overall victory and the DPi Motul Pole Award for the Rolex 24 start on Saturday, Mikkel Jensen took the lead 10 minutes from time to claim pole at Le Mans Prototype 2 ( LMP2).
Ben Keating qualified first in the No.52 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07 PR1, but was bitten by the rough conditions and spun into Turn 6 on the final lap, leaving him in good running order.
This gave Roberto Lacorte the class lead in the No. 47 Cetilar Racing Dallara LMP2 in the opening laps of the race. After the two teams switched riders, Jensen rallied to pass Antonio Fuoco in Turn 3 on the 12-turn, 3.56 mile Daytona International Speedway road course.
Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen finished second in LMP2 in the No. 20 ORECA LMP2 07 High Class Racing which he co-drove with Dennis Andersen.
Jensen, Keating, Nicolas Lapierre and Scott Huffaker will co-drive the LMP2 pole winner, who will start eighth overall on Saturday.
Jensen chased Fuoco – driving the only Dallara in his class – until he was able to head into Turn 3.
“It was intense,” Jensen said. “The Dallara is noticeably faster in the straights so I struggled to get through it but tried to push really hard and plan ahead of the bus stop to leave a gap when it was in traffic so I could really try to get close to him on turn 1. After three or four times he made a mistake that I benefited from. “
In the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class, Moritz Kranz and Laurents Hoerr capped an exceptional weekend by taking victory in Sunday’s race one day after qualifying for the Motul Pole Award 100 and winning the Scouts race of America 145 IMSA Prototype Challenge.
The German teammates are Rolex 24 rookies in Muehlner Motorsports America’s No.6 Duqueine M30-D08, but the team is based near DeLand, Florida.
“It’s a great experience and a great opportunity for us,” said Kranz. “So far we only know about this race and this place from TV. So far it’s a clean sweep. Everything has gone as we had hoped, now we have to prepare for the next weekend, because it’s going to be different. So history. ”
The No.6 will start first in his class and 27th overall when the two-time challenge begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC. After the first hour, flag-to-flag coverage switches to NBCSN and NBC Sports Gold before returning to NBC on Sunday at 2 p.m. for the conclusion.
IMSA Radio will also be covering all the action live on IMSA.com and SiriusXM Radio.
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