Daytona Beach, Florida. Twelve racecars based on the seventh generation of the iconic Porsche 911 sports car have qualified for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona. The 53rd running of the 24 hours of racing at Daytona International Speedway, of which Porsche is defending GT Le Mans (GTLM) class winner, will run January 24-25.
2015 53rd Rolex Daytona 24 has 12 Porsche 911 racecars: Both the 911 RSR and GT America in the mix
Porsche 911 RSR
One of the three entered Porsche 911 RSRs, the most advanced competition variant of the rear-engine sports car, qualified eighth on the GTLM grid for the Saturday-Sunday race. Nick Tandy (Great Britain), driving the No. 911 Porsche North America factory entry, led the German contingent, one-half of one second off the pole position time.
Porsche 911 GT America
In the GT Daytona class, the fastest Porsche qualified third, with Christopher Zoeching from Austria at the helm of the No. 28 Konrad Motorsport Porsche 911 GT America, Zoeching, a 26 year-old Porsche Michelin Supercup driver, edged Jan Heylen (Tampa Florida) who put the No. 58 Dempsey/Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America in fourth place.
The 53rd Rolex 24 At Daytona will have live audio and video coverage from flag-to-flag in the United States. The FOX Network begins television coverage from 2-4 p.m. ET. Coverage will move to FOX Sports 2 from 4-8 p.m., then to FOX Sports 1, 8-10 p.m. The overnight hours will have a live video stream at IMSA TV on IMSA.com with both video and commentary from 10 p.m.-7 a.m. FOX Sports 1 resumes coverage at 7 a.m. through to the checkered flag at 2:10 p.m. and Victory Lane celebrations.
Nick Tandy, No 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR: “We missed the front two rows by a small amount; at the moment we are losing on the straights. It will make the race difficult but it is 24 hours. However, we had a really good run through the session and we were building speed.”
GT Le Mans Qualifying Results
1. No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, Oliver Gavin (Great Britain), 1:43.488
2. No. 51 Ferrari F458 Italia, Gianmaria Bruni (Italy), 1:43.830
3. No. 98 Aston Martin Vantage V8, Pedro Lamy (Portugal), 1:43.960
8. No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR, Nick Tandy (Great Britain), 1:44.082
9. No. 17 Porsche 911 RSR, Bryan Sellers (Braselton, Georgia), 1:44.465
10. No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR, Frédéric Makowiecki (France), 1:44.759
GT Daytona Qualifying Results
1. No. 007 Aston Martin V12 Vantage, James Davison (Australia), 1:47.27
2. No. 33 Dodge Viper SRT, Jeroen Bleekemolen (The Netherlands), 1:47.42
3. No. 28 Porsche 911 GT America, Chistopher Zoeching (Austria), 1:47.45
4. No. 58 Porsche 911 GT America, Jan Heylen (Tampa, Florida), 1:47.53
7. No. 73 Porsche 911 GT America, Spencer Pumpelly (Atlanta, Georgia), 1:47.86
8. No. 44 Porsche 911 GT America, Andy Lally (Atlanta, Georgia) 1:48.09
13. No. 23 Porsche 911 GT America, Mario Farnbacher (Germany), 1:48.68
14. No. 19 Porsche 911 GT America, Connor De Philippi (San Clemente, California), 1:49.03
15. No. 18 Porsche 911 GT America, Marc Basseng (Germany), 1:49.29
18. No. 81 Porsche 911 GT America, Damien Faulkner (Ireland), 2:14.90
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Source: Kind courtesy of Porsche Motorsport North America