Ryan Dalziel Puts Starworks Ford/Riley On Rolex 24 At Daytona Pole

The new-look Grand-Am Daytona Prototypes and GT cars (new and old) took their first laps in "official" anger today on the 3.560-mile Daytona International Speedway road/oval course as they prepare for the 50th anniversary Rolex 24 at Daytona this weekend.

Not every Daytona Prototype participated in the 15-minute qualifying session this afternoon as reigning race and series champions No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates BMW/Riley and the No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP both suffered engine problems in the final practice and were unable to take part.

The fastest car during qualifying is the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Ford/Riley with Scotsman Ryan Dalziel at the controls. He produced a lap of 1:41.119 mph at 126.742 mph to best Max Angelelli in the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Corvette DP (1:41.240/126.590).

Third went to the No. 02 BMW/Riley (Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates) with two-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon at the controls, while Alex Gurney was fourth in his No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP and Antonio Garcia rounded out the top five in the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP.

Dalziel said, "Maybe sometimes the underdogs aren't supposed to beat the powerhouse teams. But what has happened at Starworks the past four or five months is that we've tried to create a powerhouse team, hired the right people and put together an unbelievable car. I think the No. 8 car is not only going to be a contender this weekend, but a contender the entire year."

Angelelli was nearly inconsolable after failing to grab the top spot. "I can't hide the fact that I am deeply disappointed at not winning the pole. This is the most important race of the year and I always want to start the biggest race from the pole." The Italian veteran did point out, "We've never run these [new] cars longer than one hour at a time, and that would leave us 23 to go, so I'm expecting issues for everybody. I can't believe we'll see cars finishing without any issues. We never really focused on turning fast lap times but that," his second place result, "just happened. We're really focused--focused on not having any major problems."

In all, 12 Daytona Prototypes completed the 15-minute session.

In the GT class, Andrew Davis drove the familiar No. 59 Brumos Porsche  GT3 Cup to a class pole in the heavily subscribed category.  His lap of 1:49.342 at 117.210 mph beat the new Ferrari 458 Italia of Jeff Segal and AIM Autosport FXDD by a minuscule .015 seconds! 

The balance of the top five in GT are Andy Lally in Magnus Racing's Porsche GT3 Cup, Patrick Long in Flying Lizard Motorsports' Porsche GT3 Cup and the Ferrari 458 Italia of Gianmaria Bruni. Unfortunately, Bruni's car didn't pass tech and moves to the rear of the field, promoting the Mazda FX-8 of Wayne Nonnamaker and Team Sahlen to fifth on the grid.

The Rolex 24 at Daytona teams will practice again--twice--on Friday and the race begins at 3:30 PM EST on Saturday, with coverage from SpeedTV.