DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Renger van der Zande will lead the sphere to inexperienced for the sixty fourth Rolex 24 At Daytona, aboard the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06.
The Dutchman unofficially certified second, 0.102 seconds behind Jack Aitken, through the 15-minute Grand Touring Prototype class qualifying session to set the grid for the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener.
Nevertheless, the No. 31 GTP automotive can be moved to the rear of the GTP class as post-qualifying technical inspection revealed that the automotive’s friction space of the rear skid block was past the permitted tolerance.
This promoted Acura and van der Zande to the highest spot, with the Dutchman set to share his Acura with full-season co-driver Nick Yelloly, four-time and reigning IndyCar Collection champion Alex Palou and sophomore sensation Kaku Ohta.
The No. 93 Acura was a Motul Pole Award common in 2025 with three consecutive P1s achieved from Detroit in Might by Highway America in August. Yelloly had two of the three, sandwiching van der Zande’s most up-to-date pole, which was achieved at Watkins Glen in June.
Van der Zande’s final quickest lap was 1 minute, 34.041 seconds (136.281 mph), solely 0.028 of a second away from second place.
With this alteration, the grid now sees three of the 5 producers racing in GTP within the prime three positions.
The No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Collection.R strikes as much as second, certified by Louis Deletraz and sharing the automotive with earlier Rolex 24 winners Jordan Taylor and Colton Herta.
Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 7 Porsche 963 and Felipe Nasr purpose for his or her third straight win collectively on the Rolex 24 and can roll off from P3. Nasr shares his automotive with new teammates Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich.
The sister No. 60 Acura MSR entry, essentially the most skilled entry within the race with a quartet of previous Rolex 24 winners in Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon and A.J. Allmendinger will begin fourth forward of the No. 6 Porsche Penske automotive, which has a brand new full-season lineup of Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor joined by final yr’s GTP champion Matt Campbell.
The 2 BMW M Staff WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 vehicles outqualified the Aston Martin Valkyrie a bit of additional down the order, with the WRT staff fixing a hybrid challenge on its No. 25 chassis it handled in apply.
In his Rolex 24 debut, American Jeremy Clarke claimed pole place for the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class in his No. 43 Inter Europol Competitors ORECA LMP2 07, as he ran a lap a slight 0.008 of a second sooner than PJ Hyett within the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2 07.
Clarke adopted his maiden pole place on the season finale Motul Petit Le Mans out-running Hyett with just below 4 minutes remaining in an action-packed 15-minute session for the category’s 13-car discipline.
Clarke and co-drivers Tom Dillmann, Bijoy Garg and Antonio Felix de Costa are in pursuit of the staff’s first Rolex 24 trophy, after celebrating a win on the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring final March.
“This observe takes lots of persistence; it’s a really technical observe but in addition places on lots of nice racing with lots of quick corners so it’s actually about specializing in each nook and simply hitting all the pieces excellent,’’ Clarke mentioned. “One mistake and also you’re P6, so it’s all about placing down the proper lap.
“The sphere is extraordinarily tight. PJ was proper there. Actually, this observe is so technical in some locations however but simply takes lots of braveness by a few of the quick corners, so it was all about form of placing within the lap that you simply actually wanted to.
Hyett’s No. 99 AO Racing ORECA, “Spike, the LMP2 Dragon” takes on a brand new gold livery for this race as he goes for his first Rolex 24 win alongside Dane Cameron, Jonny Edgar and Christian Rasmussen.
The highest six vehicles in LMP2 class had been separated by lower than 0.9 seconds. Defending Daytona winners No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA will roll off third in school with a lineup that includes Daniel Goldburg, Paul Di Resta, Rasmus Lindh and Gregoire Saucy.
