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Grand-Am: Donohue takes pole for Rolex 24, starting at 3:30PM!

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Khatir Soltani
David Donohue won the pole for the Rolex 24 at Daytona with a lap of 1:40.540 (127.472 mph) in the No. 58 Porsche Riley, edging the Porsche Riley of Timo Bernhard by a scant one-thousandth of a second, 1:40.541 (127.470 mph) in the No. 16 Porsche Riley.

The top 10 cars were separated by one second - approximately 10 feet.

The Daytona Prototypes share the course with the GT class, where Sylvain Tremblay won the pole Thursday in a last-lap effort in the No. 70 SpeedSource Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8.

Tremblay, the 2008 Rolex 24 GT winner, ran a lap of 1:49.455 (117.100 mph) to edge the No. 67 TRG Porsche 997 of Andy Lally, 1:49.540 (116.998 mph).

Two of the Daytona Prototype teams had their times from Thursday's qualifying disallowed due to technical irregularities. While Valiante requalified and will start 17th, the Alegra team did not participate in second round qualifying and will be gridded 19th.

A field of 49 cars, including 19 Daytona Prototypes, is expected to take the green flag on Saturday.
Khatir Soltani
Khatir Soltani
Automotive expert
  • Over 6 years experience as a car reviewer
  • Over 50 test drives in the last year
  • Involved in discussions with virtually every auto manufacturer in Canada