Derani, Nasr Rally for Motul Pole Award 100 Victory at No. 31 Cadillac
By Jeff Olson
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida. – Rain and penalty did not create problems on Sunday for Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani.
Scorned for sixth starting position after their No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi VR failed the technical inspection on Saturday night for being underweight, the duo came together to win the inaugural Motul Pole Award 100, which determined the starting order for the 59th Rolex 24 next weekend in Daytona.
Motul Pole 100 Award Results
The race started with rain, but dried up quickly. With 48 minutes remaining for the 100-minute race, Nasr completed the charge forward, passing Tristan Vautier to the lead.
Harry Tincknell collected a load of his own at No. 55 Mazda Motorsports Mazda DPi to finish second, while Vautier’s co-driver Loic Duval finished third in the Daytona Prototype International (DPi) class.
In the end, rain conditions and the move from first to sixth place at the start of Sunday’s race did not affect the pair. In fact, the challenges may have provided incentives.
“Rules are rules, but we don’t let frustration hit us,” said Nasr. “It was all about dropping your head. When we saw that the weather was changing (before the race), we knew an opportunity was coming. This is race. We took whatever came and made our way across the field. It was amazing . “
Derani, who finished the 3,664-second victory, said the team handled the qualifying race – a new format for the Rolex 24 – as they would any other.
“We use this as a normal race,” said Derani. “For us, it is very important to try everything we can so that we can get here next week understanding all of our needs for a good race. … A race victory is a race victory, be it 35 or 350 points. as soon as we run. We always try our best. “
Nasr, Derani, the current NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott and Mike Conway will share car # 31 on the Rolex 24, which is scheduled to start on Saturday at 3:40 pm ET with live coverage from the NBC network. Tincknell, Oliver Jarvis and Jonathan Bomarito will co-drive car No. 55, which will start alongside No. 31 in the front row.
Duval, Sebastien Bourdais and Vautier will share the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi VR, which will benefit from a second row start.
While Nasr and Derani teamed up to win the overall victory and the DPi Motul Pole Award for starting the Rolex 24 on Saturday, Mikkel Jensen took the lead 10 minutes from time to win the pole Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2).
Ben Keating ranked first in No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07, but was bitten by the difficult conditions and rode at Turn 6 on the last lap, leaving him well below the race order.
This gave Roberto Lacorte the class lead at 47 Cetilar Racing Dallara LMP2 during the first laps of the race. After both teams switched drivers, Jensen recovered to pass Antonio Fuoco at Turn 3 on the 12-corner, 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway.
Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen finished second in LMP2 at No. 20 of the High Class Racing ORECA LMP2 07 which he co-directed with Dennis Andersen.
Jensen, Keating, Nicolas Lapierre and Scott Huffaker will co-lead the LMP2 pole winner, who starts in eighth overall on Saturday.
Jensen chased Fuoco – driving the only Dallara in the class – until he was able to park on turn 3.
“It was intense,” said Jensen. “Dallara is significantly faster on the straights, so I had a hard time trying to get through, but I tried to push too hard and plan ahead of the bus stop to leave a gap when he 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, which I benefited from. “
In the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class, Moritz Kranz and Laurents Hoerr crowned an excellent weekend by claiming victory in Sunday’s race the day after qualifying for the Motul Pole Award 100 and winning the Scouts of America 145 IMSA race Prototype Challenge.
The German teammates are new to Rolex 24 in the 6th Muehlner Motorsports America Duqueine M30-D08, but the team is based in nearby DeLand, Florida.
“It is an incredible experience and an incredible opportunity for us,” said Kranz. “So far, we only know about this race and this place on TV. So far, it is a clean scan. Everything went as we expected, now we have to prepare for the next weekend, because it will certainly be a different story then. “
No. 6 will start first in the class and 27th overall when the two and a half hour challenge starts at 3:30 pm ET on NBC. After the first hour, flag-to-flag coverage passes to NBCSN and NBC Sports Gold before returning to NBC on Sunday at 2 pm for completion.
IMSA Radio will also cover all the live action on IMSA.com and SiriusXM Radio.