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Bergmeister Takes Rolex24 In Record Time

Daytona Beach, Fla. -Jorg Bergmeister not only raced to the pole position for the Rolex24 at Daytona but he did so in record time. The lanky German careened around the 3.56- mile road course at a record speed of 128.033 miles per hour.

    Pole winning Porsche Riley of Flying Lizard Motorsports, in which Jorg Bergmeister set a new Daytona track record. [Jack Webster Photo]


Bergmeister drove the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche Riley powered by a flat six-cylinder engine. It was his first-ever Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series pole position and it came in his 47th event.

For the running of the 49th Rolex24, Bergmeister will co-drive with Patrick Long, Seth Neiman and Johannes van Overbeek.

As the qualification session for the Daytona Prototypes wound down, Bergmeister had the second fastest time and was planning to pull in until his crew advised that he was only 9/100ths of a second behind leader Max Angelelli.

“When they told me that, I tried one more lap as I had nothing to lose,” he said. “I knew it was a really good lap, so I pushed to the end. We had a really good qualifying set-up and the balance of the car was very neutral.”

Bergmeister said the race is a one-race deal for him, so he was somewhat surprised with the results. “We knew we would have a good package for here but the engineer had no experience with the car, so we were all learning,” he noted. “I am used to that flat-six engine and I think it is the best engine for Daytona.”

Driving the SunTrust Racing Chevrolet Dallara, Angelelli qualified second fastest at 127.989 mph. A year ago he claimed the pole at Daytona but had to settle for second-quick today.

“We had a good car and a good engine, and the front-row is a good place for us to start the race,” he said. He also praised the Chevrolet engine and said he had a positive outlook for the race.

Co-driving with Angelelli will be Wayne and Ricky Taylor along with IndyCar star Ryan Briscoe.

Scott Pruett qualified Chip Ganassi’s BMW Riley third fastest at 127.847 and the 2010 co-winner Ryan Dalziel qualified the Starworks Motorsport Ford Riley fourth at 127.840.

Scott Dixon earned the fifth-fastest qualifying spot in a companion Ganassi BMW Riley with Antonio Garcia sixth in the Spirit of Daytona Racing Chevrolet Coyote.

Seventh and eighth qualifiers were Brian Frisselle in the Doran Ford Dallara with A. J. Allmendinger behind him in the Michael Shank Ford Dallara.
The eight fastest qualifiers bettered David Donohue’s Daytona Prototype standard of 127.472 mph set two years ago.

Sixteen Daytona Prototypes took a qualification run and the two Level 5 entries did not attempt to qualify.

    Daytona GT Pole winning Porsche GT3 Cup car of The Racers Group, driven by Andy Lally in qualifying. [Jack Webster Photo]


In GT action, TRG Porsche entries claimed the front row. Andy Lally took the pole position with a record speed of 118.134 mph. The previous standard of 117.275 mph was set by Jeff Segal a year ago.

For Lally, he scored his eighth GT pole and first at Daytona. “TRG has been working hard to give us a great car, and they did it,” the New York native said. “During the lap, I got a brief tow from another car, which turned it into a dream lap.”

For the Rolex24, Lally will co-drive with Spencer Pumpelly, Wolf Henzler, Brendan Gaughan and Steven Bertheau.

Dominik Farnbacher had the second fastest qualification lap at 117.185 mph. “For me, the car was phenomenal and my fast lap was a good, safe lap. My goal was to drive a good lap without a problem.”

Thirty-two GT cars will start the Rolex24 on Saturday. The twice-around-the-clock event starts at 3:30 p.m. ET and SPEED will provide 14 hours of live coverage.

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