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Donohue And Porsche Shatter Qualifying Record For Rolex24

Daytona Beach, FL – David Donohue pushed his famed Brumos Porsche Riley to the pole position for Saturday’s Rolex24 at Daytona. The second-generation driver toured the 3.56-mile road course at a record speed of 127.472 miles per hour.

In 2008, Oswaldo Negri Jr. set the previous standard of 127.152 mph.

“The car was really good, and it means a lot to us to take the pole,” Donohue said. “It puts a lot of wind in the sails of the crew. And it gives us bragging rights for a couple of days. Actually, I thought I could have done a better lap but I got caught in traffic. What I really want to do is to be back in the media center Sunday afternoon celebrating a victory.”

For the 24-hour race, Donohue will be joined by Darren Law, Indy champ Buddy Rice and Antonia Garcia.

Mark Donohue, David’s father, also captured the pole 48 years ago and the Donohue family became the second father and son duo to win the top position for Rolex24. Dan and Alex Gurney have also done so.

Timo Bernhard qualified second fastest at 127.470 mph, just 1/1000th of a second behind Donohue. The German driver was behind the wheel of the Penske Porsche Riley.

“I had improved my time and thought I had P1, but then my crew told me I had slipped to P2,” said Bernhard. “I was depressed when I learned how close we had come, but it was a good lap for me.”

Bernhard’s co-drivers are IndyCar star Ryan Briscoe and veteran sports car racer Romain Dumas.

Michael Valiante took third fastest honors in the Michael Shank Ford Riley and joining him in the second row will be Ricardo Zonta in the Krohn Racing Ford Lola. Their respective speeds were 127.331 and 127.026 mph.

Row three qualifiers were Ryan Dalziel in the Alegra Motorsports BMW Riley and Rolex Series champion Scott Pruett in the Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley.

Max Angelelli took seventh-place qualifying honors in the SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara with Scott Dixon eighth fastest in a companion Ganassi Lexus.

A second Brumos Porsche driven by Joao Barbosa timed ninth fastest with Christophe Bouchut 10th in the Level 5 Motorsports BMW Riley.

In all, 17 Daytona Prototypes qualified with the only non-competitor the Childress-Howard Motorsports Pontiac to be driven by seasoned sports car veterans Andy Wallace and Rob Finlay along with NASCAR ace Casey Mears and IndyCar ace Danica Patrick. The car lost an engine in practice and the crew didn’t have time to replace it prior to qualifications. Regardless, the car will start the race in the 18th slot.

In GT qualifying action, Sylvain Tremblay blazed to the pole with a record speed of 117.100 mph. He drove the SpeedSource Mazda RX-8.

“I had to dig deep to do something special on the last lap,” said Tremblay in a tearful voice. The Florida driver lost his wife in a highway crash in December. “I got more than 100% out of the car on the last lap, and I was very emotional in the car after taking the checkered flag.”

Second fastest was Andy Lally in the TRG Porsche GT3 Cup entry. His speed was 116.998 mph and he lost the pole position on the last lap of qualifications. “We actually went faster than I thought we could,” Lally stated.

Thirty GT cars qualified for the Rolex.

Drips and drabs – TRG Motorsports, the Kevin Buckler entity, announced Mike Wallace will drive its Chevrolet in the Daytona 500. “This is a huge opportunity for us,” Buckler said. “We have been on a very steeps growth curve with our entries in the Truck Series and ARCA. This will be a defining moment in our team’s history.”

With more than 55 entries expected to compete for the 43 starting positions, Trig’s biggest challenge will be qualifying for the race.

Wallace has three wins at Daytona and is excited about the opportunity presented. “With all the success TRG has had in road racing, I’m excited to race for them at Daytona.”

Butch Hilton will be the crew chief and the car and engines have been acquired from Richard Childress Racing and ECR Engines.

TRG has five Porsches entered in this weekend’s Rolex24 and is putting the finishing touches on two Camping World Truck Series entries and two ARCA cars.

Victory Junction will provide sponsorship for the BMW Riley to be driven by Kyle Petty, Darren Manning, Bill Lester and Leon Hinder Jr. Lester will campaign the full season and Petty and Manning will also see considerable seat time. Petty will split up his schedule to include television work for TNT and SPEED TV.

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