Rexy roars for Seb to take pole in Daytona
Seb Priaulx put in an impressive show of speed to secure pole position for this weekend’s Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.
On Sunday, he outpaced closest rival Jack Hawksworth by a slender 0.08sec. margin over one lap of the Daytona International Speedway in the pre-season ‘Roar Before The Rolex 24’, giving his distinctive Porsche 911 GT3 Rawr top spot for his GTD Pro debut.
Hawksworth had been part of the class-winning team in last year’s IMSA SportsCar Championship, while Priaulx, competing in the GTD category, struggled to reach his potential as he worked around his vehicle's unfavourable balance of performance.
But ‘Rexy’ now appears to be a major threat at Pro level in the championship.
Although this confidence boost arguably matters most for Priaulx, the small advantage on the start line will not hurt him.
‘Everything is important,’ he said.
‘Obviously with this [24-hour] race it does not matter as much how qualifying goes, but we know we have a good car here.
‘It’s confidence-building in what we have.’
The 23-year-old Guernsey driver will be forming a season-long coalition with Germany’s Laurin Heinrich, who is eight months his junior and won the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland in 2022.
For this weekend’s race, both will team with 33-year-old Danish driver Michael Christensen, who has previously won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and World Endurance Championship in the LMGTE class.
The promising trio will compete under the banner of AO Racing in the No. 77 car.
They will go up against 12 other cars in the GTD Pro class, including Hawksworth and his allies in the No. 14 of Vasser Sullivan.
The first of the practice sessions will take place on Thursday, building up to the race starting on Saturday.
