DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.  Sports car ace Mike Rockenfeller paced a Ford front row shut-out claiming his first pole position in almost two decades, posting the fastest time Thursday in Grand Touring Daytona Pro qualifying for Saturdays Rolex 24 At Daytona, which kicks off the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

Under blustery, cool conditions, temperatures in the low-50s and a slight rain mist at Daytona Intl Speedway, the German Rockenfeller turned a fast lap of 1 minute, 45.523 seconds (121.452 mph) in the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3.

It was Rockenfellers second Motul Pole Award of his IMSA career, and first since 2006 in a Daytona Prototype at Homestead-Miami Speedway. His time Thursday around the iconic 3.56-mile Daytona road course was 0.332 of a second faster than his Ford Multimatic teammate Frederic Vervisch giving Ford a front row sweep for the 15-car GTD PRO class.

This is the biggest race of the year and we want to make sure Ford is proud, said Rockenfeller, who will share the cockpit with British driver Sebastian Priaulx and 2022 Daytona 500 winner, NASCARs Austin Cindric. Its a super talented field with many, many good drivers in this category so you really need to push hard.

He said the Ford team in the makes second year fielding the Mustang GT3 focused on earning pole position so the front row sweep was very important. He acknowledged, however, winning pole is very different from racing 24 hours in the perpetually super talented GT field.

Its crazy competitive and I would say more competitive from last year for sure, so its going to be tough and we saw throughout the sessions, we are clearly good for one lap but we struggle a bit more over a stint with our tire (degradation), so thats something Im a bit worried about, Rockenfeller acknowledged. But keep the wheels turning, thats the key at the end to be there, he added with a smile.

Speaking to the high competition in these production-based GT categories, Thursday afternoons qualifying session marked the first time this week the Fords had topped the speed charts in the GTD PRO class.

Dan Harper in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO and Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R were third and fourth quickest followed by Andrea Caldarelli in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 which paced the class in the Roar Before the Rolex 24 test last weekend.

Connor Zilisch, the 18-year-old NASCAR phenom and defending Le Mans Prototype 2 Rolex 24 winner, was eighth fastest less than a second off the GTD PRO class polesitter in the No. 91 Trackhouse by TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R featuring an all-star driver lineup of NASCAR Cup Series driver Shane van Gisbergen, IndyCars Scott McLaughlin and former Rolex 24 class winner Ben Keating.

In the Grand Touring Daytona class, Elliott Skeer claimed his first career pole position with a lap of 1 minute, 46.634 seconds (120.187 mph) in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) just 0.018 of a second faster than the defending GTD class champion Philip Ellis in the 2024 Rolex 24-winning No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Skeer and full-season co-driver Adam Adelson won their first IMSA WeatherTech Championship race at the 2024 TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks in Indianapolis, and Adelson swept the new Grand Touring Daytona X (pair of IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge races in a similar Wright Porsche this past weekend.

This year the 15-car GTD PRO class and 22-car GTD class will be separated for the race start and all restarts in the twice-around-the-clock season opener.

Behind Skeer and Ellis, Trent Hindman clocked in third in the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. Last years GTD polesitter Parker Thompson will start fourth in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3. And Franck Perera a past Rolex 24 GTD winner who led several practice sessions in last weekends Roar Before the 24 was fifth fastest in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

The top 15 GTD qualifiers were within one second of Skeers pole-winning Mercedes.

Definitely with the new rules this year on splitting the GTD and GTD PRO will be interesting for us, Skeer said. It minimizes clean air, so well be spending a lot more time in dirty air especially come restarts which we know theres going to be a fair bit of it in this race.

A clean air, out on your own, qualifying run is one thing but then in the midst of whats going to be an incredible battle throughout the day, thats going to be a whole new thing. Theres still going to be so many things to learn, not just on the power side, but battling in aero, with some new drivers. Theres a lot to happen in a days worth of racing here.

Dries Vanthoor won the GTP class pole for BMW.