Rockenfeller plays it cool after winning the GT3 Mustang's first GTD PRO pole

For the first time in GTD PRO, the Ford Mustang GT3 has won pole position. Could that be an omen for a run to the Mustang GT3’s long-awaited first global victory this Saturday and Sunday in the Rolex 24 At Daytona?

Despite qualifying 1-2 with both Ford Multimatic Motorsports cars, polesitter Mike Rockenfeller is not quite so sure given the conditions anticipated for the race, and how that will impact tire wear throughout.

“I think we struggle a bit more over a stint with our tire deg,” admitted the German veteran. “That’s something I’m a bit worried about, and as you see in qualy, the tire kind of overcomes the issues you have a bit.

“The way we treated it for qualy, I think, was really good and spot on, and that gave us an advantage, but that is not valid for the race. Being in the race is a whole different story, and you will see we will have to fight a lot, and that’s good. It’s 24 hours — everybody should have a good chance here. If you don’t make mistakes, you stay out of the pits and you keep the wheels turning — I think that’s the key at the end to be there, and then we’ll see Sunday, with three or four hours to go, if we have a shot or not.”

Rockenfeller hasn’t totally downplayed his and Ford Multimatic’s chances of victory from the front row on Saturday. “I mean, it’s crazy competitive — I would say more competitive than last year for sure,” he said. “It’s going to be tough and I think we saw throughout the sessions that we are clearly good on one lap.”

Incredibly, this was Rocky’s first pole position in IMSA competition since March 2006, when he put the Alex Job Racing Porsche/Crawford Daytona Prototype on pole position at Homestead-Miami Speedway.