Heavy rain causes odd qualifying for Rolex 24 at Daytona

Published Jan. 28, 2016 8:43 p.m. ET

foxsports

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) Heavy rain has made for a strange qualifying session for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Driving a Porsche 911 in the GT Le Mans class, Nick Tandy posted the fastest lap around the 3.56-mile road course on Thursday. But because the race director declared ''variable conditions'' before qualifying, Tandy will start well back in the field.

Mikhail Aleshin earned the pole with a ninth-place qualifying effort. The twice-around-the-clock endurance event begins Saturday.

Aleshin, driving in the top Prototype class, averaged 101.882 mph and covered the course in 2 minutes, 5.793 seconds. Tandy was more than 4 seconds faster, but it didn't matter.

Tandy will start behind 13 Prototype entries and eight Prototype Challenge entries.