Johnson sets pole at Daytona for JDC-Miller Motorsports

A stunning performance by Michael Johnson placed the JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi RS 3 LMS on pole position in the TCR class for the opening round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge at Daytona. Johnson, a paraplegic since age 12, toppled the rest of the field by eight tenths, posting a lap of 1:58.433.

“I did not expect to get that quick of a time, especially how we were doing in practice earlier,” said Johnson. “I thought it was going to be a low 59, but the car is running really great. My engineer, Cole, did a phenomenal job setting up the car and making sure I’m comfortable out there. That was just putting all the pieces together and I was able to click off two quick lap times in the 58s back-to-back, so that was really impressive for myself to know I can do that and I just need to put it together tomorrow.”

In the 4-hour race that will start at 12:15 local time (18:15 CET), Johnson will share driving duties with South Africans Stephen Simpson and Mikey Taylor.
Second on the grid will be the eEuroparts.com-ROWE Racing Audi driven by Lee Carpentier and Kieron O’Rourke (1:59.285) while the second row will be filled by the Atlanta Speedwerks Honda Civic of Brian Henderson-Todd Lamb (1:59.626) and the KMW Motorsport-TMR Engineering Alfa Romeo Giulietta of Alex Popow-Alexandre Papadopulos (1:59.653). Mark Wilkins and Michael Lewis qualified the best of the two Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Veloster N cars in eighth position (2:00.258).