SunTrust Racing will start on pole position when the Daytona 24 Hours gets underway on Saturday, after a superb lap by Max Angelelli in today’s qualifying session.

The Italian – who will share SunTrust’s #10 Dallara-Ford with Pedro Lamy, Ricky Taylor and team boss Wayne Taylor – set a time of 1m40.681s, nearly half a second clear of nearest rival Oswaldro Negri Jr.

“It was important to get the pole, I can’t deny that. We wanted pole badly,” said Angelelli.

“I was pretty confident. Our Dallara chassis and Ford engine are always good. Now it is up to us drivers to make it happen.”

Behind Angelelli, less than a tenth of a second covered the next four cars, with the two Michael Shank Racing Riley-Fords lining up ahead of Ganassi’s two Riley-BMWs.

Christophe Bouchut put the best of the Level 5 Riley-BMWs on the outside of row three, while last year’s winning team Brumos will start seventh with Darren Law, Hurley Haywood, David Donohue, Raphael Matos and Butch Leitzinger.

Former Grand-Am champion team GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing missed qualifying completely after NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson crashed its #99 Riley-Chevrolet while avoiding a GT car in practice. After initially thinking it would have to bring in a replacement car, the team is rebuilding the chassis with a new rear end. Johnson, who will share the car with Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty and Jimmy Vasser, is having the new section flown in using his private plane.

SpeedSource took GT class pole for the third straight year, although this time it was Jeff Segal in the #69 Mazda who claimed the top spot, with double class polesitter Sylvain Trembley only third in the sister car, behind the Racers Edge Mazda.

Pos  Drivers                                    Car             Time

 1.  Angelelli/Lamy/Taylor/Taylor               Dallara-Ford    1m40.681s

 2.  Frisselle/Negri/Pew/Wilkins                Riley-Ford      1m41.100s

 3.  Allmendinger/Frisselle/Patterson/Valiante  Riley-Ford      1m41.110s

 4.  Dixon/Franchitti/McMurray/Montoya          Riley-BMW       1m41.147s

 5.  Papis/Pruett/Rojas/Wilson                  Riley-BMW       1m41.164s

 6.  Bouchut/Bourdais/Collard/Maassen/Tucker    Riley-BMW       1m41.463s

 7.  Donohue/Haywood/Law/Leitzinger/Matos       Riley-Porsche   1m41.513s

 8.  Barbosa/Borcheller/Dalziel/Rockenfeller    Riley-Porsche   1m41.603s

 9.  Braun/Jonsson/Krohn/Zonta                  Lola-Ford       1m42.060s

10.  Garcia/Manning/Menard/Rice                 Coyote-Porsche  1m42.074s

Ford team principal Malcolm Wilson has tipped double World Rally champion Marcus Gronholm for a podium finish when the Finn returns to WRC action on the Swedish Rally next month.

Gronholm will drive for the Stobart VK M-Sport team and has been nominated to score points for the Cumbrian-based squad on the 2010 season opener. Gronholm, who retired from the sport at the end of 2007, made a one-off appearance on last year’s Rally of Portugal, driving a Subaru Impreza WRC.

Wilson said: “I still think that Marcus can be very quick in Sweden. It’s his favourite rally, he’s kept himself in good shape. Okay, he’s probably not as match fit as these other guys but with it being the event that it is, and going into the stages that he’s been in before where the other guys haven’t, I have no doubt he can finish on the podium.”

With the Stobart squad running as a WRC team rather than a fully fledged manufacturer outfit, Gronholm’s car has to be a year behind in terms of homologation, meaning he will drive a 2008-specification Focus.

Wilson continued: “That’s [the Focis RS WRC 08] as much as you can run with an M2 team. But even so, we’re still very confident with that car that Marcus will be able to mix it with the other guys.”

Le Mans Series champions Tomas Enge and Stefan Mucke will join Darren Turner in the Young Driver Aston Martin GT1 team.

Mucke, Enge and their co-driver Jan Charouz took the LMS LMP1 title with Aston Martin Racing last year. While Charouz has now returned to single-seaters in Formula Renault 3.5, his co-champions will remain within the Aston fold to race for the Fischer Racing-run Young Driver AMR project in the new GT1 World Championship.

Enge will team up with Turner in the #007 DBR9, while Mucke will be paired with 26-year-old Dane Christoffer Nygaard, who previously raced for Fischer’s Ford GT3 team.

Young Driver AMR will run two of the four Astons in GT1, with the others entered by fellow GT3 graduate squad Hexis Racing. With a capacity grid of 24 cars expected and Nissan, Ford, Corvette, Maserati and Lamborghini represented in the field alongside Aston, Enge has high hopes for the series.

“For me it is a big challenge,” said the Czech driver. “In each race, there will be 24 competitive GT cars made by six manufacturers. From some point of view it would be an impressive return to the legendary and attractive racing of the nineties.”

Le Mans Series champions Tomas Enge and Stefan Mucke will join Darren Turner in the Young Driver Aston Martin GT1 team.

Mucke, Enge and their co-driver Jan Charouz took the LMS LMP1 title with Aston Martin Racing last year. While Charouz has now returned to single-seaters in Formula Renault 3.5, his co-champions will remain within the Aston fold to race for the Fischer Racing-run Young Driver AMR project in the new GT1 World Championship.

Enge will team up with Turner in the #007 DBR9, while Mucke will be paired with 26-year-old Dane Christoffer Nygaard, who previously raced for Fischer’s Ford GT3 team.

Young Driver AMR will run two of the four Astons in GT1, with the others entered by fellow GT3 graduate squad Hexis Racing. With a capacity grid of 24 cars expected and Nissan, Ford, Corvette, Maserati and Lamborghini represented in the field alongside Aston, Enge has high hopes for the series.

“For me it is a big challenge,” said the Czech driver. “In each race, there will be 24 competitive GT cars made by six manufacturers. From some point of view it would be an impressive return to the legendary and attractive racing of the nineties.”

Munchi’s Ford driver Federico Villagra will contest the third round of this year’s Intercontinental Rally Challenge – Rally Argentina – in a Ford Fiesta S2000.

The Argentinian, who has been a regular in the World Rally Championship since 2007, will be among the favourites for victory on his home event in March despite his lack of familiarity with the Fiesta. The multiple Argentinian Rally champion will arrive at M-Sport’s base in Cumbria next week to test the Focus RS WRC he will use in this year’s WRC and the Fiesta for Rally Argentina.

Villagra’s best result on the biggest rally in his homeland was fourth overall last year. In his efforts to better that score, he will have to overcome reigning IRC champion Kris Meeke, who makes the trip to South America in his Peugeot UK 207 S2000.

Following the victorious debut of the Fiesta S2000 on last week’s Monte Carlo Rally, M-Sport managing director Malcolm Wilson is confident of seeing more of his cars competing in the IRC – although Monte winner and Ford WRC driver Mikko Hirvonen is not set for further IRC appearances.

“There are no plans to do any other rounds of the IRC with Mikko but hopefully there will be some private drivers coming into the IRC in Fiestas,” said Wilson. “They will be run by other teams but hopefully they will do the same job that Mikko has done in Monte Carlo.”

This year’s Rally Argentina will not qualify for the FIA World Rally Championship for the first time since 1995, due to the rotational nature of the 2010 WRC calendar. It is expected the Carlos Paz-based classic will return to WRC in 2011.

Munchi’s Ford driver Federico Villagra will contest the third round of this year’s Intercontinental Rally Challenge – Rally Argentina – in a Ford Fiesta S2000.

The Argentinian, who has been a regular in the World Rally Championship since 2007, will be among the favourites for victory on his home event in March despite his lack of familiarity with the Fiesta. The multiple Argentinian Rally champion will arrive at M-Sport’s base in Cumbria next week to test the Focus RS WRC he will use in this year’s WRC and the Fiesta for Rally Argentina.

Villagra’s best result on the biggest rally in his homeland was fourth overall last year. In his efforts to better that score, he will have to overcome reigning IRC champion Kris Meeke, who makes the trip to South America in his Peugeot UK 207 S2000.

Following the victorious debut of the Fiesta S2000 on last week’s Monte Carlo Rally, M-Sport managing director Malcolm Wilson is confident of seeing more of his cars competing in the IRC – although Monte winner and Ford WRC driver Mikko Hirvonen is not set for further IRC appearances.

“There are no plans to do any other rounds of the IRC with Mikko but hopefully there will be some private drivers coming into the IRC in Fiestas,” said Wilson. “They will be run by other teams but hopefully they will do the same job that Mikko has done in Monte Carlo.”

This year’s Rally Argentina will not qualify for the FIA World Rally Championship for the first time since 1995, due to the rotational nature of the 2010 WRC calendar. It is expected the Carlos Paz-based classic will return to WRC in 2011.

Thor-Christian Ebbesvik has joined Le Mans Series outfit Team Bruichladdich for the 2010 season.

The 26-year-old Norwegian will share an LMP2 class Zytek 09Sb with Tim Greaves and Karim Ojjeh in this year’s LMS and Le Mans 24 Hours.

“I am extremely excited by this tremendous opportunity,” said Ebbesvik. “The LMS is a massive step in my career and I am very grateful for the faith Team Bruichladdich has shown in me. I will be doing everything in my power to repay that faith on the track.”

Ebbesvik raced in Formula Ford in Britain in 2005 and ‘06, and competed in Spanish F3 from 2007-09.

Thor-Christian Ebbesvik has joined Le Mans Series outfit Team Bruichladdich for the 2010 season.

The 26-year-old Norwegian will share an LMP2 class Zytek 09Sb with Tim Greaves and Karim Ojjeh in this year’s LMS and Le Mans 24 Hours.

“I am extremely excited by this tremendous opportunity,” said Ebbesvik. “The LMS is a massive step in my career and I am very grateful for the faith Team Bruichladdich has shown in me. I will be doing everything in my power to repay that faith on the track.”

Ebbesvik raced in Formula Ford in Britain in 2005 and ‘06, and competed in Spanish F3 from 2007-09.

Ford World Rally Championship star Mikko Hirvonen has revealed he was suffering from back problems through the majority of last season – a year when he came closer than anybody to beating Sebastien Loeb to the WRC title.

Hirvonen, who has started his 2010 season with victory when he collected his first Monte Carlo Rally win last week, says he has no problems with his back now, but the trouble began in May last year.

He said: “It started in Sardinia in the spring, when I got an inflammation. Before the Acropolis Rally [in June] I actually had to spend time in hospital.

“It was not really a big problem, when I was driving, but I could not do proper training in the summer. This went on right to the end of the season, all the way to Rally Wales. But it’s okay now.”

Hirvonen came within a point of winning last year’s World Rally Championship before missing out to Frenchman Loeb, who picked up a sixth consecutive award.

Mikko Hirvonen’s extraordinary victory on the Monte Carlo Rally this week means that he could move in to the top five in the Castrol Rankings when the new list is released on Monday.

The Finn, who secured a dominant win for M-Sport’s new Ford Fiesta S2000 on the car’s competition debut in the International Rally Championship opener, began the year tenth in the rankings. But Hirvonen’s success means that he is likely to bump Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson down to sixth in the Castrol order.

Hirvonen’s triumph in the first major motorsport event of 2010 stands as a full Castrol Rankings points score because it is one of two bonus events he can count outside of his primary category – the World Rally Championship.

Others who can expect to make big moves in the Castrol Rankings next week are Skoda drivers Juho Hanninen and Nicolas Vouilloz, who are both likely to break in to the top 200 after finishing second and third on the Monte.

British rally drivers Kris Meeke and Guy Wilks will also both move up the rankings. The reigning IRC champion may have crashed out of the Monte Carlo Rally for the second year running, but by dint of the fact that it happened later in the 2010 event he will actually gain three spots!

Rally of Scotland winner Wilks, who is contesting the full IRC campaign this year, will jump 50 places with his sixth place on the event.

For more information and to take a full look at the inaugural Castrol Rankings, go to www.castroldriverrankings.com.