Roar testing efforts to thank for Inter Europol Competition class pole at daytona

Credit: InterEuropol Competition

The No.43 Inter Europol Competition squad has claimed the LMP2 class pole position for the 2026 Daytona 24 Hours, with American driver Jeremy Clarke behind the wheel.

Clarke – who joined Inter Europol last year and claimed LMP2 victory on debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring – has now taken back-to-back LMP2 class pole positions in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, having achieved the same feat at last year’s Petit Le Mans season finale.

The American – starting his first Daytona 24 Hours this weekend – clinched the top spot with a lap time of 1:39.952, besting the No.99 AO Racing entry in the hands of P.J. Hyett by 0.015 seconds. Clarke attributes this achievement to his team’s hard work during the Roar Before The 24 at Daytona testing and the practice sessions in the lead-up to the main event.

“I’m really happy to take pole position here at Daytona.” Clarke was quoted in an Inter Europol blog post. “The team put in a huge amount of work during the Roar and practice sessions to dial the car in, and today we were able to deliver the result from all that effort.

“The wind was picking up as the session went on and I had a few moments of oversteer, especially through Turn 1, so it took a lot of commitment in the high-speed corners to find the right feeling from the car. Starting from pole puts us in a great position heading into the race.”

Meanwhile, the No.343 sister car – driven this weekend by Nick Cassidy, Jakub Smiechowski, George Kolovos and Nolan Siegel – posted a time of 1:40.834, and will start from sixth in class.

The No.43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca LMP2 07 – which Clarke will share with António Félix da Costa, Tom Dillmann and Bijoy Garg – completed 270 laps across the seven Roar sessions.

During the Roar, the No.43 crew focused primarily on race-pace consistency and tyre performance. The squad recorded lap times among the top three fastest LMP2 runners in two out of the seven sessions.

On Thursday, the team also posted the top time in Practice 2 for the LMP2 class, with a time of 1:39.791, set by António Félix da Costa.

Heading the 13-strong LMP2 contingent, the No.43 Inter Europol Competition crew will seek to replicate the success of last year’s class-winners, with the No.22 United Autosports entry – helmed then by James Allen, Paul di Resta, Rasmus Lindh and Dan Goldburg – who won the LMP2 class from pole position.

Daytona will also mark the beginning of Inter Europol’s second full season in IMSA as a standalone entry, following their championship-winning partnership with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports in 2024 and a third-place result in the LMP2 standings last year.