Qualifying  for  the  45th  annual running  of  the  Rolex  24  Hour  at  Daytona  took  place  earlier  today  and  Michael Valiante piloted the No.19 Z-Line Designs/Mission Residential/Menards/Uniden/ Make-A-Wish Ford-powered Crawford Daytona Prototype machine to a seventh place starting position. The aggressive young Canadian went out for his qualifying run but unfortunately was  held  up  because  of  an  incident  involving  several  cars.    The  altercation occurred right in front of him forcing him to get on the brakes because of all the debris on the track. “On the first lap, four or five cars went off in the first turn and a huge amount of dirt was left on the track,” said Michael Valiante.

“The leaders had already been through turn one before the incident occurred and I was the first car to arrive at the  corner  and  had  to  get  off  the  gas.    It’s  unfortunate  that  I  couldn’t  get  in  a clean lap because the car was really quick in the morning session.  The car is good; I’m not at all concerned about the race.” The  Finlay  Motorsports  team  will  sit  tomorrow  morning’s  practice  session  out because of a scheduled engine change.  The No.19 will return to action for the final 45 minute session before the engines come to life for the start of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona on Saturday, January 27 at 1:30 p.m