Tyler Scott upstaged his rivals to claim a hugely impressive pole position for the 2024 Daytona 200 despite persevering with lapping on his own during the all-important Time Attack around the Daytona Motor Speedway.

The Vision Wheel M4 Ecstar Suzuki rider ignored the usual tactics that would see his rivals in the 12-rider shootout for pole position group together in an effort to slipstream one another to a faster time to wind up his momentum to an eventual timesheet topping lap of 1m 48.047secs.

British visitors Richard Cooper and Peter Hickman impressed to reach the Time Attack with their laps from Q2, the PHR Performance Triumph riders eventually landing eight and 12th on the grid respectively.

For Scott, his performance hinged on his incremental build up of pace as he tackled a difficult benchmark set early on by Boulder Motor Sports rider Stefano Mesa.

The Colombian took advantage of the slipstream offered up by Bobby Fong and 2023 Daytona 200 winner Josh Herrin to come across the line with a 1m 48.147secs lap, notably hitting 180.2mph in doing so.

It was this last sector surge that for a time looked capable of keeping Mesa on for a surprise pole position with Scott losing around +0.2-0.3s in the final full throttle banked section despite repeatedly setting fastest times through sectors one and two.

However, Scott’s perseverance on the Suzuki GSX-R750 paid off, banking a four-tenth advantage through the first two sectors to cling on by a tenth by the time he’d reached the line.

As such, despite failing to match the time set by team-mate Richie Escalante in Q1, he will get away from pole position for the 82nd running of the iconic American race, with Mesa and Fong - also benefiting from the aforementioned three-way ebb-and-flow - securing a spot on the front row in third.

Hayden Gillim made it three Suzukis inside the top four in fourth place, with Herrin and Xavi Fores - this year riding the Attack Performance Yamaha R6 after winning the MotoAmerica Supersport title on the Warhorse HSBK Ducati - completing row two in sixth.

Blake Davis heads up row three in seventh, with Cooper landing in eighth after an impressive performance in what will be only his second Daytona 200 start and his first in 16 years. 

He fared better than team-mate Hickman who, having made a big overnight improvement to make it into the Time Attack, failed to string a strong lap together, leaving him 12th. 

While American riders make up four of the top five positions, there remains a strong chance there will be a first non-American winner of the Daytona 200 since 2008 when Chaz Davies was a winner with five international riders - including Escalante in ninth - starting on the front four rows.

Elsewhere, Endurance World Champions YART are also in the mix, its three riders - Marvin Fritz, Niccolo Canepa and Karel Hanika - having just missed out on the Time Attack in 14th, 16th and 17th respectively.

Meanwhile, Kayla Yaakov continued to make a name for herself among esteemed competition, the teenager not only qualifying strongly in 18th for her first Daytona 200 but out-qualifying more experienced MotoAmerica Superbike front-running team-mates Corey Alexander and PJ Jacobsen.

🇺🇲 ⏱️ 2024 Daytona 200 | Time Attack Results [Top 12 Qualifying]

Friday | Daytona Motor Speedway