Luis Felipe Derani established his mastery of both the Daytona circuit and the ESM Ligier by pulling out a healthy lead overall over the remaining pursuing Corvettes mid way through this run. The top challenges in class and for the overall lead dropped to four, with trips behind the wall for both the 01 Ganassi Ford and the 31 Whelen/Action Express Corvette.
The Whelen 31 pulled out of the lead group due to a driveshaft issue, falling 13 laps back and effectively out of contention. The Ganassi Ford was reported to have cooling issues and fell back 4 laps off the pace.
Derani was simply stunning in his stints. He simply pulled away and made that ESM Ligier look unstoppable. But that didn’t last. With four hours and 12 minutes left, the ever young Max Angelelli took the lead back for the 10 WTR, first gaining track position when the ESM had a driver change and then utilizing his Brembo brakes to his advantage in traffic to take the lead.
But Johannes did not give up, staying in close contact with the leading Corvette right up to a yellow that closed the 20th hour of racing, due to the stop of the #67 Ford GT on the apron.
For WTR, Jordan Taylor did return to the driving seat, obviously feeling better and helped keep the car in contention. In fact it was Jordan that was credited with the fastest lap for the car, a 1:42.298.
Running 3rd overall after 20 hours in a quiet run was the Visit Florida Corvette.
Like the Prototype class, the GTLM class lost some challengers. Most significantly, the #911 went behind the wall with a reported drive shaft issue. The stop dropped the car back into the grips of the long delayed Ford GTs. Also losing massive time was the 72 SMP Ferrari which went behind the wall with a turbo issue.
That left the class to a five-car battle, with the #3 and #4 Corvettes, the #912 Porsche, the #25 BMW and the #68 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari still in contention.
Up to 7th overall after 20 hours, it was the #4 Corvette over the #3, appropriately under another yellow flag.
In GTD, the waiting game appeared to be paying off for the Alex Job Racing efforts. Multiple times during this time frame, both the #22 and the #23 were in the top 5 and as we entered the 20th hour, Shane van Gisbergen was in the #22 and was flying. He was putting down multiple laps in the low 1:47s as he helped establish the 22 as a definite class winning contender.
But this class is still deep with eight cars still on the lead lap. The early dominating speed of the Lamborghinis has almost disappeared as the Lambo challenge is down to only the #28 Konrad entry.
One car no longer in contention in GTD is the Park Place Porsche, which has had multiple issues. The latest was when Patrick Lindsey was at the wheel. He lost drive and pulled off track. He was instructed to take to the infield and work his way to the garage. The site of a race car circulating amongst the motorhomes and fans was great entertainment. But entertaining may not be the proper word that Patrick was looking for. Initially he became extremely frustrated with the lack of attention by the driving fans, actually showing his frustration with appropriate (or maybe inappropriate) gestures.
“Then I thought that might not be a proper thing to do, especially with social media. Unfortunately the current cars are pretty quiet now – maybe we need to install a horn. I just couldn’t get people to move out of the way. We won Petit last year, but I think my phone actually lit up more on this drive thru the infield than after we won.”
As the 20th hour ended, it was the #22 AJR Porsche leading over the #44 Magnus Audi and the #98 AMR Aston Martin.
PC? JDC-Miller continues to lead the class, in 26th overall. The lead was down to 5 laps over the 52 PR1 Mathiasen and a further 2 laps over the 20 BAR1.
Gary Horrocks
