The sun is beginning to break through the clouds at Daytona International Speedway. As the 61st Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona enters the fourth quarter, the overall top three are covered by less than a minute.
Renger van der Zande brought the #01 Cadillac Racing V-LMDh into the pits at eight minutes to the top of the hour for fuel and tyres, and a change of drivers to Scott Dixon. He was leading Colin Braun in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 by thirty seconds at the time of his most recent stop.
The #60 MSR Acura has been taking tyres out of sequence with the two Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillacs in front and behind it, so Braun is due to make his next stop. In the official report, the #60 Acura was scored as the leader after 18 hours with 596 laps completed.
But in truth, the #01 Cadillac of Van der Zande, Dixon, and and Scott Dixon leads the race from the #60 Acura of Braun, Tom Blomqvist, Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves in second, and the #02 Cadillac of Earl Bamber, Richard Westbrook, and Alex Lynn in third.
There’s still plenty of time for the next three cars to catch up in case of trouble. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura currently runs fourth, a lap down on the leaders. It’s currently being driven by Ricky Taylor, who has a 15 second buffer to Marco Wittmann in the #25 BMW M Team RLL Hybrid V8 in fifth.
The #6 Penske Porsche 963 was on the lead lap, challenging for the lead, until about 15 hours and 39 minutes elapsed when Nick Tandy clipped too much of the apex kerb at the Kink (turn four) and spun off through the grass. After gathering himself up again, Tandy brought the #6 Porsche back to the pits, where the team had to replace both the nose and rear wing assemblies and check the underside for damage.
This has left the #6 Porsche three laps down in sixth place to match its car number, now piloted by Mathieu Jaminet.
Alexander Sims is now driving the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac, which had troubles of its own after fighting up at the front: Pipo Derani pulled out of the fight and then to a halt out on the circuit before restarting and going behind the wall, the first Cadillac to do so after 15 hours were completed.
The left rear suspension was damaged after being hit from behind by a GTD car, and the Brazilian was unhappy after bringing the car back to the garage for 25 minutes of damage repairs. With Jack Aitken at the wheel, the #31 re-emerged in 14th overall. The car has now recovered to seventh.
Further back, the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports entry is 18 laps off the overall lead in ninth overall, and the #24 BMW is still running, 114 laps down – the two GTP cars that have suffered significant hybrid issues during the race.
There are still eight cars circulating on the lead lap across both GTD classes, and the fantastic resurgence story of Winward Racing continues on.
They’re locked in a battle for the GTD “Standard” and overall lead with the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3. The #57 Winward Mercedes had just pitted after stints from Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje, super-sub Daniel Morad is now aboard. Marco Sorensen is just coming to the end of a stint in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston, taking over from Roman de Angelis and Darren Turner – and Winward will regain the lead once that stop is made, a few seconds up front.
Third in GTD overall and leading GTD Pro is the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes, piloted by Andorra’s number one, Jules Gounon.
Gounon has a 4.7 second lead over the #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD which is currently being driven by Antonio Garcia, trying to catch the Mercedes in front. Currently third in GTD Pro is the #14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Mike Conway.
Andy Lally has taken over the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin, now running third in GTD “Standard”, with Andrea Caldarelli behind in the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, and Kyle Marcelli in the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3.
Problems emerged for some in GTD: The #64 TGM/TF Sport Aston Martin was hit hard enough by an unidentified prototype that it tore the left rear wheel off. It would return to the track after about 20 minutes of service. This incident caused a full course yellow.
The #23 Heart of Racing Team Vantage, their GTD Pro car, was contending for the class win until just before the end of the 16th hour when it ran off course. Alex Riberas brought the car back to the pits and the team discovered a broken left rear spindle, which set them back 25 minutes in the garage. They are now 15 laps off the class lead.
And minutes ago, the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes came to a stop going back onto the banking at turn six. The silver and black Mercedes was towed back to the garage – Mikael Grenier confirmed a broken wheel bearing was the cause of their woes, they are now 15 laps off the class lead in GTD.
In the Pro-Am prototype classes, the #35 TDS Racing Oreca LMP2 07 is carrying the banner and leading with six hours left. Job van Uitert leads from Esteban Gutierrez in the #04 CrowdStrike Racing with APR Oreca in second.
Earlier in the race, Gutierrez had taken advantage of a mistake from Giedo van der Garde at the Le Mans Chicane to take the lead on track. But traffic helped Van Uitert re-take the lead from Gutierrez just before the top of the hour.
Nicklas Nielsen is third in the #88 AF Corse Oreca, followed by Daytona 500 champion Austin Cindric in the #51 Rick Ware Racing Oreca.
The #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca dropped out of the lead fight when it pitted during the full course yellow for the #64 Aston Martin. For taking full service under a closed pit, Nico Lapierre had to serve a 60 second penalty stop.
And the #18 Era Motorsports Oreca went to the garage, then retired from the race after it was found that their Gibson V8 engine had suffered a terminal failure. Ten minutes of repairs have also put the #20 High Class Racing Oreca down the running order.
Sean Creech Motorsports continue their great run in LMP3. With Joao Barbosa rolling back the years, the #33 Ligier JS P320 has a commanding lead over the #17 AWA Duquiene D08 (Anthony Mantella) and the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier (John deAngelis).
