The sun is rising over Daytona International Speedway as we enter the fourth quarter of the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona.
With six hours left, Porsche Penske Motorsport is in command of the GTP class. Nick Tandy and Matt Campbell are fighting hard but fair for the lead as they pursue one another through traffic.
Though Tandy in the #7 Penske Porsche has built a bit of a lead to the #6 Porsche of Campbell, now around five seconds at the interval.
Over 30 seconds behind the leading Porsches, the #24 RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 is third, ahead of the #60 MSR Acura ARX-06 in fourth, and the #10 WTR Cadillac V-Series.R in fifth, at the end of the lead lap.
It is still cold – but expected to get warmer as the end of the race approaches.
We’ve had ten Full Course Yellows but none since around 3:30 AM when the Inter Europol Competition LMP2 had its breakdown, and 13 official retirements including the #5 Proton Porsche, #40 WTR Cadillac, and #63 Lamborghini from GTP.
AO Racing leads LMP2 at the interval, looking like a good day for the #99 ORECA 07 LMP2. Christian Rasmussen has a six-second advantage over the #8 Tower Motorsports car of Job van Uitert. Colton Herta runs third in the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR car, with the top three all very much in contention for the LMP2 win.
The #73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECA has rejoined the race after extensive repairs – miraculously so after Chris Cumming was involved in the six-car pileup at turn two last night, which took out the #2 United Autosports USA car.
GTD PRO is kicking off as the pace begins to rapidly pick up. Madison Snow set the fastest lap of the race in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO this hour, and just minutes ago, he forcefully overtook the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Klaus Bachler for the class lead!
Dennis Olsen lies in third, waiting to pounce in his #65 Ford Multimatic Mustang GT3, with the #3 Corvette Racing Z06 GT3.R of Antonio Garcia in a distant fourth but definitely not out of the hunt, ahead of the #69 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3.
AWA’s #13 Corvette leads GTD at the interval courtesy of a strong drive from Englishman Matt Bell, who now has a narrow lead over the #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG of Ralf Aron in second.
Aron has a buffer to Korthoff Competition Motors’ Kenton Koch in third, then the Ferraris of Conrad Laursen for AF Corse and James Calado for Triarsi Competizione.
Feature image © Jack Webster
