From seemingly nowhere, Kamui Kobayashi has lit the match for the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, climbing from sixth to first after a Full Course Yellow restart to lead the Rolex 24 At Daytona after five hours.
Just four hours and eight minutes into the race, Meyer Shank Racing’s new #93 Acura ARX-06 was the latest GTP car to encounter trouble. As Alex Palou exited the West Horseshoe, the left-rear suspension of the Acura suffered a critical issue. Palou pulled over at the exit of turn six and his car was towed back to the garage.
It was a gutting outcome for the car that had led portions of the race while running on an alternate strategy earlier on, and unfortunately a return to the race does not look like it’ll happen soon, if at all.
Palou’s misfortune happened just after John Farano spun coming onto the banking. Nick Boulle and Luis Perez Companc both had to take swift avoiding action to get out of the way of the spun #8 Tower Motorsports ORECA.
After the second FCY of the race was withdrawn, Kobayashi, Scott Dixon, Felipe Drugovich, Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre, and more hustled for position.
Kobayashi grabbed the lead with a high-risk move along the wall at Speedway turn one, taking advantage of the #6 Penske Porsche 963 of Estre who was boxed in by slower GTD traffic, and avoiding a collision with the #21 AF Corse Ferrari GTD while brushing the SAFER barrier.
Estre is second, Drugovich is third in the No.31 Whelen Cadillac, Vanthoor the elder is fourth in the #7 Porsche – and the two BMW M Team RLL cars have dropped to fifth and tenth in GTP, led by Robin Frijns in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8, ahead of Scott Dixon in the #60 MSR Acura.
The pros are coming out in LMP2 – Dane Cameron still leads in the #99 AO Racing machine, but only by a second over Mathias Beche in the #52 for PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports.
Felipe Massa is holding off Toby Sowery for third in class, keeping the #74 Riley machine ahead of CrowdStrike Racing by APR.
Paul Miller Racing is in the hunt now in GTD PRO after Jesse Krohn drove the #48 BMW M4 GT3 EVO from third to first after the FCY restart, dispatching Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Chris Mies for the top spot.
Mies is four seconds behind in the #65 Mustang GT3, leading the #1 Paul Miller BMW of Connor De Phillippi in third, with Nico Varrone aboard the fourth-placed #4 Corvette Racing Z06 GT3.R, and Ross Gunn up to fifth in the #007 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
And GTD has been a mad scramble, with Ayhancan Guven, Cedric Sbirrazzuoli, and David Fumanelli all taking turns in the lead and battling tail-to-nose.
But at the top of the hour it’s now Fumanelli leading in the #70 Inception Racing Ferrari, from Guven in the #120 Wright Motosports Porsche. Tom Gamble has passed Sbirrazzuoli for third to put Heart of Racing Team ahead of Conquest Racing.
Image courtesy of IMSA
