Greetings from the Daytona International Speedway. David Hobbs has just instructed the drivers to start their engines, so we’re just a few minutes away from the start. The weather is perfect, the crowd is large, and we believe all 67 cars are set to take the start. DSC’s Graham Goodwin and Mark Howson are on site, with photographic support from Martin Spetz, Joe Martin, Lyndon Fox, Andrew Hall and Regis Lefebure, and David Lord supporting from the UK. Many thanks also to Radio Le Mans’ Shea Adam (@gearboxgirl), who has volunteered her services for pit-running.
14:08 The pace laps are underway, with Alex Gurney leading the field behind the official car in the #99 Bob Stallings Corvette DP.
14:10 The field is bunched and we’re ready to go. Green!
Minor contact amidst the Prototype class sees fragments of bodywork up in the air, but the only casualty on the first lap is the PC pole-sitting #54 CORE Oreca, which gets wobbly in the infield and is tagged into a spin by the #91 SRT Viper; an ESM HPD also clips the car. Jon Bennett gets going again, plum last.
14:13 Lap 2 The DeltaWing drops to ninth, while Scott Dixon rises to fifth in the #02 Ganassi Riley. Brendon Hartley has already passed a dozen cars after having started fgrom the back in the #78 Starworks Riley.
14:16 Lap 3 Stefan Mücke has climbed from fifth to second in GTLM in the #97 AMR Vantage. Jonathan Bomarito leads the class in the #93 SRT Viper, with the German now about two seconds behind him. In GTD, Christopher Haase has led from pole in the #48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8, with four Ferraris following in his wake.
14:18 Lap 4 The two Action Express Corvette DPs swap positions 3 and 4 as Burt Frisselle takes the #9 past Joao Barbosa’s #5.
The CORE spin looks to have caused a number of GTLMs to have been delayed. This leaves Haase the fifth-placed GT car behind the first four GTLMs.
Two cars in the pits already: The #50 Highway To Help Riley DP to have repairs after a hose popped off, while the Krohn Ferrari calls in for two new tyres after flat-spotting the.
14:21 Full Course Yellow (1) Charlie Putman looks to have had a big hit with the pit-exit wall after a spin to the inside of Turn 1. The driver is able to climb out after a couple of minutes, but the car looks to be done. No other car was involved, so a mechanical failure looks to be the most likely cause at this point.
If this car is out, then reigning GT champion Olive Jarvis would be denied the opportunity to defend his title.
14:27 Lap 8 As the caution continues, we’ll bring you up to date with the progress of the cars that started from the back. Hartley is up to 26th overall and with the GTLM leaders in the #78 Riley, having started 67th; Gimmi Bruni is up to seventh in GTLM – 33rd overall – after styarting 60th.
With the pits open, only a few cars opt to pit. The #5 AE Corvette is in and reporting high oil and water temperatures, but no debris is detected in the radiator.
Amongst the other early stoppers are the #60 MSR Riley, the #2 ESM HPD, the #7 Starworks PC, the #78 Riley, the #007 GTD TRG Aston, both GTLM RLL BMW Z4s, the #44 GTD Magnus Porsche and the #94 GTD Turner BMW.
14:32 Lap 10 Green!
Prior to the caution, Marc Goossens had taken second in GTLM, making it an SRT Viper 1-2 in the class.
14:34 Lap 11 Olly Gavin muscles his way past the #97 Aston in the #4 Corvette C7.R. It looks to have been a poor restart for the Aston, as Nick Tandy is third in GTLM in the #911 Porsche.
In GTD, Mika Salo takes the class lead in the #72 SMP Ferrari 458 at the expense of Haase’s Audi.
The top two P2s – Oliver Pla in the #42 OAK Morgan, and Scott Sharp in the #1 ESM HPD – are already past the DeltaWing, which then spins unaided at Turn 1 and loses another place to the Muscle Milk Oreca Nissan of Klaus Graf.
The 07 Mazda is in trouble having lost a boost pipe.
14:42 Lap 14 Pla takes the #31 Marsh Corvette DP to go seventh overall.
14:46 Lap 17 In PC, Bruno Junquiera has just lost the lead in the #09 RSR Oreca to the #8 Starworks FLM of Renger van der Zande. Alex Tagliani is less than half a second behind in third in the #08 RSR.
14:48 Lap 18 Superb GT action as the two SRT Vipers go side by side along the fronty stretch – Bomarito holding off Goosens on this occasion – and the top five cars are now nose to tail. Bruni moves up to third having dealt with Tandy and Gavin on the last two laps.
14:51 Lap 21 In GTD, we now have a Ferrari 1-2 – Salo from the #63 Scuderia Corse 458 of Toni Vilander – while news comes through from Fall-Line that Putman’s crash was driver error and that the car is done.
14:53 Lap 22 At the head of the field, Scott Dixon has risen to third, having taken the place from Burt Frisselle. Gurney leads the race by 4.7s from the SDR Corvette of Richard Westbrook. There is then a second and a half back to the #02.
The lead P2 car is still the OAK Morgan Nissan of Pla, now seventh overall, and 13 seconds off the lead.
14:56 Lap 23 Pla and Frisselle make the first of their scheduled stops, as does Graf in the #6 Muscle Milk Oreca Nissan.
14:58 Lap 24 Haase pits the #48 Audi from third in GTD.
15:00 Lap 25 The leader pits, followed by Westbrook, Taylor, Pruett, Meyrick. Only the #31 and #01 Rileys have yet to pit.
Klaus Graf is right back in having reported a tyre problem. The team replace all four tyres as a precaution.
Salo pits the #72 SMP Ferrari from GTD lead.
15:04 Lap 28 James Davison spins the #007 GTD TRG-AMR Aston at the exit of the Bus Stop. Contact is avoided and the car resumed after a short hiatus. Kevin Buckler will not be pleased, however.
15:05 Lap 29 Joao Barbosa now leads in the #5 Action Express Corvette DP, by 7.5s from the #78 Starworks Riley Dinan of Brendon Hartley – the Porsche factory driver having hauled the car from the back of the grid. Ozz Negri is third in the #60 MSR Riley Ford and Johannes van Overbeek is fourth in the #2 ESM HPD; these four cars being the only ones to have stopped under caution.
15:09 Lap 30 The first hour ends with Barbosa leading overall, Pierre Kaffer leading PC, Bomarito leading GTLM and Kevin Estre leading GTD in the #73 Park Place Porsche. Dane Cameron spins the #94 Turner BMW at Turn 1, but gets going again.
15:10 Lap 31 Eric Curran gets his approach to the Bus Stop all wrong and ends up stationary amidst the cones. The #31 Marsh Corvette gets going again okay.
The #51 GTD Spirit of Race Ferrari is handed a drive –through for speeding on pitlane. Marco Cioci has taken the car over from Jack Gerber.
15:15 Lap 34 The #09 RSR Oreca goes behind the wall.
15:17 Lap 35 The #2 ESM HPD hits the tyres after a spin at the Bus Stop. This follows seconds after a spin for the #27 Dempsey Racing Porsche at the same spot. Ed Brown gets the HPD going, but appears to have severe rear-right suspension damage.
15:20 Lap 38 The #1 ESM spins at the same place after the #42 OAK Morgan closes the door. Scott Sharp gets the car going again, but two GTD cars have to take evasive action to avoid contact.
15:23 Lap 39 Dixon leads in the #02 Ganassi Riley Ford, with four DPs in second to fifth places. The DeltaWing meanwhile is back into ninth.
The #55 RLL BMW of Bill Auberlen heads GTLM after also stopping under caution.
15:26 Lap 40 The top four by class: P – 02, 99, 10, 90; PC – 8, 87, 52, 07; GTLM – 55, 91, 93, 911; GTD – 58, 22, 49, 48.
15:28 Lap 42 The #49 Spirit of Race Ferrari 458 of Gianluca Roda slows from fourth in GTD and crawls its way back to pitlane, where it stops; requiring a push to the box by mechanics. This is the car that needed an engine change after problems early on Thursday.
15:30 Lap 44 The #6 Muscle Milk Oreca becomes the latest car to spin at the entrance to the Bus stop. No damage.
15:35 Lap 45 Auberlen has pitted from the lead of GTLM, leaving Goossens leading in the #91 Viper, from Tandy in the #911 Porsche and Bomarito in the #93 Viper.
Christopher Haase is back in the lead of GTD in the #48 Audi.
15:43 Lap 49 Drama in the Ganassi pit as a miscommunication sees the #01 Riley of Scott Pruett catch a crewman with the rear. The crewman took a hefty knock, but it could have been worse. The car is handed a stop plus 20s penalty as a result.
ESM confirm that there was damage to the #2 HPD prior to Ed Brown’s off. It appears to have happened in the opening moments of the race in the infield.
15:48 Lap 51 Bruni is up third in GTLM after passing Bomarito, while Frank Stippler now heads GTD in the #32 GMG Audi after Haase pits. Lorenzo Case is second in class in the #63 Ferrari and Bill Sweedler third in the #555 level 5 458 Italia.
15:53 Lap 55 As the latest round of pitstops cycles through, Barbosa heads the race by 31 seconds from Brendon Hartley, but the #78 Starworks Riley is closing the gap.
SRT report that they are double-stinting drivers and left-hand tyres.
15:55 Lap 57 Katherine Legge is now in the DeltaWing, as the DWC13 remains in the top ten after an hour and three quarters of the race.
15:57 Lap 57 Hartley pits from second. Barbosa follows him in a lap later. Scott Dixon now leads the race in the #02 Riley from Ricky Taylor in the #10 WTR Corvette DP. Memo Gidley is third in the #99 Ganassi Corvette.
15:59 Lap 59 Bryce Miller hits the tyres at the exit to the infield in the #48 Audi after getting clipped by a Porsche. The R8 gets going again, but the car has dropped to 15th. Kevin Estre heads the class, with Kuba Giermaziak second in the #30 NGT MOMO Porsche.
16:05 Lap 62 The top three in GTLM are nose to tail. Tandy gets ahead of Bruni and goes door-to-door with Goossens down the back straight. The Porsche has its nose ahead at the Bus Stop and takes the lead with a great move.
16: 10 Lap 64 Two Hours Completed
SDR team boss Troy Flis reports that the #90 Corvette has had a sensor changed and that it is up to speed once more. The issue has cost the car two laps and it now lies in 12th with Michael Valiante now behind the wheel.
Top four in each class: P – 02, 5, 10, 99; PC – 08, 52, 87, 8; GTLM – 91, 62, 93, 911; GTD – 30, 81, 72, 90.
Nick Tandy has just pitted from the GTLM lead. Tracy Krohn (#57 Ferrari) and Ben Keating (#33 Viper) have offs but get going again.
16:15 Lap 68 Bruni in the Risi Ferrari is right with Goossens in the fight for the GTLM lead, while Alex Popow in the #78 Starworks Riley is challenging Roman Rusinov in the #42 OAK Morgan Nissan for fifth overall and in P.
16:19 Lap 70 Sunoco Challenge winner Bradley Smith is installed in the #31 Marsh Corvette and running 13th in class, 30th overall.
The issue for the #09 RSR Oreca FLM is a broken cam-lifter, while the #1 ESM HPD is behind the wall with a broken gearbox.
16:24 Lap 72 GTLM is now led by Patrick Pilet in the #911 after the latest stops. Dominik Farnbacher is now in the #91 SRT Viper and half a second adrift of the Frenchman in second, while Gimmi Bruni is third after his latest stop.
16:27 Lap 73 Paul Dalla Lana spins the #94 Turner BMW at the Bus Stop but rejoins.
16:28 Lap 75 Gidley pits the #99 Corvette from third.
16:30 Lap 76 Scott Dixon pits from the lead. Barbosa now heads the field once more.
16:33 Lap 78 The DeltaWing’s good early showing looks to have come to an end. The chrome and red car is in the pits after slowing on track and is seven laps down to the leader and falling down the order.
16:35 Lap 79 As Jonathan Bomarito and Marc Goossens are interviewed on stage in the media centre, Farnbacher retakes the GTLM lead in the #91 SRT Viper after passing Pilet’s Porsche on track.
16:38 As the race approached the two and a half hour mark, Barbosa leads in #5, by about a minute from Tony Kanaan in #02 and Max Angelelli in the #10 Corvette. Chris Cumming leads PC in the #08 Oreca, from Martin Fuentes in #7 and Mike Guasch in #52. GTLM sees Farnbacher leading from the factory Porsches of Pilet and Michael Christensen. GTD sees a Porsche 1, 2, 3, with the #73 of Connor De Phillippi leading from the #58 of Madison Snow and the #30 of Henrique Cisneros.
16:42 Lap 83 Barbosa pits from a 68 second race lead and hands over to Christian Fittipaldi. The #5 Corvette rejoins with a lead of just two-tenths over the #02 Riley.
From the garages:
The #1 ESM has encountered an issue with the final drive that HPD has never seen before. The entire rear of the car will need to be rebuilt – the car will be back out, but it will be a long while yet.
Dave Price reports that the DeltaWing issue is also gearbox-related, but that it is less serious and will be out before the three-hour mark.
16:53 Lap 90 Fittipaldi held off Kanaan after joining the race and now leads by 0.590s. Angelelli, however, is just four seconds further back in third and closing fast.
16:56 Lap 91 Three of the four class leads are within a second – P, GTLM and GTD.
17:00 Lap 93 Full Course Yellow (2) Huge crash between the #99 Corvette DP and the #62 Ferrari of Matteo Malucelli. Brief fire in the #99. Emergency crews are on the scene quickly. It’s clear that this is going to be a long caution.
17:05 Red Flag
Rescue crews are with both drivers. The Risi Ferrari is rear-end into the barrier, driver’s left, while the DP sits in the middle of the track. Gidley appears to be trapped in the car and the jaws of life are being used in the extrication.
Malucelli is reported to have been removed from the Ferrari. He had apparently radioed to the team that he had lost drive immediately before the impact.
