The #60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Cadillac leads the Daytona 24 Hours as dawn creeps across the circuit. The night running has been truncated by caution periods, keeping the field close and action at boiling point in the freezing conditions.
All 7 DPi cars have led overnight, with battles for the lead punctuating each period of green flag running. Earl Bamber in the #02 Cadillac Racing machine putting on a great move around the outside on Castroneves in the #60 at the West Horseshoe to take the lead just before half race distance, before a moment of contact out of the pits saw him drop back down.
After another period of caution, due to the #71 Lamborghini parked on the exit of the bus stop, there was a great battle between Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura and Richard Westbrook in the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac. After a side-by-side run all the way through Speedway 4, the pair came across GTD traffic into turn 1, forcing Westbrook on the inside to roll out of the throttle and allowing Albuquerque and the trailing Kevin Magnussen in the #02 Cadillac Racing DPi through on the outside. Magnussen then stalked the #10, before divebombing around the outside on the entry to the bus stop to take the lead.
Unfortunately, three DPi machines have encountered significant issues overnight. Firstly, the #48 Ally Cadillac has lost 22 laps after contact with the #13 AWA Duqueine LMP3 in the Esses. Jimmie Johnson behind the wheel struggled to return the car to the garage, spinning at the bus stop as the suspension failed, but was able to get the car behind the wall for repairs.
Only moments later, the #01 Cadillac Racing car made an unscheduled pit stop from the lead with an apparent battery failure. The issue proved more challenging, with everything from the alternator to the wiring checked before being diagnosed as a serious electrical fault, requiring a part that the team did not have at the circuit. An hour and a half later, the team had improvised a solution, but that car is now 41 laps down.
Just before dawn, the #02 Cadillac Racing machine went behind the wall as well. Fuel pump failure and no real urgency around the repair as a dejected Earl Bamber tried to put on a brave face of it for TV.
Each period of caution is changing the pit strategy and compressing the field, while the cold temperatures have made out laps and restarts very difficult.
There have been 10 caution periods overnight, caused by a mixture of single car stoppages and more serious incidents. The first caution of the night period was caused by the #54 Core Autosports Ligier in LMP3, coming to a halt on the exit of the bus stop with some rear damage. The car got going again under its own power, just in time for the fireworks display at 10pm local time to claim centre stage.
Jon says he thinks the fireworks are a bit much to celebrate him getting going again 😂 #Rolex24
— CORE autosport (@COREautosport) January 30, 2022
The next FCY was caused by contact between the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari and the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW. The BMW pitched across the tri-oval, coming to a rest on track in T1, triggering an FCY, before the BMW pulled away under its own power. The #96 later retired after the diffuser broke loose on the car, which was unable to be repaired.
The #59 Crucial Motorsports McLaren also caused an FCY before its retirement. Paul Holton was at the wheel when the car spun at T6 and was unable to be restarted. After a long period in the pits, the car was officially retired in the early morning. The #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing car has also retired from GTD.
GTD has seen a variety of cars lead overnight, while only 5 cars remain on the lead lap with 7 hours remaining. Winward Racing’s #57 Mercedes AMG, the #70 Inception Racing McLaren, Andy Lally in the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin, #32 Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports AMG, and the Wright Motorsports #16 Porsche are all in the mix with the #66 Gradient Racing Acura looking for a FCY to get the wave-around, one lap down. Zacharie Robichon in the Wright Motorsport #16 Porsche leads, after setting the fastest lap of the race overnight.
One of the highest profile incidents of the night was a crash for Fabio Scherer in the #20 High Class Racing Oreca LMP2. While leading the race, Scherer had a massive lose into Turn 1, crashing into the tyre wall separating the T1 run off from T6. Remarkably, Scherer managed to pilot the very bent #20 around the rest of the lap to the pit lane, where the bodywork and tyres were replaced, and that car was returned to the circuit. Unfortunately, the #20 would suffer another failure as a result of the incident, and retired over two hours later.
LMP2 has been dominated by the quartet of the #8 Tower Events Oreca, the #81 Dragonspeed USA Oreca, the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca, and the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca. Ferdinand Habsburg in the #8 and Rinus VK in the #29 spent much of the night trading fastest lap times, with Habsburg eventually winning out. He currently leads, from Veekay and Devlin Defranchesco in the #81. The two G-Drive Racing by APR cars are down the order; a suspension failure for the #69 requiring a rebuild, and the #68 still recovering after early race issues.
LMP3 has seen the #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier stretch a lap advantage over the field with Fraga and van Berlo doing much of the night running. The class saw the dramatic expiry of the #7 Forty7 motorsports Duqueine, which burst into flames on the exit of T1 with 9 hours remaining. Luckily, Antoine Doquin at the wheel managed to extract himself from the car unharmed.
GTD-Pro has been a slugfest with constant battles at the top end of the field, while others haven’t been so lucky. Both Corvettes have run into issues; an alternator issue on the #4 dropping them down the order and a separate issue at the rear of the #3 saw a similar result. The #63 TR3 Racing Lamborghini was in the mix overnight, but contact with the wall while passing traffic forced that car into the garage and out of the race. The most recent car to run into issues is the #97 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes, with an engine failure claiming the car just after it had lost the lead to Vanthoor in the KCMG Porsche
Currently, the #2 KCMG Porsche leads, but it has been a dice roll between the 5 cars on the lead lap for much of the race. KCMG, Pfaff, VasserSullivan, Risi Competizione, and Proton USA are still on the lead lap, and all of them have the pace to win.
With 7 hours remaining, the race is still far from decided in 4 of the 5 classes, with only LMP3 having a lap separating the battle for the lead.
