Six cars were involved in a major accident during the eighth hour of the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Louis Deletraz in the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R lost control exiting turn two, twitched and spun off into the barrier off to his right. His momentum carried him back across the track.
Nick Boulle couldn’t avoid the stranded Cadillac and struck Deletraz, before Chris Cumming hit both the #40 and the #2 United Autosports ORECA of Boulle. And trying to avoid that pile-up, Jordan Pepper in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini ran into the side of the #48 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Max Hesse.
The #8 Tower Motorsports ORECA LMP2 of Sebastien Bourdais also suffered damage in the incident after getting brushed by the other LMP2s. Despite appearing to have been collected at first, the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R was able to stop and avoid damage. Both drove away from the incident.
All other drivers were able to walk away from their respective cars without any apparent injuries.
The race has just resumed after a 25-minute Full Course Yellow. Leading GTP at the moment is the #31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R of Jack Aitken, followed by the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 of Nick Tandy, and the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist.
Sheldon van der Linde was spun out in turn two by Neel Jani but the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 was able to drive away and the race remains green.
Paul Di Resta and United Autosports USA’s sole surviving #22 ORECA leads LMP2 from Paul-Loup Chatin in the #18 ERA Motorsport car, and Jonny Edgar in the #99 AO Racing ‘Spike’ car.
In GTD PRO, Ford Multimatic is back in the front, running 1-3 with the #65 Mustang of Frederic Vervisch leading and the #64 of Mike Rockenfeller just behind the second-placed #69 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Fabian Schiller.
And Franck Perera leads GTD for Forte Racing, the #78 Lamborghini out in front from the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin of Mattia Drudi, and the #19 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin of Anthony McIntosh.
Heart of Racing Team is down to one contending car after the #007 GTD PRO car lost its left-rear wheel as Roman de Angelis was contending for a place in the top five. This brought out the FCY which preceded the multi-car accident to follow.
