Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Laurens Vanthoor is leading the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona with four hours to go, but BMW M Team RLL is interjecting itself between the two factory Porsches.
That’s because Kevin Magnussen has driven the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 past the #6 Penske Porsche 963 of Matt Campbell shortly after the most recent green flag restart. Magnussen is still aboard the #24 BMW, while Mathieu Jaminet is back in the #6 Porsche.
Vanthoor leads by about eight seconds in GTP – about a minute behind him, the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Colin Braun runs fourth as the last car on the lead lap.
Porsche Penske has also staggered its pit strategies since the last couple of Full Course Yellows – the #7 is a few laps further into its energy tank than the #6, but these strategies should converge towards the end of the race – and definitely will if another Full Course Yellow is deployed.
Dane Cameron is stretching his advantage out in the #99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2. The reigning IMSA Champion leading the class from reigning Le Mans 24H winner Nicklas Nielsen in the #88 AF Corse ORECA.
Nielsen overtook Tower Motorsports’ Sebastian Alvarez for second place; Alvarez is now third with Ryan Dalziel in fourth for ERA Motorsport.
The #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 is the latest retirement from the field in GTD as a result of damage sustained in an incident that also involved the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini and the #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
The #78 is still in the garage undergoing repairs – and so is the #023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari which went behind the wall after a severe vibration led to further work under the front end. The #80 Mercedes has returned though it is now 30 laps down in GTD.
We do have five makes in the top five in GTD PRO, separated by relatively slim margins. Connor De Phillippi has taken over the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO, the American leads from the #4 Corvette Racing Z06 GT3.R of Tommy Milner in second by 1.5s.
Milner had a close call with the #12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus that ended up giving the Lexus a left-front puncture, but the #4 Pratt Miller Corvette avoided a penalty. Antonio Garcia’s contact with his countryman Miguel Molina was not given the same grace – Garcia and the #3 Corvette got a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact with the #81 DragonSpeed Ferrari.
GetSpeed’s first Daytona 24 Hours is going well – Luca Stolz is running third in the #69 Mercedes-AMG GT3, followed closely by the #65 Ford Multimatic Mustang GT3 of Chris Mies.
In GTD it’s still the #13 AWA Corvette in front driven by Marvin Kirchhöfer, by five seconds over the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Tom Sargent.
But the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG is back in the fight after its earlier drive-through penalty that took the reigning GTD champions out of the lead. Philip Ellis is third, ahead of Heart of Racing Team’s Tom Gamble.
Feature image © Jack Webster
