We enter the last quarter of the race at the 24h of Daytona, where the protagonists of the IMSA SportsCar Championship also completed the 18th hour as the first light of dawn begins to illuminate the Florida track.
While the ride hasn’t had any major disruptions (unbelievable!) since the last update we provided, there were plenty of twists and turns. The first came at the start of the 16th hour when Pipo Derani had to return to the AXR pits, where the mechanics replaced the gearbox on his #31 Cadillac.
Shortly after, Porsche #6 also returned for operations on the rear which made the only 963 in the race for a good placement among the LMDhs lose a very precious time, which the #7 also did again at the 17th hour.
For the rest, there were some infractions committed in the pits that caused a 10″ penalty to the Oreca #52 and a Drive Through for the BMW #96 and the Acura NSX #93, while an engine problem on the Oreca #18 forced to the pits of Era Motorsport for long repairs.
#31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-LMDh Cadillac V- LMDh: Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims, Jack Aitken
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
In the GTP Class, the duel between the two Cadillacs driven by Chip Ganassi Racing and the Acura driven by Meyer Shank Racing-Curb Agajanian was wonderful. The V-LMDh #01 of Bourdais/Van Der Zande/Dixon reached the top in the 16th hour followed by its sister ship #02 of Bamber/Lynn/Westbrook, but already in the following 60′ the ARX-06 #60 of Blomqvist/Braun/ Castroneves/Pagenaud climbed back to second place, 30″ behind the leader after Blomqvist had also moved up to 12″.
Fourth is the Acura #10 of Wayne Taylor Racing (Taylor/Albuquerque/Delétraz/Hartley) which is one lap behind the leader, while the BMW #24 of Farfus/Wittmann/Eng/Herta accumulated two Top5.
With the time lost in the pits, the other competitors in the category seem left out. The Porsche #6 of Team Penske (Jaminet/Tandy/Cameron) is sixth with 3 laps behind, even 17 are those on the back of the Cadillac #31 of Action Express Racing (Derani/Sims/Aitken) after the long pit stop.
In the race, but very far away also the Porsche #7 of Christensen/Nasr/Campbell and the BMW #25 of De Phillippi/Yelloly/Van Der Linde/Herta, eighth and ninth GTP.
#04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA LMP2 07: George Kurtz, Ben Hanley, Matt McMurry, Esteban Gutierrez
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
Everything is wide open in Class LMP2 where the #04 Oreca of Crowdstrike Racing by APR (Kurtz/Hanley/McMurry/Gutiérrez) remains first with the #35 of TDS Racing (Heriau/Van Der Garde/Van Uitert/Pierson) and the #88 by AF Corse (Perrodo/Nielsen/Vaxivière/Canal), enclosed in the space of 15″.
The #52 of PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports (Keating/Quinn/Chatin/Lapierre) takes back the fourth place even if with a lap behind, followed by the #51 of Rick Ware Racing (Lux/DeFrancesco/Fittipaldi/Cindric).
Sixth place for the #55 Oreca of Proton Competition (Bruni/Pizzi/Allen/Poordad), while the #8 of Tower Motorsports (Farano/McLaughlin/Simpson/Newgarden) took seventh overtaking the #20 of High Class Racing ( Marciello/Andersen/Jones/Fjordbach).
Engine problems forced the #18 of Era Motorsport (Rasmussen/Dalziel/Jarvis/Merriman) to return to the pits, where it is still stationary for the operations of the mechanics. The #11 of TDS Racing (Thomas/Veekay/Huffaker/Jensen) has long since retired.
#33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P320: Lance Willsey, Joao Barbosa, Nico Pino, Danny Soufi
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
In the LMP3 class there is a new change of leader: the Ligier #33 of Sean Creech Motorsport (Barbosa/Pino/Siegel/Willsey) overtook the Duqueine #17 of AWA (Mantella/Boyd/Varrone/Merrill) gaining ground, while the third remains the Duqueine #87 of FastMD Racing (Kanamaru/Serravalle/Boulle/Vance), far from those who precede and follow her.
Fourth we find the Ligier #38 of Performance Tech Motorsports (DeAngelis/Allen/Bloum/Shields) despite a spin at the ‘Bus Stop-Le Mans’ chicane, the Duqueine #13 of AWA climbs into the Top5 (Fidani/Bell/Kranz/Kern) passing the #85 JDC Miller Motorsports (Bechtolsheimer/Van Der Helm/Mars/Filippi) which broke its rear wing in an off-track exit.
Outside the Ligier #74 by Riley (Robinson/Fraga/Burdon/Van Berlo), #43 by MRS GT-Racing (Alvarez/French/De Oliveira/Frost) and #36 by Andretti Autosport (Andretti/Chaves/Dickerson/Lindh) .
#79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3: Cooper MacNeil, Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon, Maro Engel
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
In GTD PRO the tussle for success is always beautiful. The #79 Mercedes of WeatherTech Racing-Proton (Juncadella/Gounon/Engel/MacNeil) is chased by the #3 Corvette (Garcia/Taylor/Milner) and the #14 Lexus of Vasser Sullivan (Hawksworth/Barnicoat/Conway).
A suspension problem sent the Aston Martin #23 of Heart Of Racing (Pittard/Gunn/Riberas) to the pits and to the rear, now eighth, therefore the Lamborghini #63 of Iron Lynx (Caldarelli/Bortolotti/Grosjean/Pepper) climbs fourth with a good lead on the struggling Pfaff Motorsports Porsche #9 (Pilet/Vanthoor/Bachler) and the Turner Motorsport BMW #95 (Spengler/Auberlen/Hull/Edwards).
The Porsche #53 of MDK Motorsports (Kvamme/Estep/Magnussen/Hart) was seventh, while the Aston Martin #64 of TGM-TF Sport (Giovanis/H.Plumb/M.Plumb/Trinkler) remained ninth after the return.
The race, on the other hand, lost the Ferrari #62 of Risi Competizione (Pier Guidi/Calado/Serra/Rigon) a few hours ago due to a failure on the floor due to a contact.
#93 Racers Edge Motorsports with WTR Acura NSX GT3: Ashton Harrison, Danny Formal, Kyle Marcelli, Ryan Briscoe, #57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3: Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, Lucas Auer, Indy Dontje, #3 Corvette Racing Corvette C8. R GTD: Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor, Tommy Milner
Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images
In the GTD Class, the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes (Morad/Ellis/Dontje/Ward) and the Heart Of Racing #27 Aston Martin (DeAngelis/Sorensen/James/Turner) exchange positions in front, first and second with the Vantage #44 by Magnus Racing (Lally/Potter/Pumpelly/Thiim).
Problems for the #32 Mercedes-AMG of Team Korthoff Motorsports (Grenier/Skeen/Koch/Goetz), pushed into the paddock by the mechanics, therefore the Top5 is for the #93 Acura NSX of Racers Edge Motorsports (Harrison/Formal/Marcelli/Briscoe ) and the Inception Racing McLaren #70 (Millroy/Iribe/Schandorff/Kirchhofer).
Sixth and further behind is the Lexus #12 of Vasser Sullivan (Telitz/Montecalvo/Kirkwood/Thompson) behind which we find the Acura #66 of Gradient Racing (Miller/Farnbacher/Legge/Monk), the BMW #1 of Paul Miller Racing ( Sellers/Snow/Lewis/Martin) and the Lamborghini #78 of US Racetronics (Mapelli/Hites/Spinelli/Goikhberg), which together with the Ferrari #21 of AF Corse (Mann/Molina/Pérez Companc/Castellacci) complete the Top10 of category.
Behind the 296, still grappling with a negative BoP that slowed it down considerably, are the Porsche #16 of Wright Motorsports (Hardwick/Heylen/Robichon/Olsen), the Lamborghini #19 of Iron Lynx (Schiavoni/Giammaria/Perera/Ineichen ) and now the second Porsche of Wright (#77) that Estre/Hindman/Root/Brynjolfsson put ahead of the Ferrari #023 of Triarsi Competizione (Rovera/Triarsi/Bertolini/Scardina).
Out of the Ferrari #47 of Cetilar Racing-AF Corse (Lacorte/Fuoco/Sernagiotto/Balzan), the Mercedes #75 of Sun Energy 1 (Schiller/Stolz/Jefferies/Habul) due to a broken radiator, the Lamborghini #42 of NTE Sport (Megennis/Conwright/Li/Deledda) due to oil pan failure and the #92 Porsche of Kellymoss-Riley (Brule/Udell/Davis/Bleekemolen).
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