It is morning in Daytona and a beautiful sun is illuminating the International Speedway as we hit the 21st hour of the 24th scheduled for this first event of the IMSA SportsCar Championship 2022.
In Florida it is still quite cold even though the temperature has risen to 5 ° C; almost incredibly, it seems to be said, in the last 180 ‘there have been no interruptions with Full Course Yellow or Safety Car, which allowed everyone to run peacefully and be able to implement their strategies.
A few penalties still came, all with Drive Through to serve for Haupt Racing Team # 27 (pit stop infraction), Gilbert Korthoff Racing # 32 and Performance Tech Motorsports (acceleration on pit stop stands), and Team Hardpoint # 99 (by collision).
Four DPi’s will go for the triumph in the remaining 3 hours and the Cadillac # 5 of JDC-Miller Motorsports (Duval / Keating / Westbrook / Vautier) is trying to stretch on the # 31 of Action Express Racing (Derani / Nunez / Conway), which he is at 5 “after the last pit stop and had conducted operations previously.
A little further back we find the Acura # 10 of Wayne Taylor Racing (Stevens / Rossi / Taylor / Albuquerque), which risked a lot at the 19th hour for a hike in the grass during the dubbing phase, and # 60 of the Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian (Jarvis / Blomqvist / Castroneves / Pagenaud), finished off the podium after the last swirl of stops.
The Cadillacs # 48 of Ally Racing / AXR (Johnson / Lopez / Kobayashi / Rockenfeller), # 02 and # 01 of Chip Ganassi Racing (Bamber / Lynn / Ericsson / Magnussen and Bourdais / Van Der Zande / Dixon / Palou) are slow ascent towards the general Top10, but now with too many laps of delay to get back in contention for the record.
In Class LMP2 the Oreca 07-Gibson # 81 of DragonSpeed (Herta / Lux / DeFrancesco / O’Ward) took a good margin on the # 8 of Tower Motorsport (Andrade / Delétraz / Farano / Habsburg) and the # 52 of PR1 Mathiasen (Lapierre / Keating / Huffaker / Jensen).
The # 29 of Racing Team Nederland (Van Eerd / VeeKay / Murry / Van Der Garde) slipped further back due to an off-track, but remains ahead of the # 68 of G-Drive by APR (Rasmussen / Heriau / Jones / Rast), # 22 by United Autosports (Owen / Smith / McGuire / Hanson), # 18 by Era (Dalziel / Merriman / Chatin / Tilley) and # 11 by PR1 Mathiasen (Tincknell / Bomarito / Pierson / Thomas), who have accumulated several laps of delay.
Among the LMP3s there does not seem to be any problems for the Ligier # 74 of Riley Motorsports (Fraga / Robinson / Van Berlo / Cooper), followed half a minute by the # 54 of Core Autosport (Jonsson / Kurtz / Braun / Bennett), which overtook # 33 of Sean Creech Motorsport (Willsey / Barbosa / Priaulx / Jacobsen).
The Duqueine # 13 of Awa (Fidani / Wittmer / Kern / Bell) instead moved ahead of the Ligier # 36 of Andretti (Burdon / Andretti / Lindh / Chaves) in the duel for fourth place.
The Ligier # 38 of Performance Tech Motorsports (Goldburg / Pino / Abe / Grist) continues late, out on the final of the 21st hour the Duqueine # 26 of Muehlner Motorsports America (Siegel / Shields / Crews / De Wilde).
In GTD PRO it is the Porsche # 2 of KCMG (Olsen / Pilet / Vanthoor / Imperatori) to try to give the decisive breakout by earning 10 “on the # 9 of Pfaff (Jaminet / Campbell / Nasr).
The Ferrari # 62 of the Risi Competizione (Calado / Pier Guidi / Rigon / Serra) fell third and also had a headache for a touch with the LMP2 of Era.
Lexus # 14 of Vasser Sullivan Racing (Barnicoat / Kirkwood / Hawksworth) and Mercedes # 15 of Proton USA (Mueller / Assenheimer / Cindric) maintain the Top5 and are also the only ones in full swing, as BMW and Corvette are far behind .
Porsche also commands the GTD Class with the # 16 of Wright Motorsports (Hardwick / Robichon / Heylen / Lietz), but Mann / Vilander / Nielsen / Perez Companc are doing a great race at the wheel of the AF Corse Ferrari # 21, in place of honor after a good comeback.
The # 44 Aston Martin of Magnus Racing (Potter / Lally / Pumpelly / Adam) has put one foot back on the podium, but he has to watch his back from the # 32 Mercedes of Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports (Skeen / Davison / McAleer / Andrews).
Even if with a few laps less, the Lamborghini # 19 of TR3 Racing (Altoè / Sweedler / Megrue / Segal) wins thanks to the problems accused by the McLaren # 70 of Inception Racing (Pepper / Iribe / Schandorff / Millroy), which is over behind her, but ahead of Winward Racing’s # 57 Mercedes (Ward / Ellis / Grenier / Auer).
A puncture in the front left created irreparable damage and put an end to the race of the Lamborghini # 39 of Carbahn-Peregrine during the 19th hour.
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