The Rolex 24 from Daytona is well underway, and the five classes of cars have reached the eight-hour mark and are powering their way through the moonlit night.
After a frantic afternoon that saw four cautions within the first three hours, the field of drivers settled down for the first hours of night racing and put in a solid stint of racing leading up to midnight local time.
The competition has been intense, however, with each of the classes trading the spotlight with battles for their respective class leads. The only break in the action was a single caution period for the #19 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, which overheated and stopped on track with Franck Perera behind the wheel.
At the front of the field in DPi, Sebastien Bourdais in the #5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R and Scott Dixon in the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R put on a fantastic show early in the night. The two veterans fought for the top overall spot in an epic battle while weaving in and out of the slower classes, with Bourdais coming out with the lead.
Later in the night, Loic Duval was behind the wheel of the #5 and was penalized for jumping the restart near the seven-hour mark. With eight hours in the books, Kamui Kobayshi now holds the lead in the #48, and Cadillac holds the top two positions and continues to show very few weaknesses with 16 hours remaining.
The #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 currently runs in third, but had a scare when one of the team’s mechanics had troubles getting the right-rear tire changed during the sixth pit stop of the race. After losing at least 20 seconds to the error, Helio Castroneves rejoined the action in fourth position and was able to catch up with the rest of the front-runners.
In LMP2, the #11 Win Autosport ORECA 07 Gibson driven by Thomas Merrill maintains the lead it has enjoyed for much of the race. Over 45 seconds behind, #8 Tower Motorsport ORECA 07 Gibson driven by Tim Buret still holds second in class.
LMP3 was the exception to the rule for much of the early night hours, with the #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 VK driving away with the class lead and lapping the rest of the class. Following the full course yellow that bunched up the field, it’s the #6 Muehlner Motorsports Duqueine D08 VK that holds the lead after one-third distance.
The two factory Corvette C8.Rs continue to lead the way in GTLM, as they have done for most of the event. Antonio Garcia in the #3 currently leads Tommy Milner in the #4 by just over one second. Davide Rigon in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE currently sits in third.
GTD was the setting for a knock-out, three-way battle for the lead between the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3.R, the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, and the #97 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Elsewhere in the class, the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 was brought behind the while for some time to fix an overheating issue. The bold yellow and black machine rejoined the race some 26 laps down.
After eight hours, it’s Nicklas Nielsen in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo that currently holds the top spot in the slowest category, though his team will certainly continue to face challenges to that spot as the night continues.
