The sun has officially set on the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona and the headlights are flipped on across the field. As the cars continue to rack up laps around the World Center of Racing a shuffle in the GTP ranks and dropping temperatures set the grid up for an interesting night.
The fifth hour of the race started with a tight battle through the top half of the GTP field. Mathieu Jaminet in his #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport machine made a move for the crown when he tried to take the lead from Colin Braun in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing entry.
Jaminet was then mugged by Louis Deletraz on his second straight stint in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing to make it an Acura 1-2. The woes were not over for Jaminet as his former Pfaff Motorsport teammate Matt Campbell got around him as well, bringing Jaminet from second to fourth in a blink.
While all this happened, Louis Deletraz continued to move up the field and took Braun for the lead on pace with little to no fight. Braun got him back shortly after but that was short-lived as Campbell came from behind and took the lead from Braun. Braun and Campbell pitted and Deletraz inherited the lead.
In the pits Simon Pagenaud took the wheel of the #60 Meyer Shank from Braun for his first stint of the night. Pagenaud later got in an incident, sending the #8 Tower Motorsport around and received a warning from race control as a result.
The incident with the #8 added another chapter to an already painful day for the fan favorite LMP2 outfit as well as the #01 Cadillac. The Cadillac was caught behind the #8 and broke suddenly to avoid the turned around vehicle. The #01 was rear ended and suffered heavy back end damage, forcing them to pit for repairs.
As things run the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura with Simon Pagenaud leads overall. In LMP2 the #11 TDS Racing outfit with Mikkel Jensen behind the wheel leads with Rasmus Lindh in the #33 Andretti Autosport leading LMP3. The GT ranks are led by Mike Conway in the #14 Vasser Sullivan in GTD Pro and Maxi Gotez in the #33 Korthoff Mercades.
The night continues to settle in and tires are getting cold. The second compound of tires will start being used from now until morning to help deal with the plummeting temperatures.
