Porsche leads Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta with three hours gone, with Felipe Nasr in front of his teammate Mathieu Jaminet.
The race began with polesitter Jack Aitken, in the #31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R, retaining the lead from Nasr’s teammate Matt Campbell, onboard the #7 Porsche 963 at the start.
The first full course yellow of the race, 20 minutes in for a stranded GTD car, saw every GTP machine pit apart from the #40 WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06 of Jordan Taylor.
This meant J. Taylor led the race, from Alessio Picariello in the #5 Proton Competition Porsche 963, who had taken the lead thanks to fast work in the pits, and former leader Aitken.
J. Taylor, who had yet to stop, then built up a lead of well over 10 seconds. Aitken finally found a way past Picariello at turn 1, and immediately set about catching J. Taylor, who soon pitted for fuel, falling back to the rear of the GTP field.
Soon after the Acura pitted, another full course yellow meant the other GTPs pitted, with J. Taylor now back in the lead, with Aitken second and Campbell third.
However, the cars that had just pitted had new tyres, while J. Taylor had rubber that was now well over an hour old. Aitken soon used his superior grip to pass J. Taylor, with Campbell doing the same shortly after.
The Acura then dropped through the field as the Acura’s tyres fell off the grip cliff.
Aitken now led from Campbell, but was given a drive through penalty for a pass under yellow flag conditions. This promoted Jesse Krohn, in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8, into the lead of the race, from J. Taylor, who had since pitted for new tyres and fuel, and Jaminet in the #6 Porsche.
Krohn then pitted, with J. Taylor pitting again on schedule, promoting the two Porsches into the lead. J. Taylor’s brother Ricky Taylor, in the sister #10 WTRAndretti Acura, is third, with Bent Viscaal fourth in the #5 Proton Porsche.
Keating crashes out of contention in LMP2
In LMP2, the #88 AF Corse Oreca 07-Gibson of Nicklas Nielsen leads.
Polesitter Ben Keating, in the #2 United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson, retained the lead at the start, but he was partially responsible for the second full course yellow of the race, colliding first with the #20 High Class Oreca 07-Gibson of Dennis Andersen, then rejoining the track at turn 6, at speed, and hitting the innocent #4 Corvette C8.R of Tommy Milner.
With Nielsen leading the class, Hunter McElrea is second in the #11 TDS Oreca 07-Gibson, and Tom Dillmann third onboard the #52 Inter Europol PR1 Mathiasen Oreca 07-Gibson.
Polesitting ‘Rexy’ has problems in GTD Pro
Mirko Bortolotti leads GTD Pro in the #19 Lamborghinin Huracan GT3 EVO2.
The polesitting #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3R of Lauren Heinrich, Michael Christensen and Julien Andlauer led from the start, but has since encountered issues with the steering wheel and a loose connection. This caused the car to frequently stop on track, but Andlauer, at the wheel, has pitted to have the cable connecting the steering wheel with the car replaced, which appears to have fixed the problem.
So, Bortolotti leads from Alex Riberas in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. Third is Joey Hand in the #65 Ford Mustang GT3.
Finally, in GTD, Mike Skeer leads in the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R, with Frankie Montecalvo second onboard the #12 VasserSullivan Lexus RC F GT3, and Patrick Gallagher in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 third.
