Laurens Vanthoor led the IMSA SportsCar Championship‘s 63rd running of the 24 Hours of Daytona for the Porsche Penske team in 1-2 formation.
After a controlled and calm race start in cooler yet sunny track conditions, the first full course caution period was declared when Hunter McElrea of the #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 overran the Western Horseshoe (turn five).
He put his LMP2 car into the barrier but was pulled out and continued on his way.
When the track returned to green flag conditions, David Heinemeier Hansson (#18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07) unintentionally spun James Roe’s Pratt Miller #73 Oreca at the exit of Turn 1, earning the #18 reigning LMP2 winners a drive-through for incident responsibility.
The #6 Porsche Penske 963 GTP driver Nick Tandy wrestled his way into second position on IMSA debutant Frederik Vesti.
Vesti, piloting the #31 Cadillac V-Series.R, was under pressure during his first ever stint and was unable to keep Tandy on hold – the British driver took second place.
BMW duo Rene Rast (#25 BMW RLL M Hybrid V8 GTP) and Philipp Eng (#25 BMW) also passed Vesti.
They put the BMWs in second and third position and ran under two seconds behind Tandy. Julien Andlauer of the #5 Proton Competition Porsche subsequently overtook Vesti whilst Tandy extended his lead to a gap of three seconds.
This was before Rast returned the pace and cut down into Tandy’s lead by Lap 99 and challenged each other at T1.
Amidst the GT traffic, the pair settled apart as the other #6 Porsche Penske made it a 1-2 formation for the team.
Third place was Robin Frijns in the #25 BMW and his sibling teammate #24 BMW of Kevin Magnussen was fourth ahead of the #31 Whelen Cadillac’s Felipe Drugovich.
Spike leads LMP2 confidently in LMP2
LMP2 was led by Dane Cameron’s #99 AO Racing ‘Spike’ Oreca at 46 seconds ahead of Nick Boulle’s #2 United Autosports and Luis Perez’s #88 AF Corse LMP2 machines.
GTD Pro emerged towards a leading battle between two iconic manufacturers, Ford vs Corvette.
By the end of four hours, Ford led the race 1-2 with the #64 pole-sitting Ford Mustang GT3 having earned their way back, thanks to Sebastien Priaulx, on Dennis Olsen’s #65 Ford.
Paul Miller Racing’s #48 BMW M4 GT3 EVO started third and held the position owing to a long-timer for the Munich manufacturer, Augusto Farfus.
In the GTD category, misfortune hit for the reigning class champions and Daytona 24 Hours winner Winward Racing as Russell Ward complained of a sticky throttle pedal.
He pitted and went behind the wall as the team replaced the spring behind the throttle pedal itself and returned to the track with 21-hours and 12-minutes remaining.
These circumstances enabled Misha Goikhberg’s #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 to not only gain the lead but with a strong 25-second gap.
He ran ahead of two GTD Pro cars – the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus and the #91 Trackhouse by TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
Their mechanics performed a door change with the strong margin although Heart of Racing’s #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 later took the lead on #78 driver Parker Kligerman.
In third was the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3.R which started on pole position.
