Felipe Nasr leads the Daytona 24 Hours for Porsche at the halfway point, with his teammate Matt Campbell making it a Porsche 1-2 art the front.
The race has just been put under full course yellow, with the ´336 DXDT Corvette Z06 GT3.R on fire on the back portion of the oval, at turn 7.
Nasr, in the #7 Porsche 963, took the lead shortly after the latest race restart after the seventh full course yellow of the race. Campbell, in the sister #6 car, has worked his way through the field to take second, ahead of the #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06.
The car currently in fifth, the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8, currently with Kevin Magnussen at the wheel, started the race on pole. At the time it had Dries Vanthoor in the car, and by ther time he finished his double stint, he had built a lead of well over 20 seconds.
However, as D. Vanthoor pitted the car, he hit the wall as he entered the team’s pit stall. While no damage was done, it still cost the team time, and they subsequently lost the lead, dropping to fourth.
All four manufacturers have led the race at some point. There have been a few set backs for various teams; the #63 Lamborghini SC63 retired after just an hour, while the #93 Meyer Shank Acura stopped on track, with Alex Palou at the wheel.
The car was towed back to the garage, with the team confirming it suffered a rear left suspension failure. It did go back out but is 39 laps down and out of contention for any kind of good result.
Disaster for Cadillac and Wayne Taylor Racing
Disaster struck in the eighth hour for multiple front leading cars in various classes. The race had been under yellow so the stricken #007 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo could be recovered. When the green flag waved to restart the race, at turn 1, Louis Deletraz in the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R spun on cold tyres, hitting the barriers on drivers right and ricocheting back on track.
With nowhere to go, multiple cars were collected, including the #2 United Autosports Oreca from LMP2, with Nick Boulle at the wheel, and the #9 Pfaff Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 of Jordan Pepper. All three cars retired, while the #73 Pratt Miller Oreca, also collected by the errant Cadillac, was repaired but is 77 laps down. The same applies to the #48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo, which is 85 laps down and also involved in in the incident.
So, with Nasr leading and Campbell second in a Porsche 1-2, Scott Dixon is third in the #60 MSR Acura, with Will Stevens fourth in the sole remaining Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, 19 seconds of the lead.
In LMP2, Rasmus Lindh leads in the #22 United Autosports Oreca, while Tom Dillmann is second in the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca. Third is Dane Cameron in the #99 AO Racing oreca.
Neil Verhagen leads GTD Pro, in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. Second is the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R of Klaus Bachler, with Dennis Olsen third in the #65 Ford Mustang GT3.
Finally, in GTD, Ayhancan Guven is leading in the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3.R. Second is Jens Klingmann in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 Evo, while Marvin Kirchoffer in the #13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R lies third in cklass.
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