Nick Tandy of the #7 Porsche Penske 963 GTP led the IMSA SportsCar Championship‘s 24 Hours of Daytona season-opener.
The night time phase of the 63rd running came to an end and teams sought out the delight of daylight returning, having survived an action-packed night.
Porsche Penske were in control at the front of the field although the race only just entered into the second half.
Incidents hit under dark but the hours approaching to sunrise hosted more consistent racing conditions.
Reigning FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar title winner Kevin Estre led the charge in the #7 Porsche 963 GTP.
His team-mate, Felipe Nasr, pitted after Estre though the pair split tyre strategies when Estre took on fresh rubber as Nasr in the # 7 did not.
Subsequently on cold tyres, Estre made a mistake under braking into the Le Mans Chicane, although continued without further drama.
Nasr initally jumped Estre for the lead but that did not stop Estre fighting back and returning himself into the lead again.
Phillipp Eng’s #24 BMW RLL M Hybrid V8 GTP, the overall pole-sitting car, kept within a decent gap as the next competitor behind the two Porsche Penskes as the Weissach make targeted a 20th win at Daytona, adding to their utmost record over any other manufacturer.
Into the eighteenth hour, the colour of the sky turned blue and brighter as Porsche Penske needed to continue their night pace into the early hours of the morning.
Tandy led the way for the #7, demonstrating great confidence and thrills on fighting with Matt Campbell’s #6 Porsche.
Eng held third position ahead of Scott Dixon’s #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06 and Brendon Hartley’s #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.
Tower Motorsports vs Crowdstrike in LMP2
In the LMP2 category, the lead fight was between Tower Motorsports’ #8 Oreca 07 (Sebastien Bourdais) and Crowdstrike Racing by APR’s #04 Oreca 07 of Toby Sowery.
The latter driver spun at Turn 1 which temporarily halted their chase on Bourdais, which extended to a gap of 17 seconds.
Colton Herta took over the #04 and closed down the gap, though AO Racing’s ‘Spike’ #99 Oreca jumped into the lead in the hands of Christian Rasmussen.
GTD Pro enabled the reigning champions, AO Racing and their #77 ‘Rexy’ Porsche 911 GT3.R, to keep a gap on the #65 Ford Multimatic Mustang GT3 crew.
The real fight, however, was for second place as the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO’s Kelvin van der Linde eagerly added pressure.
Soon enough, after hanging on the tail of the #65 for such a long time, the #1 made a key move into second position.
Corvette Racing’s #3 Z06 GT3.R driver Antonio Garcia ran in third position.
GTD was led again by class pole-sitter Elliott Skeer (#120 Wright Motorsports Porsche) after the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO suffered a drive-through penalty earlier from the lead.
Amidst a pit cycle, Matt Bell of the #13 AWA Corvette led the class ahead of Ralf Aron (#80 Lone Star Mercedes) and Kenton Koch’s #32 Korthoff/Preston Mercedes.
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