Less than two hours to run in the 61st running of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. A safety car restart set the pace for the final two hours of the race as the field took the green flag in what is effectively a regular ISMA sprint race.
Simon Pagenaud maintained the lead he built over the last stint through the restart, fending off moves from Sebastian Bourdais in the #01 Cadillac, his closest competitor at this point. Only three cars remain on the lead lap in GTP, that being the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura and both the #01 and #02 Cadillacs.
The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura has climbed up to only one lap down and with 2 hours left, they are still very much in this race. The #6 Porsche also tried to fight it’s way on to the lead lap after a rough last 22 hours for the German manufacturer. Nick Tandy ran the #6 around, facing an almost identical breaking issue at the same point of the track two laps in a row.
As Tandy made his way around the banking, the Porsche started bellowing smoke out the back end. Tandy parked the car and switched to purely electric power and limped back to the pits, where he was pushed to the garage. A full course yellow flew when Tandy parked his car bunching the field up and giving the GTP cars on the lead lap a chance to top off and try and beat their competitors off pit lane.
Pagenaud won the race off pit lane and had a tough challenge ahead of him as the formation laps counted down and the #01 and a motivated Bourdais ran behind him.
Further down the grid in GTD, the #3 Corvette was able to beat the #79 Weathertech Racing Mercades off pit lane and take the GTD Pro lead. The #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin lead GTD and the GT field over all while the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus got in the mix in GTD pro.
On the restart, Pagenaud held off a fierce attack from Bourdais through the first lap and started to build a gap as they head towards the final stint and driver change for both cars.
In the GT ranks a pack led by the #14 followed by the #79 and #3 are weaving around the circuit fighting for GTD Pro lead. Roman de Angelis holds a tight fist over the GTD and overall GT lead as we enter the final two hours of the 24 Hours at Daytona.
In LMP2 a tight battle between the #88 AF Course with Matthieu Vaxivere behind the wheel and the #55 PR1 Mathiasen with Paul-Loop Chatin on the controls. The #88 leads by less than a second as both cars we’ve in and out of traffic.
It’s all coming down to the wire here in Daytona, and in two hours, a winner will be crowned.
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