With all that shemozzle of the restart, Seb Morris has taken the race lead away from Jeff Gordon. No damage for the #10 Cadillac. Jeff Gordon is now third. The Cadillac trio has Christian Fittipaldi in the #5 Cadillac in second, followed by the Nissan of Ryan Dalziel and Jonathan Bomarito's Mazda. 2007 was the last time Jeff Gordon ran the Rolex 24. The #98 Aston Martin V8 Vantage hits the pit lane. There is a scrum between the #3 Corvette and the #62 Ferrari 488. The Ferrari makes the pass. James Calado has gone ahead of Jan Magnussen. The #70 Mazda has served a drive through penalty for that shunt we told you about at the end of the second hour.
Tom Long, was at the wheel, and exited when the red light was still on at the end of pit lane. The #90 Visit Florida Racing Multimatic Riley has had some issues. Renger van der Zande takes over the car from Marc Goossens. The #70 Mazda had a one minute stop/go stop and hold penalty. Seb Morris leads in the #31 Cadillac over Christian Fittipaldi in the sister Action Express Cadillac #5. Morris ran a 1:37.2. A fabulous lap! A drive through penalty for Townsend Bell in the #23 Alex Job Racing Audi R8 he shares with Bill Sweedler, Frank Montecalvo, and German veteran, Pierre Kaffer. Patricio O'Ward still leads Prototype Challenge in the #38 car. Christian Fittipaldi throws down a best sector one time, trailing Seb Morris by 2.8 seconds.
Matt Bell in the #57 Audi R8 for Stevenson Motorsports wants to put a lap on the #27 Dream Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3, the car we saw in the pit lane earlier with a fire. The #13 Rebellion hits the lane for fuel and tires, but no driver change. A suspension adjustment is going on, almost like a quarter turn of wedge on a stock car. That car had come out from the garage. They've been in the lane for 20 minutes. These cars have an illuminated light on the side, with the number of the position they are running in class. Red is for pro classes. Green denotes Pro Am classes. Red for Prototype and GTLM. Green for PC and GTD. Both Starworks cars are in the lane. #8 and #88.
#88 has Sean Rayhall taking over from Alex Popow and is third in class out of the five cars entered. Alex Popow ran his entire first stint on one set of tires. Silver rated drivers have to have a minimum of five hours at the wheel. Prototype Challenge leader Patricio O'Ward is in the lane. Routine, fuel only stop. All the PC cars are on Continental tires. Jules Gounon leads GT Daytona in the #29 Monoplast by Land Motorsport Audi R8. Bryan Sellers in the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini had a stop/go penalty in the lane, and we have to receive word on why that was. He's lost four to five places.
Patricio O'Ward pitted, and stayed in the car, but lost the lead to Chris Cumming in the #8 Starworks car. Three Ford GT's are in the top four in GT Le Mans. Tony Kanaan goes ahead of Jan Magnussen. James Calado is second in class, 2.3 seconds behind Hand. Corvette and Porsche are behind. The sole remaining Lexus RC F GT3 in seventh in GT Daytona, with Austin Cindric at the controls currently. Cindric is sharing with Robert Alon, IndyCar veteran Jack Hawksworth, and sports car veteran Dominik Farnbacher. Scott Pruett's team mates, Ian James, Sage Karam, and Gustavo Menezes, never got to drive the #14 machine. Seb Morris has the #31 Cadillac in the lead and cuts another great lap. 1:37.104.
Jeff Gordon has not matched the pace that Ricky Taylor was setting. Either it was aerodynamic damage, or a cautious pace by Gordon. Teams will anticipate changing weather conditions each stint. So, stints vary for the lap times. We are 78 laps, 277 miles into this race. A long, long, long way to go. Renger van der Zande in #90, Henrik Hedman in the Dragonspeed #81, and Ed Brown in the #22 ESM car, have all gone a lap down. Seb Morris is lapping consistently in the low 1:37 range when he has clear track. John Falb takes over the #8 car from Chris Cumming. The #26 BAR1 Motorsports car also pits. All to play for in Prototype Challenge.
5.2 seconds is the gap. #2, the first ESM Ligier is in the lane, as there was a near miss between it and the #26 PC car. The #2 is off sequence on pit stops. The engine cover is coming off the car. Ryan Dalziel has a problem. Dalziel, Chris Cumming, and also, in the #55 Mazda, of Jonathan Bomarito, all these blokes have been driving since the race began. The light is fading here at Daytona International Speedway. We are set for a long night here at Daytona. It's the same amount of darkness here as it is in the 24 Hours of Dubai. Twilight is longer here in Daytona Beach, Florida. The #90 car has lost a lap, and so has the #81. Four cars on the lead lap right now. Seb Morris leads Christian Fittipaldi, Jeff Gordon, and Jonathan Bomarito.
The #2 ESM car did have a very long pit stop. Scott Sharp has taken over the car. The #55 car was overtaken by Seb Morris, and so now, only the three Cadillac's are on the lead lap. James Calado is doing his best to close in on Joey Hand. The Ford vs. Ferrari battle is hot and heavy in GTLM. The #31 Cadillac pits for fuel only, and so does the team car #5, also for fuel only. Jeff Gordon has retaken the race lead, and saved some fuel. Jeff Gordon is in the lane. Fuel and tires, with no driver change. Gordon will continue his stint. Renger van der Zande brought the #90 Multimatic Riley into the pits. Action Express have double stinted their tires. The #81 DragonSpeed car pits.
After Loic Duval hit the wall in qualifying, the car had to be totally rebuilt with a brand new tub. They missed qualifying and are up to fifth place overall, with Ben Hanley at the controls. Pit stop time for the #911 Porsche, and the #23 Alex Job Racing Audi R8 left it's pit box with pit equipment attached to the car. The #48 Lamborghini has also had a penalty. Mazda #55 is also in the lane. A scheduled stop for the Mazda squad. Porsche had an errant air hose that came loose from the air impact wrench on the tire change. #48 had a stop and two lap hold for an improper wave by. It was not eligible to overtake before being pointed by the safety car.
Mazda #70 has a better pit stop than last time. No driver change. Fuel and tires only. #20 in Prototype Challenge fuels up, gets tires, and has a driver change. Spencer Pigot battles Renger van der Zande in Prototype. The #55 Mazda has Spencer Pigot indeed at the wheel. The leading GT Daytona car #29 is in the lane. This is the Land Motorsport Montaplast Audi R8. Jules Gounon is at the wheel. Norbert Siedler in the #73 Park Place Porsche (say that fast, five times), is now leading GT Daytona. Fuel and tires for the #912 GTLM Porsche. The #66 Ford GT pits. The #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari also pits.
The other Ford GT teams are expecting imminent pit stops after #66 made it's stop. Dirk Muller is now in the Ford. James Calado is in the lane in the #62 Ferrari. Tony Kanaan had a problem as the right rear tire was not attached to the car, while the car was still fueling. A serious miscue from Ganassi Racing Europe. The Corvette guys are ready to pit, too. Stevenson Motorsports already pitted the #57 Audi from fifth in GT Daytona. Ford's #68 and #66 in the lane. Corvette #3 is in and so has the #50 Mercedes AMG GT3. Mario Farnbacher will get into the team car #33. Antonio Garcia is now at the wheel of the #3. The Acura's have pitted, and also, the sole remaining #15 Lexus came in.
Tommy Milner has the lead in the #4 Corvette which is now in pit lane. The #73 Park Place Porsche pits for tires and fuel. A driver change, as well. It was slightly delayed by the #27 Dream Racing Lamborghini. The #13 Rebellion had a problem with the throttle activator, and is now back in the race. There was a little ten pound (British pounds, money), switch, that acted up. Seb Morris continues to lead and run consistent laps. Following GTLM pit stops, Dirk Muller leads over Ryan Briscoe in the team #67 Ford GT. Bad news for the #14 Lexus RC F. That car has chassis damage that is not reparable. It is indeed game over for the #14 car. They are out of it. Race control watched it, but there was no penalty. There was no contact between the Corvette and the Lexus.
Ben Keating will race the Mercedes for the rest of the night, and race the Prototype Challenge car on Sunday. Performance Tech Motorsports has pitted their PC car. Acura vs. BMW on the banking in GT Daytona. This is a fabulous fight for seventh and eighth. Katherine Legge in the Acura. Jens Klingman in the BMW. Klingman, in that big, brutish BMW slides around the outside of the aerodynamic Acura NSX. Fireworks on the infield in the battle for GT Daytona position as the skies darken here at Daytona. The #93 car then headed for pit lane.
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