On fresh Michelin tirs it is still slick and Matty Campbell has now taken over the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche from Felipe Nasr. Good scrum in GTD between the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche and the #57 Winward Mercedes AMG. Richard Lietz and Philip Ellis doing battle down the backstretch to the Le Mans chicane. Good gesture after naming Le Mans' chicane on the Mulsanne straight, the Daytona chicane. So, we will see convergence between Daytona and Le Mans soon with GTP/LMH. Dirk Mueller has nearly gone off the road but gathers it up in the #15 WeatherTech Mercedes AMG GT3. Jack Hawksworth is pressing Toni Vilander while the #26 Muehlner Motorsport entry in LMP3 goes off the road on the out lap for C.R. Crews.
More pit stops coming as we are getting steadily down to the nitty gritty. It is almost time to lay the cards on the table for the Rolex watches. How bad do you want it? Ricky Taylor scything through traffic and the GTD battle. Left front tire down on the #42 NTE Sport Lamborghini, Benja Hites, the Chilean driver in trouble. So, the #10 Acura is going to pit and hand the car to Alexander Rossi. Who will close? Hites ran wide off turn one and we could see a yellow for this. He is still slowly trundling 'round. That Michelin has a massive flatspot and it came right apart. He is on the apron of the backstretch. It was paved years ago to keep cars from flipping, recall stock car flips by Rusty Wallace here in the 1990s, in 1993, and a flip in the 1996 Rolex 24 by the British, Jaguar powered Lister Storm driven by Northern Ireland's Kenny Acheson. That was a wild one.
Action Express in the lane for fuel, tires and a driver change. No driver change at AXR. Mike Conway will stay in the car they are keeping pace with the #10. Taylor has been saving petrol. Poor old Hites has a major wobbly wheel there, look. 33 seconds for a pit stop from Whelen Engineering from Action Express. It is a traffic jam on the banking. The track is heating up and so is the competition! Wow! Acura #10 is in the lane. Alexander Rossi into the Acura. We are ready to hear from Leigh Diffey, Calvin Fish, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Pit stop time now too for the #24 BMW Team RLL BMW M4 GT3. Not sure who is in that car at the moment. A GTD Mercedes scrap on the road through the horse shoe and headed for turn six. #10 off the road and back on. That will lose time for Alexander Rossi. Rossi wriggled his way over the curbs on his second lap on cold Michelin tires. Rossi is back to the lead of the motor race. Still very cool in Daytona. In 1966 it was 28 degrees overnight in this race, not as cold, but almost, last night. The out laps on cold tires have been an affect on many of the top runners.
Castroneves on cold tires is trying to maintain his lead. Rossi and Conway both are catching up. Mike Conway on the inside, trying to pass Rossi. Conway is an FIA World Endurance champion and a Le Mans winner. Helio Castroneves leaads and has been on a tear, going for his second straight Rolex 24 win for Acura. Very mild conditions make it easier. Mentally with 61 cars on the road, wow. It is mega. So, Gary Nelson has something to say about the plan for Action Express. Nelson says it is nice to be close to the end and be within striking distance.
Stay on the lead lap and run flat out. The Acura's are very strong. They have shown what they have, and Action Express will race them to the end. AXR just nabbed second away from Alexander Rossi. The #31 has been off the road at least three or four times, and now, they need to keep it on the blacktop. It is a five-and-a-half-hour shootout at the OK corral. AXR looks at the competition, tries to find an advantage, and then, pull the trigger. AXR has won with three drivers, with four, and with five. Your event has to be trouble free, and let drivers sleep as long as they can and then get them going 15 minutes before getting in the car.
At the Roar Before the Rolex 24, last weekend, track position is key. Mike Conway is reeling in Ricky Taylor little by little. Helio Castroneves is trying to gap Alexander Rossi. Richard Westbrook still holds fourth place in DPi and here comes Mike Conway slicing past Alexander Rossi for second place. Rossi up top and Conway down low. Conway tries hanging tough under braking and gets the job done. This is a cat and mouse game. Rossi is wriggling around, halfway through his stint. After 8AM Eastern Time, the #57 Winward Mercedes of Phil Ellis went behind the wall and they have broken the bonnet pins.
The bonnet was dislodged, and at high speeds at Daytona, the windscreen would be shattered. This is a full season effort for Winward. Bryce and Russell Ward bought into the HTP Mercedes team in Europe and have gone from there. The #42 Lamborghini is also in limp home mode back to the garage with just about five hours and 20 minutes left on the board. Mike Conway, working lapped traffic. Castroneves leads Conway by a second and a half and here comes Conway! He is on the attack, on the blitz. Conway got chopped by the Pfaff Porsche. He has more lapped traffic to deal with. Conway is applying the blowotorch.
Be forceful but decisive. Conway will get a run. Traffic plays a role here. Risk vs. reward in traffic. Where is the edge? Can we afford to take downforce out of the car? Conway tries Castroneves, not enough to get the job done. In GT Daytona, Austin Cindric says how cold it is. It feels like the winter Olympics here at Daytona according to Cindric. This lead battle is unreal. Mike Conway is sizing Helio Castroneves up. Just like a speedway NASCAR event. Mike Conway is playing mind games with Helio Castroneves. He is a World Endurance champ and a Le Mans winner and Conway takes the lead!
Mike Conway not happy with Castroneves and not happy with lapped traffic. The #31 will pit now and the #60 will stay out longer. The Cadillac has had to short pit. Pipo Derani and Tristan Nunez will be next into the car. The #01 Cadillac trundling down the pit lane and still have drama. Alternator trouble for the #01 and fuel pump for the #02. Three laps in fuel difference between Action Express and Meyer Shank with five hours and ten minutes to go. The #5 JDC-Miller Cadillac makes a pit stop as we have been watching Mike Conway storming out on the track.
Castroneves has less pressure and is leading. Now, the #10 Konica Minolta Acura in and out of the lane. Mike Conway has dropped to fourth place. Castroneves, Rossi, Conway, the top three. AXR has had to pit early for fuel. Mike Conway is now second passing Rossi and Helio Castroneves is in the lane. Four tires, fuel, and a driver change at Meyer Shank Racing. Oliver Jarvis will take over the wheel. Because of the cold, there is no grip in the tires. Track position is crucial. Mike Conway has gone by Oliver Jarvis and he has to warm up the tires. So, Mike Conway is in the lead once more.
Richard Lietz leads GT Daytona along with his co-drivers at Wright Motorsports. Hard to see this #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche and not think about the now retired Patrick Long. Jan Heylen has won the Porsche Cup. Lietz leading over Simon Mann in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3. We have ten more GT cars in the field compared to last year. Westbrook threading the needle on Rossi for P3. Wow. Conway now leads Jarvis by 15 seconds. The plot is thickening with five hours left in this motor race. Fred Schandorff in the #70 Inception Racing McLaren has come to second in GTD. Matt Campbell has finished his stint in the Pfaff Motorsport Porsche.
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