Renger van der Zande in the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac has gone back to the top. Alex Quinn leads LMP2, Sebastian Alvarez in LMP3, Daniel Juncadella in GTD Pro and Kyle Marcelli in GTD. Three official retirements, the #11 TDS Racing LMP2 car (Stephen Thomas, Mikkel Jensen, Scott Huffaker, and Rinus Veekay), the #74 Riley Motorsports 74 Ranch LMP3 car (Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga, Josh Burdon, and Glenn Van Berlo), and the #47 Cetilar Ferrari 296 GT3 (Roberto Lacorte, Giorgio Sernagiotto, Antonio Fuoco, and Alessandro Balzan).
The #51 Rick Ware Racing Oreca is in the pit lane, led by Robby Benton. Green flag coming. It's back to racing we go with Renger van der Zande ahead of Jack Aitken, Richard Westbrook, and Matthieu Jaminet. Taylor on the outside line and he cannot quite make it. Tom Blomqvist is coming up fast as well. Philip Eng at the back of the GTP group a lap down in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8. Blomqvist getting a run in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura. Westbrook going for the lead of the motor race against Blomqvist. van der Zande just had to give it up. The #60 has a boatload of pace. Rick Ware Racing has Pietro Fittipaldi in the car sharing with Austin Cindric, Devlin DeFrancesco, and Eric Lux.
The #52 PR1/Mathiasen leads LMP2. We will give you an LMP2 rundown soon. Matthieu Jaminet is chasing down Tom Blomqvist in GTP. Jack Aitken is back in fourth spot in the #31 Action Express Cadillac just behind Renger van der Zande. Ricky Taylor serving a drive through penalty for removing pit equipment or still connect, possibly an air jack hose. Six cars on the lead lap in GTP. High percentage decisions for the next hours as the #21 Francesco Castellaci driven AF Corse Ferrari 296 is off the road. This car looks great! Low to the ground, small profile. It is reminiscent for the Ford GT.
A 3-liter V6 motor. Ferrari's are now built by Oreca in France, not by Michelotto in Italy any longer. he GT3 cars are built very much like prototypes and the headers on the exhaust go up instwad of down. Wow. So, the #10 Acura is playing catch up and Castellaci just got tagged by one of the Lamborghini's, the Iron Dames Huracan GT3. The #83 car of Doriane Pin. Pin and her teammates won at the 24 Hours of Spa last summer and won in Le Mans Cup and the European Le Mans Series and Doriane Pin also won in Ferrari Challenge in Europe. Half a dozen women are driving in this race, the 61st. Seven women drivers actually.
We are nine and a quarter hours in. Don't get sucked into the battle and keep the big picture in mind. That is the scoop. You need to recognize which driver is in the car when you are the spotter or the crew chief on the radio. It is very hard at night for the spotters especially on the backstretch. Jan Heylen in the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R outside the top ten in GT Daytona. Heylen sharing with Ryan Hardwick, Zacharie Robichon, and Dennis Olsen. The margin from first to second is less than a asecond and a half after almost nine and a half hours. Tom Blomqvist leads Matthieu Jaminet. Alex Quinn, Nico Pino, Jack Hawksworth, and Philip Ellis are the class leaders.
Jack Aitken in the #31 Whelen Cadillac at Action Express is back up to third place. Earl Bamber explains the importance of double stinting tires. We'll have to see how that goes in the final four hours of the race, the final sixth of the way or even the final quarter actually. No ability to use tire warmers in IMSA. It is not cold but it is cool. Trouble in paradise for the #92 Kelly Moss Racing Porsche 911 GT3R of Andrew Davis and the car is on fire for the 20-year veteran of this race. Andrew Davis first started at the Rolex 24 in 2003.
Davis pulls the fire extinguisher wisely to put out the flames. There is oil on the tail of the car. There is still flame under the car. This race car is on FiYah! Hopefully nothing reignites. Pit stop time for Ganassi Racing and for Action Express. Game over for the Kelly Moss with Riley Motorsports #92 of Dave Brule, Alec Udell, Andrew Davis, and Jeroen Bleekemolen. More GTP stops. Ricky Taylor in the #10 Acura ARX-06 GTP as well. Matthieu Jaminet goes to the lead as Tom Blomqvist gives way to Colin Braun. Regenerating the energy. Full Course Yellow on the speedway. The Porsche is still smoldering. Till Bechtolsheimer also put the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Duquiene D08 Nissan on the whirligig.
Full Course Yellow number six. We have just had pit stops for the GTP cars and I think for the LMP2 and LMP3 cars. The drivers follow a lighted ball to test their reflexes before they get into the car for their stint. Seven of the nine GTP cars in the fight for the overall. Inception Racing won this event last year. Inception Racing doing a full season this year as the GTD Pro and GTD cars pit. Jack Hawksworth leads Pro and Phil Ellis leads GTD. Mike Conway takes over the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, a prototype driver, usually. Don't get boxed in as both Vasser Sullivan cars are in the lane at the same time. #12 has Frankie Montecalvo at the controls.
We are looking to see if the sixth Full Course Yellow is at an end. Nighttime gets very cold at Daytona and goes on forever. The traffic is a devilish and bonkers phenomenon. Racing Daytona at night is harder than it looks on television when you are watching on Peacock. Philip Eng sharing with Augusto Farfus, Marco Wittman, and Colton Herta is back on the lead lap as they are in for a pit stop on the #24. Those front grill openings are massive and could ingest a Mini Cooper. The #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 had issues earlier but is back into the race.
Green flag. Jack Aitken leading Renger van der Zande and now, Ricky Taylor is moving in and so is Colin Braun at the wheel of the #60 Meyer Shank Acura. Porsche #7 now 17 laps down but back on track battling for points. Braun wants by van der Zande. He is going to get it. Now, he will go after Jack Aitken and Aitken is going to defend with all he has. 500 kilowatts measured at the axle with the torque sensor, and we have 670 horsepower toal on these new GTP cars. The Acura might be running less downforce. However, maybe teams are running different downforce levels. Good gravy. We are near the end of another racing hour.
Augusto Farfus is now at the wheel of the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8. Philipp Eng says BMW had compromised testing, but they went for it and they are adapting to every situation. There is still a long, long way to go yet. Traffic is new to the GTP drivers and they need rest between their stints. Everyone is trying to find reliability and another challenge is that you have huge staffs on these teams for making decisions and finding setups. Everyone is on the network to find data. Optimization is big. The BMW boss is here at the Rolex 24 watching.
Nico Varrone is pushing in LMP3, and he will be drafted into the Corvette team with Nicky Catsburg and Ben Keating. Nicky Catsburg will fill in in GT3 at the Bathurst 12 Hours next weekend, a race we will soon cover for you here on the blog as we see a comparison between LMP2 and LMP3 of ten miles an hour. 5.6-liter Nissan V8 with 450 horsepower and they thunder and rumble just as a V8 ought to. Eight of the nine GTP cars are on the lead lap at the ten hour mark. Seven of nine, excuse me. Got it. Jack Aitken remains the leader. Ricky Taylor pressuring Richard Westbrook.
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