Legge, DeltaWing Lead Opening Hour at Daytona

Katherine Legge leads the 54th Rolex 24 at Daytona in the DeltaWing DWC13 coupe at the conclusion of a fairly calm first hour.

Legge, who started from the rear of the 13-car field after the Panoz DeltaWing Racing team opted not to qualify in the torrential rain conditions, moved her way up to third place in the opening 20 minutes of the race.

She took the lead just before the end of the first hour, when Pipo Derani pitted the No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM Ligier JS P2 Honda.

Derani was the only driver in Prototypes who opted not to pit under the first full-course caution, caused when Tom Long stopped on course in the No. 70 Mazda at driver’s left at Turn 4.

The No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda in the hands of Ozz Negri ran second, ahead of four more Daytona Prototypes.

Polesitter Mikhail Aleshin in the No. 37 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR01 Nissan lost the lead on the start, then had an off-course excursion at the West Horseshoe that dropped him out of the top 10.

Stephen Simpson led from the start in Prototype Challenge, after taking the lead from polesitter Johnny Mowlem. Simpson drives the No. 85 JDC/Miller Motorsports Oreca FLM09.

In GT Le Mans, polesitter Nick Tandy led the majority of the hour and at the one-hour mark in the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR, while the SMP Racing Ferrari 488 GTE, Corvette C7.R and Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT entrants made up the balance of the top five.

Drama struck the No. 67 Ford GT in the opening hour, with Ryan Briscoe going behind the wall early due to gearbox issues. The Ganassi team lost nearly 20 laps in the process, but has returned to the race just before the end of the first hour.

GT Daytona saw Lamborghini lead at the end of the first hour, in the hands of Bryce Miller in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3.

Miller and Marc Basseng, in the No. 28 Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini, took turns at the front of the field with Miller moving ahead on strategy.

Jeff Segal also made strides in the venerable No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia GT3, up to second place.

The Lamborghinis and pair of Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3s made big strides in the first hour, including Corey Lewis in the Change Racing Lamborghini who posted the race’s fastest lap to date of 1:46.893.

Elsewhere a handful of cars were assessed penalties following the first pit stop sequence. The Change Lamborghini was among them, along with the polesitting No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and No. 23 The Heart of Racing Porsche, with the No. 23 car held for several minutes.