Aitken Leads at Halfway; More Trouble for Acura

Jack Aitken led the Rolex 24 at Daytona at halfway aboard the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R as Acura suffered more technical problems.

After the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 suffered an electrical problem that removed it from contention in the ninth hour, it was the turn of the sister No. 40 car to hit trouble just shy of the 12-hour mark.

Louis Deletraz was at the wheel of the No. 40 car when he lost drive exiting Turn 5 before parking up at the side of the track. However, unlike Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 several hours earlier, Deletraz was able to get the car going again after a short delay and continue a lap down in ninth place.

Five of the ten GTP runners were on the lead lap at halfway, with Aitken chased hard by Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 that recovered from an earlier penalty for “failure to adhere to the controlled powertrain parameters.”

The No. 7 Porsche had spent a spell in the lead of the race with Dane Cameron at the wheel, but Aitken was able to wipe out the American driver’s six-second advantage and pass for the lead at Turn 1 immediately before the ninth full-course caution of the race, which was called for debris.

A tenth full-course caution followed soon after when Deletraz came to a stop in the No. 40 car, which was involved in an earlier scare when Jenson Button spun after making contact with the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Alexander Sims.

BMW’s two M Hybrid V8s sat third and fourth in the hands of Maxime Martin and Augusto Farfus respectively, with Cameron being shuffled back to fifth.

Sixth and one lap off the pace was the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac, which was delayed when Sebastien Bourdais suffered a puncture. A drive-through penalty earned by Scott Dixon speeding in the pit lane dropped the car two laps down, but subsequent cautions allowed the squad to gain back one lap.

Acura’s No. 10 car returned to the track after losing 98 laps with its earlier dramas.

In LMP2, Tom Dillmann led the way in the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson ahead of Connor Zilisch in the No. 18 Era Motorsports car.

Malthe Jakobsen ran third in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca.

Risi Competizione’s No. 62 Ferrari 296 GT3 held the top spot in GTD Pro with Alessandro Pier Guidi holding a narrow advantage over Sims in the No. 3 Corvette and Franck Perera in the No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

Best of the GTD runners was the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Frederik Schandorff, ahead of Mike Skeen in the No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Three more GT cars retired approaching the halfway mark, with both the No. 27 Heart of Racing and No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evos dropping out as well as the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini.