Aitken Out Front for AXR After Three Hours

Jack Aitken led the Rolex 24 at Daytona for Action Express Racing with three hours completed, while TDS Racing was eliminated from contention in LMP2 after a crash for Steven Thomas.

The No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R ran at the head of the field amidst a pitstop cycle towards the end of the hour, which kicked off when Louis Deletraz brought the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 from the lead.

The red-liveried Acura had led the race ever since it was the only GTP class contender not to come during a round of stops under the third Full Course Yellow of the race.

This was triggered by a big crash for the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Steven Thomas, who lost control of the car on the exit of the Le Mans Chicane and made hard contact on the wall on drivers’ right.

At the turn of the hour, Aitken, the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 of Mathieu Jaminet as well as the sister No. 5 machine and the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Nick Yelloly came in to pit.

The No. 40 Acura, as well as the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing of Scott Dixon are set to cycle back to the front of the pack as the pitstop rotation gets completed.

Of note, the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche, currently in the hands of Gianmaria Bruni, has lost ground after serving a drive through penalty for failing to ‘adhere to the controlled powertrain parameters.’

In LMP2, United Autosports with the No. 2 Oreca currently in the hands of NTT IndyCar Series star Pato O’Ward.

The Mexican racer moved to the front of the class after passing the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports machine of Jakub Smiechowski in the third hour.

DragonSpeed’s No. 81 Oreca ran second with Sebastian Alvarez at the wheel, ahead of Tower Motorsports’ Michael Dinan and the No. 52 car, now in the hands of Nick Boulle, in fourth position.

While United gained the lead with one of its cars, the sister No. 22 machine has lost time after Dan Goldburg made contact with the Turn 3 wall and suffered suspension damage. It now runs 54th overall after spending time behind the wall for repairs.

Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports led the GTD Pro category in 1-2 formation with the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Alexander Sims at the head of the class.

Sims was separated from the No. 4 sister machine of Nicky Catsburg by the GTD class leader, which was the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Parker Thompson.

Paul Miller Racing and SunEnergy1 Racing ran third and fourth in class with Neil Verhagen and Maro Engel behind the wheel of the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 and No. 75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, respectively.

The No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, which led the class early on with Andrea Caldarelli at the wheel, has dropped back after incurring a drive through penalty for a failure to adhere to the minimum full refueling time.

The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, meanwhile, has rejoined the track after it was eliminated from the lead in GTD Pro in an earlier incident, running in 57th position overall.