Campbell Leads After Four Hours in No. 7 Porsche

Porsche Penske Motorsport driver Matt Campbell held a five-second lead over Cadillac’s Renger van der Zande after four hours of racing at Motul Petit Le Mans.

The Australian overtook van der Zande’s Chip Ganassi Racing co-driver Sebastien Bourdais at Turn 2 during the third hour and remained ahead through a full course caution period caused by Andretti Autosport’s Ligier JS P320 Nissan reaching the Turn 6 gravel.

By leading at the four-hour mark, Campbell earned the maximum of five points for his No. 7 Porsche Penske lineup in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.

The fifth caution phase saw the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R drop to fourth, but van der Zande quickly overtook the JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche of Tijmen van der Helm into Turn 1 when action resumed.

Van der Zande then made further progress by passing Taylor to take second, but couldn’t get close enough to challenge Campbell for the five-point score.

Another driver making progress was Proton Competition’s Harry Tincknell who got past BMW driver Philipp Eng, van der Helm and Taylor during the fourth hour.

Tincknell brought the Proton car into the pits moments before the four-hour mark and Taylor also pitted the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06.

The Meyer Shank Racing Acura, which lost two laps due to a toe link replacement after Tom Blomqvist was hit by GTD driver Corey Lewis, returned to the lead lap courtesy of caution periods.

The same recovery applied to the Action Express Racing Cadillac and the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 after they had an altercation while exiting the pits three hours in.

Alexander Sims, driving the No. 31 Cadillac, and Sheldon van der Linde both ran the red light at the end of the lane. As Sims realized his mistake and hit the brakes, van der Linde struck the rear of the Cadillac which incurred left-rear bodywork damage.

Both were penalized with a 60-second stop and hold, while van der Linde was given a further drive-through for incident responsibility.

Sims, Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken saw their Endurance Cup lead reduced to six points over Bourdais and van der Zande.

Vasser Sullivan Lexus driver Jack Hawksworth took the lead in GTD Pro shortly before the four-hour mark after finding a way past the Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Jordan Taylor.

Indy Dontje was the best of the GTD runners in Winward Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, one position overall ahead of Klaus Bachler whose Pro-class Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R lost of its left-front wheel cover but continued.

The Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO that led the opening hour in GTD lost ground due to a suspected suspension issue, while its GTD Pro teammate was given a drive-through for jumping a restart. Jordan Pepper was running third at the time.

Another GTD Pro contender to drop back was the WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG which took a drive-through after the fifth caution for failing to meet the minimum refueling time.

Positions after four hours