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Campbell Leads With Two Hours to Go

Porsche Penske Motorsport, WTRAndretti battle for Petit Le Mans lead at nightfall…

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Matt Campbell led Motul Petit Le Mans for Porsche Penske Motorsport with two hours remaining after a period of extended green flag running.

The Australian, due a pitstop aboard the No. 7 Porsche 963, held a 9.792-second lead over the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 driven by Ricky Taylor.

A period of lengthy green flag racing has resulted in just a small handful of cars remaining on the lead lap approaching the final hours.

The race last fell under yellow shortly after the halfway point, which occurred when Ben Keating hit the wall at Turn 5.

As darkness fell over Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, the battle for the overall lead largely evolved around the No. 10 WTRAndretti Acura and the pair of Porsche Penske 963s.

WTRAndretti appeared to gain the upper hand when Brendon Hartley steered the No. 10 Acura around Dane Cameron’s No. 7 Porsche at Turn 10 with four hours to go.

Cameron had himself moved ahead over the No. 6 Porsche when Nick Tandy was ordered to serve a drive through penalty when race control deemed him responsible for a collision with Cetilar Racing’s Roberto Lacorte at Turn 3.

However, the two Porsches subsequently swapped position again when a fuel flow meter change for the No. 7 car resulted in a longer stop for the No. 7 car.

Tandy ran third behind Taylor with two hours to go, with the sole remaining BMW M Hybrid V8 in fourth in the hands of Jesse Krohn.

The Munich marque dropped down to a single car when the No. 25 car retired with a fuel system issue just after the halfway mark.

In LMP2, Riley’s Josh Burdon held a lead of 21.405 seconds over the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Hunter McElrea.

Iron Lynx, meanwhile, regained the upper hand in GTD Pro after Jordan Pepper’s No. 19 Lamborghini moved ahead of the Daniel Serra-driven No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 in the eighth hour.

Serra held second ahead of the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Ross Gunn, while Forte Racing’s No. 78 Lamborghini led GTD in the hands of Loris Spinelli.

Davey Euwema is Sportscar365's European Editor. Based in The Netherlands, Euwema covers the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, among other series.

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