Estre Out Front at Halfway Mark

Kevin Estre led Motul Petit Le Mans aboard the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 at the halfway mark at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta after pitting just before the race’s fourth full course caution.

While chasing down stablemate Felipe Nasr for the lead, Estre pulled the No. 6 Porsche into the pits just as the field fell under caution in the fourth hour, allowing the Frenchman to assume the lead after the No. 7 Porsche made its stop under yellow.

Brendon Hartley ran close behind Estre in second in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 and Dane Cameron’s No. 7 Porsche, with both cars just less than five seconds behind the leader.

The sister No. 40 WTRAndretti ran fourth with Colton Herta at the wheel with Alessio Picariello completing the top-five as the last car on the lead lap for Proton Competition.

The No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Nick Yelloly was retired after the car made an unplanned trip behind the wall with a fuel system issue after the car initially slowed on track out of Turn 7 before limping to the pits.

The No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche also officially retired from the race after a reported loss of power steering sent the customer Porsche behind the wall in the fourth hour.

A front nose and rear deck change on the Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 relegated the No. 63 car to the rear of the GTP field, two laps down following rear contact with an unknown car and a touch with the wall.

The car was also later handed a drive-through penalty for too many people over the wall during a stop under yellow.

Felipe Fraga led in LMP2 after a strong restart saw the driver of the No. 74 Riley Oreca 07 Gibson dispatch Luis Perez Companc in the No. 88 AF Corse and Steven Thomas’s No. 11 TDS Racing machines in quick succession, opening up a large gap by the halfway mark.

TDS and AF Corse had taken turns at the head of the class before the race’s fourth full-course caution, triggered by a crash from Ben Keating at the top of Turn 4.

While the field was under yellow, Bijoy Garg sent the No. 22 United Autosports car into the tire barriers at pit entry after locking a wheel and missing his entrance to the pits.

The car was recovered and rejoined three laps down with Paul Di Resta at the wheel.

Alessandro Pier Guidi led in GTD Pro aboard the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 after the team brought the car into the pits at the end of the third hour to undercut the then-leading No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 and the rest of the class frontrunners.

The Heart of Racing Team’s Roman De Angelis sat in second ahead of the No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 of Christopher Mies.

Misha Goikberg chased down the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R to put his No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini into the lead in GTD at the end of the fifth hour, meanwhile.