Porsche Leads After Three Hours, Drama for No. 6 Car

Porsche Penske Motorsport maintained its advantage after three hours of the Rolex 24 at Daytona with its No. 7 car, but drama struck the sister No. 6 entry lost ground following contact that necessitated repairs.

Shortly after the one-hour mark, the two Porsche 963s swapped positions at the head of the field as the No. 6 of Kevin Estre passed Felipe Nasr’s No. 7 machine.

That set the tone for the second hour of the race, with Laurens Vanthoor and Julien Andlauer taking over the two cars respectively upon the second round of pit stops, but Vanthoor was soon back to pit road for a third time with right-side damage, which was sustained through contact with an LMP2 car.

The Belgian driver was forced to stop again after that, but the time loss was minimized when the full-course caution was thrown for a third time due to the Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 coming to a stop on-track after contact.

Daniel Serra was at the wheel when contact was made with fellow Ferrari factory driver James Calado in the No. 033 Triarsi Competizione car, with the incident ultimately putting Risi out of the race on its Rolex 24 return.

Vanthoor’s woes had promoted Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R to second, but the American driver was passed on the restart by Alex Palou in the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06.

Just prior to the three-hour mark, a fourth caution was thrown when both the No. 83 AF Corse LMP2 car of Dylan Murry and the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Adam Adelson were involved in contact at Turn 5.

Andlauer therefore led Palou under caution, while AJ Allmendinger ran third in the sister No. 60 Acura having passed Taylor under green.

Earl Bamber had the Action Express Racing Cadillac up to fifth ahead of the lead BMW, the No. 25 of Philipp Eng.

Vanthoor ran ninth in the No. 6 Porsche behind the second of the BMWs driven by younger brother Dries as well as Kaylen Frederick’s JDC Miller Motorsports Porsche.

In LMP2, PJ Hyett maintained the advantage in the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca, while Gregoire Saucy had put the No. 22 United Autosports car second.

Sebastian Alvarez was third in class in the Tower Motorsports Oreca.

United’s second entry, the No. 2, went back behind the wall for a second time after its earlier woes with driveshaft problems.

In GTD Pro, the third caution reset the order, disrupting the Corvette Racing 1-2 and promoting the two Ford Racing cars to the head of the field.

Ben Barker led the class on board the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 EVO ahead of the sister No. 65 car of Seb Priaulx after stopping prior to the caution, while the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs of Tommy Milner and Antonio Garcia ran third and fourth.

Completing the top five was the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo that had been running in the top five was sent behind the wall with electrical issues.

Turner Motorsport’s No. 96 BMW led the way in GTD with Patrick Gallacher at the wheel, followed by Tom Gamble in the Heart of Racing’s No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.