Porsche Leads With Four Hours to Go; Corvette Capitulates

Porsche Penske Motorsport led the Rolex 24 at Daytona with four hours of racing remaining after Matt Campbell completed a successful overtake on Action Express Racing’s Jack Aitken.

Campbell, piloting the No. 7 Porsche 963, came out on top in a fierce battle with Aitken’s No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R that saw the two cars repeatedly almost come to blows.

The Australian racer ultimately powered through and moved ahead of Aitken on the run down to Turn 1, after which Porsche maintained the advantage when Felipe Nasr was installed behind the wheel of the No. 7 machine.

Aitken, meanwhile, came under increased pressure from the sister Penske Porsche of Kevin Estre approaching the end of the 20th hour.

The No. 6 car lost ground earlier on Sunday morning when it was ordered to serve a ten-second stop and hold penalty for failing to adhere to the controlled powertrain parameters, but has returned to the lead battle after a Full Course Yellow triggered by debris from the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P217 Gibson.

Estre even briefly took to the grass on the run out of the International Horseshoe as both he and Aitken attempted to navigate past the No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Franck Perera.

The No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 ran in fourth position with Colton Herta at the wheel, with Neel Jani fifth aboard the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche.

In LMP2, a scheduled pitstop for the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca 07 Gibson promoted the No. 18 Era Motorsport machine of Christian Rasmussen to the lead, although Colin Braun is expected to return to the front as the stop cycle plays out.

Paul Miller Racing ran at the head of the GTD Pro field, although a pitstop for Neil Verhagen’s No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 promoted the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of James Calado to the lead in class.

Risi used the race’s most recent caution to complete a rear brake change and managed to stay on the lead lap, while Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ bid for class victory fell apart when both cars visited the garage with separate issues.

The No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R was the first to go behind the wall to address a fluid leak, while the No. 4 machine followed suit some 40 minutes later with a broken power steering pump.

The No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, meanwhile has retired from the race due to a powertrain issue.

The No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R held third in class with Michael Christensen at the wheel.

In GTD, Indy Dontje led aboard the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo after surpassing the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of Onofrio Triarsi.

Triarsi initially vaulted ahead of the Dutchman during the latest round of stops under caution, only for the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG to fight its way back past as part of a multi-lap battle.