WTR Cadillac Leads JDC-Miller at Three-Quarter Distance

Wayne Taylor Racing’s Cadillac DPi-V.R continued to lead the Rolex 24 at Daytona as only two DPi cars remained on the lead lap at daybreak.

Ryan Briscoe had just taken over the WTR Cadillac, which had been out front for much of the last six hours, from Renger van der Zande when the clock ticked over with six hours to go.

The Australian driver came in for an unscheduled stop just four laps into his stint to quickly rectify a power steering glitch which slashed his one-minute lead over JDC-Miller Motorsports’ Loic Duval down to 17 seconds.

Next-highest in the order were the two Mazda RT24-Ps with Tristan Nunez and Harry Tincknell running one and two laps off the pace respectively.

The Mazdas showed a strong hand in the early stages of the race but dropped back in the night to leave the WTR and JDC Cadillac crews out front.

Shortly before 18 hours, the fifth-placed No. 31 Action Express Racing/Whelen Engineering Cadillac came in for an unscheduled pit stop because of a left-rear puncture.

However, Pipo Derani didn’t lose a position because the Brazilian had a lap in hand to Simon Pagenaud in the No. 6 Team Penske Acura ARX-05.

PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports lost its previously secure LMP2 class lead after an as-yet-unspecified mechanical issue took hold when Ben Keating took the wheel late in Hour 18.

A lengthy pit stop in which the PR1 crew checked underneath both the front and rear bodywork sections resulted in the No. 52 Oreca 07 Gibson dropping behind the identical DragonSpeed car.

With six hours to go, Henrik Hedman had a three-lap advantage over Keating while Kyle Tilley was running third in the No. 18 Era Motorsport Oreca.

The GT  Le Mans class lead swung back and forth between BMW and Porsche in the early hours of the morning while Corvette Racing’s No. 3 C8.R also remains in the hunt.

After BMW’s Jesse Krohn passed Porsche’s Laurens Vanthoor for the lead in Hour 16, the RLL crew brought its leading No. 24 BMW M8 GTE into the pits for a brake change which dropped it to fourth behind the two Porsches and the best-placed Corvette.

The No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R returned to the track after spending almost eight hours in its garage for lengthy repairs on an oil leak.

It rejoined the race 247 laps adrift of the class leader and last in the overall leaderboard.

In GT Daytona, Madison Snow held the lead after 18 hours in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo with Mirko Bortolotti eight seconds behind in the No. 88 WRT Speedstar Audi R8 LMS GT3  Evo.

Andy Lally was third in the GRT Magnus Lamborghini, ahead of Klaus Bachler in the Wright Motorsports Porsche and Alvaro Parente in the best of the Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evos.

The early morning portion of the race included the establishment of a new Rolex 24 green flag distance record, surpassing the old streak of 245 laps in 2018.

Positions After 18 Hours