Taylor Leads With Three Hours Remaining

Photo: John Dagys

With just three hours to go, history could be in the making for Wayne Taylor Racing, which continues to lead the 52nd Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Jordan Taylor remains out front, despite an unscheduled pit stop to clean the Corvette DP’s radiator after avoiding a spinning GT car in the 20th hour.

It handed the lead briefly to the No. 9 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of John Martin, but a cycling of pit stops put Taylor back on top and in control again.

The field is currently under the safety car, the 13th of the race, for the No. 87 BAR1 Motorsports Oreca FLM09 of Gaston Kearby, who suffered a puncture and left debris on track.

It came just moments after restarting following cleanup from accident by the No. 18 Muehlner Motorsports Porsche of Brad Blum, who made contact with Sam Bird’s No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Oreca FLM09.

The No. 911 Porsche North America 911 RSR of Richard Lietz leads GTLM, in what’s been a hotly contested battle with the No. 4 Corvette Racing C7.R, which runs second in the hands of Oliver Gavin.

Trouble hit the third-placed No. 56 BMW Team RLL entry of Graham Rahal, who lost 10 laps due to a wheel bearing failure. It promoted the team’s sister No. 55 BMW Z4 GTE of Bill Auberlen to a podium position in class.

CORE autosport continues to lead PC, with Jon Bennett now holding a one-lap advantage over Kyle Marcelli’s No. 7 Starworks Motorsport entry in second. The 8Star Motorsports entry has slipped a further lap back to third.

GTD sees a three-horse race to the finish. Townsend Bell holds point in the No. 555 Level 5 Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia but is closely in pursuit from the No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS of Spencer Pumpelly and Jan Heylen’s Snow Racing Porsche 911 GT America, which are both on the lead lap

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John