Taylor Still Leads at Petit Le Mans Two-Hour Mark

A Taylor still leads following the two-hour mark at Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda, with Jordan Taylor now in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP after taking over from brother Ricky.

Other class leaders at the two-hour mark include Colin Braun (Prototype Challenge), Antonio Garcia (GT Le Mans), and Townsend Bell (GT Daytona).

The Prototype field more or less ran line astern in the second hour with the No. 10 car up front. The only real drama came on the second pit stop sequence with a number of Daytona Prototype-spec cars stacked up at pit out, but none incurring any major damage.

Alex Brundle continued to set fast lap times in the No. 42 OAK Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda, including a weekend-best 1:13.958 on Lap 59, as he fought back from the mechanical issue that cost them three laps at the end of the first hour.

Of note, Christian Fittipaldi secured his half of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Prototype Driver’s Championship by completing 45 minutes after taking over from teammate Joao Barbosa in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP on the team’s first pit stop.

In PC, Braun, in the CORE autosport entry, got around Chris Cumming of RSR Racing after the restart with an hour and 52 minutes complete.

The best battle in the second hour came in GTLM, with the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR (Wolf Henzler), factory No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR (Jorg Bergmeister) and championship-contending No. 3 Corvette C7.R (Garcia) all in a dogfight for second.

The No. 91 SRT Motorsport Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R (Marc Goossens) led before falling back on the pit stop cycle. Corvette’s pit work got the No. 3 out in first, with Bergmeister up to second in the Porsche.

Meanwhile in GTD, the No. 555 AIM Autosport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 (Townsend Bell) and No. 33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R (Ben Keating) ascended to 1-2 as they’d only made one pit stop after two hours (both on Lap 39). The majority of the GTD field has made two (second for most occurring on Lap 66).

The third full course caution of the race flew when the No. 31 Marsh Racing Corvette DP stopped on course at the exit of the esses with an hour and 36 minutes complete. The car was able to resume after a 15-minute yellow.