Vautier Leads at Four-Hour Mark

Tristan Vautier is out front in the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi-V.R as the Rolex 24 at Daytona enters its fifth hour.

Vautier leads Kevin Magnussen in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac by just under four seconds, while Ricky Taylor’s Acura ARX-05 is third for Wayne Taylor Racing.

Tower Motorsport driver Tim Buret is the LMP2 class leader by around five seconds over Tristan Nunez’s WIN Autosport entry, while Jordan Taylor leads a Corvette Racing 1-2 in GT Le Mans.

Jesse Krohn has been running third in class in the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M8 GTE just prior to the end of the fourth hour but was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility after contact with then-LMP3 class leader Lance Willsey.

That promoted BMW driver Philipp Eng to third in GTLM and Spencer Pigot to the lead in LMP3 in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan.

Kyle Kirkwood leads in GT Daytona for Vasser Sullivan with the hard-charging Indy Dontje in second for Winward Racing.

The No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac that controlled the early stages of the race was shuffled to the back of the DPi field during the fourth caution of the race.

Felipe Nasr was forced to take emergency service to prevent running out of fuel which necessitated an extra pit stop for full service.

Nasr turned the car over to Chase Elliott who completed a double stint. Mike Conway is now at the controls running in seventh overall at the back of the DPi field.

There have been four full course yellows in the opening four hours, three since the opening hour, which has resulted in some attrition.

The No. 81 DragonSpeed Oreca 07 Gibson crashed in Turn 1 in the second hour and has been retired from the race.

Less than an hour later the No. 29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca crashed in the Bus Stop with Frits van Eerd behind the wheel. The car was severely damaged and also has been retired.

The fourth caution was caused when the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of James Calado attempted to pass Cameron Cassels’ LMP3-class Ligier into the bus stop.

The two cars made contact with Cassels getting the worst of it, forcing the Performance Tech crew to repair the car in the garage.

Cassels has returned to the race but lost multiple laps, while the Risi Ferrari runs fifth in GTLM, one lap off the class leaders.