Taylor Leads After 8 Hours in Daytona

Photo: John Dagys

Ricky Taylor is out front with eight hours complete in the 53rd Rolex 24 at Daytona, as TUDOR United SportsCar Championship competitors head into the cold night time hours.

The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP holds a narrow six-second lead over the No. 5 Action Express Racing entry of Sebastien Bourdais, who held the top spot following the most recent restart.

However, Taylor got around Bourdais through the bus stop chicane after the Frenchman locked up the brakes of his Corvette DP late in the hour.

The No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford DP of Tony Kanaan runs in third, rebounding from a splitter change in the seventh hour that initially put the car one lap down.

A subsequent nose change for the car, and two further cautions, put Kanaan back on the lead lap and in contention again.

The top-six Prototypes now run on the lead lap, including the No. 01 Ganassi entry, which had dominated the opening hours but lost ground once Charlie Kimball took controls.

The 5th full course caution came out early into the 7th hour when the No. 7 Starworks Motorsport Riley Dinan-BMW DP of Tor Graves stopped on track and later rejoined.

A heavy crash between the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia of Francois Perrodo and Brandon Davis’ No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage saw another yellow less than one hour later.

Perrodo spun his GT Le Mans class Ferrari and rejoined in front of Davis, who had nowhere to go. The Ferrari was taken away on a flatbed with extensive damage, while Davis limped to the garage.

The No. 8 Starworks Oreca FLM09 of Alex Popow leads Prototype Challenge, following a spin and subsequent left-rear puncture for the then class-leading CORE autosport entry of Colin Braun.

Braun dropped to third as a result of the unscheduled pit stop.

GT Le Mans continues to see a titanic battle between Porsche, Corvette and Ferrari, with Nick Tandy now out front in the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR.

Tandy re-took the lead from the No. 3 Corvette C7.R of Jan Magnussen late in the eighth hour.

Dominik Farnbacher leads GT Daytona, having taken his No. 93 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R from last on the grid to first.

The German holds a 30-second lead over the No. 22 Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America of Shane van Gisbergen and the No. 64 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 in third.

Remarkably, the class has seen 20 lead changes among nine cars so far.

The No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche, which caused the race’s 4th caution due to gearbox failure for Andy Lally, has since rejoined but runs nearly 30 laps behind.

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