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Rolex 24 12-Hour Update: Porsche Penske Runs 1-2 as Attrition Mounts

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — As of the halfway point of the 63rd Running of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, the battle for the overall lead of the race between the entries of the GTP class remain mostly up in the air.

Both of the Porsche Penske entries currently lead with Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 leading over teammate Matt Campbell by nearly nine seconds. The remaining Meyer Shank No. 60 of Scott Dixon sits third and is holding off the Wayne Taylor Racing No. 10 of Will Stevens. The rest of the field continue to battle the increasingly cold and slick nighttime conditions.

That is, with the exception of a number of GTP contenders. The first to go was the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing entry.

Shortly after our six-hour update was released, calamity struck in the esses of the first couple of turns of the Daytona International Speedway road course.

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Louis Deletraz was piloting the No. 40 entry in the middle of a restart when he lost control of the Cadillac prototype and smacked the infield wall. He rolled back onto the racing surface where the rest of the IMSA field was approaching. The result was the worst crash of the race so far.

Among those involved were Pratt Miller Racing’s Nos. 48 and 73 entries, No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini, the AO Racing No. 77 Porsche and the No. 2 United Autosports LMP2. The AO Racing No. 77 was able to continue without a garage visit. Meanwhile, the Pratt Miller No. 73 and the Paul Miller No. 48 were able to continue albeit many laps down.

A number of hours later, the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac team also met what has seemed to be an untimely end. Frederik Vesti was running within the top three when his Cadillac prototype suddenly experienced a suspension failure at around hour 10 in what is arguably the worst part of the circuit – speedway turn 4.

The result was the No. 31 hooking right into the outside SAFER Barrier, crippling the vehicle and bringing out the seventh full course caution. Despite Vesti’s best efforts to bring the car back to the pits under his own power, safety officials had no choice but to tow the car back to the garage. However, with four minutes remaining in the first half of the race, the Whelen Cadillac returned to the race after an astonishing repair job 52 laps down with Felipe Drugovich behind the wheel.

The No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac also experienced a mechanical failure that brought the entry driven by Nico Pino behind the wall at around hour 11. The team rejoined the race 20 laps down but went back behind the wall to retire for good around 15 minutes before the halfway point.

In the LMP2 class, the lead for the class has juggled multiple times in the last six hours.

For a solid amount of time in the second quarter of the event, it was the AO Racing No. 99 LMP2 of Christian Rasmussen that held control of the lead by a large margin.

However, Inter Europol Competition No. 43 entry piloted by Antonio Felix de la Costa had inherited the lead after one of the full course cautions and broken away to a 36-second lead over the No. 99 AO Racing LMP2 of Dane Cameron.

The No. 22 United Autosports car driven by Rasmus Lindh currently holds the lead by seven seconds over the No. 43 now driven by Tom Dillmann.

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In the GTD Pro class, NASCAR’s newest full-time racer Shane van Gisbergen was making a splash in the No. 91 Trackhouse by TF Sport Corvette when he climbed the car all the way into the second position on track which was the highest the entry had been the entire race.

Since then, the Corvette has fallen to the fifth position in the class while the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Neil Verhagen leads. The AO Racing No. 77 has made leaps and bounds in its comeback since the big crash it was caught up in near hour seven and is now second in the class.

Both of the Ford Mustangs of Multimatic Motorsports have led for much of the race thus far and still remain in contention as well. The Nos. 65 and 64 sit third and fourth with Dennis Olsen and Sebastian Priaulx piloting the vehicles, respectively.

Finally, the GTD class has also been incredibly competitive in the night hours with the No. 70 Ferrari of Frederik Schandorff holding the lead at halfway but will likely pit soon. Right behind him breathing down his neck, however, is the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Ayhancan Guven.

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona Running Order Through 12 Hours

As of the halfway point, eight entries out of the original 61 have retired from the running while eight more entries still running are at least 10 laps down in their respective classes.

Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loudcolumn, co-host of the Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.

Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT