DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The sun has risen in Volusia County and the Rolex 24 at Daytona has reached the three-quarters mark Sunday morning (Jan. 26). Penske Porsche Motorsport has continued to stamp their mark on the race. While they were up front earlier in the race, the others were close by. Not so much now.
This segment of the race saw the Penske Porsches slowly pull away from the rest of the pack in order to settle things amongst themselves. Much of the segment saw the Nos. 6 and 7 more than 20 seconds ahead of the rest of the field..
At the 18-hour mark, Nick Tandy was leading teammate Matt Campbell by 5.608 seconds. They were nearly 40 seconds ahead of BMW M Team RLL’s Philipp Eng in third. Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Scott Dixon was fourth, while Wayne Taylor Racing’s Brendon Hartley was fifth.
LMP2 has continued to see teams shuffle at the top of the leaderboard. However, the past two hours have seen CrowdStrike Racing by APR and Tower Motorsports do battle at the front of the field. Toby Sowery and Job van Uitert have swapped the lead multiple times.
At the 18-hour mark, AO Racing’s Christian Rasmussen was back in the lead after a round of pit stops. His margin was 5.243 seconds over van Uitert. CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s Colton Herta was third, then United Autosports’ Paul di Resta. Era Motorsport’s David Heinemeier Hansson was fifth.
In GTD Pro, Paul Miller Racing’s Madison Snow had just taken the class lead away from AO Racing’s Klaus Bachler at the 18-hour mark, but did so using the fender. As of this writing, no action has been taken on that by the stewards.
Snow was 2.284 seconds ahead of Bachler, while Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Dennis Olsen was third. Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Antonio Garcia was fourth, while the GetSpeed Mercedes of Maxime Martin was fifth.
The No. 64 Ford Multimatic Mustang of Austin Cindric was eighth in class while the Trackhouse x TF Sport Chevrolet of Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch was ninth. Both teams are still on the lead lap in class.
In GTD, likely the biggest news to come out of the third quarter of the race was the retirement of Inception Racing’s No. 70 Ferrari. The team was right in the hunt when a wishbone in the right front suspension broke in the 14th hour with Ollie Millroy at the wheel.
After a period of repairs on the pit lane, the team rolled the car back to the garage. With likely multiple hours of repairs ahead of them, they chose to retire the car.
Outside of that, the top teams were constantly revolving due to pit strategy. The Heart of Racing’s No. 27 led for a time until contact from Wright Motorsports’ Tom Sargent resulted in Casper Stevenson spinning out. No penalty was assessed here because it was judged to be inconclusive in regards to blame.
Lone Star Racing put their Mercedes at the front, as did Matt Bell in the Andrew Wojteczko Autosport Chevrolet. Likely the biggest surprise at the front of the class was Winward Racing’s Mercedes with Lucas Auer driving. Remember that the team dropped four laps down after a quick visit to the garage due to a sticky throttle.
With six hours to go, AWA’s Matt Bell was leading by 1.432 seconds over Lone Star Racing’s Ralf Aron. Korthoff Competition Motors’ Kenton Koch was third, then AF Corse’s Conrad Laursen. Triarsi Competizione’s James Calado was fifth.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona Running Order After 18 Hours
There have been 13 retirements to this point. The third quarter of the race saw Inception Racing, Gradient Racing and Inter Europol Competition drop by the wayside.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.