From seemingly nowhere, Kamui Kobayashi lit the match for the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, climbing from sixth to first after a full course yellow restart to lead the Rolex 24 At Daytona after five hours.
Just 4h8m into the race, Meyer Shank Racing’s new No. 93 Acura ARX-06 was the latest GTP car to encounter trouble. As Alex Palou exited the West Horseshoe, the left-rear suspension of the Acura suffered a critical issue. Palou pulled over at the exit of turn six and his car was towed back to the garage.
It was a gutting outcome for the car that had led portions of the race while running on an alternate strategy earlier on, and unfortunately a return to the race does not look like it’ll happen soon, if at all.
Palou’s misfortune happened just after John Farano spun coming onto the banking. Nick Boulle and Luis Perez Companc both had to take swift avoiding action to get out of the way of the spun No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA.
After the second FCY of the race was withdrawn, Kobayashi, Scott Dixon, Felipe Drugovich, Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre, and more hustled for position.
Kobayashi grabbed the lead with a high-risk move along the wall at Speedway Turn 1, taking the advantage over the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 of Estre who was boxed in by slower GTD traffic, and avoiding a collision with the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari GTD while brushing the SAFER barrier.
Estre currently runs second, Drugovich is third in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac, and the elder Vanthoor is fourth in the No. 7 Porsche. The two BMW M Team RLL cars have dropped to fifth and tenth in GTP, led by Robin Frijns in the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8, ahead of Scott Dixon in the No. 60 MSR Acura.
The pros are coming out in LMP2 — Dane Cameron still leads in the No. 99 AO Racing machine, but only by 1s over Mathias Beche in the No. 52 for PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports.
Felipe Fraga is holding off Toby Sowery for third in class, keeping the No. 74 Riley machine ahead of CrowdStrike Racing by APR.
Paul Miller Racing is in the hunt now in GTD PRO after Jesse Krohn drove the No. 48 BMW M4 GT3 EVO from third to first after the FCY restart, dispatching Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Chris Mies for the top spot.
Mies is 4s behind in the No. 65 Mustang GT3, leading the No. 1 Paul Miller BMW of Connor De Phillippi in third, with Nico Varrone aboard the fourth-placed No. 4 Corvette Racing Z06 GT3.R, and Ross Gunn up to fifth in the No. 007 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
GTD has been a mad scramble, with Ayhancan Guven, Cedric Sbirrazzuoli, and David Fumanelli all taking turns in the lead and battling nose-to-tail.
At the top of the hour it’s now Fumanelli leading in the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari, from Guven in the No. 120 Wright Motosports Porsche. Tom Gamble passed Sbirrazzuoli for third to put Heart of Racing ahead of Conquest.
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