Dries Vanthoor was cruising along with a 25-second lead until an error heading into the pits cost him and BMW M Team RLL the lead of the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Thanks to a strategic call from the Acura Meyer Shank Racing crew, IMSA debutant Kakunoshin Ohta is now leading GTP in the No. 93 Acura ARX-06, despite spinning on cold tires during his first out lap of his first stint in America.
He’s ahead of Frederik Vesti, now aboard the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R in second, with Nick Tandy in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 in third and the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche in a pleasantly surprising fourth, in the hands of Julien Andlauer.
Vanthoor misjudged his approach into his pit box, and ended up with his left-front quarter panel against the pit wall. Adding insult to injury, the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 picked up a drive-through penalty for refueling while the car was on its jacks. That’s left Philipp Eng down the GTP order in 10th.
For fans of the Lamborghini SC63, it’s a bitter and early end for the No. 63’s long-awaited Daytona debut. Mirko Bortolotti drove the No. 63 back to the pits and walked away from the car. The car went behind the wall, into the garage and officially retired with a cooling system issue, as confirmed by a Lamborghini Squadra Corse representative.
In LMP2, PJ Hyett has a commanding class lead for AO Racing, with silver-rated Rasmus Lindh driving the No. 22 United Autosports USA car up to second, and Garnet Patterson, United’s other Silver, third in the No. 2 machine.
The 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 has also suffered a problem — just as owner/driver Kenny Habul was bedding in for his first stint, he missed the Bus Stop and the entrance of pit lane with smoke coming off the right-front wheel. The car has since returned to the race, though it is eight laps down — just after Maro Engel had started the race and driven up to second in GTD PRO.
After the last round of GTD PRO pit stops, Laurin Heinrich leads aboard the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R but is off-sequence after having to make an unscheduled pit stop in the last hour. An apparent mismatch between IMSA and the team’s energy readings led AO Racing to bring “Rexy” in to fix the issue, which has put Heinrich on the back foot.
The No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 of Frederic Vervisch took the lead from the BMW of Dan Harper, and the Ford is still in the ‘net lead’ (second place on the road) in GTD PRO.
Antonio Garcia runs third in the No. 3 Corvette, with Augusto Farfus now aboard the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO, after relieving Harper.
Russell Ward has kept the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes up front in GTD, with Adam Adelson running second in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche, and Misha Goikhberg up into third in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini.
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