Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA
Cadillac and BMW lost contenders for victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona as the No. 01 and No. 24 cars both stopped on track in quick succession during the night.
The No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 was the first to run into trouble when Dries Vanthoor stopped in Turn 3 just before the 14-hour mark on the track, triggering the 11th caution period of the race.
Further time was lost for the No. 24 crew as initial attempts to tow the car back to the paddock failed and Vanthoor was 13 laps behind when he was able to rejoin.
The caution allowed the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, which had already completed two laps after its earlier puncture, to get back on the lead lap in the hands of Renger van der Zande.
Until van der Zande went off the track in Turn 1 and stopped just before 3 a.m. local time, knocking one of the favorites for victory out of the race.
At the race's twelfth caution period, it was the surviving BMW, the No. 25 car of Rene Rast, that had taken the lead from the No. 6 Penske-Porsche 963 of Laurens Vanthoor.
The No. 31 Action Express Cadillac, which had led at halftime, finished third with Tom Blomqvist at the wheel.
Colton Herta was able to get back on the lead lap in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Andretti Acura ARX-06 and finished fourth ahead of Matt Campbell's No. 7 Porsche.
Both privateer Porsches, the No. 5 Proton Competition car and the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports car, were able to move back onto the lead lap due to the two cautions, which meant seven cars with just over ten cars on the line The lead lap was – another hour and a half.
In the LMP2 class, Ryan Dalziel's #18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07 Gibson was ahead of Nico Pino in the only remaining United Autosports vehicle, the #2 car.
Pratt Miller Motorsports' Corvette Racing led the GTD Pro, with Daniel Juncadella's No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R ahead of Michael Christensen aboard the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche GT3 R.
Mercedes-AMG took a one-two victory in the GTD, with Indy Dontje in the #57 Winward Racing car leading ahead of Kenton Koch in the #32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports car.
The No. 55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 was the ninth official retirement of the race, while the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 was behind the wall due to long-standing electrical issues.
Jamie Klein is the Asian editor of Sportscar365. Japan-based Klein, who previously worked for Motorsport Network on the Motorsport.com and Autosport titles, covers the FIA World Endurance Championship and SUPER GT, among other areas.
