Jumping immediately into the lead from the second row at the drop of the starting flag, Dane Cameron is reclaiming the weekend for DPi programs in his Team Penske Acura through the first quarter of the race.
Paul di Resta inherited the pole for the start of the race as pole-winning CORE autosport made a driver switch, opting to have Jonathan Bennett open the battle for the team and start from the rear of the Prototype field. Di Resta surrendered the lead to Cameron almost immediately, with the #32 United Autosport entry only getting peeks at the lead through pit cycles.
Stephen Simpson, carrying the torch for LMP2, put up a valiant effort to take control of the race away from Team Penske. However, as of the 4:30:00 mark, he faced immeasurable pressure from Ricky Taylor as they weaved through GT traffic.
A nightmare weekend came to close early for Tequila Patrón ESM. Both #2 and #22 entries have retired from the race with engine failure. Scott Sharp made contact with the #90 of Tristan Vautier on the first lap to spin with damage to himself and teammate Pipo Derani.
Vautier would tangle on track once more, making contact with race leader Cameron and spinning into the wall. Cameron sustained minor damage to the car’s front end, but it remains to be seen whether this will come into play in the car’s performance.
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing continues their dominance of the weekend’s GTLM pace, running off from the challenging Porsche GT and Corvette Racing entries from the race start. After a slower run off of the most recent restart, Richard Westbrook and Joey Hand are maintaining close pace but are facing pressure from the Porches of Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor.
Mario Farnbacher took the lead over in GTD as he took the reins of the 3GT Racing Lexus from pole sitter Jack Hawksworth. Teammate Kyle Marcelli faced a worrying moment as the car suddenly dropped pace, presumably from an electrical error, and the entry has fallen back. Lawson Aschenbach runs P2 as the strong season pace of Meyer Shank Racing continues. Points leader Bryan Sellers is salvaging a rough start to the weekend, running a strong P5.
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