Sebastian Bourdais leadsthe Rolex 24 at Daytona at the four hour mark for JDC-Miller Motorsports, but the race had been peppered by caution periods in the opening hours of the race.
After the initial early caution for the debris from the #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-10 at turn 6, there was a period of green flag running, peppered by small incidents.
The #51 RWR-Eurasia Racing Ligier JS P217 of lSalih Yoluc had spun, ending up on the inside of the corner at turn 1, having to reverse a small amount in order to get steering lock to turn the car and continue on his way.
There was then a puncture for John Potterś #44 Magnus for Archangel Acura NXS GT3 Evo, who managed to get the car back to the pits. Rob Hodes, meanwhile, in the #81 DragonSpeed ORECA 07-Gibson spun, but managed to keep the car out of the barriers.
Cadillacs were the order of the day going into the second hour, but the second caution period emerged not too long after the clock ticked over. Unfortunately for DragonSpeed, Hodes had taken too much speed into turn 1 and hit the wall hard. He did manage to get back to the pits, after stopping on track multiple times, with the front left tyre having received a puncture in the incident.
A long full course yellow caution period followed, in which almost every car made a pitstop. Green flag running resumed once the classes had been separated as per IMSA regulations, but it didn’t take long for another caution period, as Frits van Eerd in the #29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA 07-Gibson found the barriers in the road course. The car was in no fit state to make it back to the pits, but once it was delivered on the back of a flatbed, the team found they had incurred gearbox damage in the crash and had to retire the car.
Once again green flag running resumed, but 10 laps later there was yet another caution period. James Calado’s #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE and Cameron Cassels’ #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier JS P320 had a coming together at the bus stop, sending them both off into the grass on the outside.
This caution period lasted another 5 laps before racing resumed. As the clock ticked over into the fourth hour, former F1 driver Kevin Magnussen, in the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R. took second from Simon Pagenaud, driving the #48 Action Express Cadillac DPi-VR.
At the end of the hour, Sebastian Bourdais in the #5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi-V.R, led the race from Magnussen, with Ricky Taylor in third, now driving the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05.
In LMP2, WIN Autosport’s Tristan Nunez had the lead, with #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsport ORECA 07-Gibson’s Scott Huffaker in second. Timothe Buret’s #8 Tower Motorsports by Starworks ORECA 07-Gibson sat third.
Former IndyCar driver Spencer Pigot, in the #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 VK, led LMP3, with almost a 30 second gap to #33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P320 VK, with Lance Willsey at the wheel. Third in class sat George Kurtz for #54 Core autosport Ligier JS P320 VK.
First in GTLM was #3 Corvette Racing C8.R Ricky Taylor, followed by team car #4 Corvette Racing C8.R, with Nick Tandy at the wheel. The first non-Corvette was Phillipp Eng #25 BMW Team RLL M8 GTE.
Kyle Kirkwood in the #14 Vasser Sullivan RC F GT3 led in GTD, over Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo’s Indy Dontje. And finally, #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R’s Trent Hindman sat third in class.
