Richard Westbrook in the #5 JDC-Miller Cadillac DPi currently leads the Rolex 24 at the halfway point, as cold temperatures cause issues for the entire field.
All seven DPi cars are back on the lead lap, with the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura headed up by Alexander Rossi completing an impressive comeback in the past few hours.
At one point, the reigning Rolex 24 winner was down two laps to the leaders after a high speed spin early in the evening. The team took advantage of the numerous full course yellows, and even regained the lead for a time.
Full course yellows continued to plague the night, with a total of 11 pauses in the action now logged for various incidents.
On one restart just after the nine-hour mark, Alex Lynn in the #02 Cadillac DPi was bringing the field to the green flag, but was trying too aggressively to warm his brakes. Ricky Taylor in the #10 Acura ran into the back of Lynn while trying to time his own restart, which sent Lynn directly down pit lane.
Lynn’s crew rushed to assess the damage to the rear of the prototype, and then the team’s troubles were complicated by an added drive through penalty for not maintaining speed at the restart.
Helio Castroneves in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura DPi led the field for a while, but was penalized for speeding in the pits and had to drive through again a couple laps later.
Cold weather, much colder than normal for the Florida track, truly set in as the clock ticked past midnight, and the air temperatures fell to 37°F (2°C) with clear skies.
Grip levels fell along with the temperatures, and drivers had to use all their skill to keep their cars pointing in the correct direction while they waited an agonizingly long time for their tyres to warm up after each caution period.
In LMP2, Fabio Scherer lost control of his #20 High Class Racing Oreca while braking for turn 1 and slid hard into the tyre barrier while leading his class.
Against the wishes of race direction, Scherer limped around the entire circuit on three flat tyres, and forced a full course yellow to clean up the debris.
Mikkel Jensen now leads the class in the #52 Mathaisen Motorsport Oreca, ahead of Rinus VeeKay in the #29 entry.
One of the front-running LMP3 drivers Jon Bennett inadvertently triggered his car’s safety cutoff by overlapping the brake and throttle for too long. It took a minute to get the car started again, and the safety car was brought out before he could do so.
The lowest prototype class is now headed up by Kay van Berlo in the #74 Riley Motorsports entry, who is nearly a lap ahead of second place.
Maro Engel in the #97 Mercedes AMG and Ollie Millroy in the #70 Inception Racing McLaren lead GTD Pro and GTD classes respectively.
Attrition has been quite low throughout the first half of the race, with all seven DPi entries still running and 53 cars total on track.
Discussion about this post