The third and fourth hour of the Rolex 24 got off to bang with a tight battle for the lead between the leading #01 Cadillac and the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura. Renger van der Zande was behind the sticks in the Cadillac playing defense against a charging Colin Braun.
A yellow flag stemming from an incident involving the #42 NTE Sport GTD machine set up a hard fight for the GTP cars. Bunching the field up gave Braun the chance to climb up the field and make a play for the lead and do just that he did.
Braun ate his way up the field after the restart, fending off pushes from Richard Westbrook in the #02 Cadillac and making a gorgeous move out of the banking on the #31 Action Express Cadillac. Braun looked unstoppable as he set his sights on van der Zande.
Braun made the move of the race so far in his climb to the lead, squeezing past an LMP3 car in traffic, leaving mere inches between himself and the wall. Braun didn’t lift an inch as he sped past and continued to push twords the top.
Braun was able to get within less than a second of the #01 but was not able to make the move for the lead before a yellow came out and Braun inherited the lead through pitstops.
Further down the field in the GTD ranks another tight fight for the overall GT lead got underway. With the #32 Team Korthoff Mercades taking the fight to the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus. Kenton Koch in the #32 made an intense push on Frankie Montecalvo for the GTD and overall GT lead and got it after a few laps of pushing.
A prop shaft issue on the #96 Turner Motorsport GTD machine brought the car to the side of the track and the yellow flag flew. A long caution period forced a pit stop cycle and during that cycle a minor incident between the #01 and #02 Cadillacs took place in the pits.
The #02 pitted at a sharp angle after the #01, whose pit box is directly behind the #02, and because of the angle, the #01 was not able to exit for a few extra seconds.
The as the sunsets on the Daytona International Speedway, Colin Braun continues to lead the field despite a few mistakes from the top class rookie. Josh Pierson in the #35 leads the LMP2 field and Joao Barbosa in the #33 leads LMP3. The overall GT leader is Jordan Taylor in the #3 Corvette and in GTD is led by the #32 Korthoff Mercades with Kenton Koch behind the sticks.
