Jack Aitken leads after four hours of racing for the 24 Hours of Daytona, the season-opener for the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The beginning of the 62nd edition housed a dramatic opening hour for the 59-car field, in which several battles took place throughout the field.
Before the turn of the third hour, a caution was deployed after Steven Thomas lost the #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 at the exit of the bus stop, which put him into the wall.
At the restart, Jakub Smiechowski of the #52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca made a move on United Autosports’ Pato O’Ward for the lead, with this marking his first ever Daytona 24 after his valuable experience in Le Mans.
The McLaren IndyCar driver took back the place, leading the LMP2 class in the #2 United Autosports Oreca.
At the front, Louis Deletraz retained his lead in the #40 Acura ARX-06 ahead of both Cadillac V Series.Rs – the #01 of Scott Dixon, and the #31 of Jack Aitken.
The WTRAndretti were underfueling both of their #10 and #40 Acura GTPs in a bid to take the lead to their rivals.
Meanwhile, the #20 High Class Racing which was involved in two incidents earlier on, rejoined the race after they ventured behind the wall to repair the prevailing damage on their Oreca 07.
Deletraz demonstrated promising pace which enabled him to build a gap beyond a second, ahead of Dixon, as they negotiated the lapped traffic.
In a peculiar circumstance, both Ford Multimatic Mustang GTD Pros experienced flapping boot lids, which were both replaced at the pitstop.
Speaking of the new Mustang GT3, the #55 Proton Competition driver Levorato fought with the works #65 Mustang driven by Vervisch, but quickly lost a place to the #19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan of Jordan Pepper behind.
Sean Creech Motorsport’s Lance Willsey struggled in the sole Ligier JS P217 after he spun at Turn 1, before doing so again at Turn 6, which finishes off the infield section of the circuit. The race’s fourth caution was declared after Lance spun again.
Dixon led under the green flag, with four-time WEC champion Brendon Hartley in the #10, as Aitken overtook Philip Eng’s #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 for third place.
Colton Herta of the #40 WTRAndretti Acura battled with the #7 Porsche Penske 963 of Mathieu Jaminet, meanwhile the #85 JDC Miller MotorSports Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni also provoked the pair with their fight.
Drama struck for the #9 Pfaff McLaren after Marvin Kirkoffer suffered a suspension issue on the right front, as the McLaren factory driver nursed the 720S GT3 EVO back to the pitlane, and behind the wall as the team were worked on the problem.
Leading the GTP class are both Cadillacs, as Dixon (#01) and Aitken (#31) kept each other company, as the latter pitted under the caution, which split them on pitstop strategy.
Dixon pitted from the lead, as Nick Yelloly (#24) jumped up to third for BMW Team RLL, running ahead of the sibling #25 BMW M Hybrid V8.
For the LMP2 category, Nico Pino led the way in the #2 United Autosports Oreca 07, ahead of Toby Sowery’s #04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR, and the #74 Riley of Felipe Massa.
The combined GTD field sees Alexander Sims of the #3 Corvette (GTD Pro) in the lead, ahead of Robby Foley’s #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3, with the Sun Energy 1 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Maro Engel (GTD Pro) in third.
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