Earl Bamber was in the race lead for the #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R GTP after six-hours of racing at the 63rd Daytona 24 Hours.
A quarter of the way through the 24 Hours of Daytona, the race headed into the darkness with plenty of action to spare across all four categories.
One of the key protagonists encountered reliability troubles after just seven minutes into the fourth hour – the #93 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06 of triple IndyCar champion Alex Palou.
The #93 stopped on the re-entry to the oval out of Turn 7 – whilst running around ninth place – and Speedway 1 which initiated the second full course caution period.
Shortly afterwards, John Farano of the #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca 07 LMP2 spun at the same location although recovered without further drama.
The #93 was towed back to the pit road and the garage, enabling mechanics to work eagerly on the GTP machine.
Teams were deciding between the soft and medium compounds. Colder conditions in the dark logically leads to the former although the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R tried the latter.
For Meyer Shank, the #93 Acura acted as a test car for the other #60 Acura to gather further data on the current conditions, having returned to the circuit with 18 minutes and 42 minutes remaining.
Bamber leads before caution ends
At the sharp end of the running, Estre currently had a 15-second lead over Kamui Kobayashi’s #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.
The #6 Porsche Penske 963 driver overtook the Cadillac quickly established a gap at the front.
In the LMP2 category, AO Racing’s #99 ‘Spike’ Oreca 07 ran at the front for a considerable amount of time during this phase of the race ahead of the #52 PR1 Mathiasen entrant.
Overall winner from last year, Dane Cameron, led the charge into the sixth hour.
The third full-course caution was declared after Andy Lally stopped off-track at Turn 2 in his #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO with fluid leaking underneath, thus marking the race’s third retirement after the #63 Lamborghini SC63 GTP and the #75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO.
Before the race resumed at the beginning of the seventh racing hour, the #31 Whelen Cadillac driver of Earl Bamber held the lead ahead of Matt Campbell’s #6 Porsche Penske 963 GTP – which spun just before the restart.
Colin Braun (#60 Acura) was in third ahead of Felipe Nasr (#7 Porsche Penske 963) and Raffaele Marciello (#24 BMW RLL M Hybrid V8).
‘Spike’ at the front in LMP2
AO Racing held the LMP2 class lead ahead of the #74 Riley Oreca 07 and Job van Uitert’s #8 Tower Motorsports’ Oreca 07 and Colton Herta’s #04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR Oreca behind.
Paul Miller Racing’s #1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO being driven by Connor de Phillippi led the GTD Pro category ahead of Nico Varrone’s #4 Corvette Z06.GT3.R.
The other PMR #48 BMW held third place with Jesse Krohn behind the wheel, followed by Daniel Juncadella’s #3 Corvette and the #65 Ford Mustang of Christopher Mies.
Finally in GTD, Inception Racing’s #70 Ferrari 296 GT3 led the way with Frederik Schandorff followed by Tom Sargent’s #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3.R and James Calado’s #021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari.
