Nick Tandy led the 63rd Daytona 24 Hours for the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport team with eight hours of the running completed.
The last two hours of the prestigious event saw a flurry of activity, beginning with the #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing of Colin Braun taking the lead, followed by Tandy’s team-mate Felipe Nasr, amid a horrible spell for the second Porsche Penske, the #6.
Matt Campbell, behind the wheel at this stage, spun whilst running near the front, dropping to eighth place, losing a further two places after pitting.
The Australian’s misery was compounded further with receipt of a drive through penalty for the car being worked-on outside his pit box.
Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing’s #40 began a quest for the lead, spearheaded by Kamui Kobayashi, who proceeded to do things only the Japanese driver does, briskly going from fourth to first in the space of one lap, swiftly opening-up a gap which at one stage totalled eight seconds.
Campbell soon began to drive like a man possessed, taking consecutive fastest laps, the second over four tenths quicker than the first.
The car then retained its lead soon after amid a series of driver changes, with Louis Deletraz taking the wheel from the Japanese driver.
Raffaele Marciello in the #24 BMW M Team RLL took the lead soon after, with Deletraz then dropping to third behind the #31 Action Express Racing, driven by Great Britain’s Jack Aitken.
Deletraz disaster undoes Kobayashi work
Marciello would then be replaced by Dries Vanthoor, before drama ensued for Deletraz.
After spinning on cold tyres into T1, the Cadillac was punted by van Der Zande #93 Acura of Renger van der Zande, the #2 United Autosports of Nick Boulle and the #73 Pratt Miller of Chris Cumming, and out of contention.
A caution period was called and lasted for around 25 minutes before going green, with Aitken leading, and Brendon Hartley compounding Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing’s misery by spinning the #10 car at the bus stop, dropping from second to ninth.
Aitken continued to lead before Tandy was able to grasp the initiative on around the eight hour mark to take the lead. Aitken is second, in the #31 Cadillac, while polesitter Dries Vanthoor is third in the #24 BMW. Aitken’s eating into Tandy’s lead and is now just two seconds behind his countryman, after dropping to fourth after the restart. D. Vanthoor is a further second behind, with Tandy’s teammate Mathieu Jaminet fourth in the sister #6 Porsche.
Another Brit in the shape of Jonny Edgar, was leading in the LMP2 class in the #99 AO Racing. Paul-Loup Chatin sat second in the #18 Era Moorsport Oreca, with Dylan Murry third in the #88 AF Corse Oreca.
Fred Vervisch leads GTD Pro in the #65 Ford Mustang GT3, just 3 seconds ahead of Luca Stolz in the #69 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3. Third is the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R, with Lauren Heinrich behind the wheel of the fan-favourite ‘Rexy’.
In GTD, Mattia Drudi leads, onboard the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. Second lies Misha Goikhberg in the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, around 10 seconds behind Drudi. Third is Ollie Millroy in the #70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.
