Nick Yelloly is leading the Daytona 24 Hours for Acura with just over a quarter of the race gone, having jumped former leader the #7 Porsche in the pitstops, which now has Felipe Nasr at the wheel, having replaced teammate Laurin Heinrich.
Acura chose not to make a driver change, putting them into the lead.
After the latest restart, the fifth of the race, Tijmen van der Helm was leading in the #85 JDC Miller Porsche and was fending off valiantly against Heinrich behind. However, the German finally found a way through in the #7 Porsche at turn 1, and Yelloly soon followed him through to put van der Helm in third. The Dutchman pitted soon after and handed over to his teammate, young Chilean Nico Pino, who now runs 10th after the stop.
Darkness has now fallen over the Daytona International Speedway, with cooler temperatures bringing out a new element to this race. With Yelloly leading and Nasr 6 seconds behind, 4 seconds behind are the two BMWs, Raffaele Marciello in the #25 BMW ahead of teammate Robin Frijns in the #24 BMW.
The two WRT-run cars are faring better in the race than they did in qualifying, running under 10 seconds behind the leaders.
As ever in this year’s race, though, the Porsches remain strong; the JDC-Miller car formerly leading is running the 2025-spec, but van der Helm held his own against Heinrich in the newer 23026-spec factory Porsche.
Renger van der Zande started the #93 Acura on pole and the drivers, including the Dutchman, Yelloly, Alex Palou and Kaku Ohta, have generally been able to keep in touch with the Porsches.
LMP2 led by Quinn, Gounon leads GTD Pro, Drudi in command in GTD
In LMP2, Alex Quinn in the #04 Crowdstrike by APR Oreca leads from #99 AO Racing Oreca, he popular car that’s been named Spike by the team and legions of fans, which has team owner PJ Hyett at the wheel.
Third is Paul di Resta in the #22 United Autosports Oreca.
Jules Gounon is leading GTD Pro in the #69 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3, from Neil Verhagen in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW a few tenths behind.
Just 4 or seconds behind them is Alexander Sims in the #3 Corvette, which he started on pole just over 6 hours ago. Fourth is Nico Varrone in the sister #4 Corvette, a further couple of seconds adrift.
The race in GTD Pro may well turn into a fight with Chevy Corvettes rivals from Ford, but Antonio Garcia, driver of the #3 Corvette, believed they were prepared for this.
“Last year we couldn’t really stay ahead of them at any point. For sure we have more speed now and we can stay ahead,” he said.
“Our car is really, really good but I’m sure they will be too. Once we get to the time when it’s time to single-stint the tyres, it might be a little different for everyone.”
In GTD, Mattia Drudi is leading in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, from Lucas Auer in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Manny Franco in the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari.
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