Olivier Pla leads at the Rolex 24 at Daytona for Mazda Team Joest after four hours, while Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves has suffered major delays due to a crash involving Mazda’s Harry Tincknell.
Oliver Jarvis led the race from pole and was in a commanding lead before handing the #77 Mazda RT24-P over to Tristan Nunez, who then got passed by the #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-VR of Kamui Kobayashi. The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver then was handed a drive through penalty due to a pitlane speed infraction.
The Japanese driver then shifted back into the top three when Harry Tincknell’s #55 Mazda RT24-P got together with the #7 Acura ARX-05 of Helio Castroneves.
Tincknell attempted to dive down the inside of Castroneves into the Bus Stop Chicane, hitting the left rear of the Acura, spinning both cars out and sending Castroneves crashing into the barrier, needing repairs and costing the team valuable time. The #7 Acura is now back on track, but last overall. Tincknell was handed a drive through penalty for the incident and has dropped down the DPi order.
Renger van der Zande is currently in second place in the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac behind Pla, with Loic Duval third in the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac and the Whelen Engineering Cadillac of Felipe Albuquerque in fourth ahead of the #6 Acura of Simon Pagenaud.
PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports continues to lead the LMP2 category after a herculean opening stint by Ben Keating, who was nearly a minute clear in the #52 ORECA 07-Gibson.
The gap has slimmed down since the Texan handed over to Simon Trummer and Nick Boulle, who is currently in the car. Colin Braun is in second in the #81 Dragonspeed ORECA 07-Gibson, with third place being held by the #8 Tower Motorsport by Starworks ORECA 07-Gibson of John Farano.
Porsche leads GTLM, with the #912 911 RSR-19 currently in the leads at the hands of Mathieu Jaminet, which took the lead from the #911 of Matt Campbell under a pit stop cycle, with the #3 Corvette C8.R of Nick Catsburg third.
Pfaff Motorsports has led GTD from the start of the race, with Lars Kern currently behind the wheel of the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. The #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo is now second as it has been for most of the race so far, now in the hands of Corey Lewis, with third currently being held by the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Anthony Imperato.
