Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA
Nick Tandy captured the lead of the Rolex 24 at Daytona after three hours of racing were completed, while the sole Lamborghini SC63 became the first retirement of the race after a water pressure issue struck.
Tandy, piloting the No. 7 Porsche 963, took first place when he passed the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Frederik Vesti through Turn 4.
That came at a safety car restart, with the race resuming after Hunter McElrea found the Turn 5 wall aboard the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson early in the third hour.
Vesti shuffled to the lead of the race in the pitstop reset that followed, having taken it from the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Kakunoshin Ohta.
Ohta, in turn, had captured first place after a pitstop mishap for BMW M Team RLL’s Dries Vanthoor.
The Belgian had led the opening phase of the contest with a strong drive aboard the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8, but dropped out during the second round of stops.
Vanthoor made a mistake entering his pit box, making light contact with the wall and having to be repositioned and losing time.
The No. 24 car then also had to serve a drivethrough penalty for refuelling on the jacks.
BMW has since regained second and third, with the No. 25 car of Rene Rast ahead of the No. 24 sister machine of Philipp Eng.
Julien Andlauer ran fifth in the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche, ahead of Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Mathieu Jaminet, who both got by Vesti in the No. 31 Cadillac.
The GTP class saw its first retirement after the No. 63 Lamborghini SC63 was pulled from the race after water pressure issues struck at the end of the opening hour.
In LMP2, United Autosports held a 1-2 after both of its Oreca 07 Gibsons vaulted up the order during the round of stops under caution.
Garnet Patterson held a lead of 2.862 seconds over the sister No. 22 machine of Rasmus Lindh, while Dylan Murry sat in third aboard the No. 88 Pecom Racing machine.
The No. 99 AO Racing Oreca and No. 43 Inter Europol Competition cars rounded out the top five.
Similarly, Ford Multimatic Motorsports ran 1-2 at the head of GTD Pro, which saw SunEnergy1 Racing suffered a significant setback.
The No. 75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was an early front runner in the hands of Maro Engel, but a loose water pump belt caused overheating issues cost six laps after Kenny Habul had taken over.
Dennis Olsen sat in the lead of the class aboard the No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3, ahead of the sister car driven by Seb Priaulx.
The No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO remains within striking distance of the leading pair, with Augusto Farfus at the wheel.
The pair of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs made up the rest of the top five in class with Nicky Catsburg and Antonio Garcia at the wheel, respectively.
In GTD, Forte Racing’s No. 78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 led the class, ahead of the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO and the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.
