Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Laurin Heinrich has the No. 7 Porsche 963 out front at the six-hour mark of the 64th Running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Heinrich passed the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSport Porsche, with Tijmen van der Helm behind the wheel, a few minutes prior to completing a quarter of the race. Behind the duo was René Rast in BMW M Team WRT’s No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 in third.
From the start…
Renger van der Zande started on pole for Acura Meyer Shank Racing, but didn’t get the cleanest start as Louis Deletraz’s No. 40 Cadillac V-Series.R managed to jump out front. It would be brief, though, as van der Zande got by.
Carnage broke out behind as several LMP2 cars collided into Turn 1 shortly after taking the green flag. Those involved included the No. 2 (United Autosport USA), No. 4 (Crowdstrike Racing by APR), No. 11 (TDS Racing), and the No. 18 (Era Motorsport). The No. 11 ORECA LMP2 07 had significant damage to the nose, which was replaced. The No. 2 also received a new front clip, but was then pulled behind the wall.
The incident with the LMP2 cars brought out the yellow flag just after the start, but not before Felipe Nasr vaulted by both van der Zande and Deletraz to take the lead.
Nasr got a clean jump on the field on the ensuing restart, but it was short-lived as the caution returned as RS1’s No. 28 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), driven by Eric Zitza, broke loose in Turn 1 and slid hard into the inside tire barrier located in front of the attenuator.
Both cautions were within the opening 15 minutes of the race. Following roughly 12 minutes of caution, the race resumed with Nasr out front and joined by Porsche Penske Motorsports teammate Kevin Estre in the No. 6 sister car.
The end of opening hour also saw Giacomo Altoe receive a drive-thru penalty after his No. 81 DragonSpeed Corvette Z06 GT3.R got into a Turn 6 skirmish with the No. 34 Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO of Conquest Racing in GTD.
AO Racing’s P.J. Hyett pitted his No. 99 LMP2 from the lead with eight minutes left in the last hour, which elevated Jeremy Clarke in the No. 43 machine for Inter Europol Competition to the top spot. Clarke pitted shortly thereafter, pushing Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiesen’s Ben Keating to the lead.
As the race smoothed out it was Nasr and Estre that continued to keep Porsche in control, building a 4.3s lead over the Acura of van der Zande. The Nos. 3 and 4 entries for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, driven by Alexander Sims and Nicky Catsburg, respectively, held the top two positions in GTD Pro as the opening hour came to an end, with GTD led by Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis.
As the clock ticked past the first hour, the two Porsches swapped positions which put Estre to the front in preparation for its initial pit stop. As the entire GTP class stopped, Estre retained the overall lead.
During a pit stop for the No. 033 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari, a fire broke out and was quickly extinguished. Covered in the white dust, James Calado, who jumped in for Alessio Rovera for a driver change, sped off undeterred and returned to the on-track fight in GTD.
Multiple pit speed violations rose for GTD Pro competitors after the first round of pit stops, notably with James Hinchcliffe (Pfaff Motorsports) receiving a drive-thru penalty.
The No. 31 Whelen Cadillac, with Jack Aitken behind the wheel, got pushed off into the grass by Calado at roughly the 90-minute mark. The incident dropped the Cadillac down to last in the GTP class after rejoining using the escape road in Turn 5.
Nasr got the outside of Estre Turn 1 at 1 hour, 45 minutes and prevailed by reassuming the lead. Estre and Nasr had a 20s buffer on the No. 93 Acura in third when the next round of pit stops happened near the end of the hour. Porsche opted for a driver change on both cars, with Estre and Nasr replaced by Laurens Vanthoor and Julien Andlauer, respectively.
Four minutes into the start of the second hour saw Risi Competizioni’s Daniel Serra limping around the track as the left-front of his No. 62 Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO was caved in. The tire began unraveling as he approached the Le Mans Chicane and brought out the race’s third full course caution. He stopped on the inside of the track past the chicane.
The damage was suspected to come after a collision with Calado. Bodywork repair on the No. 6 of Vanthoor, which was due to contact during Estre’s stint, relegated the Porsche down to the bottom of the class. Ricky Taylor’s No. 10 Cadillac elevated to second, behind Andlauer as the race ran under caution.
When the race resumed 20 minutes later, Andlauer led the field off into Turn 1 as four-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou in the No. 93 Acura overtook Ricky Taylor in the Cadillac.
A full course yellow returned for the fourth time after the No. 83 AF Corse USA LMP2 of Dylan Murray spun in the middle of the track between Turns 4 and 5, creating a wave of tire smoke among traffic. The situation left Adam Adelson nowhere to go in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche GT3 R (992), T-boning the LMP2 machine. Adelson’s car came to rest in the tire barrier at Turn 5, with Murray’s machine settling just off the track.
The pause in on-track action opened up pitstops, which led to Andlauer being relegated to fifth as Earl Bamber, now in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac, assuming the lead over a pair of Acuras in Palou and AJ Allmendinger (No. 60).
Bamber led the restart 18 minutes past Hour 3.
AO Racing held the LMP2 lead with Dane Cameron in for Hyett, while GTD Pro was held by the No. 3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia. Albert Costa was out front in GTD in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari.
Regular green flag running followed and allowed the field to get strung out a bit, with the top five being represented by Bamber, Palou, Andlauer, the No. 24 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde and the No. 85 Porsche 963 of Kaylen Frederick of JDC-Miller MotorSports.
A cycle of pit stops at the end of the third hour and beginning of the fourth — as the sun began to set — saw a rotation on the leader, along with driver changes. The No. 93 Acura of Kaku Ohta, in the car after Palou’s stint, rose to the top of the leaderboard. Laurin Heinrich moved the No. 7 Porsche to second, followed by the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac of Conor Zilisch, swapped in for Bamber.
Alex Riberas, driving the No. 23 Aston Martin Valkyrie in its Rolex 24 debut, encountered an issue halfway through the hour, stopping off the racing line in Turn 6 temporarily before rolling again. The problem was enough to put them as the first GTP car to go a lap down. Despite a brief look by the crew about 10 minutes later, the car was sent back into the fight with no extensive servicing. However, the car’s gremlins persisted and soon after it was taken behind the wall.
The No. 7 Porsche was promoted to the lead once more after Ohta pitted with 26 minutes remaining in the hour.
As the clock ticked past the fifth hour of the race, the No. 81 DragonSpeed Corvette Z06 GT3.R driven by Matteo Cairoli ended up off into the Turn 3 barriers in Turn 3 as a result of contact with the LMP2 No. 43 Inter Europol Competition entry. The incident brought out the fifth full course caution and created another round of pit stops. Meanwhile, the No. 81 Corvette ended up on the wrecker.
The No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche of van der Helm elevated to the several GTP frontrunners, including Heinrich, pitted for service. Behind van der Helm for the ensuing restart with 28 minutes after the five-hour mark was Heinrich, along with the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Rene Rast in third, Zilisch in fourth and Colton Herta sorted in fifth in the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing entry.
van der Helm maintained his advantage over the field, but the battle for GTD was heating up as Neil Verhagen put the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO into the lead, but had both Nos. 3 and 4 Corvettes within 1.6s behind.
AO Racing’s No. 99 entry, with Jonny Edgar piloting, held a 0.5s advantage over No.04 of Alex Quinn, recovering from a lap down after being involved in the opening lap incident.
The GTD class was still being led by Conquest Racing’s No. 34 Ferrari, with Thierry Vermeulen behind the wheel.
Moments before hitting the quarter mark of the race, Heinrich propelled past van der Helm to take the overall lead.
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