With slightly more than eight hours down in the 61st running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the season opener for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, race leaders had completed 280 laps at the 3.56-mile course at Daytona Int’l Speedway.
Richard Westbrook has taken control of the race in the No. 2 Cadillac Racing entry, co-driven by Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber.
Ricky Taylor follows close behind in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06, while Jack Atiken lurks in third in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac V-LMDh. The three overall leaders are all competing in the new Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class, which replaced the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class this season.
Notably, defending winner Helio Castroneves spun the No. 60 Acura while battling for the lead in the seventh hour and slipped out of the top five. Earlier in the race, co-driver Simon Pagenaud built a one-minute lead in the No. 60, but the Acura entry is now sixth.
Ben Keating is the LMP2 leader in his No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry. He is a lap ahead of Francois Perrodo in second and two laps ahead of Giammaria Bruni in third.
Andretti Autosport’s Gabby Chaves is pacing the LMP3 class in the No. 36 entry ahead of Guilherme de Oliveira and Lance Willsey.
The GTD Pro class lead currently belongs to WeatherTech Racing’s Dani Juncadella in the No. 79 Mercedes-AMG GT3, but he has Jack Hawksworth and Alex Riberas hot on his tail. Mike Skeen holds first position in the GTD class in his No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports entry. Phillip Ellis and Kyle Marcelli are the next GTD cars in line.
There are just over 15 hours to go in the 24-hour sports car endurance race.