Overheating remains a major concern for the two-car Action Express Cadillac team with two hours remaining in the 56th Rolex 24 At Daytona.
While Filipe Albuquerque continues hold a three-lap lead in the No.5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R., teammate Felipe Nasr briefly fell to third in the No.31 Whelen Engineering entry after running several slower laps to moderate the temperatures. Nasr regained second when Loic Duval pitted in the No. 54 CORE autosport ORECA.
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At the end of the hour, Nasr led Duval by 47.348 seconds.
LMP2 cars held the next six positions behind the lead Cadillacs. Duval was followed by Bruno Senna in the No.32 United Autosports Ligier and Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen in the No.78 Jackie Chan DCR JOTA ORECA.
GTLM continued as a 1-2 for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing. Joey Hand had a slower pit stop in the No.66 Ford GT and fell 14 seconds behind teammate Richard Westbrook in the No.67 Ford GT. At the end of the hour, Hand cut the advantage to 5.078s.
In GTD, owner/driver John Potter continues to find his No.44 Magnus Racing Audi one lap behind, currently in fifth position.
“We lost a lap around 20 hours ago, and there has been so much green flag racing we haven’t been able to get it back,” Potter said. “We’ve been running barely one lap down for hours and hours. We need either a little luck, a caution or some of our competitors to make a mistake. We’re close. We’re barely one lap down.”
Potter’s Magnus Racing captured the GTD class victory in the 2016 Rolex 24, but sat out last year’s race.
“It’s great to be back with IMSA, everyone has been welcoming, and it’s great to be back in endurance racing,” said Potter, who is co-driving with Andy Lally, Andrew Davis and Markus Winkelhock. “I feel that’s where we belong.”
Mirko Bortolotti leads GTD in the No.11 Lamborghini, followed by AJ Allmendinger, 23.997s back in the No.86 Michael Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian Acura, and Bryan Sellers, 33.855s behind in the No.48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini. Also on the lead lap was Jeroen Bleekemolen, 1m34s back in the No.33 Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG.
RACER.com’s coverage of the Rolex 24 At Daytona is presented by Forgeline Motorsports, manufacturers of custom made-to-order lightweight forged aluminum street and racing performance wheels.
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