What had been a Cadillac-Acura battle now sees both Acuras out front and both Porsches pursuing as the Rolex 24 At Daytona headed into its fifth hour. Colin Braun has the lead again in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, heading Louis Delatraz in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura. The Porsche Penske Motorsports 963s were third (No. 6, Mathieu Jaminet) and fourth (No. 7, Matt Campbell) as the former Pfaff Motorsports teammates fight for third. Continuing the trend, the three Cadillacs were next, with the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL bringing up the rear of the cars that haven’t had trouble, all still on the lead lap.
BMW M Team RLL’s No. 25 has returned to the track after a long time in the garage to replace all or part of the hybrid unit.
Shortly after the fourth hour began, the GTD No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW stopped on course, bringing out a full-course caution. It was during the ensuing pit stops that Braun got back into the lead. The No. 96 was in the garage undergoing a driveshaft change.
While GTD PRO is headed by Jordan Taylor with the No. 3 Corvette at the head of all the GTs, there is a hard fight for the GTD lead. Kenton Koch in the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG has the lead, but is holding off Daniel Morad in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG. Roman De Angelis, who had some time in the lead, ran third in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage as the top three were running nose to tail.
The Winward entry being in second was the continuation of a saga, as Winward had a mad thrash on Friday to get the backup car in racing condition. Lucas Auer had crashed the car the team had put on pole in the first practice session, breaking his back in the wreck. The team flew back to Houston to grab the other car, got it into racing shape, and started at the back of the field. Morad was the last-minute replacement for Auer.
Class leaders after the fourth hour:
GTP: Colin Braun, No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06
LMP2: George Kurtz, No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA
LMP3: Joao Barbosa, No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier
GTD PRO: Jordan Taylor, No. 3 Corvette
GTD: Kenton Koch, No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3
Notes and quotes:
• The LMP2 No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA had to serve a major penalty — a stop plus 3m20s — for improper final wave-by procedure. The car is now two laps down from the LMP2 leader.
• The LMP3 No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier has officially been retired.
• Pit lane is tight with 61 cars, and issues that were often seen in testing and practice with cars getting blocked continues in the race. Renger van der Zande, No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac LMDh: “When we just got out of the box, we got blocked a bit by the sister car, so we need to work on getting that sorted so that it doesn’t happen again. There’s no bad taste in that at all. I mean, that’s what we have. It’s a very close pit box. There’s many cars in the pit boxes, so we have to find a way to get that done better.”
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