Michael Levitt/Lumen
Rolex 24, Hour 1: BMW to the fore
Under the best weather to grace Daytona International Speedway all week, Dries Vanthoor led the field of 61 cars to the green flag to start the 63rd annual Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Vanthoor remained out front through the entirety of his opening stint in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8, and after the first round of pit stops, he remains out front after the first hour of racing.
Nick Yelloly holds second in the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, 13 seconds behind the younger Vanthoor brother, with Jack Aitken in third aboard the No.31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R. Tom Blomqvist has moved up to fourth in the No.60 MSR Acura.
PJ Hyett took the lead in LMP2, taking advantage of a mistake from Ben Keating to move the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA 07 up to the lead.
Keating locked up heading into the West Horseshoe in consecutive laps and conceded not only the lead but second place as well, but he was able to recover and hand off the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports machine off to co-driver Rodrigo Sales from second place.
But now it's the No. 88 AF Corse car of Luis Perez Companc in second, followed by Chris Cumming in the Pratt Miller Motorsports No. 73, with Sales in fourth.
It wasn't the best start for Nick Boulle, who spun around on his own at Turn 2. The reigning Jim Trueman Award winner was able to regroup and has time to get his No. 2 United Autosports USA car back up the class order.
GTD PRO has seen multiple lead changes -- from polesitter Mike Rockenfeller to Dan Harper to Andrea Caldarelli.
Right now the advantage is back in the hands of Harper in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW, with the Fords of Mike Rockenfeller and Frederic Vervisch in second and third, and Alexander Sims running fourth in the No. 3 Pratt Miller Corvette.
GT/GTD field takes the green flag at the start.
Caldarelli was leading in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini, but on his first pit stop, the left-front wheel nut wouldn't come off and he slipped down the order as mechanics used hammers to pry the tricky wheel off.
Elliott Skeer led GTD from pole in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche, but now after pit stops and driver changes, it's the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG that leads, with Russell Ward taking the baton from Ellis, and Adam Adelson taking over the No. 120 Porsche.
Trent Hindman runs third in the No. 45 WTR Lamborghini, followed by Brendan Iribe in the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari.
R.J. O'Connell
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