Rolex 24, Hour 18: Racing finally resumes after six hours of safety cars

After more six hours and 33 minutes of pacing behind the safety car due to heavy fog, racing has resumed at the 64th Rolex 24 At Daytona with six hours left.

Shortly after sunrise at 7:00am, IMSA race control determined that the visibility at Daytona International Speedway had improved enough to bring cars into pit lane, wave cars by, and at long last, the green flag waved at 7:19am – much to the delight of the drivers, the teams, and the hearty fans that were awake to see it.

Opting to stay out while other cars pitted before the restart, Laurin Heinrich led the restart in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 and leads GTP as the Rolex 24 heads into its fourth quarter.

Matt Campbell launched out of the gates in the No. 6 Penske Porsche – the Aussie set back-to-back fastest laps of the race and went from fourth to second after the restart. Kevin Magnussen in the No. 24 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 now runs third, having also stayed out during the last round of Full Course Yellow stops.

The No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R was given a 60-second stop-and-go penalty for running the red light at the exit of pit lane that has dropped Frederik Vesti down to tenth place. The No. 24 WRT BMW and No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche also received drive-through penalties for various pit work infringements.

Sébastien Bourdais leads LMP2 for Tower Motorsports in the No. 8 ORECA 07-Gibson. Nick Cassidy worked his way from sixth to second in the No. 343 Inter Europol Competition machine and is hunting down Bourdais.

Inter Europol’s two cars run second and third, after Tom Dillmann took third place in the No. 43 car.

Ben Barker took the green flag leading GTD Pro in his No. 64 Ford Racing Mustang GT3, but Tommy Milner has gotten past the Mustang, and now leads in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R.

Barker is second, and the sister No. 3 Corvette driven by Antonio García is now third. Behind them, Maro Engel made a daring three-wide pass to take fifth in the 75 Express Mercedes-AMG, getting around the No. 912 Manthey Porsche and No. 1 Paul Miller BMW in one move.

And Robby Foley aboard the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO has moved to the lead in GTD, past the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo driven by Lilou Wadoux.

Russell Ward rounds out the top three in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG.

Contact between Conquest Racing’s Thierry Vermeulen and Magnus Racing’s Spencer Pumpelly, who was spun out at the Le Mans Chicane, was ruled incidental.

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