Rolex 24, Hour 19: Porsche peels back the fog

The No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 leads with five hours to go in the 64th Rolex 24 At Daytona, which has continued to run green ever since the restart about an hour and a half ago. Despite the sunlight, though, the fog has looked as severe – if not worse – than it did when it was under the control of a safety car for the six and a half hours prior.

Matt Campbell in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 took the lead after a round of green flag pit stops; Campbell, in a car that’s lived with right-side floor damage since incidents yesterday afternoon, has set the fastest lap of the race and has maintained a healthy three-second lead to the sister No. 7 Penske Porsche.

It’s Felipe Nasr in the other Porsche who’s running second, with an even bigger gap to the third-place No. 25 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 currently driven by Kevin Magnussen, who’s now more than 20 seconds back of the Porsche ahead.

The Taylor brothers, Jordan and Ricky, currently round out the top five in the No. 40 and No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor V-Series.Rs.

The hour interval came as LMP2 teams made routine pit stops. Nick Cassidy was leading prior to that in the No. 343 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07-Gibson. At the interval, the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR car was scored as the LMP2 leader as Alex Quinn brought the car into the pits.

While the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R driven by Tommy Milner leads GTD Pro, the other Millennium Yellow Corvette has suffered a critical blow to its hopes of winning the race.

While running second, Antonio García felt the right-rear suspension of the No. 3 Corvette give way as he approached Turn 6. He crawled slowly back to the pits, taking the reigning IMSA GTD Pro series champion out of contention for the victory.

Milner presses on in first, followed by the No. 911 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R which has quietly hovered around the front of the field all day, and is now second in the hands of Ricardo Feller.

Jules Gounon is third in the No. 69 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, and Ben Barker in the No. 64 Ford Racing Mustang GT3 is fourth.

The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO continues to lead GTD as Robby Foley has just under a 10-second gap to the second-place No. 21 AF Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Antonio Fuoco.

Behind Fuoco, the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG driven by Philip Ellis continues to run third.

HOUR 19 STANDINGS