Rolex 24, Hour 22: Cautions, tactics scramble the order

There are two hours remaining in the 64th Rolex 24 At Daytona, where the running order has shuffled again after a full course yellow that came out with a little more than two and a half hours to go.

The caution came out after the No. 64 Ford Racing Mustang GT3 suffered a likely engine failure. Mike Rockenfeller pulled the car over with a massive trail of fluid in its wake, and got out of the car – the seventh official retirement of the race.

Porsche Penske Motorsport, running 1-2 in GTP as it has done for most of the day, curiously split strategies – leaving the No. 6 Porsche 963 out on the first call to the pits while the No. 7 came in for routine service, then bringing the No. 6 in on the next lap for energy, putting it at the back of the line when the race restarted.

Julien Andlauer in the No. 7 Penske Porsche led at the restart and continues there, followed by Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 24 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, Earl Bamber in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R, Philipp Eng in the No. 25 WRT BMW, and Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06.

Vanthoor has moved up from 10th to sixth after the restart in the No. 6 Porsche.

And only minutes ago, a major blow was dealt to Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing when the engine let go on the blue and white No. 10 Cadillac. Ricky Taylor brought the car to pit lane safely and prevented another FCY, but his and the No. 10 WTR crew’s hopes of victory have been extinguished.

The No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA 07-Gibson still leads LMP2 – now driven by Alex Quinn – but the two Inter Europol Competition cars are hot on his heels. Tom Dillmann in the No. 43, and Nolan Siegel in the No. 343, run second and third.

The last FCY was an absolute gift for Manthey’s late-race bid to win GTD Pro. Ayhancan Güven pitted the No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R just before the yellow flags came out, and “Grello” cycled to the lead in the hands of Thomas Preining.

James Calado restarted second in the No. 033 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, but the Le Mans winner was given a drive-through penalty for running the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R of Nico Varrone off exiting the West Horseshoe. That’s let Dan Harper in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO slide into second, Maxime Martin in the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO is now third. Varrone is trying to recover in sixth.

And in the melee that ensued, an opportunistic Nicki Thiim drove the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo to the lead in GTD.

It’s an Aston Martin 1-2 with the No. 27 Heart of Racing Vantage (Mattia Drudi) in the mix in second, followed by the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW (Jens Klingmann) in third.

HOUR 22 STANDINGS