Rolex 24, Hour 23: Fights to the finish

Heading into the last hour of the 64th Rolex 24 At Daytona, Porsche Penske Motorsport’s two factory Porsche 963s run first and second.

Felipe Nasr, pursuing his third straight Rolex 24 win, leads by about a second and a half in the No. 7 Porsche, followed closely by Laurens Vanthoor, trying for back-to-back Daytona wins, in the No. 6 Porsche.

But a late surge from Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R means that Porsche’s hopes of a 1-2 finish at Daytona are far from secure. Aitken has closed right in on Vanthoor as the GTP leaders have only one more pit stop to make to reach the finish – though he has had close calls with GT class traffic.

Should any of them experience strife, the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 (Tom Blomqvist) and the No. 24 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 (Dries Vanthoor) lie in wait in fourth and fifth.

LMP2 is still CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s race to win at this stage. The No. 04 ORECA 07-Gibson still leads after the last round of pit stops, with young Alex Quinn behind the wheel.

Inter Europol Competition’s two cars still run second and third. Le Mans class winner Tom Dillmann in the No. 43 ORECA trails by over six seconds while the No. 343 driven by Nick Cassidy is third.

Meanwhile, the GTD Pro running order has taken a turn once again going into the last hour, and it’s still too close to call. But as it stands, Maro Engel has driven the 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO to the lead, after overtaking Andrea Caldarelli in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2.

Caldarelli previously took the lead after pitting early from seventh place and undercutting the field, including previous leader Thomas Preining, who’s now third in the No. 911 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R. Engel is now just under three seconds in front.

Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R and Dan Harper in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO are also on the radar for a potential podium.

The top two Aston Martins in GTD are still running first and second. Nicki Thiim in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Vantage GT3 had overtaken Mattia Drudi in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Vantage about 15 minutes ago – they came out of the pit cycle with Drudi ahead of Thiim.

Thiim was given a warning for contact with Drudi, but no further action was taken, so the two Vantages still lead the class.

Turner Motorsport’s No. 96 BMW driven by Robby Foley is still third. But there are other strong contenders waiting in the wings, including Matthew Bell in the 13 Autosport Corvette, Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Mercedes-AMG, and Kenton Koch in the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari – any of them could still be in the mix.

The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac and No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette have officially retired from the race due to their respective mechanical problems, and most recently, a steering problem for the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie has brought it behind the wall again.

HOUR 23 STANDINGS