2023 Rolex 24, Hours 4-6: WTR-Andretti Acura Leads
Night has fallen at the 61st annual Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, where the black and blue #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 leads overall at one-quarter distance.
The Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport team assumed the lead thanks in part to a brave triple stint from Louis Deletraz. Deletraz put on some brave moves to put the Konica Minolta Cadillac on top – cutting and thrusting his way around slower traffic to pass the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 of Mathieu Jaminet for second place before pursuing race leader Colin Braun, who himself was enjoying a magnificent first race stint in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura.
At the start of the fifth hour, Deletraz tore around the outside of Braun to take the lead. The #10 Acura pitted, which put the #60 back in the lead – but not for long, when Matt Campbell in the #7 Penske Porsche put that same move on Braun to take the lead before those two made a pit stop.
Deletraz was relieved after three hours at the wheel, and now Filipe Albuquerque has taken his first turn at the wheel of the #10 Konica Minolta Acura. After 202 laps, Albuquerqe leads by 19 seconds from the Action Express Racing #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-LMDh. Pipo Derani has taken over from Alexander Sims in the last hour, looking very competitive in this first quarter of the race though not quite able to match the Acuras’ pace.
It wasn’t an easy first turn at the wheel of the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura for Simon Pagenaud: He picked up a warning for incident responsibility after triggering a four-car chain reaction incident.
Pagenaud hit and spun #8 Tower Motorsport Oreca LMP2 of John Farano at the Western Horseshoe. Farano’s car stopped in the middle of the road forced Scott Dixon to slow down and take avoiding action. But Moritz Kranz aboard the #13 AWA Duquiene D08 couldn’t react quickly enough to avoid ramming into the back of the yellow and black #01 Cadillac V-LMDh in front of him.
All three cars were able to continue – though Kranz had to pit for damage inspection, and Dixon’s Cadillac picked up damage to the diffuser. They were able to eventually repair it by replacing the rear bodywork on their next stop, though Dixon himself may be worried about a bent toe link.
Pagenaud completed his stint and Helio Castroneves has taken over, now running in third place.
Alex Lynn is fourth in the #02 Cadillac Racing V-LMDh, followed by Nick Tandy in the #6 Porsche, and Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 Cadillac. These six cars are all on the lead lap.
Unfortunately, battery hybrid problems have laid a major blow to the #7 Porsche. It began just at the end of the fifth hour, a slow stop caused when Campbell reported a shifting issue. Michael Christensen took over for his stint after the stop, but dropped out of the overall top three.
Those problems worsened and Christensen was forced to bring the #7 Porsche into the pits, and the crew pushed it back into the garage for a battery change – a service that will keep them in the garage through the top of the hour.
In contrast to Porsche’s recent hybrid system issues, the hard work from the crew at BMW Team RLL was rewarded as their #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 returned to the race after two and a half hours following their MGU failure. Connor de Philippi drove the car back out from the garage onto the track, 82 laps down on the overall leaders. They’ve survived the first significant issue of the LMDh era, at any rate. Sheldon van der Linde is now logging laps.
The Bronze drivers are now back in their respective LMP2 cars at the head of the class. After Scott Huffaker and Mikkel Jensen had a turn, Steven Thomas has returned for his second stint in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca LMP2 07. He now leads by a lap from the #35 TDS Racing car, now in the hands of Francois Heriau.
Ben Keating runs third in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca. And Fred Poordad is fourth in the rebuilt #55 Proton Competition Oreca, the start of better fortunes to come after a frustrating week.
After the ensuing restart, the #18 Era Motorsport Oreca of Dwight Merriman picked up a whopping 200 second (three minutes, 20 seconds) penalty stop for an improper wave-by procedure during the yellow flag. Also, the #20 High Class Racing Oreca of Ed Jones picked up a stop-go +60 seconds for running the red light at pit exit.
Dakota Dickerson is preparing to hand off to Rasmus Lindh in the #36 Andretti Autosport Ligier JS P320, the leading car in LMP3. He has a one-minute advantage to Nico Pino, running strong in the #33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier in second. Guilherme de Oliveira is third aboard the #43 FastMD Racing Duquiene.
Mason Filippi picked up a damaged right-rear suspension in the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Duquiene. He brought the car safely off course and back to the garage for repairs. Till Bechtolsheimer is back in that car, now 20 laps off the class lead.
Heart of Racing Team are out front in both GTD classes at the end of the first quarter.
Their GTD Pro class #23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 leads as the result of a dogged pursuit from Ross Gunn to chase down the #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Tommy Milner. Gunn overtook Milner at the five hour, 26 minute mark and continued to lead after he brought the #23 Aston Martin into the pits for service.
Maro Engel is now second in GTD Pro in the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, 8.4 seconds behind Gunn, and just two seconds ahead of the #3 Corvette now driven by Antonio Garcia in third.
Ben Barnicoat is fourth in GTD Pro, driving the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, with Mirko Bortolotti fifth in the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, Daniel Serra sixth in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, and Klaus Blachler trying to plug on in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R in seventh.
The #62 Risi Ferrari did go off course earlier after Serra got caught out on cold tyres, but drove on without any further issues.
In GTD, it’s the veteran Ian James currently leading in the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin. He has a 3.3 second gap to the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes, currently piloted by Mike Skeen.
Fabian Schiller runs third in class driving the #75 Sun Energy 1 Mercedes. Marvin Kirchhofer is fourth in the #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3.
Winward Racing’s heroic drive continues with Russell Ward back aboard the #57 Mercedes, a backup car which didn’t get any hardship laps and was only, finally finished with its preparations at 4 o’clock this morning. He was scored less than a second ahead of Aaron Telitz in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.
Just past the end of the third hour, the full-course yellow was deployed for the third time in the race. Patrick Gallagher in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 – the team’s GTD entry – came to a stop at the run-off in the West Horseshoe. The car was brought back to the garage for diagnosis, where the team discovered a broken prop shaft.
The #96 Turner BMW is back on track, so too is the #42 NTE Sport Lamborghini after Robert Megennis’ crash in the third hour.
However the #83 Iron Dames Lamborghini has developed a manner of issues – first, a damaged right rear wing endplate, and then broken air-box that put them in the garage for a significant time. Rahel Frey is now 19 laps off the class lead.
The #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 and #74 Riley Ligier JS P320 are still the only two retirements of the race so far.
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