| January 26, 2020Staff ReportIMSA Wire ServiceDAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With six hours remaining in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Renger van der Zande led the way in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R at what could be a record pace. He was 17.509 seconds ahead of Loic Duval in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R. Van der Zande and the No. 10 team that includes Kamui Kobayashi, Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon completed 631 laps through 18 hours. The current record, set two years ago by Joao Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque and Christian Fittipaldi in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi, is 808 laps. The No. 10 team’s lead at 18 hours also enabled it to extend its lead in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup standings to three, 14-11, after three of the four scoring segments in the Rolex 24. Running third, more than 48 seconds behind the leader was Tristan Nunez in the No. 77 Mazda Team Joest RT-24P. There were three Daytona Prototype international (DPi) cars still on the lead lap. One lap behind was Ryan Hunter-Reay in fourth place driving in the No. 77 Mazda. Pipo Derani was fifth in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi, three laps behind the leader. In the LMP2 class, Henrik Hedman led the way in the No. 81 DragonSpeed USA ORECA with a three-lap advantage over Ben Keating in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA. The No. 52 team dominated much of the of the race but lost three laps late in the 18th hour for a brake change. That put the DragonSpeed team in a strong position to win its second consecutive Rolex 24 with a different set of co-drivers in Hedman, Ben Hanley, Colin Braun and Harrison Newey. However, the No. 52 team continues to lead the Michelin Endurance Cup standings with a two-point advantage, 14-12, over the No. 81 team through three scoring intervals. There were three cars on the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class lead lap after 18 hours led by 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM champion Earl Bamber in the No. 912 Porsche GT Team 911 RSR. Bamber – who is sharing the car with Laurens Vanthoor and Mathieu Jaminet – led a 1-2 sweep for the team by 12.505 seconds over Nick Tandy in the No. 911 Porsche. Looking for his second consecutive Rolex 24 victory, Augusto Farfus was running third in the No. 24 BMW Team RLL M8 GTE, also on the lead lap. The top three cars have controlled most of the first 18 hours between them. The No. 912 and the No. 24 teams are tied atop the Michelin Endurance Cup standings with 13 points apiece. It’s a Lamborghini-Audi battle in the GT Daytona (GTD) class with six hours to go, with a few others still lurking. Heading the field was Corey Lewis in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 by 8.535 seconds over Dries Vanthoor in the No. 88 WRT Speedstar Audi Sport R8 LMS GT3. They were the only two cars on the lead lap in GTD, but two more cars, the No. 44 GRT Magnus Lamborghini in third and the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, were just one lap behind with six hours to go. In addition to leading the race, the No. 48 team of Lewis, Bryan Sellers, Andrea Caldarelli and Madison Snow also took over sole possession of the Michelin Endurance Cup lead by two points, 13-11, over Andy Lally, John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly and Marco Mapelli in the No. 44 Lamborghini. Live television coverage of the Rolex 24 continues on NBCSN until 12 p.m. ET, when NBC network coverage takes over for the finish. The race can also be streamed on TrackPass on NBC Sports Goldand the NBC Sports App with authentication. IMSA Radio has complete coverage at IMSARadio.com, RadioLeMans.com and on SiriusXM. |
