Multi-car contact has removed a couple of contenders from the Rolex 24 At Daytona fight for the moment, including the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac.
Simon Pagenaud in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura had contact with the No. 8 Tower Motorsports car, causing it to spin in front of Scott Dixon in the No. 01. Dixon checked up, and was then rear-ended by the No. 13 AWA Duqueine, which has had several turns at the front of LMP3. Dixon headed to the pits with rear bodywork damage, and changing it put the No. 01 a lap down. The No. 13 is now three laps down to the LMP3 leader.
When pit stops were beginning as the sixth hour began, Paganaud — who received a warning for the contact — was out front in the No. 60 after Louis Deletraz had just taken the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura into the pits and out of the lead. Deletraz had done four stints before handing over to Filipe Albuquerque. The last hour had mostly been Acura and Porsche, with Earl Bamber climbing up the order in the No. 02 Chip Ganasssi Racing Cadillac.
We are officially racing into the night.#IMSA | @daytona pic.twitter.com/nQBx0Nb0an
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Class leaders:
GTP: Simon Pagenaud, No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06
LMP2: Mikkel Jensen, No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA
LMP3: Rasmus Lindh, No. 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier
GTD PRO: Tommy Milner, No. 3 Corvette GTD: Maximilian Goetz, No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3
Notes and quotes:
• Daniel Morad reported after his stint that the N0. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG backup car was finished at 4am this morning. The Iron Lynx team provided them some assistance in getting the car ready.
• The GTP drivers have to go extremely gingerly on the out laps as they put heat into the tires, so much so that in the first few corners, they are slower than the GTD cars.
The overhead view of Colin Braun's moves during the @Rolex24Hours at @DAYTONA are INSANE. 😳
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Colin Braun, No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06: “(The out lap is) crazy. You know, it’s so slippery in the GTP cars and you know, once you get the tire switched on, it kind of feels like, ‘Oh, OK, I’ve made the stint without making a fool of myself.’ It’s so easy to make a little little bit of a mistake, a little bit of a slide, slip. I’m not exactly sure why it’s the case. In the other classes I’ve driven with the Michelin tires, the out lap is, of course, cold tires, you got to bring them up. But for some reason the GTP car, the way that it works or how we put the energy into the tire, man, it is slippery. It is super, super slippery. And so, you know, surviving those out laps and learning how close to the edge we can get without going over early in the race will hopefully pay some dividends towards the end of the race.
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