Porsche Holds 1-2 at Halfway Mark at Daytona

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Porsche Penske Motorsport’s pair of works 963s held the top two positions as the Rolex 24 at Daytona hit the halfway mark.

With 12 hours down in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener, the No. 7 Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr held a lead of 6.4 seconds over the sister car driven by Matt Campbell following a prolonged period of green-flag running.

Best of the rest in third was the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 with Scott Dixon at the wheel, 13 seconds behind.

Nasr worked his way from fifth to the head of the field when the race resumed in Hour 11 following the incident involving the Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Frederik Vesti, passing the sole surviving Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque to take the lead before the end of the hour.

The Brazilian was at one stage as much as 12 seconds clear of the Campbell, who took over the No. 6 Porsche from Kevin Estre at the latest round of stops, before the gap narrowed between the two Porsches later in the 12th hour.

Behind Dixon’s Acura, Will Stevens had the No. 10 WTR Cadillac fourth ahead of the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Kevin Magnussen and the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche of Pascal Wehrlein.

The No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche went behind the wall with a left-rear suspension problem following a spin for Nico Pino, and was later declared a retirement.

That left just six cars on the lead lap, with the No. 25 BMW circulating four laps off the pace, while the AXR Cadillac got going again after a lengthy repair job, 53 laps down and behind the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura.

In LMP2, Rasmus Lindh led the way in the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson he took over from Paul di Resta in the 12th hour.

Antonio Felix da Costa had held a 15-second advantage in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition car, having surged to the head of the pack at the previous restart, before handing over to Tom Dillmann just before the halfway mark.

Dillmann ran second, 7.6 seconds behind Lindh, with Dane Cameron 12 seconds off the lead aboard the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca.

The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO was a comfortable 32.8 seconds clear in the GTD Pro class, with Neil Verhagen taking over from Madison Snow.

Klaus Bachler had the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R up to second narrowly ahead of the two works Ford Mustang GT3s of Dennis Olsen and Sebastian Priaulx, as well as Maxime Martin in the No. 69 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Vasser Sullivan Racing’s No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 went behind the wall after sustaining front-left suspension damage due to contact, dropping 21 laps off the class lead.

In the GTD class, the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Frederik Schandorff was engaged in a fierce battle with the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Ayhancan Guven, the two cars split by just three tenths at halfway.

Third, a further six seconds behind, was the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Jens Klingmann.

Cetilar Racing’s Ferrari 296 GT3 had been running in the podium places in the 12th hour before it became stranded in pit lane and was then pushed behind the wall.