IMSA: Mustang Sampling Racing Leads At Daytona 24 Halfway Point

After 12 hours of racing, Loïc Duval, at the wheel of the #5 Mustang Sampling racing / JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi he shares with Sébastien Bourdais and João Barbosa, led the Rolex 24 at Daytona, 12.839 seconds ahead of the #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DP1-V.R crewed by Renger van der Zande, Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon and Kamui Kobayashi, Briscoe at the wheel at the half-way point.

Completing the top three in the DPi category, and 29.862 seconds back, was the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac piloted by Filipe Albuequerque.

Leading the LMP2 class was the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA driven by Nick Boulle in the car he shares with Ben Keating, Simon Trummer and Gabriel Aubry. Second in the LMP2 class, and 1:22.371 behind, was the #81 DragonSpeed USA ORECA piloted by Colin Braun with the #18 Era Motorsports entry, Kyle Tilley at the wheel, in third.

BMW led the GTLM class with the #24 BMW TEAM RLL M8 GTE piloted by John Edwards heading the field, just over half a second ahead of the #912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19 driven by Laurens Vanthoor. The sister Porsche GT team entry, the #911 car, was in third, piloted by Nick Tandy.

Lamborghini held first and third positions in the GTD class after twelve hours. The category was led by the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 driven by Madison Snow, Bryan Sellers, Corey Lewis and 2019 Blancpain GT Series champion Andrea Caldarelli, Sellers at the wheel as the race passed the twelve-hour mark.

Just over six seconds behind, and second in class, was the #88 WRT Speedstart Audi Sport Audi R8 LMS GT3 driven by Mirko Bortolotti with the #44 GRT Magnus Lamborghini in third

Oliver Jarvis, at the wheel of the #77 Mazda team Joest Mazda DPi, led the 38-car field away from pole position ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in the #6 ACURA TEAM PENSKE Acura DPi.

Jarvis was immediately on the pace, pulling out a gap of over three seconds to second-placed Juan Pablo Montoya in the #6 Acura. Felipe Nasr held on to third place in the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi.

Jarvis stayed at the wheel and, after two hours racing, held on to a lead which the British driver had stretched to over 16 seconds ahead of Nasr in the #31 Cadillac DPi.

There was drama for Harry Tincknell in the #55 Mazda team Joest Mazda DPi and Helio Castroneves in the #7 Acura Team Penske entry when the pair made contact battling for third place during the fourth hour. Castroneves was left with damage to the rear and had to return to the garage while Tincknell was given a drive-through penalty.

As the race passed the six-hour mark, the #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac driven by Renger van der Zande took the lead, five seconds ahead of the #31 Whelen Engineering entry with Filipe Albuequerque at the wheel. Simon Pagenaud’s #6 Team Penske Acura was in third with less than 20 seconds covering the top three.

After having run caution-free for the first four hours, a full course yellow was shown after an incident involving the #47 Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini driven by Eric Lux and the #23 heart of Racing Team Aston Martin piloted by Alex Riberas. Contact between the two saw both cars off-track and significant damage to the Aston Martin of Riberas.

The #5 Cadillac moved into the lead during the 11^th hour and had pulled out a gap of over three seconds after 379 laps.

Ben Keating, piloting the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07 led the LMP2 field away from pole and set about building a lead over the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA driven Cameron Cassels. After 45 minutes Keating, who is on double-duty with the #74 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG T3, had a gap of nearly 45 seconds to the Cassels in the #38 car.

Simon Trummer took the second stint in the #52 ORECA and by the end of the second hour had extended the lead to over 53 seconds.

Positions remained the same after six hours racing with the #52 PRI Mathiasen Motorsports entry continued to build its lead while the #81 DragonSpeed USA entry and the #8 Tower Motorsport by Starworks car battled for third.

The two Porsche GT team Porsche 911 RSR-19s finished the first hour of racing in the GTLM class in the same order they started it, the #911 entry driven by Nick Tandy leading with the sister #912 car with Laurens Vanthoor at the wheel in second.

The #24 BMW Team RLL pushed its way through the field to take second in class after four hours, with the #912 Porsche in the lead and the #911 entry in third.

There was frustration for Corvette Racing after Michael Fassler brought the #4 Corvette C8.R back to the garage in the tenth hour. An oil leak meant the #4 Corvette was pushed back into the garage where it remained.