Sunday, January 25, 2015

Angelelli Leads With Third To Go

Eight hours remain in the 53rd 24 Hours of Daytona and we have lost a few contenders in the wee-hours of the morning.

Max Angelelli has the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP on top overall but the number of cars on the lead lap has been half from our last update at midnight. The #01 Ganassi Ford Riley of Joey Hand leads his teammate Jamie McMurray in the #02. The #5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP has moved up to four after having their fuel pressure issues just before midnight. Sébastien Bourdais sits two laps down. A lap back of the Frenchman is Mike Rockenfeller in the #90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP. Oswaldo Negri, Jr. has dropped to sixth, four laps down after the #60 Shank Racing Ligier-Honda had a run in with the tire barrier around the 13-hour mark with John Pew behind the wheel. The leaders have completed 487 laps.

The notable retirement from the Prototype class was the #1 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-04b as the FIA WEC team had a gearbox failure end their race.

Dirk Werner has the #25 RLLR BMW leading in GTLM as the German runs seventh overall, ten laps back of the #10 Corvette DP. Wolf Henzler is back behind the wheel of the #17 Team Falken Tire Porsche and is second in class with Antonio García in third driving the #3 Corvette with Simon Pagenaud driving the #4 Corvette in fourth and rounding out the top ten overall. The top four in GTLM are all on the same lap.

The two notable absences from the GTLM battle are the factory Porsches. The #911 Porsche of Marc Lieb made contact with the GTD #007 TRG Aston Martin of Christoffer Nygaard, sending the Porsche in his teammate Earl Bamber in the #912. Both cars have made repairs but the #912 is 19 laps down while the #911 has lost over 80 laps to the class leaders. The other GTLM contender bitten by mechanical gremlins was the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari electrical issues has cost them over 160 laps.

Eleventh overall is the PC leading #54 CORE Autosport Oreca of James Gue, 14 laps down overall but the defending PC race winners have extended their class lead. The #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca of Andrew Novich is five laps back of the #54, 13th overall as the #31 Action Express Corvette DP is sandwiched between the PC battle in 12th. Tomy Drissi has the pole-sitting #16 BAR1 Motorsports Oreca third in class, six down to the #54 in 14th.

The #8 Starworks Oreca has retired after a motor failure.

Rounding out the top fifteen overall is the GTD class leading #33 Dodge Viper of Ben Keating as six cars all sit 23 laps back of the overall lead. Dion Von Moltke has the #48 Paul Miller Racing Audi in second position in class. The Scuderia Corsa Ferraris runs third and fourth with the #64 of Andrea Bertolini ahead of Bill Sweedler in the #63. Al Carter has the #93 Dodge Viper fifth in class with the #22 Alex Job Porsche the final car on the lead lap in class with Andrew Davis behind the wheel.