Saturday, January 24, 2015

Ganassi 1-2 At Quarter Post

Six hours have been completed in the 2015 24 Hours of Daytona and the Ford Rileys of Ganassi Racing find themselves in first and second. Joey Hand leads in the #01 Ford after completing 197 laps with Tony Kanaan running second in the #02 Ford. Ganassi has led most of the first six hours. Scott Dixon took the lead on the initial start of the race for the #02.

The pole-sitting #60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier-Honda of A.J. Allmendinger is third with the defending race winners, the #5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP in fourth being driven by Sébastien Bourdais. Max Angelelli rounds out the top five in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP despite that car having to overcome wheel sensor issues. Richard Westbrook is the last driver on the lead lap driving the #90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP in sixth position.

The #7 Starworks BMW Riley of Tor Graves is seventh, one lap down. Ryan Dalziel is eighth in the #1 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD-ARX 04-b, two laps down. The surprise of the race so far has been the #70 Mazda Skyactiv-D Prototype as James Hinchcliffe has the car sitting ninth overall, five laps down.

Mark Wilkins leads the PC class in the #54 CORE Autosport Oreca, tenth overall. Jan Magnussen leads a freight train of GTLM entires as the #3 Corvette is 11th with his teammate, Oliver Gavin in the #4 Corvette in 12th. Olivier Beretta has the #62 Risi Competition Ferrari in 13th. The factory Porsche of Nick Tandy has the Team Falken Tires Porsche of Bryan Sellers behind him as they round out the top fifteen. Augusto Farfus is 16th and the final GTLM car on the same lap as Magnussen.

Mike Hedlund is a lap back of the PC leading CORE Autosport Oreca as he has the #8 Starworks Oreca in 17th with Rusty Mitchell third in class, two laps back of Wilkins in the JDC/Miller Motorsports Oreca, 18th overall.

Kuno Wittmer leads GTD in the #93 Dodge Viper. The Canadian is 23rd overall, nine laps down. Jeff Segal is second in class in 24th as he and co-drivers Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler look to win consecutive years in the GTD class for the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari. The lone Audi R8 on the GTD lead lap is the #48 Paul Miller Racing being driven by Bryce Miller at this time. Rory Butcher has the #81 GB Autosport Porsche in fourth in class despite co-driver Damien Faulkner having a spin early in the race that cause damage to the rear bumper. Vipers bookend the top five in GTD as Al Carter is behind the wheel of the #33 Viper.

Other GTD cars on the lead lap in class are Cooper MacNeil (#22 Alex Job Porsche) and Kevin Éstre (#73 Park Place Porsche).

Notable retirements include the #11 RSR Racing Oreca which was leading the PC class for part of the first quarter of the race with Bruno Junqueira. The #98 Aston Martin of Stefan Mücke was towed back to the garage area but is now back on track, last in GTLM. The #0 DeltaWing of Andy Meyrick was the first retirement with transmission failure despite running competitively in the top five at the time of retirement.