Sunday, January 31, 2016

The #5 Action Express Corvette DP Leads With Eight Hours To Go

Sixteen hours are in the books and eight hours separate the teams from the finish of the 54th 24 Hours of Daytona. Daylight is upon us. Here is the run down:

The #5 Action Express Corvette DP of Christian Fittipaldi leads the #90 Spirit of Daytona Racing Corvette DP of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Ricky Taylor, who drivers the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP. Just over two seconds cover the top three overall.

The #01 Ganassi Ford-Riley of Andy Priaulx is situated in fourth. Scott Sharp is fifth in the #2 Ligier-HPD, the final car on the lead lap.

A pit fire dropped the #31 Action Express Corvette DP a lap down. Jonny Adam is behind the wheel of that machine, sixth overall.

Seven cars are still on the lead lap in GTLM.

Oliver Gavin leads in the #4 Corvette with Nick Tandy trailing in second in the #911 Porsche. Bruno Spengler runs third in the #25 RLLR BMW and Frédéric Makowiecki has the #912 Porsche in fourth. The #3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen is fifth. Two Ferraris round out the lead lap cars in class. James Calado has the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari ahead the #68 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Daniel Serra in seventh.

Seven cars are on the lead lap in GTD. Magnus Racing leads with René Rast behind the wheel of the #44 Audi. Alex Riberas is second in the #23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche. The #97 Turner Motorsport BMW of Maxime Martin runs in third position. Mathias Lauda has the #98 Aston Martin up to the fourth in class with Cooper MacNeil running in fifth in the #22 Alex Job Racing Porsche.

Patrick Long runs sixth in the #540 Black Swan Racing Porsche. The #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Robert Renauer is seventh. The #30 Frikadelli Racing Porsche of Patrick Huisman, #9 Stevenson Motorsport Audi of Dion von Moltke, #93 Riley Dodge Viper of Damien Faulkner and #28 Konrad Racing Lamborghini of Lance Willsey are all a lap down.

Prototype Challenge has seen the most attrition of the four classes. Kenton Koch leads by ten laps in the #85 JDC/Miller Motorsports Oreca over the #26 BAR1 Motorsports Oreca of Don Yount but Koch's lead has shrunk by a few laps after Koch had his own accident. The #20 BAR1 Motorsports Oreca of Ricardo Vera is a lap behind it's teammate and the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca of José Gutierrez is a lap behind the #20 Oreca.

Notable cars to suffer setbacks during the night include the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini. Gearbox issues through out the night have the #02 Ganassi Ford-Riley of Jamie McMurray outside the overall top ten. The #16 Change Racing Lamborghini has retired as has the #60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier-HPD.