The No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R continues to display its speed as Renger van der Zande was leading at the halfway mark over Nick Yelloly in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 and Harry Tincknell in the No. 59 Proton Competition Porsche 963.
For the championship fight, as they ran at halfway: Yelloly/De Phillippi have 2767 points; Taylor/Albuquerque, 2752; Sims/Derani, 2723; Bourdais/van der Zande 2703; and Jaminet/Tandy 2691. The top three in that list have had at least a lap in the championship lead, along with Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr.
LMP2 is a three-way battle between the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA, the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA and the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA, running at halfway in that order with Nolan Siegel, Scott Huffaker and Alex Quinn driving, respectively. That would give the championship to Huffaker’s co-drivers, Mikkel Jensen and Steven Thomas.
Three cars are left in the LMP3 battle, with Matthew Bell leading in the No. 13 AWA Duqueine, followed by Garrett Grist for Jr III Racing, and Gar Robinson in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier.
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Vasser-Sullivan’s bid for a second-consecutive Petit Le Mans GTD victory ended in a shower of debris, mud and coolant as Ben Barnicoat got loose in Turn 3 and then speared the nose of the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 into the grass, ripping the front end off the car, cooling system included. The incident brought the race’s sixth full-course caution and the car has been officially retired.
Trouble also struck for Corvette Racing just past the halfway mark with Tommy Milner pulling the No. 3 C8.R over with no drive. Milner was leading at halfway and when the problem struck.
That left Daniel Serra in the GTD PRO lead for Risi Competizione in the No. 62 Ferrari 296, followed by Maro Engel in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG and another Ferrari in third — James Calado in the No. 61 AF Corse 296.
Indy Dontje was in the overall GT lead as well as leading the GTD class. His No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG has been at the front of the GTD field for some time, pursued by Mikael Grenier in the No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Mercedes AMG. The No. 16 Wright Motorsports team has pulled the No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R into third, Zacharie Robichon at the wheel. Patrick Gallagher (No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3) and Seb Priaulx (No. 80 AO Racing Porsche 911) made up the rest of the top five in GTD.