With two and half hours of the 10-hour race complete, Matt Campbell leads Motul Petit Le Mans for Porsche Penske Motorsports while two of their IMSA GTP championship rivals have done significant self-inflicted damage to their title hopes.
In pit stops during a full-course caution, Alexander Sims in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R — which started the weekend leading the points — left the pits in first, but started to run the red light at pit exit. Realizing his mistake, he stopped, but Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 was also about to run the red light and hit the back of the Cadillac. Both cars needing new bodywork was only the beginning of their problems, as each received a stop-plus-60-second-hold penalty for running the light at pit-out. In addition, the BMW also had to serve a drive-through for incident responsibility.
As a result, the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport would be in control of the championship if they were running better than their current fifth place. As they run, Campbell and Felipe Nasr would win the championship. The points as they ran at quarter-time: No. 7 PPM Porsche, 2761; No. 10 WTRAndretti Acura, 2752; No. 31 Whelen Cadillac, 2713.
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The cause of the full-course caution also hurt Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian’s chances in the race, and removed any hope for Paul Miller Racing to get the championship trifecta in GTD. Corey Lewis in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 was behind Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 MSR Acura when Blomqvist had to check up for an LMP2 car. Lewis made contact with the Acura, sending it into a tank-slapper, and then went to the Acura’s left as Blomqvist was trying to recover, whereupon the swaying Acura knocked the BMW off track and into the tires. It’s currently behind the wall undergoing repairs, while the MSR Acura needed a minor suspension repair and is a lap down. Paul Miller Racing had clinched the GTD championship and Sprint title, but was hoping to secure the Michelin Endurance Cup title as well.
Campbell led Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, with Mike Rockenfeller running third in the JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963. Marco Wittmann was fourth in the No. 24 BMW, with Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 WTRAndretti Acura in fifth.
PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ No. 52 ORECA leads in LMP2 with Alex Quinn at the wheel. If their lead holds up, it would give Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin the title. Keating had a spin in the first hour, but had enough of a lead that he recovered and continued without losing a position. George Kurtz runs second in the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA, with Steven Thomas third for TDS Racing in the No. 11.
Bijoy Garg leads LMP3 in the No. 30 Jr III Ligier, pursued by Anthony Mantella (No. 17 AWA Duqueine) and Josh Burdon (No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier.
WeatherTech Racing was at the head of the GTD PRO field, Jules Gounon at the wheel of the No. 79 Mercedes AMG. Kevin Estre had the Pfaff Motorsports No. 9 Porsche 911 GT3 R in second, and Kyle Kirkwood was third in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 that Jack Hawksworth put on pole. Jordan Taylor has the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R in fourth.
The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG was the next car in the GT line, leading GTD at the hands of Russell Ward. Patrick Liddy had the No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by US RaceTronics Lamborghini Huracán in second, followed by Kenton Koch in the No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Mercedes AMG. Frankie Montecalvo (No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus) and Robby Foley (No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4) completed the top five in GTD. The No. 83 Iron Dames Lamborghini that Doriane Pin pushed to the front of the GT field early in the race suffered a suspension failure and is seven laps down on the GTD leaders.
Nearly half of the laps in the first quarter of the race were run under four full-course caution, and several drivers have criticized the driving standards in the race so far.