Halfway at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The eery stillness of full course yellow reared its ugly head once again for the bulk of the twelfth hour, this time at the hands of yet more drama for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport.
Just over 20 minutes into the hour, the circuit drew quiet for heaps of debris on track near Turn 5, potentially from the No. 40 Acura of Louis Deletraz, ceasing Jack Aitken’s deft use of traffic to keep Dane Cameron’s Porsche 963 1.2s behind the Whelen Cadillac not long after Aitken executed a masterful pass for the overall lead.
Come time for the pits to open for leaders, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW team made good use of the unseasonably warm weather, taking no tires are firing both cars away ahead of the two Penske Porsches, relegating Cameron and teammate Laurens Vanthoor to P4 and P5 respectively. WTR swapped a new nose onto the No. 40 before a spot of drama as the No. 78 GTD Lamborghini attempted to leave pitlane with the fuel hose still attached, causing a small fire which was mercifully brief but would eventually yield a penalty for leaving the box with equipment still attached.
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Green returned with just 15 minutes remaining before half distance, the threatening rain having still not arrived. Almost instantly, Vanthoor muscled back past both RLL BMWs to move back to second overall.
The action lasted only briefly, though. Only minutes later WTR’s woes returned once again in almost the same manner suffered earlier by the No. 10 Acura. As Deletraz approached the infield exit, the No. 40 went dark and coasted to a stop, bringing a full course yellow out once again. Oddly, Deletraz managed to restart the car minutes later while the AMR Safety Team attended and made his way, at speed, back around the field readying to claw time back.
Post pit cycle, Tom Dillman now leads LMP2 in the No. 52 ORECA ahead of Connor Zilisch (No. 18) and Malthe Jakobsen (No. 04) with previous leader Ben Keating having slid to fifth in class.
Alessandro Pier Guidi remains in the GTD PRO lead in the No. 62 Risi Ferrari with Alexander Sims still stalking just 1.5s behind.
GTD is led by Frederik Schandorff in the No. 70 McLaren 720S Evo.