As Daytona rolls around once more, heralding the start of the sportscar racing season I’m happy to say Motornerd returns to give my account of the Florida epic. The blog now has a year of experience behind it, and with so much to look out for across the event it brings a slight restructure to my race reporting! I’ll be breaking down each class in order, which should hopefully add more flow and proffessionalism to what once was largely a wall of text.

GTP –Porsche Still In Control, Aston Martin Struggles Increase as #24 Loses Lead Lap and JDC Stuck In Midfield

Laurin Heinrich began the seventh hour in the lead having finally overcome Tijmen Van Der Helm in JDC Miller’s #85 machine, and set about re-affirming Porsche’s lead. Having been holding out for Michelin Endurance Cup points, a mistake in timings meant that the #85, on its last fumes of virtual energy, dropped to 10th a lap before they were awarded, promoting the steadily climbing #24 BMW of WRT into third behind Nick Yelloly’s #93 Acura. The sister #25 car that had been struggling throughout was now up to fourth as the car slowly came alive in the night running. Acura’s #93 then led the two BMWs – Rafaelle Marciello’s #25 ahead of the #24 piloted by Robin Frinjs – after the #7 then pitted.

When the pit stops all played through Felipe Nasr set about taking back the lead, eventually passing Nick Yelloly’s #93 Acura for the lead with 17 hours left.

BMW suffered a slight knock to their efforts as improperly attired pitcrew forced the #24 M Hybrid V8 into a drive through penalty, sending it down a lap, while Porsche ran 1-2-3, with the #85 back up to third and duelling with the #25.

The #24’s race would worsen as Frinjs pit halfway through its stint to replace the front bodywork and adjusting the steering of the car, while also taking four fresh tyres having dropped off the lead lap thanks to the pitstop.

Porsche still ran metronomically, with Julien Andlauer and Laurens Vathoor swapping places for the lead, #7 now back ahead of #6 after the latter’s impressive recovery.

At the end of the ninth hour it was the #6 ahead of #7, with Alex Palou hounding both Porsche’s in his #93 Acura.

LMP2 – AO Still In Control Despite Crowdstrike Fightback, Pratt and Miller Latest Casualty, Go Behind Wall To Try and Salvage Race.

Thus far the #99 of AO Racing hadn’t been under any pressure at all but by the hour began with an intense challenge to take the lead from the #04 Crowdstrike, with the third placed #43 of Inter Europol sitting under five seconds back from the leading duo. Alex Quinn did indeed take the lead and established it well. After this, and with PJ Hyett back aboard the #99 AO Racing machine the car fell back to fifth, some forty seconds away from the leading #04 of Alex Quinn in the first sign of struggles for the crew.

More attrition came to the Pratt and Miller #73 after what driver Enzo Fittipaldi described as ‘unavoidable contact’ leaving the left sidepod in severe strife with a big chunk of the floor also missing but the team chose to keep running rather than risk losing all their chances by fixing it permenantly behind the wall, but after holding out for a couple of hours they eventually did go to fix it properly.

PJ Hyett’s #99 would come back though, and retake the lead from the #04 of George Kurtz for the first time in many hours.

As Misha Goikhberg spun his #52 United Autosports machine on the restart, AO Racing’s #99 led comfortably from George Kurtz in the #04, then came the #43 of Inter Europol and Bijoy Garg before Kurtz also spun his own car, sitting stationary for half a minute and dropping to 7th in class.

GTD PRO – Corvette Still In Control, BMW Show Promise, Ford Fade Away as Pfaff Lose Lead Lap.

Neil Verhagen began the seventh hour having stolen the lead back for BMW, shouldering past the #3 Corvette of Marvin Kirchofer as BMW led the class for the first time all race.

Mercedes also came into their own as alternate strategies developed, with the #69 Getspeed AMG GT3 of Joules Gounon becoming the first Mercedes to lead the class while the Corvettes and Fords ran in tandem as the night drew on amid a slight fog.

The Corvette lead battle reared up again with 17 hours left, as Alexander Simms’ #3 duelled with the sister #4 machine of Nicky Catsburg in a 1-2 lead for the American brand, and an incredibly entertaining battle during the night was formed

Brake Caliper issues forced Mirko Bortolotti to bring in the #9 Pfaff Lamborghini to do an unscheduled brake change, which left it three laps down by the time the repairs had been complete. A huge blow to a car that had led the race before this point.

As we near half distance it’s the #4 Corvette of Tommy Milner ahead of the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Max Hesse and the #3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia and Ricardo Feller’s #911 Manthey EMA Porsche.

GTD – Heart of Racing Lead Quiet Class, Magnus Move Up Standings as Ferrari Still In The Hunt.

Inception Racing’s #70 and Dragonspeed’s #34 swapped places at the beginning of the hour, with Inception’s Frederik Schandorff now leading with Thierry Vermuelen now down in second place in the #34. The class otherwise ran quietly throughout this period, Mattia Drudi’s #27, Lilou Wadoux’s #21 and the #57 of Winward Racing completing the top three an hour and a half later.

The only moment of note was the #36 DXDT losing radio communications between the pit wall and the car itself, driven by Salih Yoluc, receiving a black flag from race control to fix the issue.

Drudi led the field away after a FCY was brought out for fireworks causing debris with Antonio Fuoco’s #21 AF Corse Ferrari with Magnus Racing’s #44 Aston Martin in third, the #34 of Lorenzo Patrese and Turner Motorsport’s #96 BMW.

image credit: Osajus Photography from Asheville, NC, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons