The No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R team showed once again why it is a three-time Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup championship-winning team in the 55th Rolex 24 At Daytona as it took the lead just prior to the six-hour mark, earning the maximum five points for leading the first segment of the season.
Filipe Albuquerque held the lead in the No. 5 machine he shares with co-drivers Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa, while teammate Eric Curran held down second place – and earned four Patrón Endurance Cup points – in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V-R. Curran is sharing the No. 31 Cadillac with Dane Cameron – with whom he also co-drove to the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype title – as well as Mike Conway and Seb Morris.
Jordan Taylor was third at six hours in the No. 10 Konica Minolta entry, completing a top-three sweep for the new Cadillac DPi race cars. Taylor and co-drivers Ricky Taylor, Max Angelelli and four-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon earned three points toward the Patrón Endurance Cup. Jordan Taylor was leading as the six-hour mark approached, but an intensifying rain brought him to pit lane for rain tires, forcing him to surrender the lead to Albuquerque, who had taken on rains during an earlier full-course caution.
Frederic Makowiecki and the No. 911 Porsche GT Team earned the five Patrón Endurance Cup points for leading the GT Le Mans class at the six-hour mark. Makowiecki –who co-drives the No. 911 with Patrick Pilet and Dirk Werner – had a 1.492-second lead over Dirk Mueller in the No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT.
Mueller’s teammates are Sebastien Bourdais and Joey Hand, who started the race from the class pole position. The No. 66 trio also is looking to score a second consecutive 24-hour race victory after taking a victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last summer.
Shane van Gisbergen led the GT Daytona (GTD) class in the No. 50 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 at the quarter mark with teammates Cooper MacNeil, Gunnar Jeannette and Thomas Jaeger. Defending WeatherTech Championship GTD champion Alessandro Balzan was second in GTD at six hours in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 he shares with 2016 co-champion, Christina Nielsen, Matteo Cressoni and Sam Bird.
Seventeen-year-old Patricio O’Ward led Prototype Challenge (PC) in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA FLM09. Mexican driver O’Ward is co-driving with polesitter James French, Kyle Masson and Nick Boulle. Buddy Rice, the 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner, was second in PC in the No. 20 BAR1 Motorsports ORECA FLM09 alongside co-drivers Don Yount, Mark Kvamme, Chapman Ducote and Gustavo Yacaman.
View full results via Al Kamel Systems at Results.IMSA.com.
NOTEBOOK
Electrical issues in in the defending champion No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R dropped it from contention for the GTLM class victory in the fifth hour. The car was scored 10th in class, 13 laps behind the class leader at the six-hour mark.
Scott Pruett’s bid for an 11th Rolex 24 class victory ended just an hour and 40 minutes into the race when Pruett spun and crashed the No. 14 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3 coming into the infield portion of the Daytona International Speedway road course.
“Well, we were just rolling around,” Pruett said. “The Lexus was running. We were just putting in the hours, you know? Not exactly sure what took place. We were racing pretty hard there in a group. It felt like I got just a little nudge from behind. It could have been just the air taken off the rear wing cause we were in a pack or something, but it snapped pretty hard, pretty quick down in turn one and unfortunately it got into the fence on the left hand side
The No. 13 Rebellion Racing ORECA LM P2 car ran among the leaders for the first hour and 45 minutes before mechanical issues sent the car to the garage for lengthy repairs. The team returned to the race 11 laps down to the leaders and was scored ninth, 10 laps down, at the six-hour mark with Neel Jani at the wheel.