At the Half Way Mark at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, JUSTIN WILSON/No.01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates BMW Riley Daytona Prototype is the overall leader. He had turned the fastest race lap until just now, when DARREN LAW/No.59 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley turned a 125.908 mph/202.629 kph. He was running twelfth overall at the time, eleventh in class.
The fastest GT car is JOHANNES van OVERBEEK/No.67 TRG/Flying Lizards Porsche GT3 Cup, in ninth overall.
Just as I was about to post this, the pole sitter, No.10 Sun Trust Racing Ford Dallara DP pulled into the garage with gear box problems.
Twenty-three Daytona Prototype drivers from 13 of the 15 DP’s have led laps. The dominant No.02 Ganassi DP led 56 percent of the laps – 139 – when JUAN PABLO MONTOYA retired it with a blown engine. The only DP’s not to have led laps are No.55 Crown Royal/NPN Racing BMW Riley and No.90 Spirit of Daytona Racing Porsche Coyote. Only one of the 15 DP’s has retired.
The only way to determine how many GT drivers/cars have led is to check the hourly reports. Grand-Am T&S can’t show lead changes in class as it can overall, nor can it show how many laps a GT car has led. The cars which have led are: No.23 Alex Job Racing Porsche GT3 Cup; No.32 Corsa Team PR1 BMW M6; No.66 TRG Porsche GT3 Cup; No.71 TRG; No.57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R, and No.67. The pole sitter, No.69 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 led only during the first six laps under caution.
The weather outside is clear and breezy, and feels colder than the 68 degrees F/20 C it shows on my iPhone. I didn’t stuff my suitcase with cold-weather gear for naught, after all.