Derani leads Rolex 24 at Halfway

Pipo Derani and Scott Sharp lead in the No. 2 Ligier Honda

Pipo Derani led at the halfway mark of the 54th Rolex 24 at Daytona, which settled down a bit in the 12th hour following several leaders have trouble in the 10th and 11th hours.

Derani, in the No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM Ligier JS P2 Honda, regained the lead following the 14th caution period, passing Scott Pruett’s No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP just before the 12-hour mark.

The No. 2 car suffered early contact from the sister Ligier Honda from Michael Shank Racing, but recovered with good drives from Derani, Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek.

Pruett runs second ahead of four other DPs, three Corvette DPs and the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford.

The attrition rate has gone up a bit in the Prototype class. The No. 55 Mazda retired just before the 12-hour mark with a valve train issue.

The second Ganassi Riley-Ford, the defending champion No. 02 car, went behind the wall in the ninth hour with a full brake change and is now down seven laps.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]The Shank Ligier Honda retired in the tenth hour.

Prototype Challenge has also largely been a battle of survival, with the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry thus far having a clean run and leading a majority of the race. Stephen Simpson of JDC/Miller Motorsports, however, has been closing on Nicholas Boulle in the PR1 car.

With the top nine cars still on the lead lap in GT Le Mans, the lead has ebbed and flowed for most of the race. Scuderia Corsa’s new Ferrari 488 GTE, in the hands of Alessandro Pier Guidi, led at the 12-hour mark but on an off sequence strategy.

Both factory Porsches, the No. 3 Corvette and the No. 100 BMW have also been in podium contention thus far.

Team Chevy and Corvette found themselves in the thick of battles for the lead in two classes halfway through the 54th Rolex 24 At Daytona. Corvette Daytona Prototypes held four of the top five overall positions early Sunday while Corvette Racing’s pair of Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs were locked in a race-long fight in search of second straight GT Le Mans (GTLM) victory at Daytona International Speedway.

Both Corvette C7.Rs took turns leading in GTLM in the opening 12 hours. Tommy Milner was in the last third of his second triple-stint of the race in the No. 4 Corvette that he is driving with Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fässler. Gavin went from seventh at the start to third by the end of the fifth lap. Milner picked up where his teammate left off and set the car’s fastest race lap in his first three stints.

Fässler drove his first two stints at Daytona in the dark and found himself in the midst of a seven-car GTLM battle. It was the first race action for Fässler in a Corvette Racing entry in 2009. The No. 4 car was sixth at the halfway point.

Meanwhile, the No. 3 Corvette C7.R of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller ran fourth. Garcia and Magnussen were part of the class-winning entry in last year’s Rolex 24. Neither Corvette experienced anything approaching a major issue in the first 12 hours despite the top seven cars routinely being within seven seconds of each other.

The complexion of GT Daytona changed once the two Lamborghinis crashed into each other in the 11th hour.

The Heart of Racing Porsche is currently leading the GTD Class at the midway point of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 Hour At Daytona. Mario Farnbacher (Germany), Ian James (Phoenix), Alex Riberas (Spain) and Wolf Henzler (Germany) have all put in time behind the wheel of the 23 Porsche.

The team was able to comeback from an early penalty that put them behind the GTD leader by two laps. With Farnbacher putting in maximum seat time the trio of James, Riberas and Henzler all contributed to working the team strategy and getting the car back to the lead.

"My first stint was pretty easy," Riberas said. "I just focused on getting used to the car since I didn't get many laps in free practice. I just wanted to set some consistent lap times and stay out of trouble. In traffic I took it really easy, zero risk. If someone was diving in I just let them go. I did a couple of 47-second laps when I was on my own. We are in a good position running up toward the front."

Farnbacher put in nearly two full regular season IMSA race runs before the races halfway point.

"I am very tired," Farnbacher said. "It was pretty exhausting. I have done two double stints already. I had to focus to not make any mistakes. It is not easy, especially with all of the traffic. At night with the lights you never know who is coming up on you. You just have to take no risk. It is a little easier to focus when we are running toward the front."

James took over from the German and was putting in consistent lap times in conservation mode.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]"My midnight shift was pretty uneventful," James said. "We are still in brake conservation mode. We need to make it to half distance before we change brake pads. The car is getting better. Each pit stop we keep working on it and the car is getting progressively better."

Henzler had to wait over six hours before putting any time in at the wheel of the 23.

"I had to wait quite a long time to get in the car," Henzler said. "The handling wasn't too great. I think the track was a little greasy. Then I had a problem with the radio. I had no radio, I could just hear them on the speaker from the receiver when the rpms were low. I then came into the pits and missed the box. The color of our pit sign was different under this lighting. But the car is ok and we are in a good position."

Depending on the pit stop cycle, the Frikadelli Porsche, TRG-AMR Aston Martin, WeatherTech AJR Porsche, No. 6 Stevenson Audi and No. 97 Turner BMW have also factored into podium positions.

There are six confirmed retirements, both Mazdas, the DeltaWing, the Shank Ligier Honda, and the No. 54 CORE and No. 88 Starworks PC cars.

The polesitting SMP Racing BR Engineering BR01 Nissan has been in and out of the garage repeatedly, and the No. 96 Turner BMW has had intermittent gearbox issues.