Rolex 24 Hour 18: Ricky Taylor puts #10 Acura out front at 3/4 mark

Polesitter Ricky Taylor, the fastest driver of the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura, has driven the wheels off the car to get it back up front after the car went 2 laps down earlier in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Taylor leads the 360 Acura of Helio Castroneves by just under 5-seconds as the race hit the 3/4 mark with 6 hours to go.

[Note: Soon after the 18-Hour report, Alexander Rossi took over from Taylor in the #10, went off track, and lost the lead to the #60 Acura, and then lost 2nd as Mike Conway in the #31 Cadillac schooled the overrated IndyCar driver. The team is going to have to get Rossi out of the car soon if they want any chance to win for a 4th straight year. He’s simply too slow.]

Mike Conway ran 3rd in the #31 Whelen Cadillac, 8-seconds behind, and  ahead of the #5 Mustang Cadillac of Tristan Vautier 18-seconds behind the lead Acura.

Other Class Leaders at 18 Hours

LMP2: #8 ORECA with Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen at the wheel
LMP3: #54 Ligier JS with Colin Braun at the wheel
GTD-Pro: #2 Porsche  with Laurens Vanthoor at the wheel
GTD: #21 Ferrari with Toni Vilander at the wheel

Leader of GTD-Pro at the 3/4 mark: #2: KCMG, Porsche 911 GT3R, GTD PRO: Laurens Vanthoor, Patrick Pilet, Dennis Olsen, Alexandre Imperatori

Hour 18 Standings

Pos No. Vehicle Class Team Drivers Laps Behind
1 10 Acura DPi DPi Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Alexander Rossi Will Stevens 556 0.000s
2 60 Acura DPi DPi Meyer Shank Racing W/Curb-Agajanian Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist Helio Castroneves Simon Pagenaud 556 3.949
3 31 Cadillac DPi DPi Whelen Engineering Racing Pipo Derani Tristan Nunez Mike Conway   556 7.918
4 5 Cadillac DPi DPi JDC Miller MotorSports Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval Ben Keating 556 17.120
5 8 ORECA LMP2 07 LMP2 Tower Motorsport John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Pinto de Andrade Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen 550 6 Laps
6 29 ORECA LMP2 07 LMP2 Racing Team Nederland Frits Van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Dylan Murry Rinus Veekay 550 6 Laps
7 81 ORECA LMP2 07 LMP2 DragonSpeed USA Eric Lux Devlin Defrancesco Patricio O’Ward Colton Herta 550 6 Laps
8 52 ORECA LMP2 07 LMP2 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker Nicolas Lapierre 549 7 Laps
9 68 ORECA LMP2 07 LMP2 G-Drive Racing By APR Francois Heriau Oliver Rasmussen Ed Jones Rene Rast 543 13 Laps
10 18 ORECA LMP2 07 LMP2 Era Motorsport Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel Paul-Loup Chatin 539 17 Laps
11 22 ORECA LMP2 07 LMP2 United Autosports James McGuire Guy Smith Phil Hanson Will Owen 539 17 Laps
12 11 ORECA LMP2 07 LMP2 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Steven Thomas Josh Pierson Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell 537 19 Laps
13 48 Cadillac DPi DPi Ally Cadillac Mike Rockenfeller Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson Jose Maria Lopez 535 21 Laps
14 74 Ligier JS P320 LMP3 Riley Motorsports Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo Michael Cooper 530 26 Laps
15 54 Ligier JS P320 LMP3 CORE Autosport Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz Nic Jonsson 530 26 Laps
16 33 Ligier JS P320 LMP3 Sean Creech Motorsport Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Seb Priaulx Lance Willsey 530 26 Laps
17 36 Ligier JS P320 LMP3 Andretti Autosport Jarett Andretti Josh Burdon Rasmus Lindh Gabby Chaves 529 27 Laps
18 13 Duqueine D08 LMP3 AWA Orey Fidani Kuno Wittmer Lars Kern Matthew Bell 528 28 Laps
19 02 Cadillac DPi DPi Cadillac Racing Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Marcus Ericsson Kevin Magnussen 528 28 Laps
20 2 Porsche 911 GT3R GTDPRO KCMG Laurens Vanthoor Patrick Pilet Dennis Olsen Alexandre Imperatori 523 33 Laps
21 15 Mercedes-AMG GT3 GTDPRO Proton USA Dirk Mueller Patrick Assenheimer Austin Cindric   523 33 Laps
22 9 Porsche 911 GT3R GTDPRO Pfaff Motorsports Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr   523 33 Laps
23 62 Ferrari 488 GT3 GTDPRO Risi Competizione Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra Davide Rigon 523 33 Laps
24 14 Lexus RC F GT3 GTDPRO VasserSullivan Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood   523 33 Laps
25 21 Ferrari 488 GT3 GTD AF CORSE Simon Mann Luis Perez Companc Nicklas Nielsen Toni Vilander 519 37 Laps
26 70 McLaren 720S GT3 GTD inception racing Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff Ollie Millroy Jordan Pepper 519 37 Laps
27 16 Porsche 911 GT3R GTD Wright Motorsports Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen Richard Lietz 519 37 Laps
28 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 GTD Winward Racing Russell Ward Philip Ellis Mikael Grenier Lucas Auer 519 37 Laps
29 44 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 GTD Magnus Racing John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly Jonathan Adam 519 37 Laps
30 32 Mercedes-AMG GT3 GTD Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports Mike Skeen James Davison Stevan McAleer Scott Andrews 518 38 Laps
31 66 Acura NSX GT3 GTD Gradient Racing Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller Mario Farnbacher 518 38 Laps
32 42 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 GTD NTE/SSR Don Yount Benja Hites Jaden Conwright Markus Palttala 517 39 Laps
33 19 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 GTD TR3 Racing Bill Sweedler John Megrue Giacomo Altoe Jeff Segal 516 40 Laps
34 01 Cadillac DPi DPi Cadillac Racing Renger van der Zande Sebastien Bourdais Scott Dixon Alex Palou 516 40 Laps
35 64 Porsche 911 GT3R GTD TeamTGM Ted Giovanis Hugh Plumb Matt Plumb Owen Trinkler 513 43 Laps
36 25 BMW M4 GT3 GTDPRO BMW M Team RLL Connor De Phillippi John Edwards Augusto Farfus Jesse Krohn 512 44 Laps
37 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD GTDPRO Corvette Racing Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nicky Catsburg   511 45 Laps
38 26 Duqueine D08 LMP3 Muehlner Motorsports America Nolan Siegel Cameron Shields CR Crews Ugo de Wilde 510 46 Laps
39 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 GTD Heart of Racing Team Roman De Angelis Ian James Darren Turner Tom Gamble 509 47 Laps
40 71 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 GTD T3 Motorsport North America Misha Goikhberg Franck Perera Mateo Llarena Maximilian Paul 506 50 Laps
41 69 ORECA LMP2 07 LMP2 G-Drive Racing By APR John Falb James Allen Luca Ghiotto Tijmen van der Helm 491 65 Laps
42 97 Mercedes-AMG GT3 GTDPRO WeatherTech Racing Cooper MacNeil Daniel Juncadella Maro Engel Jules Gounon 487 69 Laps
43 99 Porsche 911 GT3R GTD Team Hardpoint Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Stefan Wilson Nick Boulle 486 70 Laps
44 79 Porsche 911 GT3R GTDPRO WeatherTech Racing Cooper MacNeil Julien Andlauer Matteo Cairoli Alessio Picariello 484 72 Laps
45 24 BMW M4 GT3 GTDPRO BMW M Team RLL Philipp Eng Marco Wittmann Nick Yelloly Sheldon van der Linde 483 73 Laps
46 98 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 GTD Northwest AMR Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Charlie Eastwood Nicki Thiim 480 76 Laps
47 38 Ligier JS P320 LMP3 Performance Tech Motorsports Dan Goldburg Hikaru Abe Garett Grist Nico Pino 466 90 Laps
48 47 Ferrari 488 GT3 GTD Cetilar Racing Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco Alessio Rovera 465 91 Laps
49 4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD GTDPRO Corvette Racing Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Marco Sorensen   446 110 Laps
50 12 Lexus RC F GT3 GTD VasserSullivan Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand Townsend Bell 444 112 Laps
51 7 Duqueine D08 LMP3 Forty7 Motorsports Mark Kvamme Austin McCusker Trenton Estep Antoine Doquin 425 131 Laps
52 63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 GTDPRO TR3 Racing Rolf Ineichen Marco Mapelli Andrea Caldarelli Mirko Bortolotti 400 156 Laps
53 6 Duqueine D08 LMP3 Muehlner Motorsports America Efrin Castro Moritz Kranz Ayrton Ori Joel Miller 364 192 Laps
54 39 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 GTD CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Sandy Mitchell Jeff Westphal 349 207 Laps
55 20 ORECA LMP2 07 LMP2 High Class Racing Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer Nico Mueller 345 211 Laps
56 96 BMW M4 GT3 GTD Turner Motorsport Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan Jens Klingmann 280 276 Laps
57 59 McLaren 720S GT3 GTD Crucial Motorsports Lance Bergstein Jon Miller Patrick Gallagher Paul Holton 264 292 Laps
58 28 Mercedes-AMG GT3 GTD Alegra Motorsports Michael de Quesada Daniel Morad Linus Lundqvist Maximilian Goetz 181 375 Laps
59 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 GTDPRO Heart of Racing Team Ross Gunn Alex Riberas Maxime Martin   103 453 Laps
60 75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 GTD Sun Energy 1 Fabian Schiller Kenny Habul Luca Stolz Raffaele Marciello 101 455 Laps
61 34 Porsche 911 GT3R GTD GMG Racing Kyle Washington James Sofronas Jeroen Bleekemolen Klaus Bachler 88 468 Laps