IMSA Rolex 24 Hour 17: Penske Porsches pulling away out front
Kevin Estre still leads a Porsche Penske Motorsport 1-2 juggernaut of the 63rd running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
–by Mark Cipolloni–
Estre did make a slight error that put the #7 Porsche 963 of Nasr ahead for a while, but now the #6 Porsche is back in front of the #7 Porsche. The Penske Porsches were sandbagging at last weekend’s Roar Before The 24, but now they are dominating having outfoxed the IMSA officials.
The #24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 has passed the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 for third place.
#8 Tower Motorsports leads LMP2 once again over CrowdStrike Racing by APR. Toby Sowery ran out of talent and spun on cold tires in turn one, putting the team further behind the No.8 Tower ORECA.
Christian Rasmussen in the No.99 AO Racing car is third ahead of Paul di Resta in the No.22 United Autosports USA car.
Rexy and AO Racing continue to lead GTD PRO. In second is the #65 Ford Multimatic Mustang GT3 of Dennis Olsen, some 15 seconds behind.
Madison Snow in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO is third, Antonio Garcia in the #3 Pratt Miller Corvette is fourth.
Luca Stolz and Albert Costa run in fifth and sixth for Mercedes-AMG and Ferrari respectively.
GTD should be led by Winward Racing’s #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 but a drive-through penalty for leaving a tire unattended in the pits has taken away Lucas Auer’s advantage.
This has put Elliott Skeer back in the lead for Wright Motorsports in the #120 Porsche, ahead of the Mercedes of Ralf Aron (#80) and Maximilian Götz (#32), with the #13 AWA Corvette of Matt Bell in fourth.
