24 Hours of Daytona: H6 – Cadillac takes control

The first six hours of the 58th edition of the 24 Hours of Daytona were relatively calm, with only one yellow flag waved following a collision between the #47 Lamborghini and theAston Martin n ° 23.

On the track, the No. 77 Mazda of Jarvis-Pla-Nunez dominated its field, confirming its pole position. But as night fell on Florida, the Cadillacs reared their heads at the top of the hierarchy. We've just finished the first six hours and the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing DPi-VR is leading the way thanks to Briscoe-Dixon-Van der Zande-Kobayashi. Another Cadillac follows, the No. 31 of Action Express Racing from Conway-Albuquerque-Derani-Nasr, barely delayed by an unplanned passage through the pit lane after a piece of debris got stuck in an air intake.

The top three is completed by simon pagenaud, currently behind the wheel of the No. 05 Acura ARX-6 he shares with Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron. The Frenchman precedes Oliver Jarvis (Mazda n°77) and Joao Barbosa (Cadillac n°5), who teams up with Sébastien Bourdais et Loïc duval.

In GTLM, both Porsche and the No. 3 Corvette livened up the start of the race, but the American was the victim of a gear change problem which caused it to fall back into line. The 911 RSR-19s seemed to have the situation under control, but the #24 BMW of Krohn-Edwards-Mostert-Farfus took the lead. The sister car, delayed by a stubborn nut, was then taken back to its garage to resolve what appears to be an electrical problem.

The two Porsches complete the top three ahead of the best C8.R, the No. 4 of Milner-Gavin-Fässler and the Ferrari 488 GTE n°62 from Risi Competizione. Note that the first six in the category are grouped into a handful of seconds.

Gabriel Aubry (Oreca 07 n°52 / PR1-Mathiasen Motorsports) leads the LM P2 ahead of Nicolas lapierre (Oreca 07 n°8 / Starworks Motorsport) and Harrison Newey (Oreca 07 n°81 / DragonSpeed).

Finally, in GTD, two Lamborghinis are in the lead, the no. 48 of Paul Miller Racing (Sellers-Snow-Caldarelli-Lewis) ahead of the no. 44 of GRT Magnus (Mapelli-Potter-Lally-Pumpelly).

If only one retirement is to be noted – that of the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage of the Heart of Racing Team – several cars have already bid farewell to victory, namely the No. 05 Acura ARX-7 of Team Penske ( victim of contact with the wall following a collision with the #55 Mazda), the #98 Aston Martin Vantage of Aston Martin Racing and the #3 Lamborghini Huracan GT11 of the Grasser Racing Team on board of which is notably registered Frenchman Franck Perera.