Rolex 24 time stamp: GTPs become center of attention heading into Sunday's sprint to finish
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Now that the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona has passed into Sunday morning, the race begins to shy away from its typical endurance viewpoint to more of a sprint to the finish as teams look to stay on track and be in a good position to have a shot at winning in their respective classes.
The wee morning hours were cluttered with GTP drama that began during the evening, with Acura and BMW especially running into problems with both of their entries on the grid.
The #10 Acura for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti became the first domino to fall, dealing with an electric problem that resulted in lengthy work on the car in the team’s paddock.
This resulted from an incident the team had when the car got stuck on the exit of the international horseshoe, getting a tow back to the pits.
This practically put the #10 out of contention for not only a class win but also an overall win, being down well over 50 laps in the race and taking away one of Wayne’s chances to get another Rolex watch.
Things wouldn’t get better for the three-car tandem, with the #40 WTR Acura, which is one of the new additions to the team, stalling out heading into NASCAR Turn 1, and the #45 GTD Lamborghini for the team needing to go to the paddock as well for work on the car.
All three cars would have off-and-on troubles throughout the night, adding to what has been a soiled weekend for the new era of WTR.
The BMWs would also have their fair share of issues working through the morning hours, seeing both the #24 and #25 RLL BMWs needing service at different points in the paddock, including the #24 stopped near Turn 2.
Good morning, sunshine! As the sun begins to rise, so too are the temperatures and tempers as cars pilot toward this afternoon's finish of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Photo: Logan Butler for AutoRacingDigest.com.
In GTP, it really has been the battle of Porsche vs. Cadillac.
However, Cadillac would go down in strength in numbers on an electrical problem that came from one of the strongest teams of the weekend, the #01 Cadillac Racing Chip Ganassi entry.
The car would be attempted to be worked on by the team, but the group felt that there was no way the car could go back out on track.
Other notable incidents include the #66 Gradient Racing and the #14 Vasser Sullivan retiring from the race in both GTD and GTD Pro, potentially being class-winning contenders heading into the weekend given their performances coming out of last weekend's Roar Before the 24 and the practices.
The #99 “Spike” LMP2 for AO Racing had a bit of an issue that brought out a caution later in the morning entering the international horseshoe, but the big note is the aggressiveness coming out of that Full Course Yellow.
Seeing three wide at points going back to green, the battle for GTP got intense, even with over 7.5 hours left in the race.
Although there is time, there really isn’t.
With the clock crunching, the decisions and situations that will take place going forward will play a huge part in the outcome of the rest of the Rolex 24, which is due to conclude around 1:40 p.m. ET..