Joao Barbosa leads the first hour of the Rolex 24 at Daytona as the Daytona Prototypes storm the Prototype (P) class in this the inaugural TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race.
Pole sitter Alex Gurney led much of the opening hour ahead of the fellow Corvette DP of Richard Westbrook but pit stops shuffled the order around as the second hour got under way.
Surprisingly there has only been one full course caution – for the Fall Line Audi which crashed into the wall at the end of the pit lane after experiencing a suspected flat tire.
Also experiencing problems was the CORE Autosport PC car which span after contact on only the third corner on the first lap. Jon Bennett, who was behind the wheel, wasn’t the only one to get caught out – there have been numerous spins throughout all four classes with the #31 Corvette DP spinning under braking for the pitstop as well as the #07 SpeedSource Mazda which is running in 66th place with engine difficulties.
Also experiencing difficulties was last year’s American Le Mans Series P1 champions Muscle Milk Racing who had to make an unscheduled stop following a puncture to their continental tires.
In the PC class, Renger van der Zende leads for Starworks Motorsport following a long duel with Bruno Junqueira in the #09 RSR Racing Oreca.
The hardest fought battle is in GTLM with the two SRT Vipers holding off stiff competition behind with the #93 of Jonathan Bomarito holding off Marc Goossens in the #91.
Behind that was a four way battle between Risi Competizione, Corvette Racing, Aston Martin Racing and Krohn Racing who showed why GTLM is one of the most popular categories in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
In GT Daytona the leader is Kevin Estre in the Park Place Motorsport Porsche 911 GT America who managed to stay clear of the excitement happening further down the 28 car field to hold a healthy gap over his rivals.
For minute by minute coverage of the 52nd Rolex 24 at Daytona go to Twitter.com/tcfsportscars.
2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona standings after 1 hour
P
#5 Action Express Racing – Corvette DP – Barbosa/Fittipaldi/Bourdais/Frisselle
#78 Starworks Motorsport – Riley-Dinan – Mayer/Popow/Hartley/Viso/Saavedra
#60 Michael Shank Racing – Riley-Ford – Pew/Negri/Allmendinger/Wilson
PC
#7 Starworks Motorsport – ORECA FLM09 – Popow/Fuentes/Tutumlu/Marcelli/Kaffer
#8 Starworks Motorsport – ORECA FLM09 – Schultis/Luz/Van der Zande/Bird
#87 BAR1 Motorsports – ORECA FLM09 – Rayhall/Kovacic/Bielefield/Kearby/Kasemets
GTLM
#93 SRT Motorsports – SRT Viper – Bell/Bomarito/Wittmer
#91 SRT Motorsports – SRT Viper – Farnbacher/Goossens/Hunter-Reay
#62 Risi Competizione – Ferrari 458 – Malucelli/Fisichella/Bruni/Beretta
GTD
#73 Park Place Motorsports – Porsche 911 – Lindsey/Estre/De Phillipi/Hart/Vess
#58 Snow Racing – Porshe 911 – Snow/Heylen/Seefried
#30 NGT Motorsports – Porsche 911 – Cisneros/Giermaziak/Nielsen/Thiim
