Brumos Racing continue to swap the GT class with Magnus Racing (Photo Credit: Grand-Am)
In contrast to much of the Michael Shank Racing's no.60 car is now the target for those chasing after Justin Wilson took the lead following the most recent safety car period.
After getting within a few second of the Englishman's car having trailed by as far as ten seconds Lucas Luhr pitted for what must be the Starworks crews final front brake pad change of the race. The longer stop allowed the no.01 Ganassi BMW Riley into second.
The Target and Telmex backed Riley-BMW of defending champions Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Graham Rahal and Joey Hand has been a quiet by constant presence in the overall top five, but with first Rahal, then Hand at the wheel the car has broken into a top two it hasn't reached since Saturday evening.
At the end of the hour 25 seconds divided hand from Wilson with Luhr on the very tail of the lead lap. Felipe Nasr was fourth in the other Michael Shank Racing entry.
The GT race once more has become a private battle between the Brumos Racing and Magnus Racing Porsches.
On schedule Andy Lally pitted the no.44 Magnus entry surrendering the lead to Marc Lieb, who in turn pitted only minutes later restoring the previous order as both men added another stint to their Rolex 24 workload.
The end of the hour promised a potential repeat of the scintillating lead battle of previous hours, Lieb closing to withing two seconds of Lally. The no.67 TRG Porsche was the third and final GT running on the class lead lap – though only just, the no.57 Stevenson Motorsport Camaro the first car off the lead lap.
50th Rolex 24 at Daytona DP class standings after Hour 17
1. #60 Michael Shank Racing – Allmendinger/Negri/Pew/Wilson
2. #01 Chip Ganassi Racing – Hand/Pruett/Rahal/Rojas
3. #8 Starworks Motorsport – Dalziel/Luhr/McNish/Popow/Potolicchio
4. #6 Michael Shank Racing – Goncalves/McDowell/Nasr/Yacaman
5. #5 Action Express Racing – Donahue/Fittipladi/Law
50th Rolex 24 at Daytona GT class standings after Hour 17
1. #44 Magnus Racing – Lally/Lietz/Potter/Rast
2. #59 Brumos Racing – Davis/Haywwod/Keen/Lieb
3. #67 TRG – Bertheau/Bleekemolen/Goossens/Henzler/Pumpelly
4. #57 Stevenson Motorsport – Bremer/Edwards/Liddell
5. #23 Alex Job Racing – Collard/Holzer/Leitzinger/MacNeill
