There was late drama for some front running teams whose hopes of claiming a Rolex were dashed with less than three hours to go.
The first to hit problems, once the race had restarted, was Tommy Milner in the remaining Corvette Racing C7.R. Running in second in the GTLM class – chasing the Porsche #911. The car began smoking, the team immediately telling Milner to bring the car directly to garage. Thankfully the problem was not as terminal as was feared, the team able to diagnose a bearing failure in the transmission that could – with work – be replaced to return the car to the race.
Their issues elevated the #91 SRT Viper – long forgotten in the class battle after their problems on Saturday – to third in class behind the #911 Porsche and the #55 BMW.
More serious were the problems for the #7 Starworks Motorsport PC, running second in its class. With Kyle Marcelli at the wheel the rear of the car caught fire, the driver stopping the car on the back straight where fire marshals were able to extinguish the blaze, though not before his, and the rest of the Starworks Motorsport team’s, victory chances had gone up in smoke.
CORE Autosport continue to lead the class.
Despite fighting their own gremlins there were no further problems among the Prototype cars, Sebastian Bourdais, Jordan Taylor and John Martin each leading during a cycle of pitstops under the green flag, Taylor put back in the lead when Bourdais pitted the #5 Action Express Racing entry.
Spencer Pumpelly took the lead of the GTD class in the Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi, passing Level 5 Motorsports’ Townsend Bell as they moved up onto the banking in NASCAR turn one, though Bell used the Ferrari apparent straight line speed advantage to pull back alongside only to be forced on concede the position.
Mika Salo held third in class in the SMP/ESM co-op Ferrari.
2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona standings after 22 hours
P
#10 Wayne Taylor Racing – Corvette DP – W. Taylor/R. Taylor/J. Taylor/Angelelli
#5 Action Express Racing – Corvette DP – Barbosa/Fittipaldi/Bourdais/Frisselle
#9 Action Express Racing – Corvette DP – Frisselle/Frisselle/Martin/Giroux
PC
#54 CORE Autosport – ORECA FLM09 – Bennett/Gue/Braun/Wilkins
#25 8Star Motorsports – ORECA FLM09 – Potolicchio/Kimber-Smith/Marsal/Huff
#7 Starworks Motorsport – ORECA FLM09 – Popow/Fuentes/Tutumlu/Marcelli/Kaffer
GTLM
#911 Porsche North America – Porsche 911 – Tandy/Lietz/Pilet
#55 BMW Team RLL – Z4 GTE – Auberlen/Priaulx/Hand/Martin
#93 SRT Motorsports – SRT Viper – Bell/Bomarito/Wittmer
GTD
#45 Flying Lizard Racing – Audi R8 LMS – Canache Jr/Pumpelly/Pappas/Winkelhock
#555 Level 5 Motorsport – Ferrari 458 – Ticker/Sweedler/Bell/Segal/Per Guidi
#58 Snow Racing – Porsche 991 – Heylen/Snow/Seefried
