The #5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP continues to lead the race after five hours as action got back underway from a lengthy red flag which had halted the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Following the incident which created the red flag and saw Memo Gidley and Matteo Malucelli reportedly transported to hospital, Christian Fittipaldi headed the field away to resume action and began building up a comfortable lead cushion.
Having claimed an advantage of over 15 seconds, the charge came from the #02 Chip Ganassi Riley of Tony Kanaan, the 2004 Indycar champion grabbing second from Wayne Taylor before closing the gap up front to almost five seconds.
The leaders all took time for their latest round of pit stops late in the hour, Oliver Webb moving up to third in the #42 Nissan Morgan of OAK Racing to demote Taylor’s #10 Corvette Daytona Prototype which dropped down to seventh as Max Angelelli took over.
Justin Wilson lies fourth for the #60 Michael Shank Racing Riley ahead of Spirit of Daytona’s #90 Corvette DP, with DTM champion Mike Rockenfeller behind the wheel.
While Colin Braun leads the PC class in the #54 CORE Autosport Oreca FLM09-Chevrolet, the real entertainment came from the GT machines.
Patrick Pilet held the early advantage but was quickly surpassed by both SRT Motorsport Vipers in the first 10 laps as Dominik Farnbacher took the GTLM class lead from the Frenchman’s #911 Porsche North America 911 RSR, Kuno Wittmer following his team-mate by into second with the #93 Viper entry.
The GTD class saw a fine scrap won by Jeff Segal on the hour with a series of quick laps in the Level 5 Motorsport Ferrari 458 to overhaul Mario Farnbacher’s Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche 911.
Drama continued at Corvette Racing as the #4 car of Robin Liddell was forced to pit with radiator problems to drop two laps down, while the Deltawing was also a visitor to the pits after a spin into the barriers at the Horseshoe chicane.
The hour ended under the safety car however, when the #09 Oreca FLM09 of Duncan Ende spun and halted at the side of the track.
2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona class standings after 5 hours
P
#5 Action Express Racing – Corvette DP – Barbosa/Fittipaldi/Bourdais/Frisselle
#02 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates – Riley-Ford – Dixon/Kanaan/Franchitti/Larson
#42 OAK Racing – Nissan Morgan – Pla/Rusinov/Yacaman/Webb
PC
#54 RSR Racing – ORECA FLM09 – Bennett/Gue/Braun/Mark Wilkins
#25 8Star Motorsport – ORECA FLM09 – Potolicchio/Kimber-Smith/Marsal/Huff
#7 Starworks Motorsport – ORECA FLM09 – Fuentes/Popow/Tutumlu/Marcelli/Kaffer
GTLM
#91 SRT Motorsports – SRT Viper – Goossens/Farnbacher/Hunter-Reay
#93 SRT Motorsports – SRT Viper – Bell/Bomarito/Wittmer
#911 Porsche North America – Porsche 911 – Tandy/Lietz/Pilet
GTD
#555 Level 5 Motorsport – Ferrari 458 – Ticker/Sweedler/Bell/Segal/Per Guidi
#22 Alex Job racing – Porsche 911 – MacNeil/Keen/Van Gisbergen/Lewis/Dumoulin
#58 Snow Racing – Porsche 911 – Snow/Heylen/Seefried
