Ricky Taylor in the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac grabbed the lead in the 18th hour of the Rolex 24 At Daytona as the rain finally eased but didn’t stop.
Taylor deprived the #5 Mustang Sampling Racing of Filipe Albuquerque of the lead into the bus stop chicane and proceeded to pull away.
However both of them were reeled in by Renger van der Zande in the #90 VisitFlorida Racing Riley P2.
The Dutchman disposed of Albuquerque but his attempts to catch Taylor were dashed when he received a drive-thru penalty for driving through the bus stop chicane.
According to van der Zande’s crew chief, the Dutchman forgot about it, which may explained the time gained.
By the end of the hour, the Riley was a lap down on the two Cadillacs.
In PC #38 Performance Tech Motorsports continued it’s untroubled race out front, while their rivals encountered more problems.
The second place PC car #20 BAR1 Motorsports piloted by former Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice went into the garage for rear bodywork repairs and did not reappear for the hour.
The car is still classified in third.
His team-mate David Cheng took his place, but lost the entire front bodywork bringing out another safety car and sending the #26 car to the pits.
The #8 Starworks of Ben Keating car had its third trip into the barriers when Ben Keating spun on the exit of turn 2. The #8 is currently 5th in PC class
In GTLM Porsche still leads with the #911 of Patrick Pilet in front, despite going straight on at turn one and only just avoiding the wall.
Giancarlo Fisichella in the #62 Ferrari lost second in GTLM to Sebastien Bourdais in the #66 Ford after being slowed by a near miss with #29 GTD Audi.
Fisichella then dropped back down to fifth as Jan Magnusson #3 Corvette and Laurens Vanthoor #912 Porsche passed him.
Michael Shank Racing‘s brand new Acura NSXs continued to dominate GTD with a 1-2 with Ryan Hunter-Reay leading Graham Rahal.
The podium was rounded out by the #57 Stevenson Audi of Matt Bell.
Top 3 after 18 Hours
P
10 Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta – Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor, Max Angelelli, Jeff Gordon
5 Mustang Sampling Racing – Joao Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque, Christian Fittipaldi
90 VisitFlorida Racing – Marc Goossens, Renger van der Zande, Rene Rast
PC
38 Performance Tech Motorsports – James French, Patricio O’Ward, Kyle Masson, Nicholas Boulle
26 BAR1 Motorsports – Tom Papadopoulos, Johnny Mowlem, Adam Merzon, Trent Hindman, David Cheng
20 BAR1 Motorsports – Don Yount, Buddy Rice, Mark Kvamme, Chapman Ducote,Gustavo Yacaman
GTLM
911 Porsche GT Team – Patrick Pilet, Dirk Werner, Fredoric Makowiecki
66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing – Dirk Mueller, Joey Hand, Sebastien Bourdais
3 Corvette Racing – Jan Magnusson, Antonio Garcia, Mike Rockenfeller
GTD
86 Michael Shank Racing – Oswaldo Negri Jr, Jeff Segal, Tom Dyer, Ryan Hunter-Reay
93 Michael Shank Racing – Mark Wilkins, Andy Lally, Katherine Legge, Graham Rahal
57 Stevenson Motorsport – Robin Liddell, Lawson Aschenbach, Andrew Davis, Matt Bell