Grand Am Rolex 24: Fifteen Hours

With fiften hours gone, the Grand Am Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway was still a hotly contested race.

Justin Wilson in the 01 Ganassi BMW-Riley and Mike Rockenfeller in the Action Express Racing Porsche-Riley treated any late-night fans to a sixty-lap dice, racing like like the race was almost over. The pair lapped nose–to-tail for three dozen laps until Rockenfeller found a way by on lap 382. Wilson then chased Rockenfeller’s Porsche, staying a second behind, waiting for a chance to retake the lead.

While the two leaders battled, the rest of the field took on the characteristics of a classic endurance race. Drivers started focusing on making fast, consistent laps, conserving their cars, trying to make it to the end when the remaining teams would make a run for the checkered flag.

The teams know that racing for every tenth of a second doesn’t win endurance races. (Of course, it is tough to tell the drivers that.) It is important to keep the car alive so that in the final few hours, the drivers can make an all-out sprint for the win.

Rockenfeller brought his car into the pits and handed off to Ryan Dalziel on lap 407. Wilson followed him in and passed the car to Memo Rojas. Dalziel maintained a healthy lead over Rojas. The pair were the only cars on the lead lap, and Rojas seemed content to stay safely in second and concentrate on maneuvering through traffic.

On lap 440, Dalziel made an error and Rojas moved into the lead. AJ Allmendinger capitalized and moved the 06 Shank Racing Ford-Riley into second place. This put three cars on the lead lap.

On lap 446, Allmendinger brought the 06 Shank car in for Mark Patterson, letting Dalziel retake second place, but still well behind. The three leading cars were lapping within a few tenths of a second of each other and withing a few seconds of qualifying pace; they were letting up at all.

On lap 456, Rojas and Dalziel handed off to Max Papis and Joao Barboso. Barboso put the Action Express Porscghe back into the lead with Papis less than a second behind and Patterson three seconds behind that.
 
After fifteen hours of racing the top three cars were separated by less than five seconds

In GT Andrew Davis led the class in the Stevenson Canmaro, with Spencer Pumpelly’s TRG Porsche and Seth Niemann’s TRG/Flying Lizard Porsche a lap behind.