By: Marshall Pruett 16 hours ago The start of Hour 9 saw a yellow flag fly for the stalled No. 47 Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan driven by Don Yount. Once the race returned to green, a rather uncomplicated stretch followed as both Acura Team Penske ARX-05s, with the No. 7 marginally ahead of the No. 6, held the overall lead at the end of the hour. Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R held third, albeit from a distance of 17 seconds.ResultsIn LMP2, DragonSpeed’s James Allen continued to set the pace, and in GT Le Mans, Risi Competizione led with its No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTE over the No. 66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT, which fell back by nearly 20 seconds, and the No. 4 Corvette Racing C7.R. The front-running No. 29 Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 entry was up front, and after pit stop rotations the No. 14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F and the No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 were elevated to the top two spots where they ran in lockstep.

By: J.J. O'Malley 18 hours ago Mazda’s fortunes took a double hit when problems struck both of the team’s DPis within a 15-minute span, possibly with the same problem.
First, the No. 55 slowed to a stop while running fifth in the International Horseshoe when Olivier Pla reported an explosion in the rear end. Pla managed to recycle the electronics, and went directly to the garage. The team diagnosed the problem as a fuel leak, which was repaired. Pla shortly returned to the race, three laps down.ResultsMoments later, at the 6h43m mark, Timo Bernhard stopped the second-place No. 77 — which two days earlier broke Daytona International Speedway’s 26-year-old IMSA lap record to claim the pole — past the entrance of the chicane with a fire in the engine compartment. He leaped from the car.“The car suddenly stopped working,” Bernhard said while the team worked feverishly to get the car back in action. However, the damage proved to be terminal. The Bernhard incident brought out the fifth full-course caution; last year’s race had only four full-course cautions.Moments before the No. 77 incident, Roberto Gonzalez spun in the second-place LMP2 Dragonspeed ORECA after contact with his class-leading sister car. He was able to continue without losing a position.The hour began with Pipo Derani leading after staying out at the six-hour mark to score Michelin Endurance Cup points. Derani pitted 10 minutes into the hour, falling to eighth. Kamui Kobayashi returned to the lead in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R, holding it for the remainder of the hour.With 17 hours remaining, former F1 pilots held the top three positions, with Kobayashi leading Rubens Barrichello in the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac and Juan Pablo Montoya in the No, 6 Team Penske Acura. Class leaders were LMP2, Ben Hanley in the No. 81 DragonSpeed ORECA; GTLM, Nick Tandy in the No. 911 Porsche; and GTD, Ian James in the No. 88 WRT Audi.

By: J.J. O'Malley 20 hours ago The No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi continued to dominate during the fifth hour of the Rolex 24. Fernando Alonso led 42 minutes prior to his pit stop, which saw Kamui Kobayashi retain the lead — despite a slide while exiting the pits on cold tires.At the end of the hour, Kobayashi led Tristan Nunez in the No. 77 Mazda by 13.474 seconds, followed by the Nos. 6 and 7 Team Penske Acuras driven by Simon Pagenaud and Alexander Rossi in his Rolex 24 debut. Eight of the 11 DPis were on the lead lap.ResultsSebastian Saavedra drove the DragonSpeed No. 18 ORECA to the top of LMP2, while the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari driven by Davide Rigon held the lead in GTLM and the No. 33 Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG of Felipe Fraga led GTD.The biggest moment came when Harry Tincknell spun the second-place No. 55 Mazda DPi in the International Horseshoe after light contact with the No. 57 Heinricher Acura NSX GT3 of Katherine Legge; the incident was reviewed but no action was taken. Both cars continued and the race continued under green, although Tincknell dropped to eighth and the Mazda lost a lap on its ensuing pit stop, when Jonathan Bomarito took over driving duties.

By: J.J. O'Malley | 21 hours ago
Fernando Alonso gave an indication of the form that took him to two F1 World Championships when he took over the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R during the fourth hour and charged into the lead of the 57th Rolex 24 At Daytona.Taking over from Jordan Taylor in fifth position, he passed Eric Curran in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac, Harry Tincknell in the No. 55 Mazda Team Joest DPi and Dane Cameron in the No. 6 Team Penske Acura to take second. Alonso then set his sights on the race-leading No. 7 Acura of Helio Castroneves. A terrific battle resulted, with Alonso taking the lead two laps later and leading for the remainder of the hour.Results“I had a great battle with Fernando, it was very comfortable, he gave me room,” Castroneves said after his stint. “He won Le Mans, he knows you don’t win the race now. But I was having fun.”Related

Zanardi's steering wheel switch causes trouble for No. 24 BMW

At the four-hour mark, Alonso was chased by Alexander Rossi in the No. 7 Acura, Tristan Nunez in the No. 77 Mazda and Tincknell.Class leaders were Matt McMurray, PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’s No. 52 in LMP2; the No. 911 Porsche of Frederic Makowiecki in GTLM; and Christopher Mies in the No. 29 Montaplast by Land Motorsport Audi in GTD.Christian Fittipaldi returned to the race in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac, but the car continues to have problems and is now 15 laps in arrears.The third full-course caution came at the 3h50m mark when the No. 50 Juncos Racing Cadillac DPi of Will Owen came to a stop at the entrance of the chicane.

By: J.J. O'Malley | January 26, 2019 3:48 PM
Alex Zanardi experienced both the ups and downs of the Rolex 24 during his opening stint in the No. 24 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE.“I really cared about it — I cared about it like it was my first race,” said Zanardi, who was not quite ready to give an impression of his time at the wheel when he met with the media after his first stint. “Keep that question in your pocket. Basically, I was [crapping] in my pants, pardon the expression. I felt like it was the very first race of my life. There was no time for enjoyment out there, no time to say ‘Wow — how lucky I am.’ It will come probably later in the race, but not after this one.”Zanardi had problems engaging his special steering wheel at the beginning of his stint, which delayed his pit exit by about a minute. Then, after turning competitive laps and getting back on the lead circuit, the car came to a stop with an apparent electrical problem seconds after Jesse Krohn took over.Zanardi thought he might not be able to drive again during the race if that problem continued. But when the team took the car back to the garage they diagnosed the problem: When Zanardi pushed his steering wheel in place on the column during the pit stop, the car was dropped off the air jacks, causing a jolt that damaged the column — something that had never occurred in testing. The team replaced the column. Zanardi said he had no problems with the steering wheel prior to the event. The custom wheel designed by BMW Motorsport has hand controls that enable him to accelerate and shift, while he has a special lever for braking.“That’s why I was devastated,” he said. “The engineers in Munich and over here prepared very meticulously, getting ready for every situations. The steering wheel is the brain of the car, it controls everything — my case on top. If the steering wheel is not interacting with the car, it won’t work. I’ve worked with it a thousand times, no problems. Here, on my first pit stop — I don’t know. Maybe, with all of my luck, I had to pay a little duty. But the race is not over, we will see.“When I jumped into the car, everything seemed to be OK. Then when I went to restart the car, it wasn’t working. The steering wheel wasn’t properly connected to the car. We went to the spare steering wheel, and it wasn’t working either. I was getting ready to jump out of the car, and have John Edwards get back in — that would have been the shortest stint of my life — but then magically everything was okay and I took off.”While he lost a lot of time, Zanardi credited his team for regaining all the time they lost on pit road and getting back on the lead lap.“The car was really good underneath me,” he said. “The pace was not bad, especially at the beginning, and as the race progressed I was feeling better and better and better. Then I gave up a little time to save some fuel. Things were looking good. The tire pressure came up a little bit too high near the end, but I just had to hang in there. The pit stop and driver change went smooth, but when Jesse took off, evidently he encountered some more electrical issues.“If we can solve the problem, we can go home and get something out of this event — I sincerely hope so — not only for myself but for the team, because everybody on the team worked so hard. So far, it’s been a fantastic experience. Even if it would end like this, I would certainly not regret dedicating a lot of time preparing for this event, rather than keeping the hammer down from my handcycling campaign to prepare for 2020. That can wait.”Zanardi was not sure if he would return for any additional races after Daytona, but he did not rule out a return behind the wheel.“How can I say no if somebody comes and asks me to do it again?” he said. “But I cannot forecast that. Every single driver in the BMW lineup — I’m shocked at how good they are. I met [co-driver] Chaz Mostert — man, how good that kid is! He jumped into the car Thursday night and was at speed on his first lap. It always took me about six laps. I’m very impressed by the level of the BMW drivers, so quite frankly, they do not need me. But if ever they want [me], why not?”

By: J.J. O'Malley January 26, 2019 12:52 PM
Running under the radar in the pre-race buildup, the Acura Team Penske cars were running 1-2 at the one-hour mark of the 57th Rolex 24 At Daytona. Juan Pablo Montoya in the No. 6 leads Ricky Taylor’s No. 7, followed by the No. 77 and No. 55 Mazdas, with the No. 5 Action Express Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque leading six Cadillacs and the lone Nissan.

Class leaders were: LMP2, No. 38 Kyle Masson; GTLM, No. 911 Nick Tandy; and GTD, No. 86 Trent Hindman.

Standings

Ryan Briscoe, running fourth in GTLM, took the No. 67 (Castrol livery) Ford GT to the garage at the 48-minute mark. Last year, the Chip Ganassi Racing Fords dominated the class with a 1-2 finish. Both Briscoe and the No. 912 Bamber are now several laps down in GTLM.

Jarvis led the opening 18 laps before his first pit stop. Felipe Nasr, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor then took turns at the lead before Montoya passed teammate Taylor to lead on Lap 22.

A few firsts:

First car to the garage — Alfred Renauer in the No. 99 NGT Motorsports 20 minutes into the race, reporting, “It’s undriveable.”

First car with bodywork damage — Roberto Gonzalez in the No. 18 DragonSpeed ORECA Gibson in the LMP2 class, also after 20 minutes.

First class contender to pit: Earl Bamber in the No. 912 Porsche at the 27-minute mark.

First overall contender to pit: Jonathan Bomarito in the No. 55 Mazda, at the 30-minute mark. Polesitter Jarvis pitted on the following lap.

While A.J. Allmendinger spent the opening hour in the NBC Sports booth, his car (the No. 86 Acura) led in GTD. This marks the 13th consecutive time that his car led the Rolex 24, although Allmendinger led all 12 of his starts.
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2019 IMSA Rolex 24 Race Start

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By: J.J. O'Malley | January 26, 2019 11:48 AM
Racing is under way at the 57th Rolex 24 At Daytona. Event
Grand Marshal Scott Pruett gave the familiar command to start the engine — prefaced with his signature, “Hi to my family back home.”Oliver Jarvis duly led the field to the green flag, two days after erasing P.J. Jones’ 26-year-old track record in winning the pole in the No. 77 Mazda DPi with a lap of 1m33.685s. Jarvis led the Penske Acuras of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ricky Taylor. No one won the race on the first lap; fortunately, no one threw it away, either, although half of the LMP2 field (the No. 52 of Gabriel Audry and the No. 38 of Kyle Masson) had side-to-side contact in the infield.The weather for the start was 56 degrees, very chilly and overcast, with an occasional sprinkle. It’s expected to be cloudy and cool for the remainder of the afternoon and overnight. Sunday could be very different, with precipitation possible as early as 7 a.m., and then picking up at 10 a.m. and continuing well past the checkered flag.