Rolex 24 at Daytona race progress

With the Rolex 24 at Daytona already two-thirds run, we can bring you the latest Daytona race progress. Martin was out and about on Friday once again and reported some interesting pre-race activity which we will give you at the beginning of this report. The rest of the report will contain the latest material from the Porsche press desk.

How the Porsche 911 RSRs fared at the start

Both Porsche 911 RSR cars took off into the Daytona 24-hour race without any problems, but faced strong opposition in the traditionally cutthroat GTLM class. To recap, the #912 Porsche of Vanthoor/Bamber/Bruni started in third position in class with the #911 car of Pilet/Tandy/Makowiecki in fourth.

Here is an hour-by-hour record of how the Porsches in both the GTLM and GTD classes have been doing:

Hour 1

For Wright Motorsports, their day was almost over before the race even began. During the pre-race formation laps, Robert Renauer in the #58 Porsche 911 GT3 R left the track in Turn 5, making heavy contact with the wall, causing significant damage to the left front. This brought the car back into the garage before the green flag was even waved to start the race. The team were strong favourites to finish on the podium with works driver Patrick Long in the seat together with two-time and defending GTD champion Christina Nielsen and Mathieu Jaminet. The car eventually made its way out to the track but it remains last in the standings, although the #58 Porsche was posting very respectable lap times.

Hour 2

Hour 3

Hour 4

Hour 5

Hour 6

Hour 7

Hour 8

Hour 9

Hour 10

Hour 11

The latest weather report is that it should stay dry through to the end of the race, so perhaps that variable may have been parked for now.

Written & edited by:Glen Smale & Martin Raffauf 
Images: Martin Raffauf & Porsche Motorsport