senor honda

The number 55 car powering out of a corner, shortly before the fire | James Derek Sapienza/ Autos Cheat Sheet

Despite getting back into the fray, the 70 car never quite regained its footing, retiring just 30 minutes before the flag due to lingering transmission issues. And while the attitude had changed in the Mazda tent, there was still a hell of a race going on. In the last few minutes, the number 5 and 10 Cadillacs were neck-and-neck. It didn’t matter that both cars were Cadillacs, the race was now number 10 (Wayne Taylor Racing) versus number 5 (Mustang Sampling Racing). While the prototypes were duking it out, the number 911 Porsche (get it?) was giving the number 66 Ford GT a serious run in the GTLM class. The Ford managed to pull away with a few laps left, just as the number 62 Ferrari began to catch up with the Porsche. After 24 hours and hundreds of laps, the race was decided in the last few seconds.
With just minutes to go, there was contact between the two Cadillacs, sending the number 5 car spinning. It was able to recover, but Wayne Taylor Racing hung on to take the checkered flag amid the protests of the Mustang Sampling team. Ford would hang on to win the GTLM class, the number 28 Porsche 911 GT3 R won the GTD class, and the number 38 Oreca won the PC class. In its first race, the Mazda RT24-P scored two DNFs.