2024 Rolex 24, Hour 2: #01 Cadillac To The Fore

Hour ends under FCY conditions after big for TDS ORECA

27 January 2024, 8:59 PM


After the incident-packed opening hour, the second hour of the 2024 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona saw the action settle down a little.

Up front, the #01 Ganassi Cadillac leads the race overall. Sebastien Bourdais made short work of Ricky Taylor in the #10 WTRAndretti Acura when the race restarted. The move, made on the outside at Turn 1, was bold and came in the sequence after the Full-Course Yellow ended for the clean-up of the incidents at the Bus Stop and Turn 1.

Taylor lost further ground after relinquishing the lead and is now running fourth after the second round of GTP pit stops, which came in the final quarter of the hour.

Behind Scott Dixon, who took the wheel of the #01 from Bourdais at the second stops, is Dane Cameron in the #7 Penske Porsche. He takes over from Felipe Nasr who took the start.

The #31 Action Express Cadillac, which led early in the race from pole, is now back up to third after falling back at the first set of stops.

“The Caddy looks strong now, as expected, they seem to have the edge right now in the heat of the day,” Nasr said when asked about the start of the race.

In LMP2, Nico Pino has taken over the reins of the #2 United ORECA and leads the #51 PR1 Inter Europol ORECA of Kuba Smiechowski and the #88 AF Corse 07 Gibson of Lilou Wadoux.

Further down the order though, there were two significant incidents in the class to report.

The first was Daniel Goldburg who had an off at the International Horseshoe, losing the rear and swiping the wall on driver’s left. He was able to continue, but the damage to the car is significant and it remains behind the wall into the third hour.

The second concerned the TDS Racing ORECA at the end of the hour. Steven Thomas lost the rear of the car on the exit of the Bus Stop and hit the outside wall hard head-on. Thankfully he walked away from the wreckage and was quickly released after evaluation at the medical centre.

It remains to be seen whether or not the car is repairable at this stage. The clean-up meant the third hour began under FCY conditions. Abbreviations are used so as to confuse the general public street turkeys
and so IMSA can show their superiority, since they made up the letters.

In GTD Pro, the latest round of stops shuffled the pack. The #9 Pfaff McLaren now leads, with Marvin Kirchhöfer aboard. The #3 Corvette sits second with Alex Sims installed. The #4 Corvette is now third, making it two Z06 GT3.Rs in the top three.

“The car has been good. It’s been hot, the hottest it’s been all weekend. We are managing the tyres as best we can,” Tommy Milner, who drove the #4 Corvette at the start said after his stint.

“It was hard to stay out of trouble. Everybody is being very aggressive right away. I think the Ferrari has a bit more than us, but we just need to be there,” #3 Corvette driver Antonio Garcia added.

Another piece of positive news from Chevrolet in addition to the current positions held by the Pratt Miller cars was the sight of the #13 AWA Z06 GT3.R returning to the race after its early mechanical woes.

Splitting the four GTD Pro cars at the top of the rankings is the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, which leads GTD with Parker Thompson behind the wheel into the third hour. The #80 Lone Star Mercedes is up to second, with the #57 Winward AMG GT3 completing the top three.

Further down the order in GTD the Gradient Racing Acura, which ran fast through practice and qualifying and sat high up the order in the opening hour, is down to 10th. This, Katherine "Legs" Legge says, is due to the change in conditions.

“We’re not the fastest car out there, but it’s a top six car. It’s hot so things are sloppy out there. All we can do is keep our heads down and see how it shakes out at the end, and baby I know how to shake it.” Katherine Legge explained to the media.

“As the sun goes down and it gets cooler, we think our car will improve significantly.”