In 55th Rolex 24 At Daytona

Porsche, Acura Lead GT Classes; Performance Tech Perfect In PCThe No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DPi-V.R, which has run inside the top three throughout the 55th Rolex 24 At Daytona, held the lead after three Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup segments.The No. 10 Cadillac – which is being co-driven by Jordan and Ricky Taylor, Max Angelelli and retired NASCAR star Jeff Gordon – had a total of 13 Patrón Endurance Cup points at the 18-hour mark to take a one-point lead over the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, the team that has won all three previous Patrón Endurance Cups in the Prototype class.Patrón Endurance Cup points in the Rolex 24 are awarded at six-hour intervals with five points for the leader at the end of the segment, four points for second place, three points for third and two points for every car running from fourth place on. Angelelli led Marc Goossens in the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Multimatic/Riley LM P2 after 18 hours, with Filipe Albuquerque in third aboard the No. 5 Cadillac.The No. 911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR shared by Patrick Pilet, Dirk Werner and Frederic Makowiecki led the GT Le Mans (GTLM) Patrón Endurance Cup points at 18 hours. The No. 911 team had a total of 14 points, including the maximum five for leading at the 18-hour mark with Makowiecki at the wheel. The No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Dirk Mueller, Joey Hand and Sebastien Bourdais was second in both the Patrón Endurance Cup standings (with 11 points) and the GTLM running order in the race.The No. 86 Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura NSX GT3 shared by Jeff Segal, Ozz Negri, Tom Dyer and Ryan Hunter-Reay parlayed the 12- and 18-hour GT Daytona (GTD) race lead into the Patrón Endurance Cup lead as well. The No. 86 team leads with 12 points, with the No. 50 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 team second with nine points. Segal was leading the race after 18 hours in the new Acura.In Prototype Challenge, the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA FLM09 team of James French, Patricio O’Ward, Kyle Masson and Nick Boulle had a perfect score of 15 points toward the Patrón Endurance Cup as the class leader in all three segments. O’Ward, a 17-year-old from Mexico, was at the wheel at 18 hours.View full results via Al Kamel Systems at Results.IMSA.com.NOTEBOOKCold and rainy conditions led to a lengthy full-course caution period during the third quarter of the race. The race was run behind the safety car from the 14:48 mark until restarting at 16:25.The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R co-driven by Eric Curran, Dane Cameron, Seb Morris and Mike Conway was among the Prototype class front runners through 12 hours, but endured a lengthy stay in the garage shortly thereafter. The car has battled transmission, bearing and electrical issues at different points in the race.The No. 68 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT team of Stefan Mucke, Olivier Pla and Billy Johnson was a top-three runner until 16-and-a-half hours, when it plummeted down the GTLM running order. The team battled visibility issues and also encountered multiple penalties which dropped the No. 68 off the lead lap.The No. 50 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 shared by Cooper MacNeil, Gunnar Jeannette, Thomas Jaeger and Shane van Gisbergen was a strong performer in a stacked GTD class through halfway. Just shy of the 14-hour mark, however, MacNeil was involved in an incident in Turn 3 that sent the car to the garage.The Rolex 24 At Daytona is currently airing live on FS2. Television coverage will switch to FS1 at 1 p.m. through the race finish.