If you were expecting things to go easy as the night wore on, you were laughably mistaken. Just 15 minutes after the ninth safety car, another Prototype Challenge car pirouettes in the International Horseshoe calling for yet another full-course yellow. As soon as that mess is cleaned up, we see the race leader drive straight off the track and stop in the middle of the infield leaving a nice slick trail of oil in its wake. It looked like the fastest car on track was down for the count. It would later be confirmed that the engine was gone, and they were out of the race.
The action continues elsewhere in the field, as the sheer quantity of safety car periods has allowed some of the back field racers like Mazda’s #55 prototype to make up all the laps it had lost with its ECU change.
Just 15 minutes after the last safety car, it becomes known that the current race leader, Honda powered #2 Ligier was being forced to serve a stop and hold penalty for a pit lane issue, pushing the #5 Corvette Protoype into the lead. Yes, the same car that spun twice this race found itself sitting in the top spot.
In the GTLM class, things are as close as ever. Just before 1 AM, the race commentators made note that less than three seconds split the top seven cars, with Corvette and Porsche battling for the lead. A few minutes later, we get a major development in the GTD class.
The two leading cars, a pair of Lamborghinis, plow into each other. The #48 car had been dominating, with the #16 car always close behind. While coming out of the tri-oval, they made contact and the damage was serious. #16 was able to limp away with minor damage, but the leading #48 car looked to be pretty dramatically damaged. In the midst of the mess, the #22 Porsche slipped past to take the lead.
This wreck causes more chaos through the rest of the field as it brings out the 12th safety car of the race, and Mazda’s prototype suffers a puncture from the debris. As the green flag drops, drivers try to take advantage of the bunched field. Porsche’s factory-backed #911 finds itself at the front of the GTLM pack.
Sadly, we only make it another 20 minutes before the arrival of another safety car. This one is more bad news for Mazda; the car stops suddenly on the side of the track and the driver scrambles out. There is a fire. With this retirement, there is only one LMP-2 based prototype left on the track with any chance of racing success.
Just before 230 am we get another safety car, the 14th, as one of the Daytona Prototypes spins and stalls. The 15th safety car arrives just after 3am as BMW’s #100 M6 suffers a pretty massive shunt off the track. Huge damage can be seen including completely ripping one of the wheels off. Thankfully Lucas Luhr, the driver at the time, was able to climb out of the car, seemingly unhurt.
Then, again just 20 minutes later, we have another stalled car on track, and our 16th safety car period.
As the flags go green again, we have the cars all trying to take advantage of the bunched field, and that causes even more issues in GTLM. One of the new Ferrari 488 GTE cars tries to make a move on the #3 Corvette and there is contact. The C7.R spins, but manages to get back on track without too much issue, but the 488 seemed to be having a lot more trouble in the corners.
From there we got almost a full hour of racing without major incident, but you knew that wouldn’t last long. Suddenly, and without any real signs of trouble, the #52 Prototype Challenge car heads behind the wall to the garage for work. A few moments later we have another PC car issue as the BAR #20 car spins off again. No safety cars are called and every gets back to racing quickly, but then one of the Lamborghinis make contact with the #007 Aston Martin, sending it into a spin and causing it to stall on track.
Thankfully it would be another 2 hours before we saw another safety car, but that didn’t stop teams from trying to cause trouble. During a pit stop, the #31 Corvette has trouble and the fuel filler ignites, setting the tube, car and pitman on fire. Thankfully the situation was handled quickly and no major injuries were reported. It will result in lost time for the team though.
In the Prototype Challenge class, there is basically only one car still racing as the #85 entry has a near 20-lap lead over its next closest class mate. Unfortunately a small crash sends it diving into the pits for repairs where it sees that lead cut to just 9 laps.
It’s just before 7 am and the sky is brightening. Ford’s #67 GT, a car that had been running well through the night after the issues it suffered yesterday afternoon, comes rolling to a stop in the middle of the track, bringing out the safety car for a 17th time.
As the sun rises, the racing is only get to get even better. We will back later to give you guys an update before the race finishes.
Additional photography by Taylor Steger
