With Sebastien Bourdais taking the lead simply after the second hour started, he held the No. 31 Cadillac V-Sequence.R of Pipo Derani inside 0.7-1.5s of a spot.
Vasser Sullivan’s Jack Hawksworth pitted from the GTD Professional lead 5 minutes into the second hour with a difficulty, which was compounded by a drive-through penalty after making contact with a crew member whereas making an attempt to depart the pitbox. Presently, Alexander Sims, driving Pratt Miller Motorsports’ No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R, assumed the category lead.
At roughly 35 minutes into the second hour, AF Corse’s No. 88 ORECA LMP2 07 of Luis Perez Companc had a significant off on the exit of Flip 1 and dropped his right-side wheels over the curbing and into the filth. From there, the off induced him to chop again throughout the monitor, side-slapping the within wall with the suitable entrance and proper rear of the automotive. He was in a position to proceed on, slowly, earlier than attending to again to the pits for repairs.
Moments later, Madison Snow, driving Paul Miller Racing’s No. 1 BMW M4 GT3, was in a position to lastly catch – and cross – Alexander Sims to take the lead in GTD Professional.
Bourdais pitted with 13 minutes remaining within the second hour, handing over to six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon.
“Pipo was type of holding us in a tempo that was pretty comfy,” Bourdais stated of his stint.
“I felt I had slightly bit extra grip to make use of within the stint and once I had the possibility to get by I did and felt it was fairly good. The 01 Cadillac is fairly robust and Cadillac usually, so hopefully it holds true the entire time.
“We’re in a little bit of a wait-and-see section of the monitor, however you continue to wish to be in place. We’ll should double stint a pair units of tires, which we’ve already finished. Early going, however to this point so good.”
Derani got here within the following lap and handed over to Aitken. The stress was on as Aitken appeared to fend off Dixon, nevertheless it was solely briefly as they speared side-by-side via Turns 5-11 earlier than making slight contact as Dixon managed to place the Chip Ganassi Racing-prepared Cadillac again into the lead.
The race’s second warning got here out with roughly seven minutes left within the second hour after the No. 8 LMP2 machine for Tower Motorsports, pushed by Michael Dinan, tried to get round site visitors and dropped the left-side wheels into the filth approaching Flip 13, which resulted in him dropping management and slamming into the tire boundaries.
The race resumed eight minutes into the beginning of hour three, with Dixon main Aitken and Brendon Hartley, who took over Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Acura ARX-06.
The race started to settle right into a groove as Dixon stretched his lead out over Aitken. In the meantime, Matthew Brabham had AO Racing’s machine out entrance in LMP2 over Period Motorsport’s Ryan Dalziel. The No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 for Winward Racing, with Russell Ward behind the wheel, led GTD, whereas Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Christopher Mies was out entrance in GTD Professional.
A 3rd full course warning got here out with 13 minutes of the hour remaining after one other off in Flip 7 by AF Corse’s No. 88, which ended with Lilou Wadoux, who took over from Companc, getting out of the LMP2 entry.
Via the following sequence of pitstops, Aitken was in a position to vault Dixon however the two got here out behind the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 of Dane Cameron.
On the restart – which got here eight minutes after the conclusion of the third hour – Cameron took a large line getting into Flip 1, which left the door open for Aitken to push alongside. Nevertheless, Cameron was in a position to fend off the transfer and settle into the lead.
#7 Group Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr, Matt Campbell
Picture by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
Roughly 13 minutes later, although, Aitken surged by Cameron with an inside cross via Flip 17. Then, because the GTP class got here up on site visitors a couple of minutes later, it allowed Dixon the possibility to drag an analogous transfer to say second and push Cameron down to 3rd.
The No. 18 Period Motorsport machine, with Dwight Merriman taking on from Dalziel, went off target and stalled a number of occasions in Flip 7, dropping useful time earlier than persevering with.
The race started to as soon as once more discover a rhythm as Aitken established a stout lead of 4.3s over Dixon. TDS Racing’s Mikkel Jensen had a stout 28s lead over DragonSpeed’s Rasmus Lindh in LMP2.
The tightest battle on monitor is in GTD Professional, with Neil Verhagen (Paul Miller Racing) and Antonio Garcia (Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports) working lower than half a second aside.
Indy Dontje, who took over for Ward in Winward Racing’s Mercedes, holds a 3s benefit in GTD over Aaron Telitz within the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.
With quarter-hour remaining till the four-hour mark, Cameron dove to pit lane for service, which propelled Richard Westbrook, driving the No. 85 Porsche 963 for JDC-Miller MotorSports, to 3rd.
Tom Dillmann was in a position to transfer as much as second in LMP2 and solely 5s behind Jensen following pitstops, with Lindh falling to 3rd.
A fourth full course yellow was introduced out on the shut of the hour after a number of incidents in separate elements of the monitor. The No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsports LMP2 entry pushed by Lance Willsey locked up in Flip 16 and stalled offline. On the similar time, Lone Star Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Salih Yoluc behind the wheel was left stranded by the tire boundaries in Flip 13.
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