The GTLM battle of the brands was stepping into high gear after 18 hours of the Rolex 24 at Daytona with three different marques filling the top three spots at the 3/4 race distance mark.
The new Porsche continued to be a strong contender through the night in wet conditions with the No.911 Porsche of Patrick Pilet, Dirk Werner and Fred Makowiecki holding the top spot.
Joey Hand, Dirk Mueller and Sebastian Bourdais’s Ford was in second place ahead of the leading Corvette of Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia and Mike Rockenfeller.
Five cars remained on the lead lap as the clock clicked past 8:30am. The weather began to ease as we headed into the final quarter of the race with teams starting to consider wet tires.
Other class leaders included the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac in Prototype, Performance Tech Motorsports in PC and a stunning performance from the Michael Shank Racing Acura squad which was running 1-2 on their race debut.
//imsa.alkamelsystems.com/Results/17_2017/02_Daytona%20International%20Speedway/01_IMSA%20WeatherTech%20SportsCar%20Championship/201701281430_Race/Hour%2018/05_ClassificationByClass_Race.PDF
The post 18 hour mark: Rolex 24 at Daytona appeared first on Michelin Racing USA.