DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The 60th Rolex 24 officially reached the halfway point early Sunday morning, with Richard Westbrook and JDC Miller MotorSports leading the way at Daytona International Speedway.
The No. 5 JDC Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi with Westbrook at the helm moved into the lead thanks to some bad luck from three other DPi entries.
Bad luck first struck Helio Castroneves and the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura DPi. Castroneves, who at the time was in the middle of a battle with the No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing entry of Earl Bamber for the race lead, was busted for speeding on pit road.
The subsequent penalty dropped Castroneves out of the race lead, but bad luck soon struck the No. 02 Ganassi entry. Bamber handed the car over to Marcus Ericsson, who made contact with the No. 31 Cadillac DPi of Tristan Nunez in the infield horseshoe.
Both cars spun as a result of the contact, with stewards penalizing Ericsson with a drive through penalty for causing the contact. That elevated Wayne Taylor Racing and Alexander Rossi into the lead, albeit briefly.
A caution flag soon waved for a car stopped in the infield. During the caution period Wayne Taylor Racing opted to bring Rossi into the pits and put Filipe Albuquerque in the car in order to address radio issues Rossi was reporting.
That handed the lead to the JDC Miller MotorSports and Westbrook, who survived a brief challenge from Mike Rockenfeller during a restart five minutes before the halfway point in the race to retain the lead.
Mikkel Jensen and PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports were scored the leaders in the LMP2 division at the halfway mark, with Kay van Berlo keeping the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 in the lead in LMP3.
WeatherTech Racing’s No. 97 Mercedes-AMG GT3 was the top running car in GTD PRO with Maro Engel behind the wheel at halfway. The No. 2 Porsche driven by Alexandre Imperatori for KCMG was scored second.
Lastly, in GT Daytona, Ollie Millroy in the No. 70 McLaren 72s GT3 for Inception Racing moved into the race lead just before halfway. Richard Leitz, piloting the No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3R for Wright Motorsports, ran behind Millroy in second.