DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Closing in on the finish of the 58th annual Rolex 24 at Daytona, a pair of Cadillacs headed the field with four hours remaining late Sunday morning.
Leading the charge was Joao Barbosa in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R for JDC-Miller Motorsports, in part due to a penalty that dropped Wayne Taylor Racing from command.
During the fourth full-course yellow of the 24-hour grind, which waved at lap 637 and ended the longest green-flag sting in Rolex 24 history, Briscoe blew the red lights at the end of the pit lane in his run back out on to the race track.
That led to a stop-and-hold plus 60-second penalty for the No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R which dropped Briscoe from leading the overall race to fourth and a lap down, behind Barbosa and the pair of Mazdas piloted by Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis.
But Briscoe rallied back, running his way back to the lead lap thanks to a timely caution and placing himself second at the 20-hour benchmark, just 3.261 seconds adrift of the lead.
Tincknell and the No. 55 Mazda completed the top three overall and was the final car on the lead lap with four hours of track time remaining in the twice-around-the-clock classic.
Harrison Newey and Dragonspeed retained a 14.7-second lead over Simon Trummer and PR1/Mathiasen in the LMP2 class through 20 hours, sitting eighth and ninth overall.
An intense battle in GT Le Mans saw Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 912 Porsche North America entry holding a narrow lead over Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s No. 24 BMW M8 GTE of John Edwards with 20 hours down, with five cars covered by less than five seconds in class.
Nicky Catsburg ran fourth, 1.274 seconds back of the lead pair, for Corvette Racing at that stage, making for three different manufacturers in the top four with four hours to go.
And in GT Daytona, the No. 48 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 from Paul Miller Racing continued to dominate the proceedings, with Corey Lewis behind the wheel at the end of the 20th hour.