The sixty fourth Rolex 24 at Daytona was interrupted by an unprecedented climate maintain. Dense fog compelled race management to run a full-course yellow (FCY) for six hours, 33 minutes, and 25 seconds, a document within the occasion’s historical past.
The maintain started shortly earlier than the race handed midway and left the sector circulating slowly for roughly 120 laps, as marshals waited for visibility to return earlier than restarting the race. The fog rolled in regularly through the evening, thickening across the infield and backstretch areas earlier than absolutely enveloping the circuit. Daytona’s lengthy, low-lying format means fog can arrive shortly and regionally.
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The FCY was safety-driven. Marshals and spotters couldn’t reliably see in a number of locations across the 3.56-mile street course, and the organizers handled the prolonged warning because the most secure strategy to protect working guidelines and driver drive-time limits.
Drivers and crew chiefs expressed frustration however accepted the need of the decision. No. 1 Paul Miller Racing driver Neil Verhagen, who led on the six-hour mark in GTD PRO, stated (through IMSA):
“I had gathered from the spotters that you just’re beginning to lose visibility. Clearly, that’s not perfect as we depend on them fairly a bit round right here, however they’ve been doing an exceptional job simply to maintain us as knowledgeable as doable. It’s actually simply on the again straight, the place they stated that they actually lose the visibility, whereas within the infield part, the place issues are somewhat bit lighter and somewhat bit extra turnkey, they will stil see.”
Three main components mixed to make it a record-length warning. Firstly, the fog was widespread and protracted quite than localized. There was no apparent hall of safer visibility to take advantage of. Furthermore, Rolex 24 at Daytona’s marshals and race management elected to maintain the sector transferring underneath FCY to protect IMSA’s drive-time guidelines and crew stint calculations.
Pink flags would have required totally different time-of-day and driver-time accounting. Thirdly, race officers stated repeatedly that they might not threat a inexperienced restart till the circuit could possibly be monitored post-to-post, which proved to be a many-hour wait. The consequence was a rolling procession that, by laps and clock, set a brand new benchmark for a single sustained warning interval on the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Crew members used the pause to swap heavy-wear objects (brakes, some aero bits) and to re-evaluate stint plans for the dash to the end as soon as inexperienced working returned. That blend of prolonged warning laps and in depth pit work produced the unusually static center part of the race that followers and groups will keep in mind most.
Rolex 24 at Daytona resumes after historic fog delay
When the fog lastly thinned at daybreak, the Rolex 24 at Daytona discipline was prepared for an extended, strategic dash to the end. The restart, held with roughly 5 to 6 hours remaining, turned the race again right into a tactical contest.
When inexperienced waved, the Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s instantly asserted themselves. The No. 6 and No. 7 Porsches had been managing tempo and programs underneath the warning and confirmed the strongest race velocity as soon as the monitor returned to regular. The working order that mattered within the closing section featured the No. 6 Porsche within the lead, the sister No. 7 Porsche shut behind, and the Workforce WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 (No. 25) as a major challenger.
Cadillac V-Collection.R entries (the No. 40 and No. 31) and the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 additionally cycled into the highest 5 as groups pressed on technique and tyre selections. A number of groups used the restart window to change to extra aggressive tire methods. Comfortable compounds had been largely unused through the cooler evening, so the ultimate hours grew to become a tire choice contest.
GTD Professional and GTD courses within the Rolex 24 at Daytona remained a good battle. Corvette Racing and Manthey Porsche groups traded leads in GTD Professional whereas GTD noticed BMW, Ferrari, and Mercedes entries all in rivalry.
Edited by Hitesh Nigam
