Rolex 24, Hour 2: Ganassi Cadillac takes lead before more yellow

It didn’t take long for Ricky Taylor to get his No. 10 Acura dispatched from the lead, and after a raft of driver changes in green-flag pit stops Scott Dixon took over the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R from Sebastien Bourdais after Bourdais put it into the lead early in the hour. Dane Cameron is running second in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963, followed by Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing.

“We knew we were going to have a fight in our hand and we do,” said Bourdais after his opening stint. “I think the car shows that it’s got plenty of pace, which we’ve never been in doubt of that. But when it comes down to interacting with the other cars, we really have to outbrake ourselves to get by because we are barely keeping up in the straights. It’s good we’re leading and we can definitely put on a fight, but it’s the hard way. It is what it is. We knew we had a strong package as far as optimizing the performance level we have at our disposal, but it won’t be easy if it comes down to a drag race in the last 30 minutes.”

The hour ended under caution after Steven Thomas made heavy impact with the wall exiting the Le Mans Chicane in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 car. The car suffered a lot of damage, but Thomas walked under his own power to the waiting response vehicle. He was evaluated and released from the care center.