Rolex 24, Hour 6: Campbell has Porsche up front as first quarter ends

The Rolex 24 At Daytona is a quarter over, and crossing the six-hour mark has triggered the first round of Michelin Endurance Cup points.

When the last caution ended 15 minutes into the sixth hour, Matt Campbell pushed the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 into the lead, and even stretched it a bit over the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R with Tom Blomqvist at the wheel. After a round of pit stops just prior to the end of the sixth hour, Campbell led Derani in the No. 31 after he took over from Blomqvist and Renger van der Zande in the No. 01 Cadillac, who had just taken over from Alex Palou.

With many teams double stinting early in the race, they’re losing time not only to the tire degradation, but also because they have to be more cautious in traffic.

“You need to be more careful — we are quite struggling on the brakes to stop the car,” said Mathieu Jaminet after his stint in the No. 6 PPM Porsche 963. “You arrive very fast, so some moves becomes impossible when your tire drops, like going outside Turn 1, outside [Turn] 5 by the end is pretty much impossible to GT cars … even in the Bus Stop I wasn’t quicker than GTD towards the end. You need to adjust and be for sure more cautious because you don’t want to hit someone, so you lose a bit more time in traffic on top of the [time you lose because of the] tires but that’s the way to go. It’s not a moment of the race where you need to be aggressive. That’s the moment where you keep it one piece.”

The GTD race is heating up, with Kenton Koch in the No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes AMG battling with Antonio Fuoco in the No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296. Fuoco led Koch at the hour, both pursued by Ollie Millroy in the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren.

Six GTD cars received drive-through penalties in the last yellow for initiating pass-around early – No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911, No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán, No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296, No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG, and the No. 86 MDK Motorsports Porsche. Also penalized was the GTD PRO No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán.

Bryan Sellers had the GTD PRO No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 in a good spot, five GTD cars between him and his closest pursuer, Mike Rockenfeller in the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang.

The No. 22 United Autosports ORECA 07 has retired from the race.

Class leaders after six hours:

GTP: Matt Campbell, No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963

LMP2: Malthe Jakobsen, No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA 07

GTD PRO: Bryan Sellers, No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3

GTD: Antonio Fuoco, No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3

HOUR 6 STANDINGS

Story originally appeared on Racer