Allmendinger Leads First Segment Of Patron Endurance Cup In Shank Honda Prototype At 54th Rolex 24 A
Six hours are in the books at the 54th Rolex 24 At Daytona, with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular AJ Allmendinger leading the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship opener in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Tire Kingdom Honda Ligier JS P2.
That enabled Allmendinger and co-drivers Ozz Negri, John Pew and Olivier Pla to earn five points for leading the first segment of the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup, a four-race competition among the four longest races on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Jonny Adam earned four points for the No. 31 Action Express Racing Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP for running second in the Prototype class, while the third-place No. 01 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing EcoBoost Ford/Riley of Brendon Hartley took three points for running third. Two points were awarded to all other competitors in the class. Points also will be distributed after 12 hours, 18 hours and the finish in each class.
Nick Tandy scored the five-point bonus for the No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR in GT Le Mans (GTLM); Madison Snow took the bonus in GT Daytona (GTD) in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Castrol/Universal Industrial Sales Lamborghini Huracán GT3; and Jose Gutierrez earned the bonus in PC for the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Professional Security Consultants/Prisma/Vista Del Mar ORECA FLM09.
The Patrón North American Endurance Cup will continue with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida, followed by the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
Katherine Legge became the first female driver to lead overall in the 54-year history of the event. She was in the lead when she pitted the No. 0 Panoz DeltaWing Racing coupe after a two-hour, 38-minute opening stint after being out in front twice for 27 laps. “The car’s more reliable than it’s ever been.” Legge said after her stint. “We changed the gearbox; that was our nemesis. We have a great car, but with a great car comes a lot of pressure. You don’t think about where you are, you just keep doing your best.”
Co-driver Andy Meyrick also led two laps in the DeltaWing coupe after taking over from Legge, but struck the stopped car of Chris Cumming in Turn 1 at the three-hour, 43-minute mark. This resulted in major damage to both cars and the retirement of the DeltaWing coupe. Cumming had lost power in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport AutoMax ORECA FLM09 in the center of the turn to bring out the third caution of the event.
Problems struck both of the new Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs in the early hours. Ryan Briscoe went behind the wall for 16 laps when the No. 67 Ford GT was stuck in sixth gear. Joey Hand was leading in the No. 66 Ford GT when he lost power in Turn 6 after an hour and 20 minutes, bringing out the second caution of the event. The car later took an extended visit to the garage, stuck in first gear. “You just never know with a car,” Hand said. “Everybody’s learning with this Ford Chip Ganassi Racing team. They’re really good at adapting to problems. We have to get a 24-hour under our belt, just to learn what we have to watch out for.”
Mark Wilkins worked the No. 54 CORE autosport Flex-Box/Composite Resources ORECA FLM09 into the PC lead before the car suddenly slowed at 8 p.m. with terminal engine problems. Wilkins joined Jon Bennett and Colin Braun in winning the class in 2014, only to lose last year’s race with a spin in the chicane caused by suspension damage with less than 20 minutes remaining in the event.
The No. 70 Mazda Prototype was the first retirement from event when Tom Long pulled off course after losing power in Turn 4 on lap 12, resulting in the first caution. The team’s No. 55 entry was leading at the four-hour mark, with Jonathan Bomarito out front twice for eight laps. The Rolex 24 is the first race for the Mazda Prototype with the gasoline-fueled MZ-2.0T after the team ran a diesel-fueled engine for the past two seasons.
The overnight portion of the Rolex 24 will be streamed live on IMSA.tv from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. FS1 television coverage resumes at 7 a.m. ET, followed by a shift to FS2 at 10:30 a.m. before returning to FS1 at 1 p.m. through the finish.
Contact:
nsiebens@imsa.com
