Braun & WTR Snatch Rolex 24 Lead At Six-Hour Mark

The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura Grand Touring Prototype in action at Daytona Int'l Speedway. (IMSA photo)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A roaring restart gave Colin Braun and the No. 60 Acura GTP of Meyer Shank Racing the overall lead at the one-quarter mark of the 63rd Rolex 24 Saturday as night descended upon Dayona Int’l Speedway.

Braun soared to the outside of Earl Bamber’s No. 31 Whelen Cadillac entering turn one of the 3.56-mile road course at the World Center of Racing and captured the top spot coming into the International Horseshoe, opening up a one-second gap as six hours ticked by before fading back minutes later.

Braun shares Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 60 with Felix Rosenqvist, six-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon, and Tom Blomqvist in this year’s edition of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Notably, the six-hour benchmark was the first of four times in the twice-around-the-clock endurance classic that points were paid toward the Michelin Endurance Cup of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Felipe Nasr put the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry second on the scoring pylon at quarter distance, with Bamber and the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac sitting third and in podium position.

The No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac and the No. 25 Team RLL BMW closed the overall top five with six hours completed of the 24 hours making up the full race distance. Ten cars remained on the lead lap.

Just the third full-course caution period of the race occurred midway through the sixth hour, when the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin of Andy Lally came to a stop on track with terminal engine failure.

That set up a round of pit stops for all the frontrunners, with the No. 24 Team RLL BMW having gotten to pit road moments before the yellow flag waved but cycling out to fourth in the restart order when all was said and done.

It created a three-minute dash to the six-hour point, with frenetic, three-wide prototype racing at the head of the field under the Daytona floodlights.

The No. 74 Riley Technologies ORECA 07 of Felipe Fraga led the LMP2 class after six hours, with the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA 07 and the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR entry sitting second and third in class, respectively.

Connor de Phillippi put the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 atop the GTD Pro leaderboard over the No. 4 Pratt-Miller Motorsports factory Corvette of Nico Varrone and the sister Paul Miller Racing entry, the No. 48 of Jesse Krohn.

Rounding out the four-class field, Frederik Schandorff and the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 carried a .965-second advantage over the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and the No. 021 Ferrari from Triarsi Competizione.

A remarkably efficient race thus far saw 196 laps – 697.76 miles – completed at the one-quarter benchmark, with only three of the 61 cars that started officially out of the race.

In addition to Lally and Magnus Racing, the 75 Express Mercedes AMG GT3 in GTD Pro and the No. 63 Squadra Corsa Lamborghini prototype in GTP are also done for the duration.

Every lap of the Rolex 24 can be streamed live on Peacock, with television coverage resuming at noon ET Sunday on NBC and going to the checkered flag.