Cadillac Rises In Rolex 24 As Big Crash Mars Eighth Hour

The No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing Grand Touring Prototype in action at Daytona Int'l Speedway. (IMSA photo)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Jack Aitken and the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing Grand Touring Prototype led the Rolex 24 after eight hours Saturday night, as a massive accident on a lap-246 restart led to extensive cleanup at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

The field had just resumed at full song when the sixth-place No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac snapped loose in the blind esses at turn two of the 3.56-mile, 12-turn road course layout.

Louis Deletraz originally spun the Cadillac prototype to driver’s right, but with the field bunched up and cars in multiple classes coming with a full head of steam, there was nowhere for avoidance when Deletraz’s car washed back across the racetrack.

Le Mans Prototype 2 entries from United Autosports (No. 2, Nick Boulle) and Pratt Miller Motorsports (No. 73, Chris Cumming) slammed into the stranded WTR machine, destroying all three cars with heavy damage as the field scattered to try and avoid being collected.

He took a gnarly impact, but Deletraz climbed from his car and later described what he felt after being checked and released from the infield care center.

“It was [a restart on] very cold tires,” Deletraz told NBC Sports. “It’s really tough here at night, and that was a big impact. I’m fine, and luckily, we have a strong car and Cadillac made a very safe car to withstand a crash like that.

“I feel like I went on power and then lost [the car] straight away,” he added. “I think I didn’t get enough heat in the tires, and after that I got hit by an LMP2. I feel sorry for all the teams and just really ashamed that it happened to me so early in the race.”

Prior to the crash, the No. 40 Cadillac had led for multiple stints in the first third of the Rolex 24 thanks to the efforts of Kamui Kobayashi.

Additional carnage behind collected the GT Daytona Pro class-leading No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Max Hesse and the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini of Jordan Pepper.

“Our spotter spotted what was happening really well and I was very aware of what was happening; unfortunately, the people behind me weren’t,” explained Hesse. “It was crazy chaos. I was able to avoid the car ahead, but just got hit very hard from the rear. It’s a massive shame because our car was running so well, but there was nothing I could do.

“We’ll come back next year, but it’s very annoying and mentally, it hurts right now.”

The crash – the first major incident of the race – generated a 24-minute caution period that spanned eight laps before the fifth restart of the night could take place.

After that, a six-minute sprint to the eight-hour benchmark ended with Aitken out front, though he was hounded by overall second-place man Nick Tandy in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry.

Tom Blomqvist put the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura – which led at hour six with Colin Braun – in third at one-third distance, followed by the No. 85 JDC Miller Motorsports Porsche and the No. 6 Penske Porsche in the overall top five.

Paul Di Resta took the No. 22 for United Autosports to the top of the LMP2 running order after eight hours, three quarters of a second clear of the No. 18 Era Motorsport machine of Paul-Loup Chatin.

That duo sits 10th and 11th overall in the 61-car field.

With the crash taking out Paul Miller Racing’s No. 48, Frederic Vervisch assumed the lead in GTD Pro with the No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3 for Multimatic Motorsports after eight hours.

Fabian Schiller moved into second place in class for GetSpeed in the No. 69 Mercedes AMG GT3, with Mike Rockenfeller giving Multimatic two of the three podium positions in class at that point with the sister No. 64 Mustang.

The Trackhouse by TF Sport No. 91 Corvette of Connor Zilisch – co-driven by Scott McLaughin, Shane van Gisbergen, and sports car ace Ben Keating – sits fourth in GTD Pro with eight hours complete, its highest running position thus far.

GT Daytona continued to be led by the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini, with Frenchman Frank Perera driving at hour eight and the team’s four-man roster highlighted by CW NASCAR analyst and former full-time Xfinity Series driver Parker Kligerman.

Heart of Racing (No. 27, Mattia Drudi) and van der Steur Racing (No. 19, Anthony McIntosh) also held top-three positions in GTD, giving Aston Martin second and third place behind Forte’s leading car.

The fourth full-course yellow of the twice-around-the-clock event – which led to the multi-car crash on the ensuing restart – came at the seven-hour, seven-minute mark when the No. 007 Heart of Racing Aston Martin in GTD Pro lost its left rear tire and stalled in turn one after the tri-oval exit.

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.