IMSA Rolex 24 at Daytona Hours 10-12: Acura Slips Up Bad

The fog continues to linger over Daytona International Speedway as Saturday becomes Sunday. While the fog hovers above the track, the race continued at a nicely rapid pace. For 55 of the 60 cars still running, the race has been a calm affair up to this point. Still, there have been a few points we need to cover.

The tenth hour had a pair of notable incidents. The first was the #11 TDS Racing going for a spin coming onto pit road. Secondly, AJ Allmendinger did not park the #60 Acura properly when coming in for a pit stop. The stop resulted in a drive-through penalty for serving the vehicle outside the pit box. Finally, the #023 Triarsi Ferrari in GTD, driven by Robert Megennis at the time, suffered a flat tire. The rubber fell off in the grass between Speedway Turn 3 and 4, but was far enough out of danger that the yellow was not needed.

Hour eleven is a moment the Meyer Shank Racing Acura will want back. Kaku Ohta, leaving the pits on his out-lap, lost the left front tire in the International Horseshoe and drove the entire lap around back to the pits. The Japanese driver did a great job to get the vehicle back with minimal damage. The reduced pace did cost the #93 a lap to the leaders. Another noteworthy moment of the hour was Rexy getting a new grille as AO Racing replaced the bodywork at the front of the #77 GTD PRO Porsche.

At 12:45 am, just as the race moves into Hour 12, the race goes full course yellow due to visibility issues. The fog is too thick and too low to race comfortably. The field completed a round of pit stops and race control separated the field, but it looks like we will be under the safety car for quite a while…well beyond the halfway mark that we have now reached. Hopefully the fog will let up soon and we will be back to green flag racing again.