This weekend’s 55th Rolex 24 at Daytona wasn’t an instant classic but packed just enough variety, entertainment and drama to serve its usual role as one of the more fun racing events on a season calendar.

Here’s some final reflections after a long couple days to cap off the week.

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So, first, we have to discuss the final battle between Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque that led to Taylor going for the pass to the inside at Turn 1 and Albuquerque going for the apex, but then the ensuing collision that followed.

Here’s what each driver said about the move in the post-race press conference.

“Well, it was a good fight, until I got hit, to be honest,” Albuquerque said. “There is not much to say. I had some GTs ahead of me so I could not brake so late, and I closed the door, but then I got spun. There is not much to say, and yeah, the officials took the decision. That’s what it is. We finished second.”

“Yeah. I don’t 100 percent understand ‑‑ I mean, closing the door and getting hit,” Taylor said. “I think that explains it. But I’ve obviously been working on it for a while and looking at where we were strong and where we weren’t strong, and it’s the 24 hours, so you’re going to ‑‑ I mean, everybody is going to take a risk.

“The way I saw it, we came through GT traffic. I was closer than I had been. He’d been struggling in Turn 1. Their car didn’t look very good there, and we were really strong on the brakes, and so I have thought about doing this for years and years, and this has always been something ‑‑ people always open up after that little kink in Turn 1, they open their hands a little bit, and it’s just so easy to release the brake there and pop in there. If you get enough alongside, you can make it work, and I think he saw me coming, he saw me committing, and like he said, I guess, he closed the door. But I think Beaux (Barfield, Race Director) always talked about shared responsibility, and if he knew I was committing, why would you close the door and make us crash?

“But the way ‑‑ from my perspective, it’s Max’s last race. There’s a lot of emotions going on. I wanted to win terribly. We were either going to make a move and do something and win or sit there in second and wait for ‑‑ wait until next year, basically. I didn’t want to do that.”

When you consider the situation and the time of racing, you understand why Taylor opted to make the move he did. At an earlier stage in the race, the consequences of attempting such a move could have worse effects. A penalty could be called if the move is considered “blatant,” or worse, you’d get damaged and have to go to the garage. This contact was light enough that both cars continued.

It was suggested at the driver’s briefing on Saturday morning that moves that are considered proactive would be viewed as without need for a penalty, while reactive moves would trigger one. In this case, it’s hard to definitively say based on the main camera angle that Albuquerque’s move was entirely reactive, versus that he was just going for the apex because he had a right to turn into the corner. And Taylor saw a gap, and given an earlier move he’d made in the race at the Bus Stop, he’d shown he was not going to pass up a potential opportunity to make that move. So, by that definition, it’s a racing incident between two drivers not willing to give up in their pursuit of a Rolex 24 victory.

If a call gets made there, it decides the winner of the race by officiating rather than by the combatants on track. In TSO’s take, it was a case where “swallowing the whistle” was probably the right thing to do for Race Control.

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The above contact grows in stature because of the dynamic between Wayne Taylor Racing and Action Express Racing in the Prototype ranks. In some respects, the battle feels akin to the Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing rivalry in the Verizon IndyCar Series the last couple years when both teams had Chevrolets. You know there’s mutual respect there, but you also know each team desperately wants to beat the other one.

As the number of teams running Daytona Prototypes declined, Taylor and Action Express emerged as the leading contenders for wins on a weekly basis. At the Rolex 24, Action Express scored overall wins in 2010 and 2014, while Taylor had yet to expand on its 2005 win, despite coming close on the last few occasions.

For years, they’ve had the Corvette DP package to work off of, but with different chassis underneath. Action Express ran Coyote chassis while Taylor ran Dallaras.

As such, it’s an interesting subplot of this week’s Rolex 24 that the new Cadillac DPi-V.R that both teams run is built on the base Dallara chassis, and Max Angelelli was integral in the design and development process.

The Taylor team’s test program really paid dividends when it came to the early practice sessions, but Action Express got back on top in qualifying when Joao Barbosa beat Ricky Taylor for the pole.

With Action Express having one over Taylor going into the race, it quickly became apparent that Taylor didn’t want to let the race get away again. And for the first 22 hours before the dramatic last two hours, the Taylor car did have a more consistent measure of pace compared to the Action Express car.

It was only when the delayed second Action Express car got in the way of Ricky Taylor on a restart that the gloves came off. But IMSA Race Control remained consistent in these two rulings. No further action was taken as that restart was reviewed, and no further action was taken on the Taylor/Albuquerque clash.

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Story lines overflowed with the Taylor team breaking through for this win. Jeff Gordon joins A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and Jamie McMurray as drivers who have won both a Rolex 24 race and a Daytona 500. Max Angelelli has won in his final start. Jordan Taylor now has a Rolex 24 win to go with his 24 Hours of Le Mans win in a Corvette in 2015. And Ricky Taylor has his first major endurance race victory.

Gordon took Wayne Taylor’s offer of a drive after he ended his full-time NASCAR driving career seriously, and has been preparing for this race for nearly half a year. And he did what he had to do in his stints to keep the car on the lead lap and out of trouble. Aside of his early race contact with Tom Long, which could be viewed in a similar light to the Taylor/Albuquerque clash, Gordon was consistent before letting the sports car regulars do their thing.

Gordon relished the opportunity to grow the friendship and relationship with the Taylor brothers, hailing their talent, their humor and their feedback levels. At one point, Gordon recalled a moment when the rain was happening where Jordan was effortlessly describing the conditions before he got in the car, while driving it himself.

“I couldn’t sleep because I wanted to watch these guys do what they did in the rain, in the cold, in the most treacherous conditions, and they did it at a level, that I’ll be honest, I’m not capable of doing, and I was so impressed,” Gordon said.

The family patriarch and a two-time Rolex 24 driving champion in his own right, Wayne Taylor said emotion was the overriding story of this win.

“I don’t think I’ve cried this much since I was a baby,” he said.

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It wound up not being as great a day for the Verizon IndyCar Series field compared to potential earlier in the race, but it was still an interesting day for those with full-time or recent IndyCar ties.

Sebastien Bourdais again showed why is he one of the great all-around drivers of his generation with yet another star turn in the No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT. Bourdais drove most of the miserable conditions during the night as it rained, moving the car into the lead and keeping it in the top three. He then had time to kick back and watch teammates Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller do the rest. The Frenchman won this race overall in 2014 with Action Express, and his hometown race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year. Not bad for your part-time job.

The other three current or recent IndyCar drivers in the Fords didn’t quite have as perfect a result. Tony Kanaan had what he called a “blast” in his Ford GT race debut but a couple penalties knocked the No. 69 Ford he shared with Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx back to fifth. Tincknell had a somewhat mixed Rolex 24 debut as he hit a Corvette C7.R and also missed the pit lane entry, but the young English driver still is overflowing with potential.

Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe’s race came unglued courtesy of Briscoe having a rare moment out of sorts when he lost the back end of his No. 67 Ford GT at the Bus Stop and backed into the outside retaining wall. The track conditions caught many folks out and if a driver of Briscoe’s distinguished caliber could get caught up in it, fair to say no one was safe. Those two and Richard Westbrook finished the race, but only in 10th in class.

Things went better for Dixon, Kanaan and Bourdais’ IndyCar supplier, Honda, with its debut of the new Acura NSX GT3s for Michael Shank Racing. Both Ryan Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal led laps, and Hunter-Reay’s No. 86 car he shared with Jeff Segal, Ozz Negri and Tom Dyer finished fifth in the GT Daytona class on the car’s debut. The No. 93 car Rahal drove with Andy Lally, Katherine Legge and Mark Wilkins was also set for a good finish before losing a hood and causing another caution within the last 90 minutes, and dropped to 11th. Shank’s team, which enjoyed testing support and help from Wisconsin-based RealTime Racing and will enjoy support from Ohio-based Honda of America Racing Team (or HART) throughout the year, did an excellent job with the two new GT cars after previously running in the Prototype class.

“To be slightly disappointed with a fifth-place finish in the debut of the Acura NSX GT3 in a 24-hour endurance race, says a lot about the dedication of HPD, Acura and Michael Shank Racing. Our goal was just to finish the race and, if not for contact damage from earlier in the race, we were on track for two top-six finishes. This bodes very well for our prospects in this program, beginning at Sebring in March,” said Art St. Cyr, President, Honda Performance Development.

NBCSN IndyCar analyst Townsend Bell’s Alex Job Racing team entered as one of the top sleeper entries in the 27-car GT Daytona class. But a stop plus four-minute, 18-second penalty assessed early for an improper wave by was the car’s death knell for win chances. Persistence and attrition brought Bell, Bill Sweedler, Frankie Montecalvo and Pierre Kaffer back to sixth in class.

At least those drivers running in the GT classes had success, because no such luck found those in Prototypes.

Spencer Pigot appeared the best placed for Mazda, but an engine failure in just before noon Sunday took him out of fifth place. James Hinchcliffe’s No. 70 Mazda was delayed overnight with a gearbox change and then eventually retired.

RC Enerson’s first sports car start saw him at least able to run a number of laps once the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P217 Gibson got going, and make the finish in 10th place. But first hour electrical issues cropped up again and set the car laps back before the team’s hopes of success ever began.

Conor Daly’s last-minute call-up to Starworks Motorsport was an interesting one as the team fought through reported straight-line speed issues, then a variety of incidents during the race. Daly called the track “frozen” to IMSA Radio and said it was one of the toughest set of track conditions he’s ever dealt with. Both his No. 88 car and the sister No. 8 car were retired a couple hours before the checkered flag.

Sage Karam and Jack Hawksworth both have switched to Lexus. Karam didn’t get a chance to drive after Scott Pruett’s early accident. Hawksworth managed to lead for Lexus in the 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3, and the car finished in 14th in the GTD class.

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Some of the other class winning drivers today spent some time on the open-wheel ladder growing up. Daniel Morad and Michael Christensen spent the 2010 GP3 Series season racing each other, Morad with Status Grand Prix and Christensen with Arden. Morad joked that he was thankful to have the Dane on his Alegra Motorsports team as he went on a tear to close out the GT Daytona class win, as those two shared the car with Jesse Lazare (a former USF2000 racer), Michael and Carlos de Quesada. The latter de Quesada and his Alegra team won this race in 2007, and now had the opportunity to race with his teenaged son in the same car.

Performance Tech Motorsports dominated the PC class and the win never realistically appeared in doubt. James French has amassed thousands of laps in various vintage F1 and other open-wheel cars and has really grown as a sports car driver, firmly establishing himself as Brent O’Neill’s team leader. Pato O’Ward (Pro Mazda) and Kyle Masson also have Mazda ladder experience and were consistent in their Rolex 24 debuts. Late add Nick Boulle did the rest. It was hard not to feel for Clark Toppe, who would have been in that seat had he not had an incident at the Roar test. Last year’s IMSA Mazda Prototype Lites champion though was gracious anyway, as the likable and rather tall Texan wished Performance Tech a congratulatory message on Twitter.

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The youthful exuberance stuck out in the post-race press conferences. All four of the Performance Tech drivers are 27 years of age or younger, and Morad and Christensen (both 26), Lazare (19) and Michael de Quesada (17) are even younger as a group. The second-placed GTD entry, the Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Audi R8 LMS of Connor De Phillippi (24), Christopher Mies (27), Jules Gounon and Jeffrey Schmidt (both 22) was also packed with youngsters.

Had it just been one standout car that had a young lineup you could call it an outlier, but with the Taylor brothers only in their mid-20s, and with this batch of young drivers do well, it speaks volumes that the kids were alright – particularly in a race where the driving was so hard to do.

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Other quick notes:

• Shank (fifth in GTD) and JDC-Miller Motorsports (fifth in P) scored top-five finishes in class in their first race in a new class, in a 24-hour race. That’s not easy to pull off.
• The new cars were downright impressive. The overall podium featured two DPis and one LMP2-spec car, the new Porsche 911 RSR podiumed and could have won in its debut, and in GTD, a new-to-the-series and new-to-the-Riley team Mercedes-AMG GT3 finished third. It took 20 hours before any of the new Prototypes hit any sort of terminal failure, although small hiccups popped up along the way.
• That GT Le Mans race was something special with four of the five manufacturers duking it out, and Corvette Racing being unlucky to not see its outstanding pit work rewarded.
• One of the rare GT Daytona cars that didn’t lead was Lamborghini. The best of the eight Lamborghini Huracán GT3s was Paul Miller Racing’s car in seventh place.
• Heartbreak hotel for Scuderia Corsa, which was on pace for a GTD win before apparent engine problems caused Sam Bird’s wings to be wounded. Bird shared the No. 63 Ferrari 488 GT3 with Alessandro Balzan, Christina Nielsen and Matteo Cressoni.

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There’s so many stories that come out of a 24-hour race that trying to recap them all is crazy. But we hope we tried here on TSO Ladder this weekend. We thank you for reading and for your subscriptions. Now, get some sleep, those of you who read our halfway post at the 2:30 a.m. mark…

We’ll have much more from the 55th Rolex 24 at Daytona in a bit, but the quick recap focuses on what happened for the overall win.

The battle for the win came down to two Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, but the dominant No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac needed Ricky Taylor to attempt a pass of Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac at Turn 1 in the final stages of the race.

Albuquerque dove to the inside racing line, but left enough of a gap for Taylor to attempt a move down to the inside. The two cars collided and it triggered an immediate review from IMSA Race Control. Officials decided to take no further action.

Ricky Taylor shared his car with brother Jordan Taylor, Max Angelelli in his final start, and Jeff Gordon in his first Rolex 24 start in 10 years.

Albuquerque was perhaps a hard luck second in the No. 5 car with Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, just 0.671 of a second behind.

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The GT Le Mans winners were again the trio of Joey Hand, Dirk Mueller and Sebastien Bourdais in their No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT with Mueller coming out ahead of a great battle with the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR and No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE. Those three cars finished in that order.

The Hand/Mueller/Bourdais trio has now won both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Rolex 24 at Daytona in consecutive races.

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In GT Daytona, Porsche won the class with part-time entrant Alegra Motorsports, courtesy of a storming final stint from Michael Christensen alongside a trio of Porsche GT3 Cup champions in Daniel Morad, Jesse Lazare and Michael de Quesada, and de Quesada’s father Carlos. The No. 29 Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS was second with the No. 33 Riley Motorsports-Team AMG Mercedes AMG-GT3 third.

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Performance Tech Motorsports dominated the final Prototype Challenge race at the Rolex 24, and the quartet of James French, Pato O’Ward, Kyle Masson and Nick Boulle drove effortlessly to a win by over 20 laps over their nearest competition.

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We’ll have a lot more to come after podiums, interviews, and breathing and digesting this one.

There’s three hours remaining in this year’s 55th Rolex 24 at Daytona, and while it hasn’t yet been a classic, we still have the two hours, 40 minutes of a IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship standard event yet to run.

The class leaders are the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R, No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE, No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 and No. 33 Riley Motorsports-Team AMG Mercedes AMG-GT3 in P, GTLM, PC and GTD respectively.

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So here’s where we sit. The overall win figures to come down to the pair of untroubled Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, the No. 10 Konica Minolta and No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillacs, which have only been separated by a few seconds over the race.

The No. 10 car figures to run just Jordan and Ricky Taylor from here with Max Angelelli having completed his final career stint, and Jeff Gordon also watching from the pits.

“This has been one of my most difficult races,” Angelelli said. “I was hoping to have a little easier dry race, but that did not happen. All-in-all we have the car and the speed, hopefully it will be our year. It was very difficult to keep the car on the track with the rain tires, especially late in a stint. Other drivers were in the same situation, if they can do it, why not me? I made a slight mistake. I was able to recover and stay in P1. My career has been a rollercoaster, from a complete disaster to a lot of success. How can I describe it – it has been long and difficult.”

The No. 90 VISIT FLORIDA Racing Riley Mk. 30 Gibson car (Renger van der Zande, Marc Goossens, Rene Rast) sit third, having succeeded in spite of a number of niggling issues.

At nearly a minute back, it’d need some help from a full-course yellow – and that may come following a crash by Ben Hanley in the No. 81 DragonSpeed Oreca 07 through the Bus Stop chicane. The caution is the 18th of the race.

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GT Le Mans is in a word right now, awesome. It’s the single No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE up against all four Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs and a single Corvette C7.R and Porsche 911 RSR apiece. All on the lead lap. All separated by maybe five seconds.

Why bother writing more words than that when those few sentences sum up what lies ahead? Let’s watch this thing unfold and see how it finishes, because it promises to be spectacular.

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In GT Daytona, with the track drying, the Acura NSX GT3s have not quite had the form they had in the long, wet stint over night. But that’s not a bad thing or a knock on them whatsoever. The Michael Shank Racing team has put two cars in the lead and consistently in the top five throughout the race as they close to the finish of their debut race.

And among the tried-and-true cars? The No. 33 Riley Motorsports-Team AMG Mercedes AMG-GT3, No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 and No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS are all on the lead lap and used to being here. The No. 29 Land Motorsport Audi, which features Connor De Phillippi in its lineup, and the No. 28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R with a trio of Porsche GT3 Cup champions, are living up to their potential.

It’s been a tougher race for Lamborghini with the best of eight Lamborghini Huracán GT3s only at the bottom of the top 10.

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In PC, Performance Tech Motorsports has enjoyed a largely untroubled race and has more than 20 laps in hand over second place.

In 2015, what appeared to be a near unassailable win for CORE autosport went away with contact from another car then triggering a fire. And the CORE car retired, opening up the door for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports to take the win.

The challenge here comes within the final few hours. If you’ve run 20-plus hours and then things go awry, it’s way more of a gut punch than if you go out in the opening few hours.

Good morning from Daytona International Speedway, where it’s firmly Sunday morning now rather than the overnight. But it doesn’t necessarily feel like Sunday morning because it’s still rainy, overcast, with very challenging track conditions.

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The leaders at the 18-hour mark are the No. 10 Cadillac overall with Ricky Taylor driving, and handing off to Max Angelelli, by 12.692 seconds over the No. 5 Cadillac. But with a full-course caution occurring just before the end of Hour 18 (the 14th of the race) for David Cheng’s BAR1 PC car suffering a loss of bodywork, Joao Barbosa’s No. 5 Cadillac got by Angelelli on a pit stop.

Porsche has made GT Le Mans more of a battle thanks to both of its new 911 RSRs, and the the No. 911 car moved into the lead ahead of the polesitting No. 66 Ford at the Hour 18 mark.

In GT Daytona, the Acura NSX GT3s are running 1-2 with Jeff Segal ahead of Andy Lally, in the cars that feature IndyCar stars Ryan Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal. But with entries from Mercedes-AMG, Audi, Ferrari, Porsche and BMW all within two laps, this class remains the most wide open of the four.

Performance Tech Motorsports has dominated the Prototype Challenge class thus far, while the pair of BAR1 and Starworks cars have had myriad incidents.

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The overnight didn’t feature much changing or many retirements, with only the No. 50 Mercedes and No. 54 Porsche joining the list of those officially out of the race.

Heavier rain produced a couple long cautions, one nearly an hour and a second over an hour.

It’s interesting that the overnight wasn’t more chaotic, but that speaks to the largely solid driving being performed in these conditions.

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Thanks for tuning in to our TSOLadder.com updates from Daytona. Just a quick reminder that you can get these TSO updates delivered straight to your email inbox for just $10.00 a year. A TSOLadder.com subscription is fully customizable, YOU determine which emails we send and you can easily turn them on and off via our simple account management system. As always, TSOLadder.com is free to read on the website and we encourage you to link and share our stories on social media – even is just to disagree with us. But, for the full experience and to get the information delivered to you instead of having to go look for it, we highly recommend upgrading to an email subscription – plus, well, it helps keeps the lights on at the vast TSO facilities in Indianapolis and Denver. Thanks for reading! Sincerely Patrick Stephan, Steve Wittich, Joe Berkemeier and all the staff at TSO!

First off, if you’re reading this as it’s being posted, congratulations. Because this likely means you are a dedicated endurance road racing fan or observer. Or, alternatively, you’ve had too much caffeine. If it’s both, you’re probably at Daytona. Overall, it means you’re a TSO reader/subscriber, and for that, we thank you.

But alas, 2:30 a.m. marks the magical halfway point of the 55th Rolex 24 at Daytona race, even though it means you still have four more hours of darkness (to make 12 hours of darkness) and a full 12 hours of Sebring to go.

At the halfway point, the leads are held by Wayne Taylor Racing (Max Angelelli), Porsche GT Team (Kevin Estre), Performance Tech Motorsports (Nicholas Boulle), and Michael Shank Racing (Jeff Segal) in P, GTLM, PC and GTD.

There have been eight full-course cautions and six official retirements, all from the GT Le Mans and GT Daytona classes (Cars 51, 73, 16, 59, 14 and 24). It’s been cold, dark and rainy but the race rolls on. Track conditions are not good.

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The overall lead has largely been held by the new Cadillac DPi-V.R, which has had the measure on both pace and reliability thus far.

Mazda has sustained a setback with an improper wave by penalty assessed to Spencer Pigot earlier in the race but has stayed within a lap or so of the lead. But the second Mazda RT24-P has been sidelined with gearbox issues.

The Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPis were hanging in there and may still do so as the race progresses. The No. 22 car led with Brendon Hartley before Hartley and a TRG Porsche collided at NASCAR Turn 1 and 2 (Turn 6 on the Daytona International Speedway 3.56-mile road course). Meanwhile the No. 2 car, anchored by Ryan Dalziel, has pressed on despite an outright speed deficit.

Of the LMP2-spec cars, it’s been the VISIT FLORIDA Riley Mk. 30 Gibson of Renger van der Zande, Marc Goossens and Rene Rast that’s had a trouble-free first half and run in second or third. Electrical and other mechanical gremlins have slowed the progress for the other four cars.

Perhaps surprisingly, and impressively for the debuting cars, there are no retirements thus far in 12 hours. Of course the fact those words have just been typed means that by way of the typist’s curse, a retirement for at least one of them may be imminent in the hours to come.

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While Ford has dominated in GT Le Mans, Porsche has impressed in the cooler conditions with its new mid-engined 911 RSR, and rebounded from early race tire issues on the right front. Both the No. 911 and 912 cars have threatened the lead, while the No. 66 Ford has been the best of those Ford Chip Ganassi Racing entries. Risi’s Ferrari has also stayed close to the frame. The No. 67 Ford was delayed following a rare spin by Ryan Briscoe, who caught the curb the wrong way exiting the Bus Stop and went behind the wall for a rear bodywork assembly change.

Corvette Racing saw the hopes for its No. 4 Corvette C7.R go away with a loss of power just shy of six hours, and pitted with a broken lower control arm after being hit by Harry Tincknell’s No. 69 Ford. The No. 3 Corvette remains in with a good shot at a top-five finish in class, but that’s not why Corvette races. BMW’s race has been even more of a struggle, with the No. 24 car retiring early with engine woes and the No. 19 Art Car unable to make much of an impression.

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Acura’s enjoyed a strong run thus far with both of its NSX GT3s, and the respective orders of Andy Lally, Katherine Legge, Mark Wilkins and Graham Rahal in the No. 93 car, and Jeff Segal, Ozz Negri, Tom Dyer and Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No. 86 car. The sports car full-season drivers will get more driving time than the IndyCar regulars, owing primarily to size and their regularity in double stinting and occasionally triple stinting tires.

Lexus has also led on debut with its new car, the Lexus RC F GT3. Jack Hawksworth, another driver with a recent IndyCar past, took the No. 15 car to the lead not long before suffering a deflated right rear tire, the damage of which ruined the right side quarter panel and sheered away the bodywork. It required a replacement of the right side door. That was the only 3GT Racing car running because the No. 14 car retired early with Scott Pruett losing control through Turn 2 and hitting the wall.

So that takes care of the two new cars in the GT Daytona class. How ’bout the others?

Audi, Mercedes-AMG, Ferrari, Porsche and BMW have all led in class. And Lamborghini and Aston Martin, which haven’t, have also run in the top three.

So while we could make a formal rundown of who’s done what in GTD, it’s best to let the race play out for another few hours and check back in with who’s on the lead lap when the sunrise occurs.

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The spec Prototype Challenge cars keep on trucking along, as almost indestructible cars. Both Starworks cars have been to the garage, at least one of the BAR1 cars has spun, and so has the Performance Tech car. But Performance Tech has largely controlled the class lead from pole with its quartet of James French, Pato O’Ward, Kyle Masson and Nick Boulle.

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IndyCar update: All eight full-season drivers confirmed for 2017 have run.

Sebastien Bourdais led for quite a bit in GTLM in the No. 66 Ford. Tony Kanaan called his Ford GT debut a “blast.” Scott Dixon has had fun while hailing the competitiveness of the class. Rahal has led in GTD, and Hunter-Reay’s been in the top five. Spencer Pigot and Conor Daly have got some laps in in their Mazda and PC cars, while James Hinchcliffe’s been unable to get much running with gearbox issues.

Townsend Bell’s Audi incurred a severe penalty of more than four minutes from IMSA for an improper wave by. You’ll have seen that term before and asked, “What does that mean?” In layman’s terms, when a car in the same class is ahead on the track of the leader in that class – say they’re running fifth or something – and a caution comes out, that car can take a wave by to gain a lap back. But in Bell’s case, a miscommunication over the data at the team’s disposal triggered a call to attempt a wave by when the car was not eligible to do so. That’s left that car several laps back outside the top-10 at the moment.

Other past open-wheel drivers like Christian Fittipaldi, Joao Barbosa, Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel have also impressed this race.

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More updates to follow later on in the race.

Rain has struck the 55th Rolex 24 at Daytona and it’s forced a scramble for the strategists, as to whether to stay on either Continental or Michelin dry-weather slicks or switch to rain tires. This is an important time of the race to figure out what tire to be on.

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At the six-hour mark, the first points are handed out in the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup. Filipe Albuquerque leads overall in the No. 5 Action Express Cadillac DPi-V.R, with other class leaders Patrick Pilet in the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR (GTLM), Kyle Masson in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 (PC) and Shane van Gisbergen in the No. 50 Riley Motorsports-WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG-GT3 (GTD).

But van Gisbergen’s lead quickly went away in the seventh hour with a likely brake change required to his car, following a switch to Cooper MacNeil behind the wheel of the WeatherTech-backed Mercedes. The No. 991 TRG Porsche 911 GT3 R also pitted shortly thereafter with a right front tire issue, which Mike Hedlund limped back to the pits.

In Hour 7, Jack Hawksworth moved to the lead of GT Daytona in his No. 15 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3, which means both the Lexus and new Acura NSX GT3 have led on their worldwide debuts.

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Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon have both stepped aboard their respective Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs, with Bourdais into the No. 66 Ford and Dixon into the No. 67 Ford.

James Hinchcliffe also has had interrupted running in his No. 70 Mazda RT24-P, thanks to clutch issues.

Conor Daly will step aboard his No. 88 Starworks Motorsport Oreca FLM09 following repairs (see below), while his 2016 Dale Coyne Racing teammate RC Enerson’s first race laps in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P217 Gibson come on the damp, worsening track with the car down 40 laps. This is how different endurance racing is, in comparison to Verizon IndyCar Series racing.

This leaves the pair of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal yet to turn their first race laps in the Acura NSX GT3s. Hunter-Reay will take over the No. 86 car from Tom Dyer and Rahal the No. 93 car from Mark Wilkins within the next hour or so.

Rahal noted a left rear wheel issue has caused a bit of a delay for that car, which led earlier in class in the hands of Andy Lally and also features Katherine Legge as part of the quartet.

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We’re up to five full-course cautions. The fourth flew as contact occurred between James Dayson in the No. 88 Starworks car and Eric Curran in the No. 31 Cadillac on NASCAR Turn 2, which sent the Starworks car to the garage for repairs. Curran sought to pass Dayson on the high side of the banking but made contact with Dayson, whose car’s nose was hit.

Then a fifth full-course caution flew when Marcel Fassler lost power in his No. 4 Corvette C7.R exiting NASCAR Turn 2. That likely ends that car’s shot at a repeat victory, with the team noting it had changed a lower control arm.

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With both Starworks cars being repaired, there’s only five official retirements. The GTD polesitting No. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 joins the No. 14 Lexus, No. 24 BMW and Nos. 59 and 73 Porsches.

Class leaders at the four-hour mark in the 55th Rolex 24 at Daytona are Max Angelelli (P), Dirk Mueller (GTLM), Sean Rayhall (PC) and Matteo Cressoni (GTD).

The third full-course caution flew following contact between John Falb and Matt McMurry at the Bus Stop, with McMurry collected and his Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R finding the tire barriers. McMurry was OK while Falb brought his car into the pits, and was assessed a penalty by IMSA for the contact.

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Both Cadillacs from Action Express Racing had minor interruptions with the No. 31 car going behind the wall for barely a minute, if that, and the No. 5 car having the engine cover taken off. Despite the scares, neither one lost significant time.

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It’s cold, and it’s now dark. Per Continental Tire with just over 20 hours remaining, before the end of the four-hour mark, temperatures were 51 degrees ambient and 67 on track. Those both figure to go down into the night hours.

Track temps still holding at 67F while ambient has dropped just slightly to 51F. Sun is gone. 20:10:31 to go. #Rolex24 pic.twitter.com/k3g9qUGNLl

— Continental Tire (@continentaltire) January 28, 2017

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With the No. 73 car retired, the list of official retirements is this:

• No. 14 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3 (contact)
• No. 24 BMW Team RLL BMW M6 GTLM (mechanical)
• No. 59 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (mechanical)
• No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (contact)

Cars that have been delayed significantly include this group:

• No. 16 Change Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (contact)
• No. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 (unknown)
• No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P217 Gibson (electrical)
• No. 98 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 (mechanical)

At Hour 4, 43 of the 55 starters are within 13 laps overall.

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INDYCAR/Mazda Road to Indy/noteworthy open-wheel driver update. Tony Kanaan has driven the No. 69 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT and run in the top three or four of his stint. He took over from Andy Priaulx and has handed off to Harry Tincknell. Grand marshal Dario Franchitti poked fun at Kanaan’s lack of laps prior to this stint:

https://twitter.com/dariofranchitti/status/825469493501636608

While Kanaan’s been in, Scott Dixon and Sebastien Bourdais have not been in their designated Fords. Ryan Briscoe, a name well familar to the open-wheel world, has been in for a while in the No. 67 Ford.

Spencer Pigot has been first of the two IndyCar drivers at Mazda in, but his progress has been delayed following a three-minute, 18-second penalty assessed in the fourth hour for an improper wave by. The No. 55 Mazda was also assessed a mechanical black flag. James Hinchcliffe has not yet been in the No. 70 Mazda.

Neither Ryan Hunter-Reay nor Graham Rahal has been in the Acura NSX GT3s yet. The tall IndyCar aces figured to be slotted third or fourth in their rotations after the Michael Shank Racing team ran through its six full-time sports car drivers.

Conor Daly hasn’t been in at Starworks’ No. 88 Oreca FLM09 but his friend Sean Rayhall has, and has helped steer that car to the lead.

Another driver with MRTI experience, Pato O’Ward, led during his first stint in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry. O’Ward’s in a car he shares with James French, Nick Boulle and Kyle Masson.

Most of the Lexus contingent have open-wheel backgrounds. With Pruett’s No. 14 car out, that denies Sage Karam, Ian James and Gustavo Menezes a chance to race.

Austin Cindric did well to bring the No. 15 Lexus up from 20th to seventh in his stint, in a car he shares with Jack Hawksworth, Robert Alon and Dominik Farnbacher.

RC Enerson has not yet been in the PR1/Mathiasen car, as he’ll take the wheel fourth after past stints from Tom Kimber-Smith, Jose Gutierrez and Mike Guasch.

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Hourly results are posted at results.imsa.com.

Contact between Jeff Gordon, in his first Rolex 24 at Daytona appearance in 10 years, and Tom Long, who’s a full-time sports car veteran with Mazda Motorsports, kicked off a chaotic sequence to the third hour of the race.

Gordon took over the No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R from Ricky Taylor under the second full-course yellow, which in itself occurred following a heavy crash by Scott Pruett in the No. 14 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3 at Turn 2. Pruett lost control and came across the road, into the pit exit barriers, but was OK.

The restart occurred just after the start of the third hour with Jules Gounon, the GT Daytona class leader, the leading car behind the safety car.

Gordon and Seb Morris, in the No. 31 Cadillac, split Gounon with Morris going into the lead into Turn 1.

Contact occurred then at the International Horseshoe between Gordon and Long, who was attempting to re-enter the track in the No. 70 Mazda RT24-P.

As Long came back from driver’s left to right onto the racing line, he and Gordon came together as Gordon locked up the brakes and speared Long, sending him off course onto the grass.

The Mazda rejoined, uninjured, but having been assessed a drive-through penalty for being adjudged by IMSA to have run the red pit exit light.

.@TomLongRacing got hit hard from behind by 10 car. Spun in Intl. Horseshoe. Seems to be no damage to car.

— Mazda Racing (@MazdaRacing) January 28, 2017

The penalty is for running the stop light at the end of pit lane. @TomLongRacing is back in action.

— Mazda Racing (@MazdaRacing) January 28, 2017

Early in the run @WayneTaylorRcng @Cadillac makes contact with #70. #JeffGordon: "Front left impact." Teams says car looks good. P3. #TeamJG pic.twitter.com/FBE40roCfy

— Jeff Gordon (@JeffGordonWeb) January 28, 2017

Gordon’s No. 10 Cadillac avoided penalty for the contact, although there was a bit of blame being thrown his way on social media afterwards.

At the two-hour mark the class leaders were the No. 31 Cadillac (P), No. 38 Performance Tech car (PC), No. 66 Ford (GTLM) and No. 29 Land Audi (GTD).

Pato O’Ward, the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires veteran, took over the Performance Tech car from polesitter James French.

Tony Kanaan, meanwhile, has become first of the eight full-time IndyCar drivers on board in the No. 69 Ford.

The other seven drivers are Spencer Pigot, James Hinchcliffe, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Graham Rahal, Scott Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais and Conor Daly.

While there have been a number of cars with mechanical issues, the No. 24 BMW has become an official retirement. That car featured John Edwards, Kuno Wittmer, Nick Catsburg and Martin Tomczyk in its lineup.

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