Whelen Engineering Racing’s Mike Conway leads the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona at the six hour mark after an impressive performance in the wet.
The #5 Mustang Sampling Racing squad had led unchallenged for the majority of the first five hours, but a short sharp shower at the start of hour six spelled trouble for the team.
The #31 car had been battling for eighth less than two hours earlier, but a solid drive from Conway allowed him to pick his way up through the order. When the rain started to come down, the Brit was the second prototype driver to pit for wet tyres, giving him a slight advantage over those around him.
Team Penske had also judged conditions correctly, and Helio Casroneves in its #7 car briefly took the lead, but fell behind Conway as it pitted just before the six hour mark.
Fittipaldi fell back to third, ahead of Jordan Taylor in the #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac Dpi-V.R. The #10 car had spent the entire six hours battling at the front of the field and had been running second when a right rear puncture dropped Taylor back to eighth just before the fifth hour mark.
He recovered to fourth, just ahead of Lando Norris in the United Autosport #23 car.
All three United Autosport #23 drivers put in astonishing drives to bring the car up through the field. Fernando Alonso began the charge with a triple stint that put the car inside the top 10. Phil Hanson and Norris both continued his work, with Norris less than half a second behind Cameron when the clock ticked into the seventh hour.
The second United Autosport car ended the first six hours ninth, behind the Tequla Patron ESM #2 and the Jackie Chan DCR JOTA #37.
Despite a number of incidents – mostly tyre punctures – in the first quarter of the race, there was only a single safety car period. That came not long after the two hour mark, when the Performance Tech Motorsports #38 car came to a halt on track.
Other incidents included the Risi Competizione #82 car catching fire in the pit lane. Team members and marshal were able to keep the fire contained to the car and the pit lane remained open.
