Three Teams Share Top Five at Grand Am Rolex 24 at Eight Hours

Joey Hand in the 01 Telmex-Ganassi Riley BMW leads the Grand Am Rolex 24 after eight hours and 245 laps.
Three Teams Share Top Five at Grand Am Rolex 24 at Eight Hours
After eight hours and 245 laps of the Rolex 24, Joey Hand leads in the 01 Telmex-Ganassi Riley BMW. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
1/29/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/01telNight108544009Web.jpg" alt="After eight hours and 245 laps of the Rolex 24, Joey Hand leads in the 01 Telmex-Ganassi Riley BMW. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)" title="After eight hours and 245 laps of the Rolex 24, Joey Hand leads in the 01 Telmex-Ganassi Riley BMW. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1809057"/></a>
After eight hours and 245 laps of the Rolex 24, Joey Hand leads in the 01 Telmex-Ganassi Riley BMW. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
With 245 laps run, Action Express, Ganassi, and Level 5 control the sharp end of the field at the 49th Grand Am Rolex 24 from Daytona International Speedway.

Joey Hand in the 01 Telmex-Ganassi Riley BMW holds the lead, after trading it a few times with the #5 Action Express Riley Porsche, with Burt Friselle driving.

Max Pappis in the #9 Action Express car and Christophe Bouchut in the #55 Level 5 Riley BMW have been swapping third and fourth; Pappis has the edge now.

The other Ganassi car, the 02, with Dario Franchitti at the wheel, has worked its way up to fifth, after losing two laps with early tire troubles.

The three Shank Racing cars—two Riley Fords and a Dallara Ford, picked up after last year’s fire— with Ozz Negri, Justin Wilson and Zak Brown driving, are running sixth, seventh and ninth, with Ricardo Zonta’s Krohn Lola Ford in eighth.

GT is still a Porsche parade, led by Andrew Davis’s Brumos Porsche GT3, Wolf Henzler’s TRG Porsche in second, and Bryan Sellers in the Miller Porsche GT3, third.

Charles Espenlaub in the Dempsey Mazda and Jonathan Bomarito in the SpeedSource Mazda are waiting for one of the Porsche’s to falter.

Tunrer Motorsport’s BMW M3 has apparently retired with terminal transmission failure, after lead early in the race.