Joey Hand in the #01 Ganassi Riley-Ford EcoBoost held the overall lead of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship seven hours into the race when caution flags waved for the sixth time, on lap 219.
Behind Hand, Sebastien Bourdais in hte #5 Action Express Coyote-Corvette ran second with Ricky taylor in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara-Corvette back to third after losing time in the pits.
On lap 196 the #7 Starworks DP spun and stalled on track, bringing out a fifth caution. The car eventually restarted and drove off.
This caution came on the heels of the race’s fourth caution; cars which didn’t pit the first time came in the second time—and the #93 Viper had to make an emergency stop for the second time in the race.
Both Ganassi cars pitted; AJ Allmendinger in the then-race-leading #60 Shank car also came in and handed off to Matt McMurray.
Tracy Krohn had to retire the #57 Krohn Ligier during the fifth caution period—whatever problem caused the oil pressure loss was too big to fix.
During the caution the he #02 Ganassi car dumped a bunch of fluid as it prpred to exit the pits, and had to go behind the wall for repairs. The crew fixed whatever plumbing was broken but lost three laps. Scott Dixon said the splitter had been damaged but didn’t know when.
The #51 AF Corse Ferrari contributed its own but of drama to the caution period, losing a left front wheel and tire as it left the pits. If one has to lose a wheel, doing it under yellow is the best time.
On the restart on lap 206 the #38 and #85 PC cars collided as four cars tried to go side by side through the first corner. All the cars managed to find safe routes to spin off to the edges of the track, luckily as if any had collided they might have wiped out the leaders of GTLM which were running right behind. The 362 Risi Ferrari and #50 Highway to Help Riley-BMW did get nicked, but were able to continue. Tony Kanaan in the #023 Ganassi car had to go into teh grass to avoid the melee, filled his radiator grille, and he to pit to get it cleaned.
Lap 210 Olivier Beretta in the AF Corse and Jan Magnussen in the class-leading #3 got into a healthy scrap for the lead in GTLM.
The #63 AF Corse GTD Ferrari which had had to pit for radio repair had gained back all its lost ground and was third in GTD by lap 216.
At the seven-hour mark the battle for the lead in GTLM continued with beretta in the Risi ferrari trading the lead with Magnussen in the #3 Corvette, while Nick Tandy in the #911 Porsche snuck a little bit closer with each lap.
Just at seven hours Rory Butcher in the #81 GTD GB Autosorts Porsche spun, forcing Francios Perodo in the #51 Ferrari off the track. Perodo came back on to the track right in the path of Brandon Davis in the #007 TRG-AMG Aston Martin Vantage. The Aston had nowhere to go and pounded the Ferrari, destroying the front end.
The wreck brought out the race’s sixth caution.
