2018 24 Hours of Daytona
Renger van der Zande for Wayne Taylor Racing started from pole position and led for most of the opening hour.
Filipe Albuquerque of Mustang Sampling Racing took the lead after the first round of pit stops and kept it for five hours before losing it to Team Penske's Hélio Castroneves.
Mustang Sampling's Albuquerque, Christian Fittipaldi and João Barbosa led the final third of the race to win in a record-breaking distance of 808 laps and 2,876.48 miles (4,629.25 km) and take the lead of the Prototype Drivers' and Teams' Championships.
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) drivers Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook, won the Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) class, after passing the sister team of Sébastien Bourdais, Dirk Müller and Joey Hand at its final pit stop.
Having led the last four and a half hours, Mirko Bortolotti, Rik Breukers, Rolf Ineichen and Franck Perera of GRT Grasser Racing Team won the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) category to claim Lamborghini's first 24-hour race victory and the lead of the class points standings, despite starting from the back of the grid for failing a mandatory post-qualifying stall test.
[11] Porsche fielded two 911 RSRs for the second successive season, and Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) entered their two Ford GTs for the third consecutive year.
[13] These additional participants were recruited from a variety of racing categories, including the FIA World Endurance Championship (such as Gustavo Menezes for JDC-Miller MotorSports), the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (such as René Rast for Mazda Team Joest), and the IndyCar Series (such as Ryan Hunter-Reay for WTR) among others.
[18] Stuart Middleton won the Sunoco Whelen Challenge by taking the GT4 category title in his debut year in the British GT Championship, earning him a seat with AER.
[19] The week before the official three-day test session at the circuit, IMSA altered the balance of performance in all three categories to create parity in the classes.
10 kg (22 lb) of weight was added to the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs compared to 2017 but the decrease of handling abilities was countered by having the car's top speed raised by having its air restrictor increased by 1.8 mm (0.071 in).
The Nissan and Mazda engines were not altered because IMSA was satisfied with their performances, but the series changed the aerodynamic packages on some Prototypes which affected their handing abilities.
[26][27] The third and final day of testing featured a qualifying session to determine the locations of the team's pit stalls and garages for the race three weeks later.
The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order with the grid arranged to put the Prototype and GTLM cars ahead of all GTD entries.
[13] Van Der Zande for WTR took the third pole position of his career,[36] on his final lap with a time of 1 minute, 36.083 seconds; he ran deep at turn five through later braking.
[36] He was joined on the grid's front row by Castroneves who had pole position for Penske in the closing minutes until Van der Zande's lap.
3 Corvette drafted his teammate Gavin to achieve his fourth class pole position, and bettered Hand's 2017 category lap track record with a time of 1 minute, 42.779 seconds.
11 GRT Lamborghini was third-fastest, but the car was demoted to the rear of the GTD field for failing a mandatory stall test at a post-qualifying technical inspection.
[31][53] Fifty cars were due to take the start, but Robert Renauer spun on cold tyres and heavily damaged the left-hand quarter of the No.
Two Jackie Chan cars separated the pair allowing Barbosa to draw clear and re-establish his advantage upfront, which grew to seven seconds.
Marcel Fässler stayed on the circuit but was ten seconds slower than teammate Magnussen and was overtaken by Bourdais and Scott Dixon's Fords.
Albuquerque opened up a five-second gap before handing the lead back to Castroneves ten minutes before the eighth hour ended on pit stop rotation.
10 WTR car at the Bus Stop chicane; the carcass delaminated and deranged its bodywork and radiator line, forcing it into the garage for repairs.
3 Corvette but clipped the curb at the Bus Stop chicane too hard and speared into the tyre barrier after losing control of his vehicle's rear leaving the turn.
29 Land Audi had exceeded the maximum rate of permitted fuel flow (a balance of performance transgression) at the car's pit stops.
The two Nissan DPis of ESM driven by Ryan Dalziel and Derani retired by hour 14 because of respective terminal gearbox and engine failures.
WTR owner Wayne Taylor retired the car for driver safety reasons, uncertain of the cause of the problem, and he wanted to stop using spare bodywork parts.
[79] The fourth (and final) full course yellow was activated for 22 minutes when Kyle Masson put Legge off the track; he ploughed through an advertising billboard and Styrofoam blocks, littering debris on the circuit.
A pit stop for fuel for Bleekemolen with 15 minutes left allowed Bortolotti to claim victory in GTD and Lamborghini's maiden 24-hour race win.
[89] Regardless, at the 12 Hours of Sebring, Continental Tire debuted a more durable slick tyre which allowed for more aggressive setups and enhanced the likelihood that incidents such as the multiple punctures seen at Daytona would not reoccur in the future.
Bortolotti, Perera, Rik Breukers and Inechen led the GTD Drivers' Championship, followed by the second-placed Allmendinger, Parente, Legge and Hindman.
