Rolex 24 Hour 1: Legge leads in DeltaWing

Katherine Legge – setting the pace at Daytona

UPDATE We've hit the one hour mark in the 54th Rolex 24 at Daytona. Pipo Derani, who took the lead from pole sitter Mikhail Aleshin at the start, just brought the #2 Tequila Patron ESM Honda HPD Ligier JS P2 entry to pit road. This handed the lead to none other than Katherine Legge in the #0 Panoz DeltaWing Racing entry.

Legge has shown excellent form thus far in the Delta Wing coupe, posting lap times on par with Derani and Oswaldo Negri in the #60 Michael Shank Racing Honda Ligier. Currently, Legge has a 7.5-second lead over Negri.

Two cars have gone behind the wall: the #70 Mazda Prototype entry piloted by Tom Long and #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing GT entry piloted by Ryan Briscoe. Although moments ago, Briscoe has made it back to track.

The sister Ganassi GT has fared better with Joey Hand behind the wheel. Hand led the GTLM class briefly and currently sits third in class.

We'll have more later. Current leaders…

Brian C. reporting for AutoRacing1

Your 2015 Rolex 24 winners

01/30/16 Greetings everyone – Brian Carroccio here. Stay tuned to AutoRacing1 for coverage of the 54th Rolex 24 at Daytona. I'll be handling the updates for the opening stint before giving way to the nocturnal Mark Cipolloni who will guide you through the night shift.

The weather forecast as I write a few minutes before the green flag has Daytona temperatures at 69 degrees with temperatures dropping into the 50s during the evening hours. And other than a 5% chance of rain around 3 p.m. tomorrow, the forecast as of now is calling for 0% chance of rain during the race.

The engines have fired and we should be green in about 10 minutes.