Rolex 24 Hour 8: #48 Ally Cadillac leads at 1/3-mark

Ally drivers Jimmie Johnson (Mooresville, N.C.), Simon Pagenaud (France), Mike Rockenfeller (Germany), and Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) are at the top of the leader board eight hours into the 59th running of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Daytona International Speedway.

The No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, Kevin Magnussen, Renger Van Der Zande, and Scott Dixon ran 2nd with Van Der Zande behind the wheel.

“It is just so much fun,” Johnson said. “To have an opportunity to drive for Action Express Racing is a great experience. I miss the fans not being here, but there was still great energy in prerace. I had the honor to start, lots of memories and emotions on the grid. There were a few close calls with spinning cars, the dirt and the dust, I picked the right lane and squeezed by. For me it is about keeping the car safe and working on lap times. I am in the second bracket of our drivers lap time wise, even though I am a little uncomfortable it makes me feel alive!

Alexander Rossi ran third in the #10 Wayne Taylor Acura 15-seconds behind. The #31 Action Express Cadillac runs 4th and Dane Cameron in the #60 Meyer Shank Acura rounds out the top-5.

Kobayashi was setting a blistering pace and gapping van der Zande and Rossi. By the 8.5-hour mark Kobayashi had stretched the lead to 3rd-pace Rossi from 15 to 30-seconds, the winner of the 100th Indy 500 clearly no match for the ex-F1 driver.

Tom Merrill had the #11 Win Autosport Oreca out front ahead of the #8 driven by Tim Buret in LMP2.

The two Corvettes continue to lead in GTLM with the #3 of Antonio Garcia just holding off the #4 driven by Tommy Milner. The #62 Risi Ferrari has moved ahead of the two RLL BMWs and runs third.

GTD was led by the #21 Ferrari with Nicklas Nielsen behind the wheel.

Hour 8 Standings (1/3-Mark)