Mike Conway in the #31 AXR Cadillac DPi V.R moved to the front after the team’s enduro-only #48 enduro entry picked up two drive through penalties when Jose Maria Lopez peeled into the lane in the third hour to hand over the driving duties to Kamui Kobayashi.
Will Stevens sits a strong second in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura after taking over from Ricky Taylor, with Richard Westbrook moving up to third in the #5 JDC-Miller Mustang.
Mercedes Formula E driver Stoffel Vandoorne was running fourth on his IMSA debut for the #60 Meyer Shank Acura, with Kobayashi a distant sixth in the #48 AXR behind the #02 Chip Ganassi Cadillac of Earl Bamber.
Kobayashi’s teammate Lopez had jumped both the #31 AXR and the #10 Acura in the third hour by stopping earlier, but the #48 crew was penalised on two different counts for spinning the wheels in the pits and speeding into the pitlane.
Former IndyCar ace Ryan Hunter-Reay was circulating 35 laps down after the #01 Chip Ganassi Cadillac that started on pole position continued to struggle with technical issues.
In the LMP2 division, the #81 DragonSpeed had been leading after Juan Pablo Montoya took over the car from his 16-year-old son Sebastian, only to be caught in a multi-car melee triggered by LMP3 driver Alex Udell.
Udell lost control of his #6 Duqueine at Turn 1 with what appeared to be a tyre issue, suffering a spin before coming to a rest on the inside of the corner.
This forced Montoya to take evasive action and he ended up hitting the #1 Paul Miller BMW M4, suffering terminal damage to his Oreca.
This triggered the first yellow flag period of the race and promoted Giedo van der Garde in the lead in the #29 Racing Team Nederland car.
The pole-sitting #52 PR1 Mathiasen car that had led the race for so long in the hands of gentleman driver Ben Keating dropped to second, with Scott Huffaker now in the driving seat.
Corvette holds the lead in the GTD Pro division after Antonio Garcia leapfrogged both Mirko Bortolotti and Daniel Serra by pitting a lap later at the start of the second hour.
Bortolotti’s teammate Andrea Caldarelli sits second in the #63 TR3 Lamborghini Huracan GT3, with two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann running a strong third in the #24 Rahal Letterman Lannigan Racing-entered BMW M4.
The #25 BMW and Serra’s #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari were also involved in battle for podium finishes before both went behind the wall with unrelated power steering failures. The BMW remained in the pits at the end of the third hour while Risi was able to repair the 488 GT3 to send Edward Cheever back out on track again.
The GTD field is led by Michael de Quesada in the #28 Alegra Mercedes, with #57 Winward driver Marvin Dienst making it a one-two for the German manufacturer.
