Cadillac Racing’s Pipo Derani was leading at the start of Hour 9 but dove to pit lane quickly after and relinquished the reins of the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R to team-mate Aitken.
As a result, Nick Tandy temporarily took the lead in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports before making way to team-mate Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 sister car. Meanwhile, Aitken ran third in the machine prepared by Action Express Racing.
Roughly halfway through the ninth hour, Jenson Button (Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti) collided with the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette GT.3 R, which was running second in GTD Pro at the time, in Turn 3. The contact sent Button’s No. 10 Acura ARX-06 into a spin temporarily before gathering it back up and continuing on.
Pitting at the top of Hour 10 saw Mathieu Jaminet take over from Tandy, returning to the track fourth, with Phillipp Eng (BMW M Team RLL) rising to third behind Nasr and Aitken.
The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura, which suffered a power issue earlier, returned to the action halfway through Hour 10, albeit 89 laps down.
Pit stops began again 15 minutes later, beginning with Jamient and Nick Yelloly (BMW M Team RLL) pitting from third and fourth, respectively.
Ten minutes later saw Nasr and Aitken also come in for service, which included Dane Cameron taking over for Nasr. Even with the driver change, Cameron and PPM remained out front by 11s. However, it shrank to 2.9s soon after catching traffic.
Then, in the early part of Hour 11, Aitken lunged under Cameron into Turn 1, and used a Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 as a pick to complete the pass for the lead. A ninth caution came out with 38 minutes remaining in Hour 11 for debris in Turn 5.
Aitken stayed out but Jaminet and Cameron were brought to pit lane for service, elevating both BMW M Team RLL entries to second and third, respectively. Laurens Vanthoor was changed out for Jaminent, while Cameron remained in and returned to the track in fourth. Additioinally, the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura was called in as the crew swapped out for a new nose on the car, with Louis Deletraz also behind the wheel.
Aitken led the restart with 17 minutes left ahead of the BMW duo, which were quickly overtaken by Vanthoor.
Moments later, the No. 40 Acura ARX-06 was hit with an apparent power issue, much like the sister car earlier, and pulled off track but brought out the 10th caution of the event. Unlike the sister car, though, Deletraz was able to get refired and return to the action.
Aitken made a clean restart and held a 3s lead on Vanthoor.
Source: Autosport