Matt Campbell held an advantage of 8.3 seconds in the #7 Porsche Penske 963 LMDh after 21 hours of racing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship season opener, with the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Jack Aitken settling in second position.
After the #6 Porsche came into the pits at the end of hour 18 to serve a 10s stop/go penalty, Aitken assumed the lead in the sole remaining Cadillac, but was struggling to shake off the other 963 of Campbell.
Campbell kept the pressure up on Aitken and finally made a move after duelling for 20 minutes, taking advantage of a GTD car to go around the outside of the Caddy on the banking and move into the lead.
The Australian driver was able to pull out a gap of five seconds before handing over the car to team-mate Felipe Nasr, who put in an equally impressive stint to extend that advantage further to 13s.
A caution period - deployed after the #33 Sean Creech Ligier LMP2 car left debris on track - wiped out Nasr’s lead but he had no trouble keeping Aitken at bay as the race went back to green.
Campbell took over the driving duties again at the next pitstop and kept the #7 Porsche well clear in front as the clock hit 1040 in Daytona, while Aitken likewise strengthened his hold on second position.
The #6 Porsche was running third until Kevin Estre went off the track just after a pitstop in the 20th hour, getting stuck in the run-off area.
Estre was able to get going again but dropped to sixth position, behind the two privately-entered Porsches driven by Alessio Picariello (Proton) and Tijmen van der Helm (JDC-Miller), as well as the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura of Colton Herta.