The #3 C8.R Corvette of Jordan Taylor passed Porsche’s polesitter Laurens Vanthoor on the opening lap, while the BMW M8s jumped the second Corvette of Oliver Gavin to claim third and fourth.

Yet by Lap 6, the BMWs were already almost 3sec adrift of the #912 Porsche, and clearly holding up Gavin and the #911 Porsche of Frederic Makowiecki.
After a dozen laps, and having moved aside for the Prototypes for the first time, Taylor found Vanthoor filling his mirrors and it took only a couple of laps before the Porsche got ahead when the ’Vette ran wide at Turn 7.
Taylor would also drop behind Spengler’s BMW.

Teammate Gavin had been struggling from the start, IMSA Radio reporting that an electronics glitch was messing with the #4 car’s traction control.
Taylor pitted on Lap 19 and handed off to Antonio Garcia, while out on track, Makowiecki passed the BMW of Jesse Krohn for what was now third place.

Once all the pit stops had shaken out, Earl Bamber now in the #912 Porsche was leading ahead of Garcia, with Connor De Phillippi now installed in the #25 BMW in third ahead of Nick Tandy in the #911 Porsche, John Edwards in the #24 BMW & Tommy Milner in the #4 Corvette.
Soon Tandy would have to cede fourth to Edwards.
Garcia in second had fallen 15sec behind leader Bamber by the time he made a second stop with 75mins to go, but for the second time there was a delay, this time due to a faulty wheel gun.

However, Corvette Racing’s chances took an upturn when Bamber who like Jarvis, had tried to stay out an extra lap on slicks as the rain dumped heavily around the track couldn’t stop for Turn 1 and skated across the sand trap and into a tire wall, bringing out the full-course caution and ultimately the red as the rain worsened.

When it went yellow before the restart, Tandy was out in front but on slicks and needing a fuel stop so when the pits opened, he ducked in as did Milner and De Phillippi (who had a loose wheel).

That left John Edwards’ #24 BMW M8 in the lead of the class with Garcia in second, but on the final lap Edwards and 3rd place Tandy both went off at The Kink, leaving Garcia and Milner to take a remarkable 1-2 for Corvette, with Edwards coming home third ahead of Tandy who never actually saw the checkered flag and Bamber.