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Daytona 24 Hours: Recovering Action Express leads at 18-hour mark

Action Express Racing has fought back from three laps down to lead the Daytona 24 Hours at three-quarters distance

Joao Barbosa moved to the top of the leaderboard in his Coyote-Chevrolet Corvette DP when the leaders pit during the 15th safety-car period of the race, jumping ahead of the Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara-Chevrolet and the two Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Fords.

It was a strong comeback from the lead Action Express car, which Barbosa shares with Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais, after the car had lost three laps in the ninth hour when the fuel system electrical connector came lose and stranded the car on track.

Barbosa held a lead of a couple of seconds in the safety-car queue as the race hit the 18-hour mark from Jordan Taylor in the WTR car, while Tony Kanaan and Scott Pruett ran third and fourth.

Fifth place was held by Richard Westbrook in the Spirit of Daytona Coyote-Chevrolet, which was one lap down on the leaders, while the Michael Shank Racing Ligier-Honda LMP2 was four laps down after sustaining damage in the 13th hour.

The MSR car was the only P2 still running after the retirement of the lead Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD-Honda ARX-04b, which went out with gearbox problems in the 14th hour after an off from David Heinemeier Hansson.

The two Corvette Racing Chevrolets led the way in GT Le Mans class in the hands of Oliver Gavin and Ryan Briscoe.

Bruno Spengler was right behind them in the best of the BMW Z4 GT4s in the safety car queue and was the only other car in class still in the hunt after the Falken Tire Porsche was taken behind the wall to its garage with a major fluid leak.

CORE Autosport led the Prototype challenge with its ORECA-Chevrolet in the hands of Colin Braun, while the Riley-run Dodge Viper GRT GT3-R driven by Dominik Farnbacher was ahead in GT Daytona after its sister car ran into engine problems.

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