Sebring 12 Hours: Ganassi's Pruett, Dixon and Hand lead at halfway

Scott Dixon moved into the lead as the six-hour mark approached when race leader Joao Barbosa and second-placed Richard Westbrook pitted behind the safety car in their respective Action Express and Spirit of Daytona Coyote-Chevrolet Corvette DPs.

Dixon, who shares the Ganassi Riley with Scott Pruett and Joey Hand, had been running third - more than a minute behind leader Barbosa - when the yellow flags came out..

The Action Express Racing Coyote that Barbosa drives with Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais had moved into the lead late in the second hour.

Last year's Tudor United SportsCar Championship-winning team held a narrow advantage over the Spirit of Daytona car that Westbrook shares with Michael Valiante and Mike Rockenfeller.

The Ganassi Riley struggled to match the pace of the top two courtesy of an ongoing understeer problem and held its position in the lead only because it didn't pit during the fifth safety-car period of the race.

The Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD-Honda ARX-03b was in contention for the first quarter of the race before an engine electronics issue cost the car shared by Ryan Dalziel, Scott Sharp and David Heinemeier Hansson two laps.

The pole-winning Krohn Racing Ligier-Judd/BMW JSP2 led early on in the hands of Olivier Pla before dropping back when six-foot-three Tracy Krohn had to be fitted in the car in the second hour.

Two spins by the team owner and a prolonged stop to fix a broken exhaust left the car three laps down in 11th position on the six-hour mark.

The Michael Shank Racing Ligier went out of the race early when Oswaldo Negri Jr crashed heavily after getting on the kerbs as he attempted to pass a GT LM car in the second hour.

Problems for many of the Prototype class runners meant that the top Prototype Challenge entry, the PR1 Mathiasen entry driven by Tom Kimber-Smith, Andrew Palmer and Mike Guasch, ran fifth overall.

The GT Le Mans was led by two Porsches: the factory CORE-run 911 RSR driven by Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy and Richard Lietz jumped ahead of the Walker-run Falken Tire version of Patrick Long, Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers during a pitstop sequence that began when the safety car came out.

The two Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT Americas led GT Daytona in the hands of Cooper MacNeil and Ian James respectively.