Both the GT Le Mans and GT Daytona fields, although tight, got through the opening laps of the race cleanly, with the pair of Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSRs leading the way.

Nick Tandy in the No. 911 Porsche immediately began to build a gap between he and his teammate Joerg Bergmeister in the sister No. 912 car. The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Pierre Kaffer and Giancarlo Fisichella, after starting third behind the pair of Porsches, began to pressure the No. 912, eventually getting by for second position in the GTLM class.

The No. 911 shared by Tandy and Patrick Pilet scored the overall victory, followed by the No. 912 Porsche of Earl Bamber and Bergmeister after the Kiwi got by Kaffer's Ferrari for good in the final hour of the race in a heavy-contact move. The No. 62 Ferrari of Kaffer rounded out the GTLM podium, finishing 5-seconds behind the Porsche pair. Throughout the race, the Risi Ferrari F458 Italia GT remained the only other GTLM car to have something to show for itself against the Porsches as it did during the opening sessions of the weekend.

Behind a three-stop strategy,  the No. 24 BMW Z4 GT3 of BMW Team RLL, at the hands of John Edwards and Lucas Luhr, finished fourth in class, beating the No. 25 BMW of Dirk Werner and Bill Auberlen.

Following the pair of BMWs to the checkers was the No. 3 Corvette C7.R Corvette Racing entry of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen - who entered the weekend as the points leaders.

In GT Daytona, meanwhile, a simialar dominant performance was executed by the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell.

Bell took the No. 63 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 to the checkers ahead of the No. 007 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 of TRG-AMR at the hands of Kuno Wittmer who finished second in class.

The GTD polesitting No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS of Dion von Moltke and Christopher Haase was involved in a battle with the Scuderia Ferrari of Sweedler and Bell; Sweedler made the final pass on Lap 15. Haase then made a mistake with just 28-minutes remaining in the race, spinning the car, forcing him to bring it in to clear grass out of the radiator, dropping the No. 48 Audi to fifth in class.

Pilet, in winning the race, jumps to the GTLM drivers' championship points lead.

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Aaron Durant is the editor of the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @DoubleA291.