DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Report by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Jerry Markland/Getty Images North America photo —

Night has fallen at the Daytona International Speedway, but the Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype is heating up on track during the 53rd Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Currently being driven by Jordan Taylor, the Konica Minolta-sponsored Prototype is dominating the dark stages of the opening race for the 2015 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, staging a stellar battle with defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year Kyle Larson in Ford/Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 02 DP entry over the last hour for the overall lead of the event.

Approaching the 370-lap mark as 12 hours went up on the clock, Taylor currently leads Larson by 10 seconds at the World Center of Racing, with the Ganassi No. 01 of Scott Pruett holding down a solid third place effort with 12 hours remaining. A.J. Allmendinger currently rides in fourth overall in Michael Shank’s Honda-powered P2 — the last car on the lead lap — and David Hansson is fifth in the Extreme Speed Motorsports/Tequila Patron No. 1 entry.

Defending Rolex 24 champions Action Express Racing round out the top six, with the Corvette DP of Christian Fittipaldi riding three laps down to the leaders currently.

The DeltaWing No. 0 was the first Prototype to retire from the event, completing only 42 laps before falling due to transmission issues with Andy Meyrick behind the wheel and fan favorites Memo Rojas, Gabby Chaves and Katherine Legge unable to even take time during the event. The ESM No. 2 HPD-P2 was another early retirement, falling after 49 laps with an engine failure.

Other Prototypes confirmed out of the race are the No. 57 Krohn Racing entry (engine failure) and the No. 70 Mazda/SpeedSource entry (oil pump).

Behind the battle for the overall lead, a pair of Chevrolet Corvettes pace the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class, with the No. 4 of Oliver Gavin heading the No. 3 of Ryan Briscoe — eight laps behind the Prototype leaders. Four GTLM drivers, including the No. 17 Porsche of Patrick Long and the No. 25 BMW of Bruno Spengler, still remain on the lead lap in class.

The CORE autosport No. 54 has dominated the first half of the race in Prototype Challenge (PC), with Mark Wilkins currently driving the ORECA FLM being co-driven by Colin Braun, Jon Bennett and James Gue and leading by a full lap in class.

And in GT Daytona (GTD), the Paul Miller Racing Audi driven by Christopher Haase, Dion von Moltke, Bryce Miller and Rene Rast leads the class, 18 laps behind the overall lead — but with seven cars currently on the lead lap within the class.

CLASS LEADERS: Rolex 24 at Daytona; Halfway Point

Prototype

1. #10 – Wayne Taylor Racing (J. Taylor/R. Taylor/Angelelli)
2. #02 – Ford/Chip Ganassi Racing (Larson/Dixon/Kanaan/J. McMurray)
3. #01 – Ford/Chip Ganassi Racing (Pruett/Hand/Karam/Kimball)
4. #60 – Michael Shank Racing (Allmendinger/Pew/Negri/M. McMurry)
5. #1 – Extreme Speed Motorsports (Heinemeier Hansson/Sharp/Dalziel)

GT Le Mans

1. #4 – Corvette Racing (Gavin/Milner/Pagenaud)

Prototype Challenge

1. #54 – CORE autosport (Braun/Bennett/Gue/Wilkins)

GT Daytona

1. #48 – Paul Miller Racing (Haase/von Moltke/Miller/Rast)