Grand-Am, Rolex 24 at Daytona - Hours 16 to 18

06:55 Somewhere behind the fog the day is starting to dawn. No classic Daytona daybreak this year, I'm afraid. At least we could soon be back to racing.

07:00 Nic Minassian takes the lead under caution in the #76 Krohn Racing Lola. 

07:15 The latest official word is that we are likely to have another half-hour of yellow running. Time for another coffee.

With two-thirds of the race run, we've had less than 11 hours of green-flag running. Buddy Rice is the current leader in the #5 Action Express Riley Porsche, while the #40 Dempsey Racing still leads GT in the hands of Charles Espenlaub.

07:52 Hurrah! Restart in just a couple of minutes!

08:02 Green - at last!

Rice leads from Pruett from Zonta from Franchitti from McMurray from Papis; these six still on the lead lap.

The circuit commentator is so excited by the action on the restart that he is apparently speechless!

Pruett grabs the lead and pulls out a two-second lead on Rice. Franchitti is also on the move and gets third from Zonta.

In seventh place is Mark Blundell in the #23 - now just one laps off the lead.

Things aren't so close in the GT class, with the top eight in class all on different laps. Espenlaub leads in the #40.

08:09 Franchitti takes second from Rice, restoring the Ganassi 1-2. Zonta and McMurray are now on the trail of thrid place.

08:14 It couldn't last, could it? FCY #17. Unidentified car in tyre-wall.

The car is identified as the #53 TRG/Nadeau, driven by Joe Castellano.  

The fog delay ran to two hours 47 minutes - the longest since the red-flag of 2004, apparently.

DSC will soon be starting a petition to demand that John Hindhaugh and Radio Le Mans is immediately awarded the commentary contract for the Rolex 24 in perpetuity - the 40 minutes until SPEED returns can't come soon enough.

08:23 Green.

Pruett pits, leaving Franchitti in the lead. 

Blundell fails to get the wave-around and remains a lap adrift.

In GT, Espenlaub enjoys a lap advantage over Lally, while Tim Pappas is now on the same lap as the #67. The #54 driver can't match the TRG ace's pace though and is soon 20 seconds adrift.

08:36 Pruett's pressure on McMurray pays off and the Ganassi supremacy is restored.

As 500 laps are finally completed, 13.8s cover the top six. 

08:50 We once again have Ganassi, Ganassi, Action Express, Action Express in the top four, although Michael McMurray is keen to get the MSR name in amongst them once more. Meanwhile, Lally's is now on the lead lap in GT as a result of Tom Long now being aboard the #40 - and the TRG driver's pace, it has to be said.

The #07 Banner Racing Camaro has finally succumbed to transmission failure after a valiant effort.

Montoya is now back in the #02 having taken over from Franchitti, and is currently fifth.

08:06 Blundell pits the #23 and Zak Brown takes over.

12 confirmed retirements - 7, 77, 07, 17, 22, 36, 43, 56, 63, 65, 69 and 88.

The seemingly constant cycling of the lead continues. Pruett's yielding of the #01 gives the lead to Zonta; and his stop soon after in turn promotes Montoya. 

The #30 Racers Edge Mazda is doing a very good impression of a dry-ice machine in the pitlane and doesn't seem very happy at the moment.

As the end of Hour 18 approaches, will we again see a new hour start under caution? At present, we are averaging one FCY per hour.

Answer - nope!