Rolex 24: Hour 2

There's still a problem with the #02 car, but he gets away.  Scott Dixon at the wheel.  New rules are in place.  The action is hot and heavy.  Yours truly is keeping up, or trying to.  But, this is a fun race to watch, everyone.  Joao Barbosa leads this race, 51 minutes in. We watch the GT LM battle.  Jonathan Bomarito and Marc Goossens still lead in their Dodge Viper's.  Gianmaria Bruni in the Ferrari 458 Italia, is third in class.  Bruni shares his Ferrari 458 Italia with Matteo Malucelli, Gianmaria Bruni, and Olivier Berretta.

The Deltawing is blocked by the GT cars.  But, it's so narrow and small, it's hard for other drivers to see it.  Let the overtaking car take the high line.  If you are slow, stay low.  Now, the #94 Turner Motorsports BMW Z4 GT in GT Daytona, is up to the top five.  But, Dane Cameron takes it off the road.  Cameron shares with Paul Dalla Lana, Augusto Farfus, and Markus Palttala.  But, he got clobbered by another car and that's how he spun out.  The #60 Ford EcoBoost Riley for Mike Shank Racing is having issues.

The #31 Whelen Chevrolet Corvette DP., has spun.  He slid into the chicane, releasing the brakes and sopinning all the way around, fortunately, without hitting the wall.  The #912 Porsche is in the pits.  Patrick Long, Michael Christensen, and another factory driver are in the car.  Pit stop rules for USCR are different from the old American Le Mans Series.  No longer do drivers have to shut the car off, and also, thetires can be changed and the fuel can be added at the same time. 

They must shut the car off.  OIliver Gavin pits and does a driver change.  The sister factory Porsche #911 also pits.  Brendon Hartley pits the #78 Starworks Motorsports Riley Dinan.  This team is the only one to represent BMW in the prototype class, now that Ganassi runs Ford power.  Dinan is the engine name, as BMW tuning specialist, Steve Dinan, builds the V8 motors.  This is the one and only BMW powered prototype.  Brendon Hartley (who is now, also a Porsche factory driver), shares with Scott Mayer, and Alex Popow.

The #2 ESM HPD prototype spins and whacks the wall.  He's got na broken tow link at the right rear.  TRhey can fix the car.  The #38 Porottype Challenge car of Tomy Drissi also spins.  He's a former Trans Am champion.  Now, the #1 ESM car of Scott Sharp, has spun, too.  There's oil down.  The engine won't rev.  The throttle position switch doesn't work.  Now, a GT Daytona car takes evasive action, and there's splitter damage.

He got slammed by another prototype.  Do you push it?  Do you risk going off the road?  The tires will be flatspotted.  Scott Dixon leads overall with the Ford twin turbo V6 motor is running well.  The Bus Stop chicane is very slick right now.  The winner of this race will cover 2,600 miles in 24 hours.  Ford tested their motor for that amount of time.  The engine blocks are made from a special type of iron, which makes them more durable.

Ricky Taylor teams up with his brother Jordan Taylor, for his dad's team.  Max Angelelli is also on the squad.  So, is Wayne Taylor (Ricky and Jordan's dad, and a great sports car racer in his own right).  He will soon get in the car, for one and only one stint in the race.  The #49 Ferrari is having issues.  That is the car that hit the Dane Cameron piloted BMW.  Gianluca Roda is at the controls.  He's stopped on the road.  But, there's lots of time to get back into the race.

Scott Dixon continues to lead.  The Muscle Milk Oreca Nissan is running well.  But, it spun off the road earlier.  No grip.  A lot of work has been done to equalize the Daytona Prototypes and what used to be known as Prototype 2 cars in the American Le Mans Series.  Dario Franchitti is here at the Rolex 24.  But, he's not racing.  He is recovering from an accident.  However, he's retired from driving.  He is now a driver leader at Ganassi Racing, much like Rick Mears had at Penske Racing.

Ricky Taylor pits the #10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette, and Scott Pruett pits, but is out of sync, hitting one of his crewmen.  The #99 Gainsco Corvette pits as the #48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 pits.  So does the #90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette.  Scott Dixon also comes to pit road.  This is the most pit stops we'll see in this race.  Tony Kanaan will take over the car next.  Ricky Taylor flies around the #99 car.  There will be an unsafe release penalty for the Ganassi car.

Memo Gidley is now at the wheel of the #99 car.  Marc Goossens still leads GT LM and still is driving the #91 SRT Viper.  Nick Tandy is pushing hard at the wheel of the #911 Porsche 911 and Patrick Dempsey wheels his #27 Porsche.  Slow cars need to stay down low.  One of the Ferrari 458's has a pit issue.  Traffic jams everywhere!  More battles all over the place on this track.  Joao Barbosa leads the race.  The smoke out of the car earlier, has gone away.

Brendon Hartley is running well in the #78 Starworks Riley Dinan that he shares with Alex Popow and Scott Mayer.