Can Darren Turner fight back? This is a great pleasure to watch. These blokes are on a knife's edge right now. The Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD is in the pits for a hand cut rain tire, that just has small grooves cut into it with an iron. Neel Jani has moved to the lead. Jorg Bergmeister is eating up Darren Turner for second. The Aston Martin is being shared by Darren Turner, and Stefan Mucke, as mentioned. The track is now beginning to dry. The window will open, and soon.
Jorg Bergmeister wants to cool his tires to keep them from chunking and blistering. The cars are sliding around, and have lots of lateral load going through the chassis. Bergmeister tries and Turner is going for the over/under. This is wild racing. It's dry online. But, you have to have faith that grip is there. Here comes Timo Bernhard in the #20 Porsche 919 hybrid. Mike Conway is on his race debut with Toyota.
Sports car racing is a very viable career path for top drivers. The prototype teams want the good drivers. Nicolas Lapierre passes in the sister Toyota, saying to Conway, "watch out, sunshine. I might be quicker." These cars fly around the track. These cars dart through the turns with just as much precision as a Formula One car. The track is drying now in some spots. Treluyer is fighting the Toyota of Conway. This isn't for position, according to timing and scoring. Yet, it could be. Neel Jani, Tom Kristensen, and Benoit Treluyer, are all on the same lap.
Tom Kristensen pits the #1 Audi R18 eTron Quattro. Maybe he hit a curb. The change is being made to intermediate tires. The car heat soaks. The heat rises through the car, and you, the driver, are being steamed. Neel Jani and Porsche, lead. They have to win a race, and are looking for the checkered flag, here, at Circuit of The Americas. Porsche leads Prototype and GTE Pro at the moment. Use the eentire fuel tank. Toyota #7 is in pit lane. This is a driver change. Mike Conway, out. Alexander Wurz, or Stephane Sarrazin, has gotten into the car.
All the top runners in each category, are on full dry tires. In the heat, even in practice, drivers nearly got sick to their stomachs. This track is very physical with the s curves. Left and right G forces really pound you as a driver. These boys are athletes for sure. Both Rebellion LMP1-L cars are pitting. Older cars pulled lower G forces. The new cars, are much more physically demanding, in any kinds of racing.
This is great action, though. On of the factory Porsche's pits. We also see IMSA officials helping the FIA World Endurance Championship officials, for this race. Stefan Mucke is in the #97 Aston Martin V8 Vantage. He will be overtaken by the Porsche's in short order. The factory Porsche's lead. One of the Oreca Nissan's in LMP2, pits. Toni Vilander is the top running Ferrari. This is the halfway mark of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Neel Jani continues to lead overall. Benoit Treluyer runs into this section of right hand corners can do lots to a driver's neck. But, the hybrid power can show it's stuff. The #14 Porsche pits from the lead. But, no driver change, or tires. Fuel only, and Neel Jani stays at the wheel. Benoit Treluyer should take over the lead as we goi into the last few hours, or the last hour. Back-time this race from the end, to evaluate where your pit stops fall. If you need a repair, or have a puncture, you lose time. But, don't go forward.
With a hybrid car, don't roll through the center of the corner. How do you drive a hybrid? If you got on the throttle with a front or rear wheel drive car, with a big motor, you'd slide the car. We watch a split screen between the Porsche and Audi. On runs a diesel, and one, runs petrol. Now, we see the #37 SMP Racing prototype that is in the garage. This is Viktor Shaitar, sharing with brothers Kirill and Anton Ladygin.
Hitting curbs in a race car, is like body punches in a boxing match. Now, we see the Aston Martin being overtaken by the race leading Audi. The dark colored pavement offline, is still wet. Benoit Treluyer still has two hours and sixteen minutes to try and get this job done. Porsche has yet to win. Toyota and Audi have had everything. Porsche can't quite close the deal, yet. There aren't any weak links in this series. World class drivers run well for their teams.
Christian Ried, Kristian Poulsen, and Marco Cioci, run 1-2-3 in LM GTE Am, as it's a scrap between Toni Vilander and Stefan Mucke for GTE Pro. Who takes it? It's Vilander. Whoops. That's Cioci. Marco Cioci, the Italian, is a GTE Am driver. Once you acclimate to running in the dark, it is pleasant as a driver. You will run on your own, go quicker than in qualifying, and you'll do really great to the end of the event.
The stats people are working just as hard as the drivers are, piloting these rocket ships around COTA. The prototype lap times swing by three seconds, especially when it comes to the hybrid systems recycling. Anthony Davidson in the Toyota #8 is a lap down. Sebastien Buemi, is strategizing with a crew member. He had a spin early, and was told, "don't overheat the brakes." He was accelerating when he spun off the road.
Bernhard is slicing through the GTE traffic like a hot knife through butter. Car #20 is pitting. The inlap and outlap are measured, to wring every ounce of speed that you can out of the car. A yellow flag is being shown at turn nine with a big spin, for the #9 Lotus. Lucas Auer is at the controls, and he is the nephew of Formula One veteran, Gerhard Berger. The #2 Audi pits, and will undergo a driver change.
More horsepower is being pit through a smaller tire with these cars this year. Amazingly, the cars are running faster. Amazing! Car #26 shortcuts the track. That's the G-Drive machine. That puts the #30 car up a spot. That's the #30 Patron HPD of Ed Brown, Scott Sharp, and Ryan Dalziel. We are now just under two hours from the end of this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment