Scott Pruett is running his first laps of this race. The event is now three hours old, and we're beginning the fourth hour. Jordan Taylor looks inside Scott Pruett, but he can't get the job done. Watch out for the tire marbles. They are not... grapes from a wine vineyard. Anyhow, Max Papis, is now pressuring Michael Valiante. Both Action Express cars, are running well. Tandy moves once, to block his opponent. But, the rules stipulate, you can make, one, and only one, move, to do that. If you drive defensively, you will be penalized by the stewards.
We see eight cars, within 5.8 seconds, in GT Le Mans. Patrick Long is being hounded by John Edwards. Corvette, off and on. Ryan Briscoe got on the gas, and actually spun, and whacked the wall. The traction control, went on the fritz. Briscoe is behind Simon Pagenaud. Scott Pruett runs fifth in the overall in the #01 Riley Ford EcoBoost. The SRT Viper in GT Daytona, continues to lead. They were the dark horse in GT Daytona. This year, these blokes will be difficult to beat in the championship.
Marco Seefried has taken over the #44 Magnus Racing Porsche. He was a driver on their winning lineup in GT Daytona from Sebring, last year. Porsche NA Vice President Jens Walther, joins the Fox Sports commentators, in the booth. Ooh. One of the PC cars, jumps a curb. Porsche easily transfers technology from the race cars to their road cars, and vice versa. Porsche repaired both factory cars, after both crashed into each other at Daytona, and it's made them a stronger team, too.
Porsche learns a lot from American racing, for the dynamics of the road cars they build, and they take lots of information from racing in the United States, taking the info, to Europe, for the races there. If a car finished the 12 Hours of Sebring, they will be good at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There will be another Porsche Rennsport Reunion this year. Nick Tandy remains the GTLM leader.
Aston Martin makes another scheduled pit stop. Darren Turner explains that the team's race was not a good one at first, but, they want to close within a certain amount of time. Darren Turner, was supposed to race at Goodwood in England. But, it is hard to choose, between Goodwood and Sebring. There is a car brand, called Turner, not related to Darren Turner. A one-off brand that ran in racing in the 1960s and also was a road car.
The #07 Mazda is back on track. Oh. The Aston Martin #007 spins. Christina Nielsen at the controls, spun off of turn five. Sebastien Bourdais is booking it. He's taken off like a scalded cat. Valiante is aggressive through traffic. Max Papis is harrying Valiante right now. The leaders are three laps away from a fuel stop. Bonus points are coming at the four hour mark. Execute a good pit stop, and get track position.
Eric Curran is now in the #31 Corvette. But, he has a loose wheel. This is heartbreaking for Action Express Racing! Curran says he cannot see. The radiators will be filled with dirt. The wheel, is like a lathe, doing damage to the front suspension. There goes the wheel. It's off the car. Three wheels on the wagon. Carry on. These cars are stiffly sprung now, and so, there won't be as much damage. With GT cars, there are more risks. Curran is on the backstretch, and he's going to make the pit lane entrance.
How much damage is there? How long will repairs take? This is a long yellow. So, there is time for things to sort out. There's no damage to the splitter. Lots of dust. The damage is cosmetic. There is damage to a wheel stud. Make sure the stub axle, the wheel, and the nut, are firmly joined together. They are. Oh. They can't lock the wheel on the pegs located on the bell from the brake disc. The wheel is remounted. But, there is damage to the studs. They can't get the wheel nut back on. Is it threaded wrong?
No. It looks OK. The #10 Corvette Prototype is pitting, and has issues of their own. This is the fourth brake change they've done this weekend. Max Angelelli takes over the car. We are coming to the end of the fourth hour. We are twelve minutes shy of points being awarded for the NAEC. Simon Pagenaud is running well in the #4 Corvette, before beginning his season in Indycars, next weekend. We're now ready to go back to green, as we are nearly 1/3rd of the way through this event.
We are back to green! Ben Keating gets swamped by the prototypes. Into the twisty bits through turn seven. Tons of cars, in one place. Some of these cars are nose to tail for position. We are near the eight hours remaining mark.
No comments:
Post a Comment