Some of the Michelin shod GTLM machines, have been lapping four to six seconds quicker, than the #17 Porsche 911 RSR running on Falken tires. The factory cars are using the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship LM GTE Pro rain tire. The first time they have been on that tire, this year. Pit action begins, as the Prototype cars enter. Everyone will top up with fuel. What about tire strategy? Richard Westbrook, pitting from the lead, will get a fresh set of Continental rain tires. It looks too, as if both Richard Westbrook and Christian Fittipaldi, will do double stints. No other drivers are up on the pit wall to switch over.
Ricky Taylor is mentally frustrated, that he cannot attack the race track in the wet, like he could in dry conditions for practice and qualifying. So the WTR team lowered the tire pressures, to make driving the car, easier. This is also demanding on the mechanics. They are drenched, and have to still execute the pit stops, accurately. As we cycle through this yellow flag, the Cameron/Curran/Papis #31 Corvette Prototype takes tires. Richard Westbrook and Christian Fittipaldi also pit, and no driver changes.
Ricky Taylor is having a hard time attacking the track. He needs more car. Standard pit stops here, blokes. This race is demanding on cars and drivers. But, it is also demanding on mechanics, who are standing in the lane, soaked, having to accurately execute a pit stop. All your equipment, (air impact guns, tires, fueling rig appliances), is wet. You can slip and fall if you are not careful. It's a treacherous environment. These kinds of mistakes, will be exaggerated today. Car #912 enters a closed pit lane. #31 will move to the lead. Max Papis, is celebrating a birthday.
The rule is you can come into the pit lane when it's closed, only to do emergency service, and not a full stop. The GTLM and GTD cars are in the lane, now, including routine service for car #911. Giancarlo Fisichella brings the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia to the pits. Pierre Kaffer takes over. The car needed new tires. #912 stops at pit out, because the field is passing by, behind the safety car right now. Don't run the red light at the end of pit lane, or, you will be penalized. Many fans, who attend this race year in and year out, due to it's popularity, camped through the rain, to be here.
A big shout out to the SCCA track workers at this race. We couldn't race, without you guys. Kudos to the camera operators for the Fox Sports TV broadcast, too! They are in the wars, standing at their posts, through the rain, to deliver great pictures and onboard cameras. The #17 Falken Tire Porsche pits. If anyone is looking for a turnkey race team to buy into, buy this one. Derrick Walker (team owner), and team manager, Phil Howard, have done a great job with this team over the years. Everyone, including their competitors, want to see them do well, as they close the curtain on their racing operations in TUSC.
The Deltawing pulls in behind the #17, and they were bullish about getting a good result in this race, with wet conditions, and also, in our previous race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Green, green, green. This race is underway, once more. Spencer Pumpelly in GT Daytona leads the field to green. A class leader, can lead the field. The overall leader of the race, does not have to be at the head of the queue. Dane Cameron now leads over Richard Westbrook. Joey Hand is using his aggressive style to carve through the field in the Ganassi Racing #01 Riley Ford EcoBoost.
Nick Tandy, is also scything through traffic. Joey Hand shares the Ford turbo V6 powered Ganassi car with Scott Pruett, and a real heavy hitter... Scott Dixon. Dixon is a four-time Indycar champion, the winner of the 2008 Indianapolis 500, and, a part of the driving team, in a second Ganassi car, that won the Rolex 24 at Daytona back in January, this year. Readers of this blog, will recall that race. Click backwards to the January archive.
The #01 team is a long shot for the championship. They'd need to win this race, and have the #90 car finish outside the top six spots. If they can mirror Dixon's win in the Indycar finale at Sonoma Raceway where his rival Juan Pablo Montoya got sixth place, they could snatch this championship, at the end of the event. Joey Hand aggressively pursues the #10 WTR Corvette Prototype through the esses, coming downhill to turn ten. Ricky Taylor says, "no way, sunshine!" and holds him off.
Oh man! The Porsche is right inside of Joey Hand! Nick Tandy was knocking on the door, and almost had the password to unlock it! Joey Hand sets up Tandy in the equally fast GTLM Porsche 911 RSR, and passes Ricky Taylor on the downhill, under the bridge! How close do you like it? Sometimes, when you are on the racing scene, watching, or covering them, like I do, you get blase about driver's skill... to paraphrase Fox Sport's Calvin Fish. But, clearly, (and Fish has a point when he says this), Nick Tandy, is one of those great drivers.
Ricky Taylor is trying to find his footing with new tire pressures, adding pressure to the tires and going from 24 PSI to 30 PSI. The tire footprint changes, and so does the feel, like adjusting a spring in the suspension. GTLM is right up there with the Prototypes. Dane Cameron runs a lap at 1:30.3, while Nick Tandy runs a 1:30.2. That could seesaw for the whole race. GTLM will be a battle between Porsche and BMW, with Corvette maybe getting an occasional look in. They are not worried about overall success. But, it would be great if either BMW or Porsche, could stand on an overall podium, and not just one in class.
The #912 factory Porsche team will get a stop and 60 second hold penalty, for working on the car, in a closed pit. They did more work than what was allowed to fix a punctured tire. That gives a team too much of an advantage, and thus, the penalty. John Edwards and Bill Auberlen are driving the two Team RLL BMW's right now, sandwiched between the two yellow factory Corvette's. BMW is also a factory operation, and the #25 is in the mix for the driver's championship in GTLM. John Edwards in the sister car, has just taken over from Lucas Luhr. Bill Auberlen has been in the #25 since the green flag waved.
The lap times have closed up greatly in these wet conditions, compared to the dry conditions last time out at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The GTLM cars, for instance, close up more, on the Prototype Challenge machines, and so on. The discrepancies in performance between the classes of cars, is a balancing act, because, the performance level cannot be too close between the four. The multi-class racing relies on data of how the cars perform. It's driver skill in the wet, and how the car is feeling. A Prototype won't overtake GT cars' too often.
Let's look at the differences in lap times between the four classes, for comparison. Overtaking has to be decisive. In Prototype, Richard Westbrook runs fast lap at 1:28.8. Nick Tandy has fastest lap in GT Le Mans, at 1:30.2. Prototype Challenge fast time belongs to Tom Kimber-Smith at 1:34.3. In GT Daytona, those guys and gals are running in the 1:37 bracket. That's the spread. These guys are getting paid to push the envelope and not to just ride around on a Sunday cruise. Think of the big picture, first. What is required of me, as a driver, to satisfy the team and manufacturer employing me?
Finish on a high note, going into the off season, to build momentum, for next year. If you are out of a job, impress. #912 pits to serve it's penalty. At COTA, it was hot, humid, and super fast. Here, at Road Atlanta, in the wet, you are driving slower. What effect does that have on driver durability? It is physically easier in the wet. But, it is harder, and more fatiguing, mentally. Driving in the wet, gives you a headache, and your eyes look like saucers. You never relax. The headlights guide you along a narrow ribbon of racetrack.
You are spinning off the road, in the wet, at a much lower speed, (40, 50, 60 miles per hour), compared to 80, 90, 100 miles an hour, in the dry. Speaking of spins, someone has looped it out of turn five. Oh dear. It's the #54 CORE Autosport Prototype Challenge car! You're clear. No, you're not. Stay there. Don't move. Count to three. 1, 2, 3. OK. Track's clear. Back it up, daddy-o. Ugh! Bennett has high sided the car. Wait. Watch out. More traffic coming. Be gentle. Don't back up too far. Other cars have to take evasive action.
Phew! He's pointed it in the right direction. That could have been a bad one. Bennett will be flustered after that little mishap. White headlights on the Prototype cars. Yellow headlights on the GT cars. There is almost a nonexistent speed differential, whereas, 20, 30, 40 years ago, in sports car racing, Prototypes were at least 50-70 miles an hour faster, than the fastest GT machines. The key is, if a driver gets caught out, but can't understand why he got caught out. He has to adjust and compensate, for the rest of the race course.
There are Pro's Pro/Am's, and amateurs like me, who just watch and write about this stuff. It's horrifying, looking through the spray on the TV screen, and then thinking a driver will suddenly see brake lights flashing on, and you'd best pray you have tire grip! Speaking of no tire grip, the #4 Corvette has just clobbered a tire wall! Oliver Gavin at the controls. Gavin apologizes on the radio, saying he got wide going into corner number one. Gavin is trying to use the downhill to back up. #4 has done well as #64 at Le Mans. But they have not had good years, for the last few, in U.S. sports car racing.
Gavin, driving backwards, has no visibility. The rear view camera, does not work in reverse, like it does on your road car, folks. Gavin is back on track, but out of the top 30 in the running order. The wet grass, sucked him in, just like how you take a sip of a drink. We watch a battle for the GT Daytona class lead between Spencer Pumpelly and Cameron Lawrence. Porsche 911 GT America vs. SRT Viper GTS-R-. No matter what tire you are on, the trick is, if the track dries, the tires get hot. Hot rain tires, don't work.
They have to be cool, to work effectively. Look for deeper water on the road, and place the tires in that deeper water, so they don't start to chunk, and wear out. Drivers get better grip on that outside line where race cars don't normally go. That's because they haven't worn down the aggregate on the asphalt. The jagged surface, makes better contact with the tire tread, and voila! You have, extra grip. Spencer Pumpelly has not yet made it to pit lane. The team is off strategy, slightly. Richard Westbrook, has now taken the lead of this motor race.
Coming to heavy traffic, Westbrook, into turn ten, sets up Dane Cameron for a pass. He threads the needle and makes it stick. Ooh. Thread the needle indeed. There was a slight touch between those two Corvette Prototypes. Action Express Racing has had a good year this year, for both of their cars, and they look to go into next year, with momentum. Both of the Mazda SkyActiv diesel prototypes are running well out there in the rain. But, this is the final race with these cars, in the diesel engine configuration. Next year, they will run a conventional petrol powered motor.
The diesel has been a great feat of engineering, and the cars have been there all year. But, Mazda has tested the gas motor, and they are quick, with it. The #3 Corvette C-7-R- pits from fourth in class in GT Le Mans. The rear bodywork, needs to be repaired. Antonio Garcia also says the windshield wiper is not working properly. Jan Magnussen takes over the car. Whoops! We have, another spin. It's the #97 Turner Motorsports BMW Z4 GT.
Michael Marsal is at the controls, and runs 11th in GT Daytona. Andy Priaulx and Billy Johnson are also in the car, as the Starworks Martini Prototype Challenge car, pits. Wolf Henzler has a quick off/on in the Falken Tires Porsche. Too much speed, and he couldn't turn, getting on the grass. Henzler is matching Nick Tandy's pace right now. When the tires are in a good window, the Falken Tires do really well. Although, Michelin, has really come on strong. The #54 pits. Jon Bennett continues in the car, and there will be fuel added to the car.
Jon Bennett is trying to stay out of the way of the leaders. You get to a point where you want to turn the car more. But, if you turn the steering wheel too much, it won't respond. The #73 Park Place Porsche is in the lane. First pit stop of the day for the team, with Spencer Pumpelly, Patrick Lindsey, and Madison Snow, on the driver's strength. With the rain, and a different fuel map, sometimes teams in GT Daytona, can stretch to an hour and a half or an hour and 45 minutes between fuel stops. Err on the side of caution.
Patrick Lindsey is now at the controls. The car gets sideways onto turn seven leading onto the back straight. Former driver Lyn St. James, has created a scholarship award for women in racing, and she put together a leadership award. Well, she awarded it, this year, to Dr. Don Panoz. Marc Goossens will be the next driver to race in the #93 SRT Viper GTS-R-. The #3 Corvette, apparently, has been dealing with electrical problems.
Rain continues to fall, and now, Nick Tandy, through running some
blindingly quick lap times, is third in the overall, in among the
Prototype contenders. Richard Westbrook, the race leader, and Christian
Fittipaldi, are the only cars to be ahead of Tandy, at the moment. The
GT Le Mans cars, are quite fast, and handle very well. Uh oh.
Christian Fittipaldi was thought to have beached it in the gravel,
spinning off the road. The caution flag comes out, prematurely,
signaling, a full-course yellow.
The yellow flag is
because of treacherous conditions. As a driver, if you see a fellow
competitor off the road in the rain, you will instinctively go to the
brake pedal, harder, and spear off the road, in the same direction.
Conditions are starting to deteriorate. Richard Westbrook especially,
has been saying there's zero visibility. The visibility is only getting
worse. Nick Tandy has moved to second overall. He is sharing with GT
Le Mans championship points leader, Patrick Pilet. Pilet's nearest
points rivals, (Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner), driving the BMW Team RLL
BMW Z4 GT, run second in class.
The winner takes
all. Whoever finishes in front, takes the GT Le Mans drivers' crown.
Porsche and BMW are also in it for the manufacturer's cup. Cameron
Lawrence in the SRT Viper continues leading GT Daytona. Johnny Mowlem
leads Prototype Challenge, ahead of fellow Briton, Tom Kimber-Smith.
The jet dryers are out, blowing water off the track. Still under full
course yellow. Everyone is also hitting pit lane. The #90 car is one
of those teams, and Richard Westbrook climbs out, handing over to team
mate, Michael Valiante.
Sebastien Bourdais, has also
taken over the #5 Action Express Racing Corvette Prototype from
Christian Fittipaldi. Dane Cameron in the #31 car, makes a valid
complaint on the radio to his team saying, "when I drive by the jet
dryer cleaning the track, the force of the jet engine, almost blows my
door open!" The Mazda's could run well in these conditions, with their
diesel engines. We see the #48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS pitting.
There will be a driver change. Dion von Moltke will give way to one of
his co-drivers.
The GTLM and GTD cars, can now pit. The #17 Falken Tires Porsche blasts its way out of pit lane, after a scheduled stop. Michelin, supplying tires for GT Le Mans, compared to Continental, supplying tires for the other three classes, can work harder on developing a tire, that is suited, to meet the demands, of all kinds of different race tracks. Corvette, Porsche, and BMW have won. Ferrari has been close. The tire battle is also intense. The biggest spread in the championships, is Prototype Challenge, because it's a spec class.
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