OK. The cars are ready. We are ready to race again. Back in 1965, there was rain, and the conditions were much worse. That was the year that Jim Hall and Hap Sharp, won, with the Chapparal, a legendary race car of his own design. We have not seen rain at Sebring since 1997. The forecast calls for the rain to stop. Race Director Beaux Barfield is doing a track inspection with one of the Porsche course cars. The race cars will go out under yellow, behind the safety car. They could just throw a yellow flag, and let the cars circulate slowly. There's loads of humidity in the air now. The Rain-X is being thrown onto the windscreens. The #66 Ford GT is in parc ferme, and needs to be repaired.
They think they might be OK, and they can still be in the race. The pits are open for stops. The #81 DragonSpeed ORECA 05 Honda, from the European Le Mans Series, is the first car in the lane, and now, the other Prototypes pit. Sharing the driving chores for #81 are Sweden's Henrik Hedman, and two rapid Frenchmen, with the same first name. Nicolas Minassian, and Nicolas Lapierre. Le Mans and Sebring champion, and all-time win leader at Le Mans, Tom Kristensen, is living in Florida, for a short period.
Olivier Pla is also a Ford GT driver for the World Endurance Championship, and for Krohn Racing car in the European Le Mans Series. Fox Sports' Andrew Marriott interviews Tom Kristensen. He says he has never seen this much rain during the race, but did see a really wet night practice at Sebring while he was driving. Corvette is in the lane. It's a scheduled stop for the #4 as well as the sister car. Tom Kristensen was Grand Marshal for the Rolex 24, and he says that he is not planning to return to racing.
Will TK beat Fox Sports' Calvin Fish at golf? Well, that remains to be seen. Hehe. We are going to go back to green. No more chit chat, happy chappy silliness. It's time to put the hammer down, and resume the race, in the fifth hour. We aren't far from halfway. We can't go back to green yet, as Spencer Pigot has nosed the #55 Mazda Prototype into the wall. He went straight on, for some odd reason. Pigot is sharing with Jonathan Bomarito and Tristan Nunez.
British driver Josh Webster will do his first laps at Sebring soon. He is driving for Konrad Motorsports in the #28 Lamborghini Huracan GT3. He is co-driving with the great Terry Borcheller along with German Christopher Bruck and Norbert Seidler. The #21 Konrad Lamborghini with Pierre Ehret at the controls, was withdrawn, after it caught on fire. Borcheller and Josh Webster will race for Konrad in Blancpain Endurance Series. So, check for those races to be updated on this blog, later in the year.
Scott Pruett has taken over the #31 Action Express Corvette Prototype from Dane Cameron. Eric Curran is also in that car. Both Mazda's are in the lane, getting repiared. Joel Miller is at th controls of the #70. Now, the #66 Ford GT is back on track again. There was not much damage to the car. Ganassi has announced his whole lineup for Le Mans that will include Scott Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais, and Billy Johnson.
We are halfway through hour five and back to green! Can Ricky Taylor clear the BMW? Yes. He's going after the ESM car. Scott Pruett is also there in the #31 machine. Lucas Luhr is not the overall leader. How will Scott Sharp handle the pressure of being leader? Mikhail Goikhberg spins the #85 JDC Miller Prototype Challenge entry. He got some help from another Prototype Challenge machine. The #38 of Kyle Marcelli, perhaps, for Performance Tech Racing, sharing with James French and Josh Norman.
The #50 Riley BMW Prototype, spins the GT Daytona BMW M6 from Turner Motorsports. Dorsey Schroeder was at the controls of the Prototype. Michael Marsal in the BMW is stopped dead stick, and we have another full course yellow. There was contact. Niclas Jonsson in the Krohn Racing/Flying Lizard Audi R8 was also involved in this mess. Insofar as the Mazda, there's no issues. It skimmed the wall.
#50 is being shared by Jim Pace, David Hinton, Dorsey Schroeder, and Byron DeFoor. Jonsson in the #45 Audi R8 shares with team boss Tracy Krohn, and with Pierre Kaffer. So, that is a solid driver lineup. We are now ready for another restart. Scott Sharp leads as we see Don Yount spinning through turn 17 in the #20 Prototype Challenge car. ESM wants the clean sweep of the 36 Hours of Florida. Filipe Albuquerque has been trying to pass other Prototypes. The GT Le Mans cars are not far off the Prototype pace.
Deary me. More off course agricultural racing, as Kyle Marcelli is off the road at Cunningham Corner. On the restart, car #20 came in too hot, spun, and ker-runch! He hits the tires. Marcelli only ran across the grass. The #52 car of Robert Alon could have also been in that mess. Things are beginning to settle down. Mazda boss John Doonan says the team has dodged some bullets. The pace is going strongly. They ran second in night practice, and qualified fifth quickest.
Mazda wants to return to Le Mans after winning in 1991. Will they race there again with the new regulations for next year in 2017? We'll see. Whoa! Kyle Marcelli is off the road another time. He's nosed it into the fence. The car didn't turn, and ker-runch. He's actually off and running again, with minor damage. Filipe Albuquerque has gotten around Scott Sharp. The two Scott's (Pruett and Sharp), battled. Then, Pruett took second. So, it's an Action Express 1-2. Ricky Taylor in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette Prototype has fallen to fourth.
"Mad" Michael Christensen is now third in GT Le Mans. He's one hot shoe. Another Dane with the Christensen name, but spelled with a Ch and not a K. Filipe Albuquerque gets the power down early off turn 13 and Scott Sharp has been demoted to second. Scott Pruett is now going fast and has gotten around the ESM Ligier Honda. With a defined dry line, you need precision. Pruett is running fast. We watch our new GT Daytona leader, with the #51 Spirit of Race, Hublot, Ferrari 458 Italia. The #51 is shared by Peter Mann from the United States, and Italians Matteo Cressoni, and Raffaele Giammaria.
Corey Lewis and Madison Snow, they are second and third in GT Daytona in two of the Lamborghini Huracan GT3's. As we approach halfway in this race (six hours), 81 laps have been completed. That's 300 miles. A furious battle between the Ligier Honda's has formed. Scott Sharp vs. Oswaldo Negri Jr. In sixth, it's the #24 Alegra Motorsports, InSync Riley BMW, shared by Daniel Morad, and other familiar drivers including Cameron Lawrence, Dominik Farnbacher, and Carlos de Quesada.
Ooh. A slight touch between those two Ligier Honda's, as Ozz Negri passes Scott Sharp. Sharp is losing ground to the #90 Corvette Prototype. Daniel Morad has checked out in this battle for third. Scott Pruett is going for it. But so is Daniel Morad. He ran a 2:08.5 compared to Albuquerque with a 2:09.2 and Pruett, with a 2:10 flat. These blokes are 15 seconds slower in wet conditions than they would be in the dry.
The #2 is in the lane for a pit stop. Pippo Derani is going to take over the car. Colin Braun leads Prototype Challenge, Nick Tandy in GT Le Mans, and Matteo Cressoni, in GT Daytona. With the drying conditions, the rain tires are being chewed up. But, you cannot go to slick tires because the line on the outside, is not dry. But, driving on old rain tires, they have no grip, and they feel like driving on oil. Cool the tires. Look for water. Exhaust fuel. Daniel Morad was running a 2:07.6. That's even quicker than some of the other blokes who have been in the lead positions.
Nicolas Lapierre was with Toyota a couple years ago. He won with ORECA in the Peugeot 908 diesel, when that team beat the factory cars. Team boss Elton Julian, for DragonSpeed, they will run the European Le Mans Series. Henrik Hedman has an Evil Knievel paint scheme on the DragonSpeed car. Corey Lewis for Change Racing and the #16 Lamborghini Huracan GT3.
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