5AM. It's the lowest point of the race. The murky dawn. How far away is the end of the race? The checkered flag seems so far away. You hear each sound. Drivers come and go. A new day full of hope is about to come. If the cars continue in this fashion, well, we'll see where everyone might position themselves, for the finish. The Toyota's are running one lap longer, 13 laps, on fuel runs. The #2 Porsche stays out for another lap. The top three all are on the same lap. Romain Dumas will hit pit lane, and soon. Just under nine hours to go. We have to wait yet, to back time this race. It is very hard to read the traffic patterns.
On the Mulsanne, up to 200 miles an hour, then, coast, stand on the brakes, and fly, again. Sail through the last 10% of the straight. Ferrari and Ford continue their battle in LM GTE Pro. Giancarlo Fisichella has had a good stint, with the turbocharged Ferrari 488 GTE. Ford has the straight line speed, and Ferrari, has the agility in the corners. Fisichella took an old Ferrari F1 car from 2009, around Daytona International Speedway including the high banks! Wow! I wish I'd known he was going to be there! Audi #8 pits. The 2009 cars were V8 motors, in Formula 1. Marc Lieb now leads this race, and the cycling of the pit stops determines who is where as skies continue to lighten.
Porsche sets up for a pit stop. Romain Dumas, will take over. Rebellion looks to be headed for the house. Well, actually, they are already out, with the #13 car. Race leader is in the lane. Lieb completes 241 laps (2,046 miles). Ooh. Dumas has some traffic ahead. A GT Porsche, it appears. Rebellion's race, is going from bad to worse. Problems for the #12. Rebellion will want to erase Le Mans 2016 from their memory bank. There's a local yellow flag somewhere, as the cars negotaite a slow zone. There is damage to the G Drive car. That's Simon Dolan. Dolan tipped Nicki Thiim's Aston Martin into a barrel roll at the previous race at Spa, back in May.
Romain Dumas continues chasing Stephane Sarrazin. Marc Lieb got out of the driving game for a while, to study engineering. But he is definitely back now as a Porsche factory driver. Marc Lieb can understand engineering concepts and turn a quick lap, much like the late, great, Mark Donohue. Sebastien Bourdais is laying down solid laps in the #68 Ford GT. Whoops. One of the Aston Martin's stopped briefly in Mulsanne. Nicki Thiim is not too far behind Scott Dixon. Thiim may have been in that Aston that stopped earlier.
Chris Amon who drove the winning GT40 in 1966, had a 100 mile an hour closing rate on the smaller cars, on the Mulsanne straight, hand shifting, no power steering, and two man driver teams! Can you imagine? No chicanes on the Mulsanne either. Remember, this race, has double points on offer before the second half of the season begins in a month or so. More details coming, at the end of this race, a long way from now. LMP2 has been tough. It used to be they would be the last man standing.
David Heinemier-Hanson is running with Abu Dhabi Proton Racing. He is running his fifth Le Mans race and has done so, in Prototypes and GT cars. He is driving with Patrick Long. David Heinemeier-Hanson, is computer programmer, turned racing driver. The sky grows lighter as we watch Scott Dixon running third in class behind team mate Sebastien Bourdais and the Ferrari 488 GTE in the hands of Toni Vilander of Finland. Sebastien Bourdais was born and raised here in Le Mans. Aston Martin has kept their head in the game even though we've focused on Ferrari and Ford. Scuderia Corsa leads LM GTE Am with Jeff Segal, Townsend Bell, and Bill Sweedler. The team just did a brake change.
We still have eight and a quarter hours remaining in this race. Toyota, is in the lane, now, for service. You cannot change tires while the car is being fueled. Incredibly, the Corvette C-7-R- race car, produces less horsepower than the Z06 street car, due to the BoP regulations. The Pro cars are R designated, and the Am cars, are C7 Z06's. The #64 Corvette has had a big off! He locks the brakes, and ker-runch! Slams the tire wall, hard! That is in the Ford Chicane. When you wreck the car, you feel awful. He's a full lap from the opits, too, running eighth in class.
This is what separates racing from any other sport. You can throw a horrid pass in the Super Bowl and still score. But, in racing, everything builds on everything else. Toyota #6 pits. So does the #2 Porsche. Tommy Milner is OK, and the car is fabulously strong. But, it's game over for Corvette in this race. Corvette still has one bullet in the gun, with the #63 car. Gavin said Corvette wasn't sandbagging. Well, you cannot know, even if a driver admits to not doing it. But, the BoP has favored Ford and Ferrari in this race.
Audi #8 is in the lane. The one Corvette, is now ahead of both GTLM Porsche's. One blew a motor and the other is way down on pace. The team is not running the full season. We need a bagpiper strolling along to wake people up. The slow zones are a great idea, to reduce the necessity of full course yellow flags.
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