One of the Lamborghini's exits pit lane. That's the #48 Paul Miller Racing entry shared by a quintet of drivers. Bryan Sellers teamed with Madison Snow, Bryce Miller, Dion von Moltke, and Italian Andrea Caldarelli. Another routine service also for the #10 Cadillac. Ricky Taylor still driving. Has Marc Goossens come back into the #90 car? Hmmm. Ah. No worries. Renger van der Zande is still in the #90 machine. Brendon Hartley checks up in the Bus Stop. Hartley is leading, and so the Nissan DPi becomes the first non-Cadillac race car to lead this Rolex 24. Mazda led very, very briefly, but did not cross the start/finish line in the lead. The car is powered by the 3.8 liter turbo V6. Hartley has many GT cars to negotiate. Hartley won the Dubai 24 Hours of course, as you saw here on Endurance... The Sports Car Racing Blog.
Cars #2 and #81 have made pit stops. #2 had a look at the motor. The Cadillac's have really been running well. We are close to seeing Saturday become Sunday. Brendon Hartley pits with a minute's lead over Ricky Taylor. 274 laps (975.4 miles) done. Check the tire pressures, and add fuel. The #31 Cadillac has also pitted. Tires and fuel. No driver change. Dane Cameron is still in the car. #5 is also in. The #5 Cadillac pits as well. It could be that the driver (Joao Barbosa), got out of the car. Nope. That wasn''t the case. James French pitted the #38 Performance Tech Racing Prototype Challenge car.
Driving stint times are increased overnight and in the early hours of the morning. Sebastien Bourdais avoids a slow Prototype which could be the #85 JDC Miller car. GTLM cars are running as high as ninth. Sebastien Bourdais and Tony Kanaan are 1-2 for Ford followed by Jan Magnussen, James Calado, Richard Westbrook, and Richard Lietz. Ford, Ford, Corvette, Ferrari, Ford, Porsche. Acura now leads GT Daytona. Graham Rahal leads Colin Braun, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Connor De Philippi. That car is back on track again. Christopher Mies has taken over from Connor De Philippi.
Matteo Cressoni in the #63 Ferrari 488 is next. Matt Bell in the #57 Stevenson Audi is the best placed Audi. Ezequiel Perez-Companc is next in the Lamborghini, followed by Ben Keating in the first of the Mercedes AMG GT3's. The #4 Chevrolet Corvette C-7-R- is tenth in GTLM, 42nd in the overall, with Tommy Milner driving. Milner's car had a 35 minute pit stop and that's why it has fallen down the order. The Steve Simpson and Dane Cameron battle was attributed to pit stop times, and far faster lap times from the Whelen Cadillac. Simpson was slower on his outlap.
Ryan Dalziel is at the controls of the #2 ESM car. The norther edge of the rain band is dissipating, but it is stretching west to east, and sadly that means rain won't end. Luca Persiani is now at the wheel of the majorly damaged #27 Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Patricio O'Ward leads Prototype Challenge in 18th overall, ahead of the second and third place BAR1 Motorsports cars, driven by Don Yount (#20), and Tom Papadopoulos (#26). The #19 BMW M6 GT art car, pits. It has a minimalist nautical theme with red and green dots on the roof, yellow stripes on the hood, and a picture of another BMW GT race car, on the door. Well, the car is on the right door, and on the left door is the word, fast.
No driver change. Just fuel and tires. We await the #23 Alex Job Racing Audi. Frankie Montecalvo will take over the car. Ford pits the #69 for fuel and tires. John Baldassari, a minimalist artist painted the car. Red dot on the roof. Fast, on one side, and a picture of the car on the other. Porsche #911 is in. Oil is being added to the #23 Audi R8. The leading GTD contender, the #93 Acura, is in the lane now. Right behind, comes the #86 sister car. Driver changes and fresh sticker rain tires for both cars. The #69 Ford GT also pitted, and almost clipped the #912 Porsche! Wow.
The #68 Ford GT is now in, too, and so did the #911 car. The #54 Porsche has also made a stop. There have been driver changes in many of these cars. Jan Magnussen in the #3 Corvette leads GTLM. Ford, Ford, Ferrari, and Porsche are next in the order. Laurens Vanthoor is doing very well in his first race for Porsche after leaving Audi. The four Ford's stopped in a four lap window. #66, #69, #68, #67. Pit stop time for the #50 GTD Mercedes AMG GT3. Gunnar Jeanette has been in the car. The #96 Turner BMW is in. Driver change, fuel, and tires. Jens Klingman is at the controls.
The witching hour is approaching. Midnight. One of the Prototype Challenge cars is having issues with the under tray, and bottoming out on the banking. That's the #88 Starworks car which like it's sister car has had a torrid Rolex 24 so far. Brendon Hartley is still running well in the #22 car. Good Sunday morning to everyone, as we head for day two of the Rolex 24. Long way to go in our blog coverage, though. ESM has used the safety cars to their advantage, and they are running well in the wet. The Cadillac's have been fragile. Will these teams keep the pace they've maintained? Attrition has not been a major issue.
Lots of cars are still out there pounding around. Hartley has a big wiggle, but continues. Take account of each car. But it is not like it was 20 years or so ago when yours truly started watching this race every year, and you'd see speed differentials of 50-60 miles an hour between Prototypes and GT cars, as there were variances in technology of the cars, and skill of the drivers. That disparity has become a lot less in the modern sports car racing age. The #88 Starworks PC car is in it's pit box for routine service.
Ricky Taylor is the fastest car on the road at the moment, as Brendon Hartley and Joao Barbosa are slightly slower. Connor Daly is out of the car. Not sure who is the new driver. This is your slightly used, pre-owned, pre-crashed race car. There are lots of pieces of bodywork that have fallen off the car. It's had a big old smash someplace. It must be driving like a pig. The track is so cold, and there's no way to generate heat in the tires. That PC car is actually post-crashed and post-repaired. $100 or best offer. Hardy har har. The rear bodywork was in a shark attack.
The #28 car pits. Rain is still coming down, but not as heavily as before. Continental does not make an intermediate tire. The tire will work just as well in the heat as it does on a cold winter's night in Florida in the 30s Fahrenheit, like it is tonight. Renger van der Zande pits from fourth and stays in the car. Renger van der Zande is doing a triple stint. No grip on the track means drivers are spinning their wheels, which burns up more fuel than running at a steady pace. Ricky Taylor is 22 laps into his stint.
Steve Simpson should be handing the #85 car over to one of his co-drivers. The #81 car pitted. Loic Duval got into the car. No one cleaned the windshield though. His windshield is smeared. He'd best get on the horn to th crew and ask, "may I have my windscreen cleaned?" The #28 on it's pit stop, changed drivers. Daniel Morad, out. Jesse Lazare, in. Ricky Taylor pits for new tires, and will stay in the Cadillac for another stint. He's doing the iron man stint here. Taylor loses the lead to Brendon Hartley, briefly, and will gain it back when Hartley hits the lane. Joao Barbosa is going to slot into third. Possibly, second, depending on distances and gaps.
The rain is getting worse. Corvette #4 just made a pit stop. Ben Hanley ran a 1:52.2 in his stint, whil Lapierre was running 1:53s. Alex Popow is now in the #88 car and it is back on track. The #4 Corvette had a regular service but no driver change. ESM car #2 pits. In some ways, these guys are driving on ice with all the rain out there. It's slick and treacherous all around Daytona International Speedway. It's so cold that the tires are steaming, which looks surreal. The #85 JDC car has Misha Goikhberg at the controls now, taking over for Stephen Simpson. Chris Miller and Mathias Beche are the other drivers on the team.
Brendon Hartley will come to the pit lane in a few laps, at the end of a double stint. Hartley will be in, and then, Joao Barbosa in the #5 Cadillac. The 19th BMW art car has been done for Daytona. The 18th, has actually not been completed yet. It will be some kind of interactive art for a car to race at the Macau Grand Prix, done by an interactive miltimedia artist named Chao Wei. When the #22 car appears, there will be no driver change. Aston Martin #98, Audi #57, and the remains of the thoroughly battered and bruised #15 Lexus RC F GT3, are all in pit lane for regular service right now.
#22 is in the lane. The pit crew is ready. No driver is announced for a change. Brendon Hartley will stay in the car. Four new tires. The #31 Cadillac pitted for four tires and fuel. Dane Cameron continues to drive. We have debris on the track. Brendon Hartley has been slightly off the road through the International Horseshoe. He's running wide again. Could Brendon Hartley be in trouble? Out of turn six, maybe Hartley can gain speed on the banking in the tri-oval. Whoa! Heart in throat moment, for Brendon Hartley! Big wiggle! Oh! Disaster for Brendon Hartley! He's crunched the wall!
There was a slight bump with the #991 Racer's Group Porsche 911 GT3R, and that sent Hartley slamming into the SAFER barrier. The #5 Cadillac is in the pits, and could jump up to second place with Hartley's aforementioned conundrum. Fuel only for the #5 Cadillac. Brendon Hartley is stopped, waiting for space to cut the Bus Stop completely to get the car back to the pits. The Action Express Cadillac is up to second in the overall and the #90 Visit Florida Multimatic Riley Mk. 30 is into third. We have a full course yellow after the #22 was stranded. Brendon Hartley has lost power. Emergency service going on for the red #55 Mazda RT24P, the sole remaining RT24P in the race. Topped up with fuel. He will have to pit again after the GT cars go through their sequence.
Hartley is in discussion with the marshals who will try to get the #22 car back to the pits.
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