4:30 A.M. We have ten hours to go. We actually have three cars on the lead lap. Christian Fittipaldi, Rene Rast, and Jordan Taylor, as the #2 Nissan DPi and the #31 Cadillac DPi-V-R- pit. Harry Tincknell is still struggling. We have another car off and on at the horseshoe. Not sure which car was off. The #68 Ford GT pits, as Billy Johnson gets out of the car, replaced by Olivier Pla. No tires. Just fuel, and cleaning the car. The car stalled briefly. Billy Johnson just did a three hour, 44 minute iron man stint. Last year, the doors had issues. But for 2017, it has not been an issue. The #991 Porsche goes wide in the banking. The #22 ESM car is out there, running quickly with Bruno Senna, but it is 34th in the overall. It lost 26 laps to have the steering fixed.
47 of 55 cars are still running in this race. The #54 CORE Autosport Porsche is in trouble after it's crash, and it may come back. The #50 Mercedes remains in the pits. Cooper MacNeil had just gotten into the car, taking over from Shane van Gisbergen. The #5 Cadillac pits, and Filipe Albuquerque takes over from Christian Fittipaldi. Fuel only. He is third in the overall, third in class. Two cars on the lead lap. 403 laps, (1,434.68 miles), have been completed. Seven GTLM cars run inside the top ten places right now. The #38 Prototype Challenge leading car, pits. Drama too, for the #31 Cadillac which could be in the garage.
Nick Boulle is out of car #38. Not sure who the new driver is. Kyle Masson is the driver taking over it looks like. Eric Curran brought #31 in and handed it to Mike Conway, as he was out for two laps before going to the garage. We have yet another full course yellow. Action Express looked at the rear suspension. A computer is plugged into the car on the right hand side. This is an electrical issue, not mechanical. Caution number twelve, sees a car possibly off the road at the west hairpin. There could be debris on the road. Ah. It's a stopped Prototype Challenge car. The #26 Gas Monkey Racing car, with Trent Hindman at the controls.
Hindman was third in class. So, if #26 can't restart, Robin Liddell in the #57 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 will enter the top 20 in the overall, in 20th spot. The car has just stopped dead stick on the road. The #31 Cadillac is having electrical issues, as Eric Curran could not shift the car. Mike Conway could not do so either. They have also put a new nose on the car. The #26 car is on a tow truck. The first car behind the safety car is one of the Ford GT's. If it is not the class leader it won't get pointed by. But they have done the wave by, so the #10 Cadillac, leading, is first on the road.
The #10 and #55 are followed by the #22 and the #90. #55 and #22 are backmarkers. No end in sight for the rain. It will persist well beyond dawn. Drama for Porsche #912, stopped on the road. Kevin Estre at the wheel of it. Maybe the transponder is acting up again, as that has been an issue for the car the whole race. No driver change for the Cadillac. Marc Goossens replaces Rene Rast in #90. Fuel and tires for #90. Sean Rayhall will bring the #88 Prototype Challenge car into the lane. #912 leads GTLM. The transponder is not working. #912 is up to sixth in the overall. Estre, Werner, Calado, the top three in GTLM.
The GTLM and GTD cars pit. We will go back to green soon. #69 and #66 pit. Andy Priaulx will take over the #69. Porsche beats Ford. #68 also comes in. The Porsche's have pitted, and Mike Rockenfeller is in the #3 Corvette. #69 is still in the lane, because they are doing a brake change. New rotors for #69 and #68. The rotors look good. The Ford's have to beat the safety car so they don't go a lap down. It's going to be close. It sounds like the Ford's will make it without being lapped.
Issues for the #81 DragonSpeed Oreca 07. It may have passed the safety car. It looked like the car was going to stop on the front straightaway. #38 is in the lane. The #29 Audi drove all the way through the pit lane. You cannot serve a drive through penalty during a full course yellow. It is rainy and cold as we get closer to dawn. Filipe Albuquerque pitted and got his lap back, as he is trying to catch the pack. Check that, he'll still be half a lap down, and have to make up that half. He's third overall. Marc Goossens in the #90. Pippo Derani and Tristan Nunez round out the top five. Richard Lietz and Dirk Werner run 1-2 in GTLM. Kyle Masson leads Prototype Challenge for Performance Tech Motorsports, the last time we see PC cars in this race. Mario Farnbacher leads GT Daytona in the #33 Mercedes.
Who'd have predicted one Ford in the top five of GTLM? Hmmm. Porsche is running great in the wet, and so is James Calado in the Risi Competizione Ferrari. The #55 Mazda changed all four tires, and they had a problem with one of the tires. Tristan Nunez shut the car off, the car was put back on the air jacks, and then the right rear tire was secured. Lights out on the safety car. Nine hours and 25 minutes still to run. Rain will be here until 9AM or so. It is 43 degrees Fahrenheit. We are back to green. Watch out for the spray! The #57 Stevenson Audi runs wide. Jordan Taylor leads Marc Goossens. The #31 Cadillac is back on track, after spending 32 minutes behind the wall. 34 minutes, actually.
That car is 19th in the overall. #10 leads with Jordan Taylor driving. Marc Goossens is second in #90. Third is the #5 Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque. Fourth, a lap down is Pippo Derani in the #2 ESM Nissan. In fifth, the #55 Mazda Prototype of Tristan Nunez. Sixth is the #911 Porsche of Dirk Werner leading GTLM followed by team car #912, with Richard Lietz. James Calado next in the #62 Ferrari with Dirk Mueller in the #66 Ford GT, and Mike Rockenfeller in the #3 Corvette. After that, it's the #69 Ford of Andy Priaulx, Olivier Pla in the #68 Ford, and a lap down, the #19 BMW M6 GT of Alexander Sims. David Cheng spins the third placed PC car.
Three delayed Prototypes run behind Sims. Sebastien Buemi in the #13 Rebellion Oreca, followed by the JDC Oreca #85 of Stephen Simpson, and Ben Hanley in the #81 DragonSpeed car. Kyle Masson leads PC in the #38, two laps in front of the #20 Gas Monkey car driven by Chapman Ducote at the present time. Mike Conway is 19th. 20th is the GTD leading car, the #33 Mercedes AMG GT3 of Mario Farnbacher, followed by Robin Liddell in the #57 Audi, the #11 Lamborghini, the #86 Acura, the #93 Acura, and the #29 Audi. On the same lap is #28 Jesse Lazare, and then comes the final car on the lead lap is the #63 Ferrari of Matteo Cressoni. Two GTD cars a lap down are the #991 Porsche for The Racer's Group, and the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini.
Wolf Henzler is at the wheel of #991. Jordan Taylor slides the leading Cadillac. He fortunately recovers. Very little grip out of the kink. Jordan Taylor runs a lap at 2:03.124, and has a gap over the Marc Goossens driven #90, by 9.8 seconds. Dirk Werner leads GTLM and James Calado is second. Dirk Mueller is third, and the #912 Porsche has dropped to fourth in class. Tristan Nunez is a lap down after his penalty. Alex Sims overtakes one of the Acura GTD cars. Richard Lietz and James Calado pass the #55 of Tristan Nunez. We have yet another full course yellow on the speedway.
The #912 Porsche is having transponder issues again. This yellow may be for weather again. Race Control has to check. The #5 Cadillac may be losing ground, with Filipe Albuquerque at the wheel. The 13th yellow flag is due to rain, again. James Calado has moved into the GTLM class lead in the Ferrari. Alexander Sims will remain a lap down to the GTLM leaders. We had our previous yellow for 54 minutes due to rain. This is a quick yellow and the pit lane will not open. Maybe. We'll see if it is a rain caution.
There is lots of standing water and the rain is getting heavier. The grass in the infield is turning to mud. There are showers and thunderstorms around that is 60 miles wide by now. The band of the showers has widened from what it was. This is a question of survival when the racing resumes. At 10AM, it is supposed to stop raining. The problem with this safety car, being a semi neturalization, you have to be concerned with not overly stressing the driver, and how much fuel you have, in relation to the place in the crocodile behind the safety car.
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