The conditions are still diabolical as we enter the 18th hour. The #5 and #10 Cadillac's are virtually nose to tail. The leaders are working their way through traffic, which has been and always is, a constant theme here at the Rolex 24, despite the starting fields being considerably smaller than they used to be. When yours truly began watching and following this race a tad over 20 years ago, 75-80 cars would start. This year, 55 did of course. Less than seven hours to go now. This battle between the Cadillac's is amazing. Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor. Taylor tried making a move, and he and Albuquerque were going for it. But, having the preferred line, Filipe slammed the door in Ricky's face.
Albuquerque continues to lead. This race is far from over. Fred Makowiecki's pit stop was first, because he was assessed a penalty, and he came in to serve the penalty, but still needed service. Whoops. Oh dear. The pink Starworks car is in the wars, again. In trouble, slowing into it looks like, the International Horseshoe. That was the approach to turn three on the road course. Ben Keating has taken over car #8 from Chris Cumming who was not finding the going any easier, earlier on. The two leading Cadillac's are back together again, with Filipe Albuquerque on the outside line as they go to the banking, off of turn six.
Albuquerque had to go up high and run wide to avoid a GT Daytona car. Could this be Ricky Taylor's chance to pounce and slam the door in Filipe's face? Let's see. Albuquerque is the fish at the top of the tank, not a "bottom feeder" as far as someone who wants to stay on the low line. Ricky Taylor might have track position by the time these two blokes negotiate the backstretch. Down to the Bus Stop, and there's the Turner GTD BMW in the way. This could put the cat among the pigeons. The two Cadillac's split the #63 GTD Scuderia Corsa Ferrari. What will happen, now? Taylor takes the shorter way around the corner, and he moves ahead of the fellow Cadillac driver, and staying on the low line, where he's supposed to be, the driver of the Turner BMW (not sure who), isn't a factor.
New leader on lap 464. That's 1,652 miles so far. Marc Goossens makes another pit stop. Seb Morris is also in the lane, but he's taken the #31 Cadillac to the garage. #5 leads. But, the #31 sister car for Action Express has had a really fraught race to this point. Ben Keating could have indeed been at the wheel of car #8. Transponders are not the most reliable things in the world. Prototypes and GTD cars race together, as we see a spun Prototype, off of the exit of the Horseshoe. The #85 JDC Miller Motorsport Oreca has spun at that corner.
The car spins to the motorcycle hairpin, out of harms way. Misha Goikhberg is currently driving. Goikhberg has spun that car now at least twice. The #93 Acura NSX is being pursued by the #3 Corvette. The #3 car is second in GTLM with Mike Rockenfeller still at the wheel of it. "Rocky" is catching the class leader. Ricky Taylor leads Filipe Albuquerque by 1.4 seconds. The Konica Minolta Cadillac is set up a tad better for these conditions, as the #33 AMG Mercedes GT3 is in the lane. Ben Keating is doing double duty in this car. Riley Motorsports runs this car and it's the same team as when Keating ran the SRT Viper's last year and a couple of years before that.
#33 had been leading GTD since the restart, but has now handed the lead to Ryan Hunter-Reay in the #86 Acura, followed by the sister #93 Acura with fellow IndyCar driver Graham Rahal. Andrew Davis runs third in class with the #57 Audi. Keating is fourth, followed by Michael Christensen in the #28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche. Sam Bird, Jules Gounon, and Jens Klingman follow. Ricky Taylor has passed and lapped Marc Goossens in the #90 car. Correction. Renger van der Zande is at the keyboard of car #90.
The rain has virtually stopped. Will the track begin drying out? It'll be a while before we get a dry racing line. Conditions are easing, and the leaders are running laps in the 1:54 range. Other drivers are in the 1:57 or 1:59 bracket. Race Control tells the teams they can turn their rain lights off. The #98 Aston Martin, spins in the tri oval it appears. That's not in the tri oval. That's coming out of the chicane. #98 had contact with the #27 Lamborghini. Paul Dalla Lana did not know the Lamborghini was there. Pit stop time, again, for the #29 Audi R8. These boys run seventh in class in GTD.
Another off track excursion for the JDC prototype. The #29 Audi has bodywork damage from an earlier tire puncture. Porsche #912 is in the lane. Full service. Tires, fuel, and a driver change. Corvette #4 will pit, and the #31 Cadillac will keep going after being behind the wall. Richard Lietz may have taken over #912. The #3 Corvette pits. Not #4. Check that. #4 is pitting. Ninth in GTLM, 20 laps off the pace, and 31st in the overall. Laurens Vanthoor takes over #912 from Richard Lietz. #3 leads GTLM. Tommy Milner is driving car #4. Giancarlo Fisichella and Sebastien Bourdais are next in GTLM as the #67 Ford GT pits.
Fuel, driver change, tires. The #31 Cadillac is being push started in the pits, per the marshals' dispensation. A flawless stop for #67 and soon, the #10 Cadillac will pit. A little "casual contact" between the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 and the much aforementioned #29 Audi. Jeremy Schmidt is now at the wheel of the #29 entry. Jeff Schmidt. Pardon me. The #66 Ford GT of Sebastien Bourdais passes Giancarlo Fisichella for second in GTLM as the rain is starting to get heavy again. It's a light rain. But, here we go again. We are at a quarter to eight in the morning, and the rain isn't done yet.
The rain may leave us alone by 10:30 A.M. The #5 Cadillac pits from second and there will be a driver change. Filipe Albuquerque out of the car. Christian Fittipaldi will take over at the wheel. Porsche #912 served a drive through penalty, as we await the arrival in the lane of Cadillac #10. Lap count is at 472, meaning a total distance so far of 1,680 miles. Is it Christian Fittipaldi or Joao Barbosa in the #5? It is Barbosa. Fittipaldi was in before Albuquerque. Ricky Taylor stays in the #10 as fuel and tires are taken. A tear off is taken off the windshield. A clean pit stop. There's a small cord on top of the rear bonnet that is tugged to let the car down off the air jacks.
Big problems for the #20 Gas Monkey Racing/BAR1 Motorsports Prototype Challenge car. Damage to the left rear corner. Like Starworks, the quintet of Don Yount, former Indy 500 and Rolex 24 champ, Buddy Rice, Mark Kvamme, Chapman Ducote, and prototype ace Gustavo Yacaman, they too have had a star crossed Rolex 24. The left rear tire is still inflated, but the left rear taillight assembly has been damaged. This car is second in class, with Buddy Rice at the controls. Rice had been out of racing (not retired), for a few years. He takes car #20 to the garage. Rice and company had made up five laps during the night. But they will lose those laps with repairs now.
#20 clawed ground back when the #38 car was having issues earlier. For the remaining six and a half hours of this race, the PC battle will be between #38 and #20. David Cheng in the #26 entry that he's shared with Johnny Mowlem, Tom Papadopoulos, Trent Hindman, and Adam Merzon, might be too far in-arrears to be a contender any longer. The Prototype Challenge cars have been fine mechanically. The problem is, they've been running off the road and clattering into the barriers way too often. Keep it on the blacktop, chaps. Sebastien Bourdais passed Giancarlo Fisichella, moving the #62 Ferrari 488 GTE for Risi Competizione down to third in class in GT Le Mans. The #3 Corvette of Mike Rockenfeller, leading GTLM, he is six laps down to the overall leader, with 467 laps (1,662 and a half miles) on the board.
Sebastien Bourdais runs six seconds behind the Ferrari as the Ford vs. Ferrari rivalry is rekindled once again. These blokes are opening a gap on the #911 Porsche 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet, who is next in the serial in GTLM. Pilet has perhaps had his hands full with the fourth of the Ford GT's, (car #69, currently in the hands of Andy Priaulx). Priaulx had to serve a penalty in the sin bin. Pit stop time for Corvette #3 as Jan Magnussen takes over the car from Mike Rockenfeller. Ferrari #62 is also in the lane. Fuel and tires for the Ferrari. Ricky Taylor works his 474th lap. He leads Joao Barbosa and Renger van der Zande by 12.7 seconds, and only ten seconds back to the #90 machine.
Renger van der Zande has been putting the welly down and getting better lap times out of the blue car. The bugaboo for the Cadillac's is getting heat into the tires, while that LMP2 spec car, he can pretty much fly to catch up with the bigger Prototypes. All these cars are Daytona Prototype International spec. But, the European based LMP2 machines work a little differently, than the new 6.2 liter V8 Cadillac's do. In greasy, wet track conditions, like we have at Daytona, you can add all the extra horsepower you like to your engine. But, sunshine, sorry to burst your bubble, it will not help your performance.
Be careful what you wish for, as the saying goes. The gap has shrunk between P1 and P2, from 20 seconds, down to 14 seconds. Renger van der Zande, is Speed Racer right now. He's pulled four seconds off of Joao Barbosa, and eight seconds off of Ricky Taylor. van der Zande can either be called "Speed Racer", or "The Flying Dutchman". Both nicknames apply. The two Cadillac's will have to watch their mirror, because the Multimatic Riley is coming, and fast. Wait, folks. van der Zande, or "The Flying Dutchman", IMSA may steal his thunder, because he's one of the cars that has cut the chicane on the backstretch and if you've done that one too many times, in the marshal's eyes, they are going to nab you for it.
The old rule was if you cut the Bus Stop, you had to come to a complete stop, and wait to rejoin the traffic queue. But the marshals could not play traffic cop on that one. So, they had to change the rules to make things easier. Ford GT #69 pits. Fuel and tires, (full wets), and no driver change, as we hear the rattle guns chattering away. Ford #68 comes through the pit lane without stopping. He's going to serve some kind of penalty here. Not sure who is at the wheel of that car. "The Flying Dutchman", Renger van der Zande, passes Joao Barbosa in the #5 Cadillac and moves into second place.
Visit Florida hopes they don't have to serve this penalty as van der Zande nearly cuts the chicane again. But, maybe he's thinking a bit wiser and realizes the earlier error. van der Zande would need to do a drive through penalty. Acura #93 pits. Race Director Beau Barfield says that you have to go through the chicane completely or you will serve a penalty, especially if you cut it, and then improve your position. So, being that he's basically the chief steward, let's hope that drivers are at least aware of what may come of cutting that corner. Barfield is the top traffic cop for IMSA. Graham Rahal is in the #93 Acura. Fuel and tires, and Rahal, son of 1981 Rolex 24 and 1986 Indy 500 champion, Bobby Rahal, will stay in the car. Ryan Hunter-Reay in the sister #86 Acura stopped a few laps ago.
The front bumper is askew on the #93 Acura, but the team is not concerned at this point. It will not help the aerodynamics, but it holds the GT Daytona class lead. Sebastien Bourdais is now in the lane in the #66 Ford GT. No driver change. Just routine service. #66 is as clean as a whistle, 18 hours into this race. The #911 Porsche now leads. You can't sneeze in GTLM without losing the class lead. Laurens Vanthoor in the sister #912 Porsche has done well, but has dropped back in the order after serving a penalty. Ricky Taylor has gotten heat into his Continental rain tires back up to temperature and is lapping in the 1:57s, after slowing down to below two minutes.
Taylor is now in the 1:56 range as Renger van der Zande has been losing some ground. There's rubber and a lot of other clag or junk out on the speedway right now. van der Zande is serving his drive through penalty. van der Zande is having trouble recovering, getting out onto the damp patches in the International Horseshoe. Check that. It's the West Horseshoe, out towards turn six which leads to the backstretch. There could be a drive through penalty assessed to one of the ESM Nissan's too. Car #2 has made the drive through for their penalty. Last year's Rolex 24 winners are not having a good race this year at all. It has run 19 laps since it's last scheduled stop, so it can get another three or four laps in.
The #991 Porsche for The Racer's Group is making a pit stop. van der Zande forgot about the Bus Stop. But that seems to be the ultimate excuse. The #8 Starworks car spins again. Let's try and explain this penalty situation. Say, you are racing, and on the tri oval, and it takes 15 seconds to get there from where the pit entrance is, to where the pit exit is (assuming you dive off the banking heading to the lane itself). If you set your pit lane speed limiter and go gently through the lane, it takes you 40 seconds to get from A to B. That's the equivalent of a drive through penalty. It costs 25 seconds, according to Mr. Paul Truswell of IMSA Radio, to take a penalty like that.
IMSA marshals have been on the radio to the teams again, "if you cut and straight line the chicane, whether you like it or not, we are going to hand you a penalty." The schoolmaster is not giving any leniency to the naughty drivers who disobey the rules. He's got the ruler out, and he's going to slap you on the wrist whether you dig it or not. This is a change from what was said in the driver's meeting before the race started. Jonathan Bomarito is fifth in Prototype in the #70 Mazda RT24P, but he has also dropped in the overall, down behind some of the GTLM cars.
It is definitely daylight. But, we have a tad over the six hour distance of an FIA World Endurance Championship race, still to go. In GTLM, we've seen Ford nearly dominating (well we had that in the first third of the race). But, the Ford's have run into trouble, and allowed the Corvette's and the Porsche's to catch up. Porsche had some issues in qualifying, but they are running very well now, even as the weather was deteriorating. Porsche has done 45,000 kilometers of testing with the new car. 45,000 kilometers = over 28,000 miles! Absolutely staggering. That's as much mileage as you put on a road going car in maybe six months to a year.
Drama has happened, and it will continue to happen. DragonSpeed and Rebellion battle with their new Oreca Gibson Prototypes on track. A question comes up, "has Ford done the right thing going with four cars, or not?" The answer could be, no. They've separated the operations between the U.S. and U.K. based squads. The Ford team has had it's armor cracked. Car #90 pits for a proper pit stop instead of a penalty. Pit stop time for car #90. Fuel and tires. 22 laps on the fuel stint. It runs short on fuel compared to both of the Cadillac's. The Riley Multimatic is less efficient on fuel. The #31 Action Express Cadillac is in the lane. A driver change is happening. It's a routine stop. This car was running great yesterday, but now it is way down thanks to a litany of problems.
#31 has had issues with the starter motor as of late. The sister car #5, with Joao Barbosa driving, is second overall, obviously. But, Barbosa still runs 47 seconds behind Ricky Taylor and can't match the pace of the #10 Cadillac. Cars have blown through that chicane on the back straight 182 times, and so the marshals have really had to clamp down. Again, it's the schoolmaster giving the naighty kids a slap on the wrist. The top five cars (the top four Prototypes and lead GTLM car), have never raced before this weekend. We will get a car, winning the Rolex 24, that has never raced anywhere before. Who even thought of a stat like that? Hmmm. IMSA Radio commentator, Graeme Goodwin... thank you for that little tidbit of awesomeness.
Sebastien Bourdais is trailing Patrick Pilet in GTLM by 17 seconds, working his 482nd racing lap. So the car has gone 1,716 miles. Jan Magnussen is third in class in the #3 Corvette C-7-R-. The top six GTLM cars are all on the lead lap. Bill Auberlen in the BMW M6 GT has fallen off the lead lap, and is a minute and a half behind the Ford of Andy Priaulx. In replay, we can see that Pilet ran the Porsche wide in turn one and way off the racing line! Yikes! He got off line, and nearly hit the Motul sign covering the tire barriers. Pump the brake pedal to make sure you actually have brakes that are going to stop your race car from barreling into that tire wall.
More showers are forecast for the next half hour, before the weather turns for the better. No sun, but at least a chance to dry the track out. Drivers who adapt to the conditions changing, will have a real advantage in these final six hours. Seb Morris has run successfully in Ginetta GT racing and also in Formula Renault. But, he would have a propensity to crash out while leading races. Now, he has matured and not done that anymore. He will be a future star. More trouble for the beleaguered #26 Prototype Challenge car. This racer has lost some of it's bodywork, with David Cheng driving currently. The #20 Gas Monkey entry with Buddy Rice aboard, is still being worked on in the garage and hasn't appeared on track in quite some time.
That's front bodywork from car #26. It's in the middle of the road, out of turn five, just before you approach turn six headed back to the banking. There's a car's width of room to get by the debris, but it's still pretty dodgy down there. The nose section of the car, gets sucked off, and peels like a banana, nearly clouting the poor old driver, right on the cranium. That gives new menaing to the term "in your face." The headlight was gone, and the rest of the bodywork finally had enough and said, "listen daddy-o, I'm outta here!" It's also missing part of the front splitter. The sponsor of this automobile, is Case It, a company that makes accesories for 3 ring binders. Well, you'll need a binder of information on how to keep this car put together, and at the end of the race, it may end up in a binder the way it's been running.
File this one under, "OK, this race car goes in the circular file, before we build another for the next race. Time for Plan B." The damage was done in the initial impact, to break the headlamp and the splitter, and after that, the whole nose section went skyward and crashed back to earth. This is the 14th full course yellow of the race, and an opportunity for pit stops. This is a well-timed yellow, if there is such a thing. Renger van der Zande in the #90 may be out in the cold on this one, as Scott Sharp will be in the #2 Nissan DPi. One of the tow links is broken off that #26 car. The #20 BAR1 car is still in the garage. It won't prosper from the #26 machine's misfortune. Only six full hours remain in this race.
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