Andy Priaulx had less fuel to put in his Ford GT. For second overall, the #10 Cadillac has moved past the #5 car of Joao Barbosa. Ricky Taylor is flying. Taylor goes purple (fastest of all) in sector one. No other leaders except the Cadillac's for the time being. Mazda #55 with Jonathan Bomarito at the controls, runs eighth overall. The Mazda's nose is very distinctive, and it still races with a 2.0 liter 4 cylinder motor with a turbo. There was a front right tire puncture for one of the Porsche's. One of the factory cars in GTLM, and all GTLM cars use Michelin tires. 35 laps on the board so far. We have had some shuffling in the Prototype Challenge classes. Joey Hand leads GT Le Mans, ahead of Toni Vilander's Ferrari by 5.7 seconds. The #90 Visit Florida Riley Gibson is making it's second stop after Marc Goossens brought it into the lane.
Six different manufacturers in the top six, and seven in the top seven in GT Daytona. Well done to the IMSA officials who worked out Balance of Performance. It is significant that the #10 Cadillac set the fastest lap, and has gone furthest on it's first full fuel tank. Ford, Ferrari, Corvette, Corvette in GT Le Mans. Tommy Milner took over the #4 Corvette C-7-R- from Oliver Gavin. It is overcast, and cold. At sunset at 6PM, we'll see the teams strategizing for possible rain. The temperatures are the same. It's going to get down to the 30s in Fahrenheit temperatures tonight. With the tires, a tire stop will have to be eliminated. On the outlap, by putting new tires on, there will be time lost.
We've had a spin for the #28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R in GT Daytona. Carlos de Quesada put the team together, and he is at the wheel now. He's trying to restart the car. It was announced on the fly, at the awards dinner before Petit Le Mans last fall, a race yours truly still wants to cover. Carlos is driving with his son Michael de Quesada, sharing with Canadian drivers Jesse Lazare and Daniel Morad, and the Porsche GT veteran, Michael Christensen. The car is back running again. Pit stop time for Prototypes. Patron Racing and the #2 car are in the pit lane. There has been a driver change with Ryan Dalziel jumping out. Not sure if it is Scott Sharp, Pippo Derani, and Brendon Hartley getting into that car.
No tires. Early stop for the #24 BMW, and also stops for the Rebellion #13, the #55 Mazda, and another of the Prototypes. These prototypes are only running 40 minutes on full fuel tanks. Memo Gidley is back, watching this race, who had a horrid crash in 2014 here at the Rolex 24. Memo Gidley will get back to racing. He has raced his 125cc Honda shifter kart. It's been up and down for Gidley, but now, he's back into shape having undergone therapy and treatment, and had a lot of nerve pain, which is now gone. Both Cadillac's in the pits. WTR and #31 for Action Express. Ricky Taylor stays in the #10. The #2 ESM Nissan is in and so is the JDC Miller car, and the DragonSpeed car. Nicolas Lapierre out, and Ben Hanley, into the car.
#5 is in, and Joao Barbosa stays in the car. Fuel only. So glad to hear that Memo Gidley is back at the race track. Seb Morris is now at the wheel of the #31 Cadillac. Correction. It is Eric Curran. Ricky Taylor leads Joao Barbosa by half a second. Seb Morris comes here from the British GT Championship. Joey Hand still leads Toni Vilander. Patricio O'Ward takes the lead in Prototype Challenge, but now, Chris Cumming in #8 retakes the lead. Park Place Porsche leads GTD with Patrick Lindsey still in the car. Pit stop time for the #912 Porsche 911 RSR. Kevin Estre brought it in. Patricio O'Ward takes the lead from Chris Cumming in Prototype Challenge. Check that. Cumming retakes the lead.
Seven manufacturers in the top seven places in GT Daytona. Porsche is doing triple stints on fuel and tires. The fuel filler on the Porsche is still in the front, but, it is at an odd angle and the fuel flow is different now with the mid engine layout. Fuel only for Mazda on car #70. The gray Mazda. We see the #93 Acura in the wars, as the #98 Aston Martin spins coming off of turn six transitioning from the road course back to the NASCAR banking. Paul Dalla Lana drops to sixth in class in GT Daytona. Boris Said closes in in the #75 SunEnergy Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. Said shares with Kenny Habul and Tristan Vautier.
We have a slow moving #911 Porsche on the apron of the tri-oval. Patrick Pilet at the controls. CORE Autosport is having trouble. There's a problem. It's bottoming out on the apron, with a tire puncture on the right side. They have had two right front tire troubles. Make that three. There could be a suspension problem causing these punctures. Patrick Pilet out, and Fred Makowiecki in. He is serviced and sent. Maybe the team knows the tires are in trouble. Chris Cumming pits the #8 pink Starworks PC car. The #38 Performance Tech Racing car takes the lead with Patricio O'Ward still driving, a young shoe from Mexico.
Porsche has been dealing with fuel feed issues in practice and qualifying. Ricky Taylor and Joao Barbosa run 1-2 ahead of Seb Moriss and Neel Jani. Continental Tire is saying that wheels with slick tires are being sent by the teams (the wheels), to get fitted for rain tires. We still will see rain during the night. Seb Morris goes purple in sector two, fastest of all. He's flying. He ran GP3 and has done things with GT cars. But now, he is in Prototype. Andy Lally in the Acura NSX begins to close on Rolf Ineichen's Lamborghini. In the lane, meanwhile, it is the #75 Mercedes. The aforementioned scrap between Lally and Ineichen is beginning to boil. Lally has to lift in the kink. Dirk Werner is now in the #911 Porsche and he is coming right up on this GTD fight.
Battles in GTLM between Porsche and Ferrari, and we have yet to give a call to the new Lexus GT Daytona squad, with cars #14 and #15. The #14 is in the thick of the top ten right now. ESM swaps places on track. Ryan Dalziel in #2 moves ahead of #22, currently in the hands of Ed Brown. Jonathan Bomarito takes the #55 Mazda around right now. Oh no! The #14 Lexus RC F we were only just talking about, has clouted the barriers on the road course! The car has massively smashed the wall on driver's left coming out of turns one and two on the road course! Scott Pruett had made it to eighth in the overall, and one wonders if Pruett was tapped from behind and forced into the wall.
Correction. Seb Morris is a Welshman. Presumably, his full first name then, is Sebastian as well. Pruett crunched the wall, not from being touched by another car. Too much welly in the accelerator slams Pruett into the guardrail. He had gone wide into turn one, and then flowing into two, he ran wide, and offline it's really greasy. So, Pruett loses traction, and... ker-runch! Straight into the barrier he goes. It looks to be game over for #14. Lexus has worked very hard on these cars and they were running in the top ten in GT Daytona. It looks badly damaged, and may be out of it. Scott Pruett will be OK.
Right before the yellow, the #48 Lamborghini, the #63 Ferrari, and the #29 Audi, pitted. The #69 Ford GT was going to pit, but it looks like all four Ford's and both Corvette's will pit. Stefan Mucke will relieve Olivier Pla, and Tony Kanaan will take over from Andy Priaulx. The Rebellion could be having trouble, and maybe they realize they have to back off and clearly do not have the pace of the Cadillac's. The #19 BMW RLL BMW M6, the #23 Alex Job Audi, and the #46 Ebimotors Lamborghini had to make emergency service under the yellow. In the end, those cars still need to make full stops, as there is a Prototype moving at a tortoise's pace on the road at the moment. It could have been the #70 gray Mazda RT24P.
Another full course yellow. You know what? It was not the Mazda with an issue. It is the #13 Rebellion with Neel Jani at the controls! Oh my! Jani is having trouble getting any fire into the Gibson engine. Maybe his fuel tank is dry. He might still have fuel. Maybe the electronics are at issue. All three Cadillac's pit, and the #4 Chevrolet Corvette is pitting for emergency service. Driver change on the #10. Not sure who replaced Ricky Taylor. #5 and #31, the Action Express team Cadillac cars, also complete their service. The Corvette, and the three Cadillac's, are all being held by the IMSA marshals at the end of pit lane.
Well, this is standard procedure. No harm, no foul. Marshals in race control are looking at the Scott Pruett crash. No contact. Maybe something broke. The #85 JDC Miller Motorsports Oreca Gibson came in to change the rear engine cover. This is the car shared by South African Stephen Simpson, team owner/driver Chris Miller from the U.S., Canada's Misha Goikhberg, and Mathias Beche of France. New deck and rear wing. They will regain a lap to get in sync with everyone else. There will be another wave around once the GT cars pit. GTLM and GTD cars flood the lane. The GT pit lane has turned into big sale day at Harrod's department store! I need new luggage for my race car. Wait... it does not have a trunk! I guess I'll have to get my money back.
Fuel, tires, and driver changes, for every car seemingly in pit lane right now. #66 does the supermarket sweep and gets out of the lane first. Driver change for the #62 Ferrari. James Calado takes over from Toni Vilander. The #73 Porsche, the #57 Audi, the #912 Porsche, and many more, have come in in both GTLM and GTD. We work through the yellow. One of the Lamborghini's is crawling out of the International Horseshoe. Car #61 has a problem. The car is crabbing, so, it has a broken wheel. This car is shared by Christian Engelhart, and Rolf Ineichen (the German and Swiss drivers also are listed on the #16 sister entry), along with Michele Beretta from Italy, and fellow Swiss countrymen, Roberto Pampanini, and Milos Pavlovic.
Pampanini is at the controls. Which tire is busted? The #4 Corvette does a full service stop. Damage on the right rear of the #61 Lamborghini. Broken suspension, too. The #19 BMW, #23 Audi, and #46 Lamborghini have made their scheduled stops. Both Patron Nissan DPi's are in, and so is the Mazda #55 and the #81 DragonSpeed Oreca. They are now back on the lead lap after being pointed by, by the safety car. ESM and Mazda complete their pit work. Nine cars are on the lead lap. We are still under yellow, as the #70 Mazda has stalled. The car has to start and leave under it's own power.
Jeff Gordon is now driving the #10 Cadillac, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup five-time champion. More issues for the #70 Mazda, as Joel Miller spins, again. Cold tires in the International Horseshoe does not always work. #70 was released into madness, with no room for #70 to find track space. He actually made contact with Jeff Gordon in the #10 Cadillac.
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