Behind the Cadillac's, best of the rest is the #22 Nissan DPi with Bruno Senna currently driving. Senna passed Marc Goossens in the #90 car. Patrick Pilet leads in GT Le Mans over the #67 Ford GT in the hands of "Seabass", Sebastien Bourdais. Augusto Farfus and BMW get around Mike Rockenfeller in the Corvette C-7-R-. Farfus is sharing the #19 with BMW legend Bill Auberlen, 2016 Spa 24 Hours winner, Alexander Sims, and also, DTM veteran Bruno Spengler. Both Porsche's are now moving up. #912 gave up the lead on a pit stop, and he's closing. The #28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche is off the road at the International Horseshoe. Carlos de Quesada is at the wheel. It is wet, and many cars are overshooting the braking zone. You can't out drive your headlights.
It's hard to get into the car at a time like this. Four wide, with a PC car, a Prototype, a GTLM car, and GTD car! Four abreast, in the wet, in the dark! Holy moly Martha! Will you look at that! It's a scrum for the GTLM lead with the #911 Porsche ahead, but Sebastien Bourdais, he wants the lead. "Sea bass" as he's known, is making hay while the sun shines. Well, more like, as the moon shines, and the rain falls. Outside in the wet, through the kink? No. Recipe for disaster. Back off, Sebastien. Ford down the inside of the Porsche. Years ago, we would have said, "ah. A battle between rear engine car, and mid engine car." Not now. Both the Porsche and the Ford are mid engine race cars. The #66 Ford GT is back on top in GTLM. Sebastien Bourdais, vs. Patrick Pilet, vs. Augusto Farfus in the BMW M6. Keep the car on the road. We're just barely seven hours in, but this is a crucial section of the event.
Shane van Gisbergen hits pit lane, bringing the WeatherTech Mercedes AMG GT3 in. This is the leader in GTD, as a car is being pushed the wrong way, in the lane. It's the gray #70 Mazda RT24P with the clutch issue. Cooper MacNeil will take over the #50 Mercedes from "The Giz". The Mercedes is now on wet tires. The #81 DragonSpeed entry is back on track. The cars are leveled out, and so the lap times are down to driver's skill, as the rain gets worse. How will the Continental and Michelin tires work? The Michelin tires are far superior in the rain. OK. We just saw Shane van Gisbergen get into the #50 Mercedes. But that car is in trouble. There are sparks flying from underneath. He's lost a wheel, or punctured a tire.
Check that. Cooper MacNeil at the controls, has a major issue on his hands. The right front is the culprit. This is a flat right front tire for Cooper MacNeil. No bodywork damage, but wheel damage. The engine radiator is glowing red hot in these conditions. The #3 Corvette pits for rain tires. #3 was on dry tires. The wheel on the #50 Mercedes was cut in half. These boys will have to do a hub change and a brake disc change. Problems now, too, for the #991 Porsche from The Racer's Group. Another right side tire is gone on the Porsche. Not sure who is at the wheel of it. Right front wheels have been a bugbear for the teams.
The #50 is back on the track despite all the sparks we saw. The tire on the #991 Porsche had a failure in the inside sidewall. Mike Hedlund was at the wheel at the time. Hedlund thinks the tire was overheated. In the meantime, the #50 team is scratching their heads as to whether it was the chicken or the egg. Did the wheel damage the tire? Did the tire damage the wheel? Meanwhile, the #4 car's suspension change was a power controller and a lower control arm. In GT Daytona, we have a new leader. It's Jack Hawksworth in the sole remaining Lexus RC F GT3. Mazda #70 is in the garage. Tom Dyer in the #86 Acura NSX is second in class, followed by the #23 Audi of Pierre Kaffer, and Patrick Long in the #54 Porsche, followed by Robin Liddell in the #57 Audi, and then comes Sam Bird in the #63 Ferrari, in GT Daytona. Jeroen Bleekemolen follows in the #33 Mercedes AMG GT3.
Filipe Albuquerque leads overall. One of the Cadillac's has gone slightly off the road. Lexus, Acura and Mercedes, have all done very well in their debut race. The IMSA stewards are going to investigate the push starts that the #31 Cadillac team have been using, as teams up and down pit lane have complained. If we stay wet, the electronic braking systems, traction control etc., those software and hardware systems in the cars, will be totally fried. The leading Prototype Challenge car, spins at the International Horseshoe. This is the #38 entry. Ugh! The #31 Cadillac, in second, was right behind the spinning Prototype Challenge car! Oh boy. That could have been all sorts of ugly. Great driving from Mike Conway. This is a full course yellow. As soon as they wave the double yellow, Kyle Masson cranks it up and drives away.
That's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. This is the sixth full course yellow of the race. C.J. Wilson will drive in the Yokohama Porsche GT3 Cup series. Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge presented by Yokohama. C.J. Wilson was a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox. The two Action Express Cadillac's are pitting now. No driver changes. Just fresh rain tires and fuel. Fuel only. The two ESM cars, with the Visit Florida car, the meat in the sandwich, they stayed on track and did not duck for the lane. #22, #90, #5, and #2 are back on the lead lap. #2 of the defending champ, Pippo Derani (who won Daytona and Sebring last year), is down one lap. The rain is lightening. We have some tire wear on the banking, as the rain runs down the banking.
The #10 team took a panel off the side of the Cadillac, adding a screw on nipple to the end of that, and making a reservoir for adding oil to the engine if need be. With the modular bodywork on these cars, you don't need to take all the bodywork off to get to one specific piece. The #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari pits for slick tires, and the #27 Dream Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3, has changed tires as well, as they were on slicks. Treaded tires are the order of the day. The whole GTLM field and GTD field came in. We await the Ford's.
1976 F1 World Champion James Hunt always said "go with the prevailing conditions." But, on slicks on a damp track, it is a recipe for disaster. We have bands of rain going on. There is a band of rain out into the gulf. If it is north, it'll be little showers. If it comes south, there will be a deluge. Filipe Albuquerque leads Mike Coway, Jordan Taylor, and Bruno Senna. Next is the #90 with Marc Goossens, who is on the lead lap. Pippo Derani is the first car a lap down in the sister ESM Nismo DPi. The GTLM story is Sebastien Bourdais leads Scott Dixon and Olivier Pla, and Andy Priaulx. The Ford's are 1-2-3-4 in numerical order.
Bruno Senna and Tristan Nunez pit. Kyle Masson leads PC despite his spin, ahad of Chapman Ducote and David Cheng. More than half the field in GTD on the lead lap. Connor De Phillipi leads Jack Hawksworth, Justin Marks, Christian Engelhart, Jereon Bleekemolen, Colin Braun, Tom Dyer, Christina Nielsen, Mark Wilkins, and Robin Liddell, the top ten. Push starts are allowed during service, but jump starts are prohibited unless mechanical failure happens, and approval of the marshals. The #31 team has a get out of jail free card, supposedly.
We are green again. Cars are catching back up to the crocodile after the wave by. Filipe Albuquerque is buried in traffic again. These cars are hard to drive in the wet. Hang on to your hollyhocks here, boys. Jordan Taylor has the Wayne Taylor Racing #10 Cadillac up to second. Concentration is at the highest possible level now. Townsend Bell is taking the #23 Alex Job Racing Audi R8 around on the banking. Mike Conway has passed Jordan Taylor. Working 204 laps, into this race. 726 miles. Rain is getting heavier again. Mike Rockenfeller in the #3 Corvette has passed both factory Porsche's. But someone has stopped on the apron of the track.
Cooper MacNeil continues on his way in the #50 Mercedes AMG GT3. The #98 Aston Martin is in the lane. This is the car, that was recently out in the toolies. That car, ended up needing a change to the power steering pump, which cost them 40 laps or so. The #62 Ferrari goes around two of the Ford's coming out of turn six. Yours truly called it. Toni Vilander is at the controls. He takes two Ford's down in one swell foop. He is in hot pursuit of the other two Ford's. He also passed both Porsche's and the #3 Corvette's. Vilander is booking it. The Flying Finn. Watch out for the moose! The #98 Aston Martin had a tire puncture.
Pedro Lamy, Formula 1 and sports car veteran, at the wheel of the Aston Martin. Patrick Pilet passes Andy Priaulx. Cooper MacNeil and Townsend Bell are following each other but are a lap apart. The spray off the tires is really unnerving. Mike Conway is beginning to eat up Filipe Albuquerque. The two Action Express Cadillac's are about to have a major ding dong here, folks. Albuquerque has been losing time lap after lap. Conway is using a non traditional line. Rubber has been put down on the road all week. But in the rain, the water sits on the rubber and doesn't seep into the pavement. Traction comes from the most porous surface you can find. It's a skating rink out there. Jinkies! Normally a racing driver's hands are very calm on the wheel.
But, in these conditions, there are two reasons why they are moving the wheel around a lot. Feel for grip on the way into the corner. Then, counter steer if the car begins to slide to keep it on the pavement. Huge opposite lock. Control it, and how the wheel turns, because you don't have a gravel trap like on a traditional road course. Here at Daytona, you meet a hard concrete wall. The battle for second in GT Daytona sees Robin Liddell is the rabbit, and Jeroen Bleekemolen is the hound. The longer the wheelbase of the car, the more inertia it has in wet conditions. Toni Vilander gets back around Scott Dixon for second in GT Le Mans.
Mazda's fraught Rolex 24 continues, as they are changing the transmission on the #70 car, which was having clutch problems earlier. The whole transmission is being swapped. The #68 Ford GT came in for an unscheduled pit stop, and the crew had trouble with it. The leaders are together in the infield, and Mike Conway touches the white line, but can't get the Cadillac to turn, passing as GTD Porsche. The #16 Lamborghini continues to have a star crossed race, 27th in GT Daytona, slow on the apron of the speedway. Corey Lewis at the controls. Connor De Philippi leads GT Daytona in the #29 Land Motorsports Audi.
The #23 Alex Job Racing Audi R8 with Townsend Bell at the wheel is taking a penalty. The #16 Lamborghini has a right rear tire puncture. That's the tire that's the most loaded on the banking. The #31 Cadillac is off and on. Mike Conway loses a spot to Jordan Taylor. The Cadillac's are three seconds faster than other Prototypes. 1:49s for the Cadillac's. 1:52s-1:54s for the global Prototypes. Car #23 has been in the lane for four minutes for a penalty. One wonders what the penalty was about. Another improper wave by penalty for the AJR Audi. The wave by is something teams need to be responsible for themselves, to tell their drivers. Race Direction doesn't manage that.
If you do it incorrectly and gain an advantage, you are punished for five minutes at least. Four minutes, give or take. AJR gained a lap, and got a two lap penalty. A battle in GTD between the #11 Lamborghini and #54 Porsche for fourth and fifth in class. The #66 Ford GT pits. Sebastien Bourdais is in the car. Bourdais will stay in the car for one more stint. Fuel, tires, and a cleaning of the windshield. Routine service at Ford and Ganassi Racing. Seven hours in the books. We begin the eighth hour. Roughly 1/3rd of the way, through this race, or we will be soon. Stay tuned for more action, coming tomorrow as coverage of the Rolex 24, continues. Good night, for now, everyone.
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