The two Porsche GT cars split their fuel stop strategy as the Ford GT's go longer on fuel. What happened to car #90 on that round of stops? Alex Lynn is 19 seconds behind the leaders. Visit Florida Racing lost lots of time in pit lane. What's the story with the Porsche's? There are different tire strategies for each car. The #911 pitted on it's schedule and the #912 was off sequence. Corvette made a pit stop for car #3. Antonio Garcia got out of the car and as fit as he is, the Spaniard was still whipped after his stint. Fuel and tires for #3. They had a fire during night practice but everything was repaired. Mario Farnbacher in the #33 Mercedes AMG GT3 leads GT Daytona at the moment.
Farnbacher sharing with Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen. Ryan Briscoe has been in the #67 Ford since the start of the race. Curran and Albuquerque are still 1-2, as more problems surface for the #24 BMW M6 GT with Martin Tomczyk at the wheel. Tomczyk is on his out lap, but he is missing a left front tire! Tomczyk shares that BMW with John Edwards and Nicky Catsburg. The splitter is dragging on the concrete. The rim is still intact, barely. The #13 Rebellion had a crewman shut the car off, which is not part of the IMSA regulations, but it is in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Filipe Albuquerque has gone past Eric Curran for the lead again.
The #5 Cadillac leads for the first time in this race. Alex Lynn is pulling away from Misha Goikhberg and Marc Goossens who run fourth and fifth, and Tom Kimber-Smith has passed Spencer Pigot. Pigot is the last car on the lead lap in seventh overall. Martin Tomczyk's puncture was caused by an off course excursion he had. Alex Lynn deals with the bumps in turn 17 just like every other driver with the back of the Cadillac DPi-V.R bouncing over the pavement. Alex Lynn has raced at Le Mans and in single seater open wheel cars, but it's his first baptism of fire here at Sebring. The second placed GT Daytona Mercedes AMG GT3 #50 is in pit lane. Gunnar Jeanette gets out, and Shane van Gisbergen gets in. They are sharing the car with Cooper MacNeil.
SVG is now at the controls of car #50. He is the defending champion of Virgin Australian Supercars. He is an all around racing driver with sports cars and touring cars. Ford GT's #68 and #67 battle. Billy Johnson takes the spot from team mate Richard Westbrook. The #68 is being run by George Howard Chapel and is the UK team Ford GT. But, it is still a car for the U.S. CGR effort. The car that ran the #69 at the Rolex 24, is being prepped for the FIA World Endurance Championship that is coming up soon.
Jeff Segal is piloting the #86 Acura NSX on a lap around Sebring, and he shares that car with team mates Oswaldo Negri Jr. and Tom Dyer. Nine and 3/4 hours remain in the race. Rebellion is fast, but they are two laps behind. Sebastien Buemi is still driving. Cadillac runs 1-2-3. Alex Lynn has set his personal best time, sharing with Ricky and Jordan Taylor of course. The #85 JDC Miller Motorsports car is fourth, followed by the #90 Visit Florida Multimatic Riley. We have a spin for the #75 Mercedes AMG GT3 for SunEnergy Racing. Boris Said has taken over the controls from Tristan Vautier. The #25 BMW M6 GT forced Said off the road. That's ironic, because Boris Said was a BMW driver for many years, with Tom Milner's Prototype Technology Group. Of course, Milner's son, Tommy, is now racing for Corvette Racing as well.
Bill Auberlen nerfed into the side of Boris Said. Boris Said and Hans Stuck drove for Tom Milner in the BMW M3's for many years. Michael de Quesada brings the #28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 in GT Daytona to pit lane. It's a scheduled stop with a driver change. Daniel Morad returns to the cockpit. Morad and de Quesada are sharing with Michael Christensen and Spencer Pumpelly who will drive later on. Filipe Albuquerque has a 3.8 second cushion over Eric Curran. The #2 ESM Nissan is still in the garage and may get back out running as a test session. The #22 sister car is still running. Mechanical issues have put the #2 out. So, game over for the defending 12 Hours of Sebring champions. Actually, the 2016 champs of both the Rolex 24 and the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Filipe Albuquerque leads only by 1.7 seconds. Patricio O'Ward pits in the Prototype Challenge PC car, and Kyle Masson takes over the car. These are Masson's first laps ever in the 12 Hours, even though he's also raced here earlier in the week, too. GTLM is now led by the #66 Ford GT and Sebastien Bourdais has taken over from Dirk Mueller. The Mercedes AMG GT3's were flying under the radar in practice, but came to life in qualifying. That's a strong car, and it had an increase in size of the air inlet restrictor by IMSA for the Balance of Performance. It is two millimeters larger. The #31 Cadillac has spun in Sunset Bend!
Curran is right in the middle of the road. Watch out! The leader has spun! No fire in the 6.2 liter V8. The pits are closed and we could have our second full course yellow flag of the race. In fact, we do. Curran cannot start the car. Curran clipped Johannes van Overbeek in the #22 Nissan DPi and van Overbeek did a 360 and kept on truckin'. Well, car-ing, I guess. van Overbeek had to be slowing to come to the lane. We have the marshals out on track, but cars are still traveling far too fast to even notice! That's poor driving on the part of cars #3 and #66 in GTLM. van Overbeek, actually should have slowed down sooner. Race Control and the marshals are reviewing the incident.
Curran does not have a starter, and this is trouble for pit stops, because you have to start the car under it's own power. Curran has taken the flat tow. He's being towed into the back of the paddock area and not to pit lane. The #70 Mazda Prototype that we saw take a huge clout into the tire barriers earlier, is back on track. Cars immediately behind the safety car are pointed by and allowed to make up a lap and be on the tail end of the lead lap in their particular classes. Prototypes will pit, and then GT cars. The #4 Corvette C-7-R- is out, having overheated. Game over for last year's Sebring GTLM champions. Fast, consistent driver Ashley Freiberg is here at Sebring, but not driving, and instead, looking for a ride. Racing is a business.
Freiberg is optimistic to be racing again. The #31 Cadillac is in the lane, having come back out from behind the wall, doing a full fuel load. They will have to serve a penalty for entering pit lane when it was closed, and he has to catch up to the safety car crocodile. No further action on the most recent incident. Pit stop time for Prototypes. The #10 WTR Cadillac gets four sticker Continental tires. Fuel only for #90. Fuel and tires for others. Driver changes for some of the global Prototypes. Trouble for WTR as they pulled the front nose off to make an adjustment. #10 was making a setup change.
Mazda #70 is being checked over in pit lane. Prototypes have pitted, and GT cars will do so on the next lap. We remain under yellow and neither #13 or #22 have pitted under this yellow flag. #52, the PR1/Mathiasen Ligier, is still in the lane. They have issues on that car. GT cars in the lane. Corvette #3 did fuel only. Laurens Vanthoor is now at the wheel of the #912 factory Porsche 911 RSR. Michael de Quesada takes over the #28 Porsche from Daniel Morad. We remember the 1963 running of the 12 Hours of Sebring, because that race was won by the late, great, John Surtees who passed away recently. Surtees won championships on motorcycles and in cars. He's a Formula 1 champ and a nine-time winner of the Isle of Man TT motorcycle road races. Surtees had a CBE, OBE, and MBE, but was never granted a knighthood. He is much missed, and may he Rest In Peace.
Tom Kimber-Smith and Marc Goossens both are in the lane. The engine cover is off on the right hand side of the #90, with throttle issues. Both Gibson engineers are frantically trying to find out what is going on. They'll try to send Goossens back out on track. He knows the engine is sour. Filipe Albuquerque leads but only by 3/10ths of a second over Chris Miller. Filipe Albuquerque puts two wheels off trying to pass one of the BMW Team RLL BMW M6 GT's! Yikes! That was at turn 11. Alex Lynn is third. But, Marc Goossens is going behind the wall, and the #52 PR1 car is going behind the wall. Problems for a couple of the Gibson powered Prototypes. The #20 BAR1 Motorsports Prototype Challenge entry has had a tire go down. So, all four tires will be changed in due course.
A driver change also happens for that car. Visit Florida has people power headed to the garage. A battle for fourth and fifth in GTLM between two of the Ford GT's. Sebastien Bourdais passes Billy Johnson. Tom Kimber-Smith had transmission issues in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen entry. That car had similar issues at Daytona. Jeroen Bleekemolen leads GT Daytona in the #33 Riley Motorsports - Team AMG Mercedes AMG GT3. There's a cracking battle going on for position in GT Daytona behind the class leader at present. A battle between the Land and Stevenson Motorsport Audi's ensues. Matt Bell defends his position from Christopher Mies. Mies is under pressure from the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 in the hands of Matteo Cressoni of Italy. Mies has to be really upset trying to get around Matt Bell, probably muttering some choice words inside that helmet.
The #31 Cadillac is in the lane for a stop and hold penalty. Oh dear. Mies still can't get by Bell. Bleekemolen in the Mercedes clears away. Mies is fuming. Richard Antinucci in the Lamborghini for Grasser Racing, is closing on Matteo Cressoni as Eric Curran exits the lane. He is doing a hero stint. Behind the Grasser GRT Lamborghini is Jesse Krohn in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3. Bryan Sellers in the Lamborghini and Bryan Sellers in the Park Place Porsche 911 GT3 are close behind, and so is the #93 Acura NSX. The Acura of Andy Lally is second in class. A spin in Sunset Bend! That's the #18 DAC Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3. That car is shared by Canadian Emmanuel Anassis and Americans Brandon Gdovic and Anthony Massari. Not sure who is at the wheel of it now.
Anassis is at the controls and he was tapped into a spin by the #75 Mercedes. Fortunately, he's back on his way. Turn 17, Sunset Bend, has been diabolical all day. Calamity corner. Filipe Albuquerque leads overall by five seconds over Chris Miller in second. Johannes van Overbeek in the #22 ESM Nissan DPi is having a good run, but is a lap down. He was two laps down but got one back. Sebastien Buemi is also a lap down in the #13 Rebellion car. The #90 car has throttle control issues, and the #52 after repairing the gearbox is back on track, four laps down. Tom Kimber-Smith at the wheel of it. Issues for the #55 Mazda of Spencer Pigot. The car was refueled, and one side of the engine cover was being removed. No tire change.
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The #68 Ford GT has a brake light out on the left side. Mazda #55 goes behind the wall! Mazda has another fraught race here at Sebring. As we are close to the end of the third hour, we have run 84 laps, 314 miles. Mazda #55 has gone behind the wall. Jan Magnussen battles around the outside of one of the RLL BMW M6 GT's. Jan Magnussen dives inside into the braking zone for turn ten! What a piece of driving! James Calado saw all of that from the windshield of his #62 Ferrari 488 GTE. Boris Said has gone through the pit lane for a drive through penalty for contact with Emmanuel Anassis. The marshals made a quick decision on that one. Richard Westbrook in the #67 Ford GT is still the leader in class in GT Le Mans, even though the car did not start from pole position.
Sebastien Bourdais and Billy Johnson, in the other two Ford's are wanting to join this little party in GT Le Mans. Calado passes Bill Auberlen into turn seven. GTLM is an open tire class, but each team is using Michelin tires. You must select your tire compounds and constructions from Michelin at the start of the year, and that's what you stick with for all the races. No revisions are allowed during the season according to the rules.
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