Lexus has been running very well. Jack Hawksworth is now two laps down, but he's been running well in the #15 entry. Alex Lynn leads overall with Christian Fittipaldi in second spot. Lynn has now run 235 laps (879 miles). Christian Fittipaldi is second, followed by Misha Goikhberg, three laps down, as is Eric Curran in fourth. Four laps down is the best Prototype Challenge car with Kyle Masson in the #38 Performance Tech entry. He is two laps clear of the #8 Starworks car of Max Hanratty. Seventh overall is our GTLM leader, Billy Johnson in the #68 Ford GT, followed by Fred Makowiecki in the second place GTLM car, the #911 Porsche 911 RSR. The two leading Cadillac's dive for pit lane.
Both went out with a full tank of fuel. Crucial pit stop for car #10 so they don't negate their advantage. No driver changes on either car, and the #10 is away first, by four seconds. #10 is on a roll. That's the result of good pit work and also having to add less fuel. Misha Goikhberg and Eric Curran will both get their laps back. They are now just two laps behind. Staying out is a good idea to gain track position. Again, Billy Johnson leads Fred Makowiecki, Ryan Briscoe, Dirk Mueller, Toni Vilander, and Jan Magnussen. All of these cars are on the lead lap. BMW #25 is a lap down and Porsche #912 is two laps behind. BMW have not had a good race with the #24 car retiring, but Bill Auberlen in #25 is still in the hunt.
In GT Daytona, the #33 Riley Motorsport Mercedes leads the class, with Mario Farnbacher aboard. Farnbacher has run 219 laps (819 miles). Next up is the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 with Christina Nielsen at the wheel of it. Other contenders includ the #11 Grasser Lamborghini with Christian Engelhart driving, the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini with Bryan Sellers at the controls, and Christopher Mies, driving the #29 Monoplast by Land Motorsports Audi R8. GTLM and GTD contenders that have just been talked about, are now headed for the pit lane.
Ford is in. Fred Makowiecki stays on the track. No driver's side mirror on the #66 Ford. They don't have to change the door for a new mirror. Fuel only for the #66. Fuel and tires for the #67. The #33 Mercedes retains Mario Farnbacher in the car, with sticker tires, and he retains the lead. Bryan Sellers is in the #48 still. The Mercedes (like a road car), has the driver's drink bottle in the door pocket,. Tire debris is on the road. Laurens Vanthoor has pitted the #912 Porsche even though he is laps behind his team mate. Misha Goikhberg makes up another lap as the battle will heat up between Lynn and Albuquerque. The #8 of Sean Rayhall is going to pit, and get another lap back. Or maybe, Rayhall will get into the car.
Two Ford's swapped spots behind the safety car. Hmmm. That's strange. We have an hours worth of daylight left before we race into darkness. When it is dark at Sebring, it is pitch black. We've already gone to Daylight Saving Time. Laurens Vanthoor is two laps down in the #912. We are reshuffling some of the scoring. Boris Said gets his lap back in the #75 Mercedes and has exited the lane, and so has the #57 Audi. Green flag back in the air! Alex Lynn dives past both GTLM runners who he was trying to get by. Filipe Albuquerque is picking up the chase. The tires have to be brought back up to temperature and pressure as Bill Auberlen is trying hard to get his lap back.
All class leaders are at the sharp end of the train of cars around the circuit. Shadows growing long here at Sebring into the Gendebien curves and the Ulmann straight where the sun will be right in the drivers' eyes. Drivers will want a clear helmet visor for the nighttime instead of a tinted one. Goikhberg and Curran battle. Jan Magnussen and Billy Johnson battle in GTLM. The sole remaining Corvette is the meat in a triple decker Ford sandwich. Jan Magnussen has his head on a pivot as he's trying mightily to fend off his competition in GT Le Mans. The #62 Ferrari of Toni Vilander is right in there. Second through sixth in GTLM, and Fred Makowiecki is booking it, four seconds ahead of these other blokes.
Misha Goikhberg has Eric Curran all over him. Mazda #55 is many laps down, with Jonathan Bomarito at the controls. Bomarito holds up one of the Cadillac's. Curran also tries the inside on Ryan Briscoe in Ford #67. Laurens Vanthoor is behind Toni Vilander, but is also laps down. The restarts are scary when they are bunched up like this. Drivers thankfully have been very disciplined as of late. We've had one yellow all day. Keep your wits about you, and the drivers have heeded that message. Makowiecki is just 3.7 seconds ahead in GTLM, and Eric Curran is now third, making it a Cadillac 1-2-3 for the first time in a long while.
Curran goes by on the Ulmann straight coming through the Le Mans curve. Alex Lynn has run extremely well in open wheel racing, but of course, he is making his introduction in sports car racing. Just a little over three and a half hours remaining. Continental Tire is very proud of their new tire for the DPi race cars. The #31 Cadillac pits and gives up third spot. Mike Conway has taken over the car. More trouble for Lexus. This time on the #15 entry. It is slowing through turn 17. Jack Hawksworth peels into the pit lane. The car may not have any forward power. Lynn and Albuquerque are separated by 1.4 seconds. Three wide in GTLM! Wow! Corvette vs. Ferrari vs. Ford. Vilander vs. Magnussen vs. Briscoe. Vilander pushes through.
A spin for the #23 Alex Job Racing Audi R8. Bill Sweedler at the controls. He loops it and gets back to racing. Sweedler has a problem, and that issue is left front suspension damage. He went off the road at turn 13, the Tower Turn, and will have to limp the car back to the lane. Sweedler has to be extremely careful. The track remains green. Sweedler has done well so far, but into turn 17 it could all go pear shaped. He's running very, very slowly, exactly the right thing to do. The tire has air in it, but the driveshaft or the suspension is broken. In that GTLM scrum, Toni Vilander gains two spots while Jan Magnussen loses two. It's the battle of the Scandinavians. Vilander, the Finn vs. Magnussen, the Dane. Makowiecki leads GTLM by three seconds.
Vilander flashes the lights to tell Bill Auberlen in the BMW M6 GT to get out of the way. The sun is now right in the drivers' eyes as they make their way to turn 17. It is called Sunset Bend for a reason. Vilander fights back past Auberlen. Lamborghini's battle in GT Daytona as Rolf Ineichen has just made his way past Jeroen Mul for fifth in class. Long green flag runs let people see how the cars and the drivers are working. Mario Farnbacher leads Matteo Cressoni by a small margin in GTD. Misha Goikhberg pits from third in the overall, and Cadillac resumes their 1-2-3 formation from earlier on, and Mike Conway is now back to third spot. Alex Lynn's overall lead is now just 9/10ths of a second.
Drivers are turning the wick up. Filipe Albuquerque is coming fast. Interesting comparison between the Mazda with the Multimatic chassis and the 2.0 liter turbo four cylinder and the Oreca with the Gibson V8. They are separated by just 50 horsepower, 550 vs. 600. Visit Florida has not had the best race, but Rene Rast is still competitive. He is running laps in the 1:55 range, as Filipe Albuquerque now takes the race lead. Two slow sectors for Alex Lynn, getting blocked in traffic. He gets overtaken at the Tower turn, and gets caught behind the #27 Lamborghini of Luca Persiani. The stewards tell the drivers in the drivers meeting, slower cars hold your line, faster cars, find a line to go by, but do so cleanly.
Alex Lynn has lost the lead by just a tenth of a second. Many open wheel racers don't have the patience to go through lapped traffic in a sports car. But, Alex Lynn seems to have that ability to use his head. Johnson, Vilander, and Briscoe, battle in GTLM. The #23 Audi has been damaged on the left side suspension, breaking the lower A arm off the tub structure, still attached to the hub. The #911 Porsche is in the lane. Fred Makowiecki pits from the lead, and he is down to fourth in class before they even get the rattle guns on the tires. Clean the windshield and headlights. Clean the brake ducts and radiator openings. The car is fueled and back on track. They have stopped on lap 244 while everyone else in class did so on lap 227. We are 912 and a half miles into this race.
Porsche could inherit the GTLM class lead again, if the race continues under green. Cooler weather has helped the Porsche, just the same as they were strong at Daytona in the wet. Vilander wanted by Briscoe. He dives inside, late on the brakes into turn one. No dice. This is real motor racing for GTLM honors! Laurens Vanthoor is behind, a couple laps down. Jan Magnussen is coming, too. He is eight seconds behind Dirk Mueller in the #66 Ford GT as we enter "The Twilight Zone". Lap times being run are around the 1:59 bracket. Tricky conditions with the setting sun. Five or ten minutes from now, it'll go dark.
Sebring is not a totally lit track. It is very dark in places. Check the cars and see what kinds of info you can glean from them. Toni Vilander cuts inside Billy Johnson and makes the pass! He is now second in class in GT Le Mans! Can he break the resolve of the Ford's? Pit stops for the leading Cadillac's are, now. The #10 will do a driver change. No driver change on #5. Filipe Albuquerque is down and away. Jordan Taylor is now in the #10, four seconds behind. He'll have to push to gain back the advantage before the yellow. Mike Conway has a long way to go with his stint. He's run 257 laps. Conway is gaining ground on the leaders. 257 laps for Conway is 961 miles. The Prototype pit crews have done an exemplary job today.
Onboard cameras make the light look much brighter on the road than it actually is. Pit crews turn the lights on mounted on the pit gantry's. Turn 17 is called Sunset Bend for a very good reason. Mario Farnbacher follows Boris Said who is struggling to stay on the lead lap, eighth in class. He, and Luca Persiani are in danger of going down a lap. We have a fire on one of the Prototype Challenge cars, the #8 Starworks entry. It looks like some tire debris is burning on the back of the car. That's not a misfire from the Chevrolet V8 motor. Sean Rayhall brought it into the lane. It is back underway and hopefully the flames will put themselves out. Kyle Masson brings the class leading #38 PC car to the lane.
The GTD top runners are equidistant to each other. Farther back is the #11 Rolf Ineichen driven Lamborghini. Ferrari in GT Daytona trim, has said they don't have the pace of their competitors from Audi, Lamborghini, Mercedes etc. But, they sure do today at Sebring. Toni Vilander is closing on Dirk Mueller. Ford vs. Ferrari, a classic sports car racing rivalry. In GTLM, the leaders have covered 252 laps (942 miles). Fuel loads lightening, and the tires, being used up. Ineichen, Mul, and Persiani are fifth, sixth, and seventh in GTD for Lamborghini. Grasser, Change, and Dream are the three teams in that train.
Patricio O'Ward has taken over driving duties in the #38 PC entry once more. That car still leads Prototype Challenge. Six cars are on the lead lap in GTD. Boris Said has dropped off the lead lap. Both Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX's have had their issues. But inside the top ten in GTD is the #86 entry with Jeff Segal at the keyboard currently. Segal runs within a half a minute of Boris Said in the #75 SunEnergy Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 that qualified on the class pole in GTD. Filipe Albuquerque continues to lead with only three hours left. He has clear track ahead. Jordan Taylor runs 4.3 seconds behind. #10 can go further on fuel, but have not chosen to do so more recently.
As the race goes green longer, the pendulum swings slightly in their favor.
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