Some ugly near contact with the Prototype machines! Oh dear. Tristan Nunez has made some bold moves. Nunez tries making it three wide as Westbrook wants to get around the Lexus. Don't make foolish moves this early on in the race. Pippo Derani is back in the lead over the two Cadillac's from Action Express. James French leads Prototype Challenge, and also, BMW is ahead in GT Le Mans. Car #52 fir PR1/Mathiasen is back in pit lane. Jose Guttierez ran out of fuel and had to refuel the car. That was just a 28 minute stint. There's a venting issue with their fueling rig. So many variables in endurance racing. It's unreal, and heartbreaking, too. PR1 wants to win, but they are in a hole at the moment.
Whelen Cadillac tested at Road Atlanta last month. The #25 BMW of Alexander Sims continues to lead in GT Le Mans right now. They tested before the race at Circuit of the Americas back in May. The sister BMW just got another flat left front Michelin tire. The #911 Porsche 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet is chasing down the BMW's, but has to be aware of his tires and tire pressures. BMW #24 will have a drive through penalty as the fireman in pit lane in charge of the fire extinguisher was not properly dressed. Maybe he didn't have his goggles down or his helmet on or something. GT Le Mans is production GT sports car racing at it's best. Four manufacturers have two top cars in the class.
Risi Competizione is not racing this weekend, because of extensive damage to the car at Le Mans a few weeks ago. The ESM Nissan DPi still leads with Pippo Derani at the controls. Cadillac #5 is also going to pit. You don't want to run out of fuel and so, you need to run a conservative strategy. The sister ESM Nissan is in the lane with Johannes van Overbeek driving, handing over to Bruno Senna. Bruno out of the lane, and Pippo into the lane. He stops on the marks. Scott Sharp will take over the car. Tires and fuel done. Cars are back on the road. Both Cadillac's are in the lane. Dane Cameron will take over #31 and Christian Fittipaldi stays in the #5. A little confusion for #31. Mazda #55 is also pitting. Actually, both the #55 and #70, in from fourth and fifth.
Scott Sharp leads overall here at Watkins Glen, as mentioned. CEO of Patron spirits, Ed Brown, he is ending his racing career as business has taken over. He may get back in a car, but is letting his back heal at the moment. Pippo Derani is replacing Ed Brown full-time for the rest of 2017. The dark clouds are forming above the track. ESM has done very well, even back in the days of Porsche GT3 Cup. Dane Cameron is second in the overall at the moment. The Fittipaldi/Cameron battle continues as one of the BAR1 Motorsports Prototype Challenge cars clouts the wall! Ker-runch! The car is being worked on in the lane. Sharing #26 is the team of Brian Alder, Derek Jones, and Gustavo Yacaman.
Watkins Glen has quite a character to it. Last year, the track was repaved. The skies are blue in some places, but could grray up and begin to rain as Alexander Sims continues to lead GT Le Mans for BMW. Sims has a 13 second cushion ahead of Patrick Pilet. Ricky Taylor is forging his way through the field. The onboard camera of the Cadillac is right on top of the air intake. They have to drive qualifying laps, and unfortunately, they have not had a caution. Taylor is doing a triple stint. It will take a while before we know what happened in that racing incident at the beginning of this event.
The #52 car pits again. They are taking their time trying to make sure they can fill the fuel tank. They are ssurely studying the fuel flow. Something could still be wrong with the rig, or the fuel cell. It might be a venting issue. The scrum continues between Jonathan Bomarito in the red Mazda, and Stephen Simpson in the #85 Oreca 07 Gibson. The aerodynamic loads are big on these prototype cars, and there's a tremendous amount of mechanical grip, too. Lawson Aschenbach out, and Andrew Davis in for the #57 Audi R8. This is a routine pit stop for the team. Stevenson was very quick here last year as well if you reecall.
Thje #16 Lamborghini pits, but he got a ton of pressure from Christina Nielsen and gotg loose. n Sandberg did it right. Katherine Legge is now installed into the #93 Acura NSX GT3. Legge wants to win. Brett Sandberg, by the way, is akso racing in the Blancpain GT championship. More pit lane action as Matteo Cressoni takes over from Christina Nielsen. This car won Watkins Glen in class a year ago. Scuderia Corsa is running extremely well. The #2 Nissan is in trouble. He made contact with anothercar and spun. He hit Boris Said, cut it too sharp (no pun intended),and Scott Sharp took a wild ride off the road. They are in the lane whiule it is closed, for emergency service. They are taking fuel and tires as well.
They may run afoul of the regs if they add a full tank of fuel to the car, not just topping it up. This puts ESM behind the eight ball if they are going to try winning today at Watkins Glen. Close call as the #31 Cadillac beats their sister car out of pit lane! Yikes! Pits are open now for GT machinery as we are nearly a third of the way throiugh this race. Joey Hand in Ford GT #66 is ahead in GTLM. The #86 Acura NSX GT3 also pits from the class lead in GT Daytona. There's lots of debris on the road. At Ford, there are driver changes. Dirk Mueller is now in #66 and Ryan Briscoe in #67. Corvette has a slower fuel fill. One of the Porsche's sneaks around the Corvette as we are set to head into hour three, and have completed 1/3rd of this race.
We are heaeded to the green flag. 2/3rds distance now done.
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