Laurens Vanthoor tries to make a move on Ryan Briscoe. No dice. Cold tires for Briscoe, using too much brake! Good catch! Dirk Mueller and Oliver Gavin are going for it. The yellow has stacked everyone as we head into hour three. Laurens Vanthoor almost runs over the Lexus RC F GT3! That was close! A throng of GT cars into the Bus Stop. The GTD cars have ABS brakes so they can plow deeply into the braking zones. The #24 BMW M6 GT came in a lap later after their competitors in GT Le Mans. Edwards got a lap back, and they are going to have to dig through the field. Ford and Porsche have made their way around the Acura's and Lexus' in GT Daytona.
The #2 Nissan DPi is back on track but has a second penalty to serve. The #70 Mazda may come back on track. Marino Frenchitti is at the wheel of it, although they've been dealing with a turbo problem. Franchitti is sharing with team regulars Joel Miller and Tom Long. Jonathan Bomarito is third in the sister #55 Mazda he shares with Tristan Nunez and Spencer Pigot. Ooh. The WeatherTech Mercedes runs wide off corner number two. Andrew Davis is chasing Katherine Legge. The #16 Lamborghini continues to have trouble, and they've got left rear tire issues. Stay off the curbs, and these guys are. So why are the tires not working?
Scott Pruett and Lexus are running well, but Paul Gentilozzi and 3GT Racing, they are knocking on the door and want a win. Scott Pruett has had an incredible record here at Watkins Glen. Pruett was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame on Wednesday. Pruett has driven every kind of race car, and has done so well. He has had a couple of Hall of Fame inductions. He's got five Rolex 24 wins, and he also runs a vineyard. He was inducted along with sprint car legend Steve Kinser, two-time NASCAR champion Terry Labonte, three-time Daytona 200 motorcycle race entrant Dick Klamfoth, Paula Murphy, first woman licensed to drive a nitro funny car, the first two-time NASCAR champion, Herb Thomas, and the late, great motorsports journalist, Brock Yates, who also invented The Cannonball Run.
http://autoweek.com/article/racing/motorsports-hall-fame-america-welcomes-2017-class
The #10 Cadillac is pushiong, trying to come back from their earlier issues. They have gotten a lap back, but are still five laps down. Michael Christensen is running well in the #28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3. The #54 CORE Autosport Porsche 911 GT3 has been running well with Nic Jonsson at the controls. The rapid Swede is running the endurance races in the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup along with Jon Bennett and Colin Braun. #54 had a spin earlier as well, with Jonsson at the wheel of it. CORE Autosport also runs the Porsche factory cars under team manager Morgan Brady.
Colin Braun's dad Jeff Braun is the engineer. Dirk Werner is second in class in GTLM as Scott Pruett hits the pit lane. Dirk Wernr is a grat driver, who ran with a different manufacturer in previous years. Werner is a definite character.. Andrew Davis won in 2011 here at the Glen, and won in Continenhtal Tire Sports Car Challenge with Stevenson Motorsports. Ryan Dalziel is on multiple sports car racing programs. We are under yellow as the #26 BAR1 Motorsports Prototype Challenge car spunand the Cadillac for Wayne Taylor Racing nearly collides with it! Yikes! Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. PR1/Mathiasen continues to have fueling troubles.
Another safety car allows car #10 to stay out asd the leaders are back in pit lane. Filipe Albuquerque will stay in the #5 car. Eric Curran is taking over Cadillac #31. #5 beats #31 out of the lane because of a slight air jack issue. GT pit stops are being completed in both GT Le Mans and GT Daytona. Eric Curran has a tire problem. There was something going on with the right rear tire. This is the second caution flag of the race. The #31 car has had a lot of speed during this race. We are very close to the halfway mark of this race.
The #10 Cadillac is in still in the pit lane. We are getting ready to go back to green. The final half of the Six Hours of Watkins Glen is now upon us. The race is going to get interesting as we watch a tussle between Renger van der Zande and Olivier Pla into the heel of The Boot. \van der Zande tries to hold on, Pla deep on the brakes, and Pla spins! Oh my! Weight transfer onto the nose into a downhill braking zone is a recipe for calamity! Bruno Senna leads from Spencer Pigot and others. No ABS on the Prototypes. That was so close! Egad! What will the marshals have to say about that one?
Chris Miller makes a sketchy move, trying to go three wide in the esses! Wow! The Whelen Engineering team has just not had a good year at all after getting the championship last year. They can't quite get it together enough to win the races this year so far. It is a year that makes you go gray quicker than you wish to. There's no lack of effort on the team's part. All you can do is try to win races, and there's a deeper field this year in the Prototype ranks in IMSA. The #86 Acura NSX is leading GT Daytona with Ozz Negri Jr. at the controls while Mario Farnbacher has taken over the #33 Mercedes AMG GT3, and Matteo Cressoni is third. Ooh! A deep braking moment again for Jeroen Mul in the #16 Lamborghini, anhd a solid smash into the barrier.
Team boss Robbie Benton will be beside himself. We have a full course caution that is a short yellow, meaning no pit stops. This is a tricky corner as Mul spears off the road. Maybe it was brake failure. There was a slight twitch, putting the brakes on in the middle of the road. Maybe it was an ABS issue.
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