Good morning, and welcome to the finale of the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. We have ten hours ahead of us, as mother nature has become another entry in this race. It's time to go sports car racing for one final time in IMSA in 2017. This race has provided amazing action over th years, and it will today, in it's 20th renewal. We have drivers from all over the world. Marcel Fassler, Scott Pruett, Bill Auberlen, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Simon Pagenaud, just to name a few. Four classes will be on the track at the same time. Prototype, Prototype Challenge (making it's final start in IMSA history). GT Le Mans, and GT Daytona.
Jordan and Ricky Taylor still lead this championship. The Taylor brothers will start this race, and then, by doing so, they will win the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. Team Penske is among the most successful professional sports teams. Almost a decade ago, they ran in sports car racing. But now, they are back. Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya will be a part of the driver lineup. 2018 will be an amazing season. But, we still have one more chapter to write, and we'll do so, here at Petit Le Mans, very soon.
Corvette, Ford, BMW, and Ferrari will be battling in GT Le Mans. The BMW M6 GT makes it's last start today, before the new M8 debuts next year. The pressure cooker is boiling right now. Ford GT, Corvette, and BMW are going to really go for it. Jan Magnussen has competed in every Petit Le Mans since the inception of this wonderful race back in 1998. We have 17 GT Daytona cars in this field, production supercars, built to GT3 specs. Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan, who won last time out at Laguna Seca, the two of them, are going for their second GT Daytona championship in consecutive years.
Matteo Cressoni is joining Nielsen and Balzan. There were some minor incidents in practice. Some spins, for sure. In qualifying, Penske has announced they are here. Helip Castroneves has pole. James French scores his seventh prototype Challenge pole in eight races. Toni Vilancer takes pole in GT Le Mans and Scuderia Corsa does so in GT Daytona. In the morning warmup, the rain came. What tires will they start the race on? We have rain in the forecast and it should make for a wild race.
What will happen in ten hours? Well, we'll start the journey... next! In 1998, Dr. Don Panoz staged the first Petit Le Mans, revitalizing the passion of sports car racing. Dr/ Don Panoz is the grand marshal. The cars are on strack. Weather will indeed be a factor in this race. Dry tires are on the cars. We have three championships up for grabs. Jeff Gordon did test a Monster Energy Cup car here. Manage attacking the race, through the twisty corners. Survive the traffic. Temperatures will cool as we move into the darkness. Expect the unexpected, too. When you leave pit lane on cold tires in the wet... look out.
The #38 Performance Tech car, could win every race in 2017. This is the final race these cars will run. Pat O'Ward has every fast lap in the class this year. The field is set to go into turn 10A. It's time to race at PLM! Mathias Beche has to give way to Brendon Hartley. Castroneves just does not have the experience in a sports car yet as Pippo Derani makes the pass. The first hour of the race is when you get the best TV time. Castroneves is in the wet in a sports car for the first time and he says it is very different than an IndyCar.
In GT Le Mans, Toni Vilander has Ferrari ahead. Have confidence in the car. You can make a move when the others can't go for it right away. Someone is going to go aggressive and other drivers will be more conservative in their approach. The top five in GTLM is 0.071 apart! Wow. Brendon Hartley is a great sports car driver, and with Porsche ending it's involvement in the FIA World Endurance Championship, Hartley could be an IndyCar driver next year. Lexus is in pit lane changing tires. Jack Hawksworth will go to slick tires. Antonio Garcia is going for it and so is Bill Auberlen, in his 400th start as a BMW driver.
Garcia passes as Toni Vilander runs wide, struggling for grip, looking for water. Are the wet weather tires losing grip? Turn 12 at Road Atlanta is an amazing corner. The GTLM tire situation, at Michelin, is that the performance of the tire will stay in a good spot. But, the drivers will lose traction. Cadillac #31 in the lane as the GTLM battle continues. Joey Hand defends from Bill Auberlen. It's wheel to wheel in GTLM. The driver feels a car rollingh around, but also, look at the lap times, and back time the strategy to when the pit stop happens.
Good move as Sheldon van der Linde goes by Matteo Cressoni, and so does Sage Karam. Audi vs. Lexus vs. Ferrari. Lexus is in the lane. Acura is the class leader in GT Daytona. That's the #93 entry shared by Andy Lally, Katherine Legge, and Mark Wilkins. Now, Helio Castroneves brings the Penske Oreca Gibson to the lane for tires. Slick tires going onto the car. Good stop. More cars are coming into the pits. In GTLM, Ferrari goes past Corvette. So, Tommy Milner moves to second in class.
The Penske boys are working on their driver changes. We watch Ben Keating in the #33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3. Keating has yet to pit. There's a long, long way to go in the race, and a long way to go in this first stint. Jon Bennett is lapped in the #54 CORE Autosport GTD Porsche by all the GTLM cars. Bill Auberlen and the sister BMW pass. Oh no! Helio Castroneves is off the road, and so is Matteo Cressoni! There's a chunk of the diffuser knocked off the car. If you get off line, it is still wet. Penske is in trouble.
With the downforce of a Prototype, the braking is amazing. Ooh!. Cressoni dropkicks the Pneske entry. Wrong place, wrong time. This isn't good. Was Cressoni trying to give the Prototype room to race? Hmmm. So, the two cars will be pulled from the gravel trap. But there's concern in the Penske pit at the moment. 20 minutes into the race, your top three is Pippo Derani followed by Brendon Hartley and Renger van der Zande. The leaders have now run 14 laps,
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