Endurance... the sports car racing blog: January 2018

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Arm Chair Race Director Is Happy With How It Kicked Off

A new era of IMSA racing is finally here. Since the merger of ALMS and Grand Am was announced in September of 2012, this is the season we have all looked towards and the series heads have pointed to. It’s clearly working. 20 prototypes (half being DPi), 9 GTLMs and 21 GTDs took the grid for a whopping 808 laps and only 4 cautions for the 56th running of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. It was the perfect way to kickoff the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and a refreshing look at what top level sportscar racing should be.

http://nasportscar.com/arm-chair-race-director-is-happy-with-how-it-kicked-off/

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

2018 IMSA WeatherTech Data - The Rolex

Data analysis from the 56th Rolex 24 at Daytona.

http://nasportscar.com/2018-imsa-weathertech-data-the-rolex/

2018 IMSA WeatherTech Data - Rolex

Data analysis from the 56th Rolex 24 at Daytona, from nasportscar.com.

http://nasportscar.com/2018-imsa-weathertech-data-the-rolex/

Fernando Alonso joins WEC for Super Season

Wow! Fernando Alonso is set to split his time between Formula 1 and the FIA World Endurance Championship "super season". This is a surprise, but of course, expected. He did very well in his sports car debut at the Rolex 24 last weekend.

http://www.fiawec.com/en/news/fernando-alonso-joins-wec-for-super-season/5798

Monday, January 29, 2018

Rolex 24 final lap & winners

Video footage of Action Express, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, and GRT Grasser Racing taking the checkers at the 56th Rolex 24 at Daytona. Brian Till, Calvin Fish, Gregg Creamer, and Tommy Kendall call it.

http://sportscar365.com/features/videos/final-lap-of-rolex-24/

Continental Tire claims Rolex 24 Punctures Were Due To Teams Ignoring Recommended Practices

The Prototype class experienced over a dozen failures during the race.

http://autoweek.com/article/imsa/continental-tire-claims-rolex-24-punctures-were-due-teams-ignoring-recommended?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

Rolex 24: What happened in each hour

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Thank You and Congratulations Scott Pruett

A career isn’t defined by the amount of trophies, but the amount of people you impact along the way.

Tributes from:

Jeff Gordon
Mario Andretti
Ron Fellows
Hurley Haywood
Jack Hawksworth
Danny Sullivan
Bobby Rahal
Mike Hull
Memo Rojas
Scott Dixon
Lyn St. James
David Hobbs
Joey Hand
Chip Ganassi
Max Papis
Keith & Don Freber
Wayne Taylor
Paul Gentilozzi
Tim Keene
Dutch Mandel
Michael Shank
Al Speyer
Bob Varsha
Mike Helton
Buz McCall
Jack Baldwin
Judy Stropus
David Wilson
Jeff Bracken
Jim France

Rolex 24: the end of the race (Hours 23 & 24)

Less than an hour to go in the 56th Rolex 24 at Daytona. The Ford GT's will have one more stop. One more hand to play the strategy (pardon the pun). Joey Hand and Ryan Briscoe, both, will be forced to roll the dice and pit early, hoping for a full course yellow. Pit lane will be closed. In the last 30 minutes of the race, the yellows are short, and the lane won't even be open. Ganassi has left no stone unturnd to try and bring success to their #67 entry. Mirko Bortolotti is back to the front of GTD after they failed their stall test in scrutineering. Lamborghini vs. Acura in GTD for the win. Jeroen Bleekemolen in the Mercedes, will need a splash and dash on the fuel, and the rain would negate that gas and go. Filipe Albuquerque is going to set a distance record for the Rolex 24. 776 laps (2,762 and a half miles).

How dominant has the Mustang Sampling #5 Cadillac been? They've led 550 laps. But, they have trouble with their motor. Their sister car, with Mike Conway at the controls, at the end of this race. Shades of Butch Leitzinger in a wounded Dyson Riley & Scott Mk. III Ford, holding off a charging Ferrari 333SP. CORE Autosport is executing, and they are close to havng a very, very good finish here at the Rolex 24. CORE won here in the old Prototype Challenge class. Romain Dumas was right when he said, "focus forward. We have to do our job and run our own race." The customer cars are just as much in the game as the factory cars like the Cadillac's are. Step up to the plate, and be competitive. A spin for what looks like the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing car. It is. Lance Stroll at the wheel of it, the Canadian driving in Formula 1 for Williams of course.

42 minutes to go. It won't be long until the Rolex watches are unlocked from the jeweler's case. Stuart Middleton will have to finish this race, and the engine is somewhat ill in the back of the #5 Cadillac. How much time is left in that engine before it potentially goes ka-blammo? That used to be how this race was run. Not so much anymore. How much rope can you give back and still be in front? Will this one have to be like Dan Gurney's win in 1962, creeping across the line? The two Ford GT's hit pit lane. The final pit stops for each car. Everything has been flawless. These two blokes have been scrapping for the whole race.

Filipe Albuquerque will take the #5 car to the finish. Stuart Middleton will finish the race in #31. Did Filipe Albuquerque choose to run this pace? Or, is the engine dictating the pace they use? What is the team doing? No messages have been relayed, and sometimes, teams talk in code. How slow can you go, to win the Rolex 24 at Daytona? We have gone through the final round of Prototype pit stops. Albuquerque is being told to go full throttle, and hit the kill switch... go kart style. Heat soak and temperature buildup. Raw, unburned fuel has to cool the engine, running the motor lean. They will need to limp home.

The #54 car needs a splash and a dash. #54 in the lane. But, the car is a lap down to the leader. Acura #7 pitted. Juan Pablo Montoya and Helio Castroneves are not going to win today, but they've made huge strides collecting data. They'll come to the fore this season. They made up several laps. Action Express also did some work on the engine. Now, Jeroen Bleekemolen is chasing Mirko Bortolotti in the Lamborghini. Could Mercedes steal a win from Lambirghini at the last possible moment? That is the big question.

Ryan Briscoe and Ford lead GT Le Mans. Joao Barbosa is praying that his car, now driven by Filipe Albuquerque, hangs on. Could rookie Stuart Middleton be in position to win, if the #5 breaks? Well, Middleton has to make up a whole lap, chaps. So, that seems quite unlikely. Scratch that. He's on the lead lap, but needs a full course yellow. GTD is getting intense. Jeroen Bleekemolen might run out of petrol and might not be able to catch Mirko Bortolotti in that case. Bleekemolen has never won the Rolex 24. He's won many, many endurance races. But, he wants to win at Daytona.

Even with 24 minutes left, traffic is still heavy. The Land Motorsports Audi just blew a tire and had to come into the pit lane. It was a rain tire being run in the dry. Jeroen Bleekemolen is reeling in the Lamborghini, but, they are running dry in the fuel department with just 19 minutes on the clock. Jeroen Bleekemolen is running hard. The distance looks to be closing, but Bortolotti remains in front in GTD. Just 13 and a half minutes to go. Filipe Albuquerque's Cadillac is a wounded bird. Will it make it? Jeroen Bleekemolen has been forced to make a stop for a splash and dash. Maybe AMG Mercedes can get a podium in class.

Stuart Middleton runs second, and Colin Braun is third. Braun is running far quicker than Middleton is. Colin Braun could snag second spot. Don't risk it. That's the advice Middleton is being given. Crew Chief Tim Keene is probably encouraging Middleton to drive slightly faster. But the temperatures somewhere within the car might be going up. Filipe Albuquerque is staying consistent. Remember Le Mans last year, when Toyota dominated for 23 hours and 57 minutes, and then, slowed, and had victory slip through their fingers like sand. The #67 Ford GT is clear over it's sister car, as Chip Ganassi aims for his 200th victory.

Stuart Middleton has slowed slightly. Albuquerque is running mid to high 1:45 laps. Five minutes and 35 seconds left. The Penske Acura's will finish in the top ten. Montoya wants the points. Three minutes, 50 seconds remain. The depth between the winner, and the Wayne Taylor Cadillac team, will be 18 points, headed to Sebring. That's a huge hole to dig out of. The same is true for Ford, who's team car is going to win the Rolex 24 this year. Corvette will come back strong at Sebring. Colin Braun is on the lead lap, but it won't be enough. Action Express Racing, with both the #5 and the #31, they've dominated this race.

We have two laps to run. Albuquerque might have to run two more laps. There is no reason to do another lap. Don't do another 3.5 miles. But... he might. They need speed to cool the radiators on the car. He'll have to complete one more lap. Roll out of the power to save fuel. Final lap. Filipe Albuquerque wins his first Rolex 24! It's a third Action Express win at the Rolex 24. In GT Le Mans, it's going to be Ford, finishing 1-2. Ryan Briscoe will claim his second Rolex 24 class win along with Richard Westbrook (getting his first Rolex 24 win), along with Scott Dixon. Chip Ganassi gets 200 wins and the first win for a Grand Marshal!

Lamborghini wins GT Daytona and the crew goes bonkers! Lamborghini wins the Rolex 24, for the first time! Rik Breukers, Franck Perera, Rolf Ineichen, and Rik Breukers, are your winning drivers!

What a race! Another classic Rolex 24.

Overall/Prototype: #5 Albuquerque/Barbosa/Fittipaldi     Cadillac DPi-V.R

   GT Le Mans: #67 Briscoe/Westbrook/Dixon    Ford GT

   GT Daytona: #11 Bortolotti/Perera/Ineichen/Breukers Lamborghini Huracan GT3

This is Joao Barbosa's third Rolex 24 win, having also won it overall in 2010 and 2014. Christian Fittipaldi also wins, and he becomes Sporting Director for Action Express. It is a second wind for Christian Fittipaldi who also won in 2014. Ford wins GTLM. Lamborghini earns their first Rolex 24 win. Perera's first race as a Lamborghini driver, yields a win in one of the biggest sports car races in the world. Lamborghini rewrites the history books. Richard Westbrook finally gets a Rolex watch after 12 tries. This is Chip Ganassi's 200th win as a team owner.

Ford GT and CGR win two years in a row. It was an unusual, wild, crazy race. Fewer cautions changed the game altogether. Everyone executed, and it's the most distance covered at the Rolex 24. 2018 will be a mega season. We saw a wonderful race at the Rolex 24. We'll have another to look forward to, with the 66th renewal of the 12 Hours of Sebring, in mid March, which is another legendary yet almost entirely different, and perhaps even tougher race. That's something to surely look forward to.

The orange groves of Sebring beckon, in mid March, on St. Patrick's Day. Join us on Endurance... The Sports Car Racing Blog, for that. Take care, everyone, and so long, from The World's Center of Racing, Daytona International Speedway, in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Rolex 24: Hour 22

It is the top of the hour and we have about an hour and 40 minutes to go in the Rolex 24. Driving to the temperature gauge are what Action Express Racing are doing. Westbrook and Garcia are scrapping in GT Le Mans. Westbrook clears Garcia. The two of them did drive for Troy Flis and his team a number of years ago. The Lamborghini has come to pit lane. We now have an hour and a half left. Acura has done so well in this year's race with Trent Hindman, A.J. Allmendinger, Alvaro Parente, and Katherine Legge. But there's some really problematic stuff with the team's most recent pit stop, especially at this stage of the race. A.J. Allmendinger beat Marcos Ambrose to a win in NASCAR Monster Energy Cup several years ago, and he and Ambrose drove together at the Rolex 24 years ago as well.

IMSA's timing and scoring system has definitely got a glitch in it. So, yours truly is playing catch up some with a post on the last hours of this race. Any person on the team or any piece of equipment, can compromise your race. For Mike Shank Racing, it was a jammed air impact hammer. Folks, we are going to see a distance record in this race despite the inclement weather. Again, yours truly apologizes, but there has been a scoring glitch, and thus, a couple hours have to be chained together here in one post. Joey Hand's crew made the call to pit early. Richard Westbrook will stay on hot tires.

Ford is trying their hardest to win this motor race. Timing and scoring, seems to have crashed. Ford GT in the lane. The #67 car is making a driver change! Ryan Briscoe jumps back into the car to take the car to the finish. Wow. This ought to be something. Joey Hand will have hot tires. What is the gap? Can he close it up? We have about 80 minutes to go now. Joey Hand has to make things happen, now. Can he apply the blowtorch? Both cars will need one stop for fuel. Will we see precipitation in the last hour of this race? The Michelin tires are coming up to pressure and up to temperature.

Find the sweet spot. Ryan Briscoe still has to tiptoe through some of these corners. More GTLM competition ahead. 3.4 seconds is the gap. Hand will close that delta, or at least try his hardest to. Traffic won't play into the final outcome of this Rolex 24. Ryan Briscoe ran fasteast lap for Ford at 1:44.504. Timing and scoring has partially recovered. So, this update is hour 22. Then, we will double up for the final update and you get hours 23 and 24 in one update. An hour and 15 minutes now on the clock.

The Briscoe/Hand battle is hotting up and the gap is closing, fast. There is weather moving west/southwest and it might move in. It might stay to the west. There's still a lot of racing remaining here. Chip Ganassi will let these boys run, and go for his 200th win as a car owner. They began winning, pairing up with Honda and Target, with Jimmy Vasser. The team has had six overall Rolex 24 wins.

Oh boy. Stuart Middleton has run a shade under his base drive time, and he'll have to finish this race as Mike Conway has lately been wheeling it. Ryan Briscoe is beginning to cut some really fast laps. Filipe Albuquerque is only a lap ahead of the #54 car. We have gone past the lap record, and we are shortly coming towards eclipsing the distance record. The hand grenade's pin has been pulled. But, how long before the grenade explodes and the monster is unleashed? Things are beginning to change. The pit strategies are fluctuating between flexibility and what plan was going to be used.

For the #31 Cadillac, Englishman Stuart Middleton did not run a minimum of two hours. Let him run for a lap. He'll have to get in because there's no yellow. If it rains, he has to race in the rain for the first time in his life.

Rolex 24: Hour 21

Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon maintain a Ford 1-2 in GT Le Mans. There is a severe threat of rain within the final two or so hours of this motor race. Wow. Ford CGR has had a brilliant performance in this race, chasing the team's 200th win in all of motor racing. Don't take any risks. Go for it. But don't do anything silly. The Ford GT cuts through the air, and is designed for Daytona and Le Mans. Ftanck Perera continues to lead GT Daytona as A.J. Allmendinger nearly gets crossed up with the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3. That is the Liqui Moly liveried machine. The #25 BMW M8 GT is soldiering on in GTLM after their litany of issues overnight. So many great cars and drivers are definitely working well in GT Daytona. Engineering staff has been switched between many of the GTD teams. Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler are a part of this second Scuderia Corse effort in a Ferrari 488 GT3. Frank Montecalvo and Ferrari factory ace, Sam Bird are on the driver's strength.

The Bourdais/Dixon scrum continues, as they will need three more pit stops. The rain could throw a spanner into the fuel strategy as we get closer and closer to putting a period on this motor race and presenting the trophies (the watches). We have run 711 laps (2,531 miles). We have just over the regular distance of 2 hours and 45 minutes, of a regular IMSA WeatherTech sprint race, remaining in the Rolex 24. We continue to watch the skies, for thunderstorms. The wind is picking up, and the clouds are rolling in. Rain tires are at the ready. Watch out for lightning. Lightning will cause a red flag, and yes, the Rolex 24 has been red flagged before in certain years. 1989 and 2004 are races that come to mind. '89 was for fog. '04 was for torrential rain.

One of the Lexus' is in trouble,the #15. Poor old David Heinemeier Handson has wrecked again. Through the kink, go deep, and, boom! This is the car Scott Pruett is sharing, and it is his final race. The car is mobile, and so, Scott Pruett should finish the final race of his illustrious career. Endurance racing is not for the timid. Anxiety, frustration, and fatigue come with it. Time is your enemy. When you lead, it never moves fast enough, and when you chase it, it runs out. Chasing glory is the reason drivers compete, to win, and to see your name alongside the greats. The Rolex watch, tells the story of this time.

We are just over two and a half hours away from the conclusion of this epic motor race. We were all set to wipe out the lead change record of 77 lead changes among 12 cars. Not so today. 63 lead changes among ten cars if I am right. Jon Bennett and CORE Autosport, are back into prototype racing after their GTD program from last year, did not pan out the way he'd hoped. Cadillac #31 is third in the overall and they just pitted. The fuel runs for the DPi and P2 cars have been really short, at 40 minutes. We continue to celebrate Dan Gurney. Success is the word that comes to mind when you think of Dan, and his 1966 Bridgehampton Can Am race winning Lola was presented to the fans.

Acura #6 and Lamborghini #48 get into some argy bargy. Yikes! That was close. Juan Pablo Montoya might be driving a tad too aggressively as we come to the end of this sports car odyssey. Montoya has to ease off a little bit and tame his aggressiveness. He's very talented. He's definitely a plug in and play driver. IndyCar, Formula 1, NASCAR, back to IndyCar, and now, sports cars. Patricio O'Ward isiginv it a good race in the Performance Tech #38 prototype. He is eighth overall, 12 laps down. Pat O'Ward has run some really quick, consistent laps.

Brent O'Neill and Scott Raymond at Performance Tech are bringing their team to the fore and to the next level of endurance sports car racing. Acura #7 is off and on. More off road racing with some of the P2 spec cars. Ford #67 pits from second in GT Le Mans. Richard Westbrook takes over from Scott Dixon. The Englishman takes over from the New Zealander. Juan Pablo Montoya tried diving inside in the chicane on one of the Jackie Chan DC Racing machines. The AFS/PR1 machine of Ricardo Gonzalez, spun, and continued. Joey Hand is now driving the #66 Ford GT, and he had a longer stop. Richard Westbrook is stretching out a lead on his team mate. Westbrook went on a "bionic" out lap, according to Fox Sports' Calvin Fish.

Hand has won this race, twice. Joey Hand has run extremely well, and won, in every category he's competed in. Pace gets you through your career, and so does likability. Jan Magnussen is on the lead lap, but is 45-50 seconds in-arrears in the #3 Chevrolet Corvette C-7-R-. Win if you can win, finish second, or get on the podium. Maximize what the car gives you, execute, and race to win. 20 years for Corvette Racing. 106 wins including Le Mans, and a 2001 overall win here. Eight Daytona wins, and 11 Sebring 12 Hours triumphs. Doug Fehan, Dan Binks, Gary Pratt, and many other people, have given everything to this program.

Jack Hawksworth is now at the wheel of the #15 Lexus RC F GT3. Scott Pruett will drive the car to the finish. Scott Pruett and Calvin Fish were team mates in Fish's final pro race at Sebring in 1995. Fish drove an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme for Brix Racing in the 1995 12 Hours of Sebring. Fish and Pruett were team mates at Rocketsports Oldsmobile in 1993. The Rolex 24 is such a special race. It's an invitational, race of champions. IndyCar, Formula 1, NASCAR, sports cars etc.

Richard Westbrook tried racing, got into another business, then went back to racing by mortgaging his home. He has run for factory teams from Porsche, GM, and Ford. In an hour so, we'll see some rain come down. There's lots of humidity. Should you stay on slicks? Should you change to wet tires? Lots still up in the air, literally, and figuratively. Filipe Albuquerque is much slower than some of his rivals. Welcome back, Roger Penske, to sports car racing. Another legend who was a driver and is a team owner. There is a ding dong battle between the #6 and #7 cars. Roger Penske debuted his team in the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona, winning in class in a Corvette Stingray. An off course excursion for Kelvin van der Linde. Wow! He runs wide, and gets off in the dirt. He was able to input the steering, and continue.

Roger Penske's 1966 Corvette did have the #6 on it. Mirko Bortolotti leads GT Daytona with A.J. Allmendinger second in class. A.J. Allmendinger is another driver with the likability factor and the talent. He could have stayed in single seat race cars, NASCAR, sports cars... he might try to reinvigorate his NASCAR career. MSR will continue the NAEC for 2018, but they may try to do a full season campaign. Former NASCAR driver Josh Wise is now a hire at Ganassi Racing, as a trainer.

Montoya will be penalized by the stewards, for launching the #29 Audi R8 into the grass. Montoya just served his drive through penalty.

Rolex 24: Hour 20

We remain optimistic that the rain won't return before this race is done and dusted. This race has been a wild one in terms of attrition. The #69 HART Racing Acura NSX GT3 has made a pit stop. Ricky Taylor is at the controls of the #7 Acura DPi, trying to muster as many points out of this race as possible, even though Penske is not in contention to win the Rolex 24 this year. With Scott Pruett's legendary and prolific career, it is hard to believe he is retiring, and of course, he has become very well known for greeting his family at home, from the race track. Pruett was very successful in IMSA, and also in Trans Am. When you look at hiring drivers, yes, they can be fast and win. But, drivers have to give to their team mates and not be selfish. They also need to work well together.

Again, Ganassi is looking for his 200th win. These drivers in the Ford GT, along with their competition, are going for a championship, and you have fans who want to see a race, too. Scott Dixon runs second to Sebastien Bourdais in GT Le Mans. They've been within inches of each other to wreck. Last year, almost half the race was run under yellow. The distance record, actually, was in 1982 with John Paul Sr., John Paul Jr., and Rolf Stommelen, in a Porsche 935, which was a monster of a car that has been profiled on this blog before. It was not the 1992 race with the Nissan mentioned earlier, that holds the distance record at 2,712 miles. It was the 1982 team, just mentioned in the 935, completing 2,761 miles.

Porsche #912 is off the road and back on again. Porsche first won here in 1968 as mentioned, and has 22 overall wins, and 78 class wins. Racing is embedded in Porsche's soul. They won 11 overall events from 1977-1987 with the 935 and 962. Problems for the #99 Red Dragon. Gustavo Menezes is at the wheel of it. Vic Elford, who was won of the driver's in Porsche's first Daytona win, mentioned earlier, is here, watching the race. A true legend of sports car racing. Continental Tire's Travis Roffler says this is the most competitive Rolex 24 the tire company has been involved with in eight years.

Wayne Taylor Racing has had more issues than anyone. The team tested their tires, and are within the specifications. Two of the tire issues they had, were punctures. There are a couple other issues that Continental has to identify and iron out. There's a seven week gap between Daytona and the next race, the equallylegendary 12 Hours of Sebring, in March, that you will hear about right here on Endurance... The Sports Car Racing Blog. With racing, you are pushing the limit. Always pushing the limit. Franck Perera and Andrea Caldarelli have been having a real ding dong battle. A.J. Allmendinger in the #86 Acura NSX GT3, is the meat in the sandwich.

The #23 United Autosport Ligier is still out there, pounding around. Fernando Alonso just wants to finish this race. Alonso wants to see the checkered flag. The race becomes a learning process if there is a problem with the car. Alonso wants to do another 24 hour race, it seems. Kudos to HART Racing (Honda America Racing Team), that builds street going Honda's in Ohio for a day job, and it is an all volunteer crew. Ryan Eversley is the lead driver.

Check out Eversley's podcast called Dinner With Racer's. Chad "The Gunslinger" Gilsinger is driving the HART car right now. They will be doing the full North American Endurance Cup, so, three more races yet this year. Acura #86 of A.J. Allmendinger pitted and is now back on track. Bryan Sellers has taken over the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamhborghini. David Heinemeier-Hanson has a problem with the #15 Lexus RC F GT3, sliding off the roadc in the kink, getting into the turn a little too hot, settling the car down and recovering.

Heinemeier-Hanson is known as a prototype racer, but is now in GT Daytona, in GT3 car. A good run for DHH, originally from Denmark. He fell in love with racing when he came to the United States. He is a "Special Silver" driver, dojng a very good job, even if he does not fully make a living as a racing driver. A reminder, the next race is the legendary 12 Hours of Sebring, on St. Patrick's Day, Saturday March 17th. Christian Fittipaldi, Action Express team manager, says that there could be a solution to what has been happening to the engine. United Autosport still wants to get a good finish. There is a clutch problem on the car according to Bruno Senna.

The pace of this motor race has been absolutely astonishing. Oliver Gavin in the #4 Corvette C-7-R- says Corvette needs a yellow, but they will not give up. Never give up as a racer. If you don't get through a whole sleep cycle, your brain shrinks, as the toxins release, while you sleep. So, if you don't get enough, you wake up, feeling disoriented. Imagine that as an endurance racing driver. Yikes! Fernando Alonso is really enjoying his first endurance sports car race. Cadillac #5 of Joao Barbosa leads by three laps.

Rolex 24: Hour 19

Keep an eye out for cars #54, #78, and #32. There are four lead lap cars in GT Daytona. Constant cycles of heating and cooling a motor, can lead to cracking a block or a cylinder head and taking you completely out of the race. Franck Perera is chasing Adam Christodoulou right now. Perera tries a draft into turn one and makes a pass. Christodoulou opened the door, and Perera said "merci beaucoup" and waltzed right through. The driver's side door is ajar on the #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3. That driver almost got his doors blown off, literally. Bryan Sellers makes a pass on the green Lamborghini, but not for position. Trent Hindman is third in class in one of the two Mike Shank Racing Acura NSX's. Meanwhile, the battle rages between the Ford GT's once more.

Dirk Mueller and Ryan Briscoe are definitely going for it. Gently, boys. They are looking for the organization's 200th win in all types of racing they've competed in for all these years. The gap has closed up even more as Ryan Briscoe continues to hound Dirk Mueller. Mueller and his co-drivers Joey Hand and Sebastien Bourdais are the defending GT Le Mans champions from last year. Ford wants to see a 1-2 at the end of this race. Ganassi has a lot of history in sports cars, IndyCar, and NASCAR. 103 IndyCar wins, 39 stock car wins, and 55 sports car wins in a shade over 20 years. Absolutely amazing. Ganassi also has a Global Rallycross team coming along. Team manager Mike Hull says the cars are running well, and go for it, but DO NOT take each other out. That's the golden rule of racing.

If you cause an incident, you'd better be hurt. No harm no foul. But, if there is harm, you are in trouble. In 1993, Dan Gurney's Toyota Eagle's went after each other at the Rolex 24 before they won, and there were just two cars in that team. Lando Norris is at the wheel of the #23 Ligier. Lamborghini leads GT Daytona. Rolf Ineichen says that the race has been difficult, the team is pushing, they are happy with their position, but they are optimistic. Grasser got a podium two weeks ago at the 24 Hours of Dubai. Could they get a class win at Daytona today?

Ferrari #62, in GT Le Mans, has a flat right rear tire. Thankfully, the carcass has not become a saw blade, ripping the bodywork to shreds. Four tires and fuel. That was a very contained tire explosion. The Michelin tire stayed pretty well intact. Can Earl Bamber sneak by the Ferrari? Joao Barbosa continues to lead, and maybe their engine troubles have dissipated. The Ford's have been tied at the hip for almost 20 hours. Mueller's leading, as Briscoe maybe made a pass, or tried to. Go race hard, but don't risk damage. The Ford GT team has been going like clockwork.

Motor racing is a confidence game. You can race hard, but if you hit, you're done. Give no quarter, but don't take each other out. With a lack of yellows, no one will run fast enough to make up 45 seconds on pace. But, Corvette is in a good spot right now. If there's an incident and the Ford's passed pit in, Corvette is close enough to pit and leapfrog the Blue Oval boys. Corvette does not have the speed, but they need to keep the pressure on their rivals. This is the big race. But there is a big picture... a bigger one. The championship is the bigger picture. Corvette can win even if they aren't the fastest car. Joao Barbosa and Cadillac still lead this motor race in the overall.

Action Express took the lead at lap 516. Now, we are 647 laps into this race. There's still a long way to go. Maybe they will have enough in hand to hang on over their sister car and also the Core Autosport team. United Autosport was having their earlier troubles and were probably confused between the European and American rules. In Europe, you can't push start the car, and it has to start on the battery's juice. But, in the U.S., you can bump start the car. Phil Hanson is now driving car #23. The order of the two Ford GT's has flipped again, and the #67 has just 300ths of a second over it's sister car. The last pit stop will be the biggest deal. A.J. Allmendinger takes over the #86 Acura NSX GT3 after a routine pit stop.

Third in GT Le Mans, the Corvette. As we have seen, a few of the heavy hitters in this race have fallen by the wayside. The #10 Cadillac and the #55 Mazda. The two Action Express Cadillac's continue to lead overall. Ford is 1-2 in GTLM, and in GTD, Lamborghini leads, with just over four hours to go. Joao Barbosa stays in Cadillac #5 after a stop. Ford #66 pits and does a driver change. CORE Autosport and Jackie Chan DC Racing are up there, and there still could be a sign of rain with just about four hours remaining. Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon are the two drivers in the Ford's. Mike Rockenfeller has taken over from Jan Magnussen in the #3 Corvette.

GRT Grasser Racing and the Lamborghini of Rolf Ineichen, leads, and Luca Stolz, is in the #33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3. Action Express team manager, Christian Fittipaldi says they are babying the car to get it to the finish. Everyone is running wide open, at a torrid pace. At some point, the machinery will give, because of the small number of full course yellows in this race.

Rolex 24: Hour 18

The lights are extinguished on the safety car. We are seeing a lot of shuffling as we anticipate the restart. As we come to the end of this race, it is time to back time the race. The #66 has leapfrogged it's sister car. Mike Rockenfeller in the #3 Corvette C-7-R- might also be in with a shout here. This will be a humdinger for sure. Wow! There's a huge jump for the #31 Cadillac. Mike Conway gets a lap back and he's scything through the field. Conway is a master, and races for Toyota in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Graham Rahal has spun the #7 Acura ARX-05. Restarts are a dangerous time with just short of six hours remaining.

Colin Braun has to get a lap back and get around the #32 United Autosports entry. Colin Braun at the controls of the #54 CORE Autosport entry, with his father, Jeff Braun, as team manager, who has loads of valuable experience in that role. Mike Rockenfeller says, "I'll pull up a chair and watch you blokes tussle." Ford and Corvette are a big deal, and Porsche is also very competitive. Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber are back in the GT fold. Yours truly watched the Porsche's race through the night and they were right up there. 2018 marks the 70th year of Porsche. It's 50 years since the first Porsche win at the Rolex 24, with Vic Elford, Jochen Neerpasch, Rolf Stommelen, Jo Siffert, and Hans Hermann, a five driver team, piloting a Porsche 907LH.

Bonus points have just been awarded for the North American Endurance Cup, which has three more rounds this year. Mike Rockenfeller is trying to split the two Ford's and Mike Conway is going for the lead. The two Action Express Cadillac's are on the same lap, as Joao Barbosa and Felipe Nasr have run 612 circuits to this point. Hugo de Sadeleer is four laps in-arrears, third overall in the #32 United Autosports car. In spite of the engine issues earlier, Christian Fittipaldi leads. Now, we see side by side stuff as arl Bamber tries to take the high line aropund Dominik Farnbacher in the Lexus RC F GT3. The two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, he was off the road.

The battle between #5 and #31 rages on. Joey Hand might finish this race for Ford. The #31 has lost ground to the #5. Maybe Mike Conway is trying to recycle something in the electronics. At Action Express, the #31 Cadillac has an overheating issue just as the #5 did. For the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini, they are up front right now. Team boss and namesake Paul Miller wants to keep things clean. Miller is a former driver. Now, we have a tire blown on the #51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 of Paul Dalla Lana.

The stall test, is when you shut down the air restrictor, the engine has to stall, and there could be more air coming into the engine, which thus creates more power. Paul Dalla Lana's accident was where he spun in the chicane, and then, slid across the grass and... ker-runch! He hit the tire barrier. There's a lot of damage to the right rear corner. Dalla Lana will race an Audi R8 at the Bathurst 12 Hour enduro next weekend. You will hear more about that race on Endurance... The Sports Car Racing Blog, as well. The #32 squad for United Autosport is in the lane. Will Owen at the controls. Do they know their rivals are having trouble?

Five and a half hours remain in this motor race. A Lamborghini 1-2 in GT Daytona, as they are trying to win their first 24 hour race. Bortolotti makes a clean pass on Madison Snow. Snow opened the door, and instead of getting it slammed in his face, Mirko Bortolotti just walked right through it. Snow maybe gave Bortolotti a lane, wisely. That's the sign of a good racing driver. Discretion is indeed the better part of valor. Mike Conway is shown two laps down to the #5. Is #31 back in the garage? Yes. Conway sits in the car, and it looks like the rear bodywork will be bolted back on. The same issues for the #31 as the #5. Temperatures were a lot higher. The 6.2 liter engine had lots of power. The new 5.5 liter V8 has equal power to other engines. But, cool downs, flushing the system won't work.

If CORE Autosport can get past the #32, and the Cadillac's hit trouble, CORE Autosport might taste champagne. Romain Dumas is at the controls at the moment, along with fellow Le Mans winner, Loic Duval. Both of them won Le Mans, for Audi. Too much water was pushed out of the radiator of the #31 Cadillac. Paul di Resta is now in the #32 car. He was in line to race for Williams in F1 this year. This is the first time di Resta has raced a car without Mercedes power since 2005. He was eating breakfast and told that he had to get into the car. But now, there's engine troubles for the #32. Anything that can happen, will happen, in a two to three hour stretch.

Romain Dumas might just leapfrog the #32. Will Owen could not get the car into gear without clearing the clutch. The clutch isn't used on the track because of the auto blip on downshifting the car. But, trying to get the car out of pit lane, it is necessary to use the clutch. This promotes car #54 and despite their issues, the #5 Cadillac crew is back into P1 at the Rolex 24. Paul Di Resta has just left the pit lane. The clutch had to be bled. Keep driving. Keep focusing forward. Mike Rockenfeller is trying hard to catch the two Ford GT's. It's great to have pace in your car, but your toughest competitors are standing on it. That being said, they know that any little issue for the leader, their rivals (Corvette), will be the sharks, smelling blood in the water.

Nicky Catsburg in the sister #24 BMW M8 GT, is running really well. Mike Conway says that his driver time limit was up, according to IMSA's calculations, but it was IMSA who made the mistake. Team boss Tim Keene didn't want to risk a penalty. Any driver in the field can do 13 maximum hours, but no more than four hours in any six hour bloc of time. We are now closing in on the 19 hour mark.

Rolex 24: Hour 17

The great race, has slogged on, through the night. Yours truly, has been following the race during the hours of darkness. Now, the sun is coming up. It has risen over Daytona International Speedway. If drivers see the sun, they might be lulled into a false sense of security, thinking, "ah! The sun has risen! We're going to make it!" But, there are still six long hours of the 56th Rolex 24 at Daytona still to be run. The old adage in racing is "to finish first, you must first finish", and nowhere is this truer than in endurance sports car racing.

Cadillac leads the field. Joao Barbosa in car #5 is the overall leader, with Felipe Nasr in the #31, second overall. Ford, Porsche, and Corvette have been the contenders in GT Le Mans through the long, dark night. Right now, the two Ford GT's piloted by Richard Westbrook and Joey Hand, have the edge over Antonio Garcia and Tommy Milner in the #3 and #4 Chevrolet Corvette C-7-R's. Andrea Caldarelli in 23rd overall, holds the GT Daytona lead in the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3. The sun rises into the sky, and there are plenty of stories from the nighttime hours.

Again, Action Express leads overall. They've been really strong. Acura has had some troubles. The Ford GT's are glued together. We have not seen a yellow flag in quite a while. Fernando Alonso, Phil Hanson, and Lando Norris, have been running pretty well. Right rear tire issues have cost the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac. Mazda has struggled with both cars. PMR leads GT Daytona as we already mentioned. Mike Shank Racing in the #86 Acura is going for it. We just haven't seen as many yellow flags as we typically expect in this 24 hour odyssey. We've seen just three yellows in 17 hours.

The Spirit of Daytona Cadillac is caboose on the field. The two ESM Nissan's both had huge issues. These finishers in the lower part of the table, are going to have to dig themselves out of a hole before we get to the next race at Sebring. Here's what happend last night. The #10 Cadillac continued having right rear tire troubles. They had to go to the garage. Spirit of Daytona had an engine problem with their 5.5 liter V8. Game over. The #29 Land Motorsports Audi R8 was parked, and had their fuel rig changed by the marshals. Graham Rahal spun the Acura from the lead.

In GT Daytona, A.J. Allmendinger has run very well, leading this race for a good while. The Ford GT's have had it all their own way, but have been very close together. Acura Team Penske have run well. Dane Cameron had alternator problems overnight and lost many laps. #6 lost 25 laps with repairs. Park Place Motorsports, and the #73 Porsche 911 GT3 crashed. Helio Castroneves in the #6 Cadillac crashed into the #31 Cadillac and had to go to the garage to fixdamage. A short while ago, troubles for the #10 Cadillac. Game over for the defending champions.

Jonathan Bomarito had a rapid, monster fire to the #55 Mazda RT24P. Mazda Team Joest had a fraught debut here at the Rolex 24. Fernando Alonso finished his latest stint, and he had a great performance. The #32 United Autosports entry is solidly in a podium place. Hugo de Sadeleer is at the wheel of it. Action Express and United Autosports are two teams that have run really well. We've had Formula 1 drivers and IndyCar drivers here, doing very well, to sharpen up their racing skills for the season.

Austin Cindric, Brendan Gaughan, A.J. Allmendinger... the NASCAR boys have also been running well. Andrea Caldarelli has the GT Daytona lead as mentioned before. You have to have speed, a plan, and loads and loads of luck. Cut down tires were caused by debris on the road. Action Express and the Ford factory team have had relatively flawless races so far. The #6 Acura has continually had alternator issues. Helio Castroneves is still running as well. Simon Pagenaud has the wheel of the #6. Roger Penske is still watching the race, though. He still has great interest in what his cars are doing.

Joao Barbosa and company have completed 594 laps (2,115 miles). Ford has been the car to beat in GT Le Mans since unloading off the truck. There was a lot of debris around, and there was contact between the #86 Acura NSX GT3 of Katherine Legge and the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing car with James French at the wheel of it. Grass has packed the radiator. The team will have some work to do. But, she's probably fired up. Paul Miller Racing changed all the parts on their Lamborghini, systems checking late into the night at New Symyrna Speedway, and now, PMR is leading GT Daytona. They want to get the first 24 hour race win for Lamborghini.

Adam Christodoulou in the #33 Mercedes AMG GT3 is going for it, along with Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen. There is some damage to the #86 Acura with signboard in the dive plane, but maybe the team dodged a sneaky bullet. A battle between Lamborghini and Ferrari for fourth in GT Daytona. Mirko Bortolotti was sent to the back of the grid after failing a stall test in technical scrutineering. We have a full course yellow for the debris in turn six. We've seen a yellow every six hours or so in this edition of the Rolex.

Yellows do breed yellows. So, some housekeeping for the marshals to do. Wayne Taylor Racing has had seven tire failures on the #10 Cadillac. He is not in a position to risk it, and does not care about points. Game over for WTR and so, they won't defend their title from last year. Again, this fourth yellow flag, is for track cleanup. We might be on for a distance record. Ford may pit. Their rivals from Corvette hope so. The Ford's are in the lane, and so is the Banana Boat. But a huge development, as Christian Fittipaldi takes the #5 Cadillac into the garage! They might have something to fix. Oh my.

Their preferred garage location was earned because the team car #31 was quickest at the Roar Before the 24 test. Team boss Chris Mitchum says there is work on the engine management system. The telemetry has told them something that isn't working. The #90 Cadillac had a dead cylinder that was not up to temperature and that's why it is game over for the #90. The #5 car has been losing water. There are worries about the radiator. Perhaps they've dodged a bullet. But, that can't be for sure yet. 602 laps, 2,190 miles on the board. Under yellow, Prototypes have pitted and now, GT cars will have the chance to do so. The wave by has been completed.

Lando Norris is currently at the controls of the #23 United Autosports Ligier. POits now open for the GTD cars. #48 and #86 pitted, and those in GTD who chose to wait, stop before we go back to green flag racing.

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Rolex 24: Hour 10

A brake change for the #5 Cadillac. The #33 Mercedes is pitting as well. One of the reasons we are seeing fewer yellows is due to the elimination of the Prototype Challenge class, with mostly amateur drivers that were more prone to making mistakes. Pit stop time for Corvette including a driver change and a brake change. Antonio Garcia gets into the car. Doing this under green will kill your momentum. So, Corvette and those chaps caught a jolly lucky break. Credit has to be given to the crew members turning the wrenches and doing the dirty work to service the cars. They only do a couple of full on brake pad and caliper changes. Here at Daytona, and also in the summer at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This is not a normal occurrence in sports car racing. The #75 SunEnergy1 team is also doing a brake pad change.

There were no judgment calls on BoP parameters, but it was the fact that fueling was going faster on the Land Audi. But, now, it appears the Land Audi team will be able to claw some time back. This was not sandbagging like the Roar test. So, the boom wasn't lowered as hard as it could have been. Now, there was a slight incident for Felipe Nasr in the #31 Cadillac. Nasr speeds up, and he clipped the #48 Lamborghini, and Nasr slid onto the grass on the road course. Ryan Dalziel is low on the track and he is coming to pit lane. Wr are back to green flag racing, with Penske running 1-2. Ricky Taylor has laid down the fastest lap in the #6 at 1:37.758. The track will be pretty dirty off line. Fernando Alonso is sixth in the overall.

Alonso is used to having a visual on the steering wheel of a race car, but there are a couple of screens inside the Ligier. Formula 1 is very technical, monitoring the hybrid systems. The sports car can be enjoyed for driving purposes. Trouble for the #58 Wright Motorsports Porsche again. But the car stays on the road. Christina Nielsen at then wheel of it, caboose on the field in 50th place. Felipe Nasr actually has the fastest lap at 1:37.475. Should have checked. Yours truly does have timing and scoring in front of me, on an iPad. Katherine Legge is running very well in the #86 Acura NSX GT3, leading in GT Daytona.

We'll keep following this race through the night. We'll see you in the morning for more. For the teams and drivers there will be no rest. Good night. We'll see you in the morning.

Rolex 24: Hour 9

The #911 Porsche 911 has spun and slammed the wall! He got back on the lead lap and was passed by both the Ford GT's. Tandy lost control of the car and smashed the tire wall! Ker-runch! He was off line in the dirt. Straight to the garage for the #911 Porsche. This will be a lengthy repair for the Porsche boys. Wow. Tandy knocked the wing askew. He missed the apex, and smashed the barriers. Wow. More bodyworki and aerodynamic damage is caused than structural damage in an older 911 that had the motor in the rear of the automobile instead of being mounted amidships. We are going hours and hours sans yellow flags, and so the complexion of this race is totally different than we expected it to be.

Jeffrey Schmidt in the #29 Land Motorsports Audi is leading GT Daytona over their rivals from Magnus Racing. This race is like a boxing match, getting an opponent on the ropes. Can the #90 Cadillac team come back into this race? Jeffrey Schmidt continues to run well in the #29 Audi. The #58 Wright Motorsports Porsche is thankfully back on track. They are 106 laps behind, but, thankfully are soldiering on for valuable championship points. The temperatures are rather warm and only have a 13 degree delta. 75 degrees during the day tomorrow, and 62 degrees overnight tonight. Problems continue for the #90 Cadillac. The team and Earnhardt Childress Racing engine specialist Richie Gilmore are still trying to figure this out. But, it could be game over for Spirit of Daytona.

This race is far, far from over. 14 hours and 46 minutes remain. Nick Tandy is back into the #911 Porsche. They look like they're getting the car buttoned up, ready to go back on track even after the wallop that Tandy took a little earlier. It was freezing in the 30s and 40s for the Roar test session at the beginning of this month. The only hope for the contenders trying to chase Ford in GT Le Mans, is maybe to use a softer compiund. Fernando Alonso is giving it some welly in the #23 United Autosports Prototype. The same Continental tires are being run here as they have in the past, but the parameters are very close.

Daniel Serra chops Joey Hand in the #66 Ford GT. Right rear tire trouble for the #31 Cadillac. Deary me. Another Cadillac, and another puncture. Oh man. There is no damage to the #31 car though. The tire is changed and they are back out on the speedway. Maybe trying to triple stint these tires is not such a good plan. You only need to hit one curb in order to damage the sidewall of a tire. How much negative camber are you running in that tire. You bend a piece of paper, and it folds, creating a weak spot. This is the same as when one of these racing tires is on the knife edge. Use the curbs as feelers for the corner, but don't be too aggressive, because crashing over the rumble strips will hurt the tires.

Adam Christodoulou is chasing Katherine Legge in GTD. Acura NSX GT3 vs. Mercedes AMG GT3. Christodoulou is a Mercedes factory pilot after he won the 2016 Nurburgring 24 Hours. The Mercedes does have good braking. Christodoulou moves past Legge. But, Katherine Legge is not wanting to give an inch. She's a real scrapper. Some more real argy bargy in the chicane. Keep pushing. Ricky Taylor in the #7 Acura ARX05 leads this motor race. The #29 Audi R8 has been issued a monumental, five minute penalty for sandbagging.

This is the nuclear option and the bomb has been dropped. They dropped the nuke on Lamborghini a number of years ago after the race ended. Team boss Peter Baron can't be happy. Adam Christodoulou in the Mercedes may be even faster. The complexion of this race has just changed in GT Daytona. Adam Christodoulou has gone into the class lead in GT Daytona. How fast do you go to catch up? Holy smokes! What is every other Audi team thinking? Has the boom been lowered on the Audi? What about Ford in GTLM, as they are the fastest cars in class. The Audi has been released from the penalty box.

Again, Adam Christodoulou is now your GTD class leader. A.J. Allmendinger is next into the #86 Acura NSX GT3. IMSA made a statement at the Roar Before the Rolex 24, saying, like a father talking to their son or daughter, "I told you this would ahppen." Right rear tire trouble for Alex Brundle in the #78 Jackie Chan DC Racing entry. The marshals are equating many cars that are all so different. But, the fuel tanks and fueling rigs are all standardized. The Land Motorsports crew was supposedly filling the fuel tank too fast, and they are now within the window IMSA wants. But, team boss for Land Motorsport, Peter Baron is none too happy about it.

Anything can and will happen. Trouble for the #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3. They had a fire in the daytime, that was caused by a fueling issues. Let's say that the Magnus Audi team has the same fueling configuration, but doing a timed fuel fill, they won't get caught. Did another team tattle on the #29, or was this a flagrant foul? Ryan Dalziel has a problem in the #2 Nissan, as Ricardo Gonzalez goes off the road in the International Horseshoe maybe after having made contact with one of the Mazda's. This is only the second full course yellow in six hours.

Pits will open soon. Lots of stories yet to be told.

Rolex 24: Hour 8

There's a lead battle right now as Castroneves hangs on, but Albuquerque, wants by, and soon. Filipe Albuquerque is chomping at the bit right now. Unofficially, we've seen 17 lead changes. We are on pace to break the all-time distance record set in 1992 by a Japanese trio of drivers in a turbocharged Nissan R91CP Le Mans Prototype car. Masahiro Hasemi, Kazuyoshi Hoshino, and Toshio Suzuki were those drivers, completing 2,713 miles. The legendary Allan McNish is an ambassador for Audi and Lamborghini. He is a legend of sports car racing to be sure.

Dane Cameron just completed a stint in the rain, and says it was his first time in the new Acura ARX-05 in the wet. We expected more yellow flags, but just haven't seen any. Penske continues to lead this motor race. The campfires begin to burn as, crunch! One of the BMW's runs into the wall. That is the #96 Turner Motorsports Liqui Moly BMW M6 GT3 with Don Yount at the keyboard. The team could not plug the air jack into the car to service it. Pippo Derani is pushing hard, and he is setting fast laps, a second quicker than anyone else. The #29 Audi is going for it, Peter Baron as the team manager. Baron has spotted great talent like Sam Bird, Renger van der Zande, and others.

Sheldon and Kelvin van der Linde have been putting the GTD field in the shade. If you have the IMSA app or the Fox Sports Go app, go to it for an hour or so, and we'll see you in a little while. Yours truly will do the same. We see the overall design cues of the production cars on cars like the Acura, the Mazda, and the Cadillac. You can take the tub and build the DPi car around it. There are lots of options you have in order to make these cars work. Originally, you were supposed to run with your spec bodywork and power plant. Maybe these cars will be able to race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Open them up, and let them race at Le Mans down the Mulsanne straight and through the Porsche curves.

We will see you, in, oh, about 50 minutes, for more coverage as the great race... the 56th Rolex 24, rolls on. The #10 Cadillac has made a quick pit stop that seemed unscheduled. Watch out for debris on track this time of night. ESM is now in pit lane for a stop. The #22 of Luis Felipe "Pippo" Derani has been very, very quick. Derani is a little miffed by being blocked by a Ferrari. We'll be back in about 50 minutes, for more coverage, folks. Stay tuned.

We are back at Daytona, after leaving you for a while. The fireworks blaze in the night sky over Daytona International Speedway. The Penske Acura's have been leading, but the Cadillac's continue to race hard. Phil Hanson had a puncture in the United Autosports Ligier earlier. We have 15 and a half hours to go yet. Filipe Albuquerque continues to lead. Have trouble early, so you can claw back time. We have still had zero yellow flags. This changes strategy. Put a couple of laps in over the field and keep the pace up, you might have a shot. No one really knows how the Balance of Performance is working right now.

Joey Hand is held up by a GT Daytona car and Nick Tandy has a head of steam to get a lap back. Joey Hand is in the lane for a scheduled stop now. Westbrook in the sister Ford GT, and Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette, are on a similar strategy. Fernando Alonso has been running very well as we continue, deep into the night, here at Daytona International Speedway. Damage on the #10 Cadillac. Is there a problem with cambers or tires? This is some serious drama for the #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac. Take the car tothe garage, and get all hands on deck to fix the car.

The car is rolled on the dollies into the garage. The tire comes apart at high speed, and the carcass of the tire flails around and damages the bodywork. Losing a right rear tire on the banking and not smashing the car into the barrier, is amazing. It's garage time not just for the #10, but also for the #90. Richard Gilmore, from Earnhardt Childress Engines, says that there's work to do on the engine, where the coil and the spark plugs are not working. If the headers are not hot, there's no fire in the cylinder. They've reduced the engine size from 6.2 to 5.5 liters. #90 is still running and making laps before the head to the paddock for repairs.

Four cars on the lead lap. Joey Hand pitted and so did Richard Westbrook. Ditto for Nick Tandy in the Porsche. This is the GTLM update at the moment. #90 has gone straight to the garage for work to be done on the motor. The 5.5 liter motor is more user friendly, but with smaller displacement, it is troubling. The old 6.2 liter engine just had LOTS more power. If you are Action Express Racing, running the same engine combination, do you dial back your performance just a shade?

The #10 car will come back out on track. You want a set up that affords you speed. However, this is the third issue with a right rear tire that the #10 squad has had. Are we drawing the line too thin? The team does not know and they have far more info than we the fans, do. 300 laps, 1,068 miles completed. Sadly, the #10 car, is still in the race, but out of contention to get a second consecutive victory. There are too many fuel stints to go through, to allow for changing tires all the time. It's just not possible.

So many variables affect everything else in endurance sports car racing. Car balance, downforce vs. drag, everything is a link in a chain here. Joao Barbosa makes his way past Hugo de Sadeleer in one of the United Autosports entries. The damage is done for #10 literally and figuratively. You just have to pick up points.

Rolex 24: Hour 7

Tristan Vautier has been magic in the bluebird, the #90 Cadillac DPi-V.R. Vautier went through the Mazda ladder of single seater racing, and now, he has gone to sports car racing. Many drivers try to go racing in open wheel, but then, they end up finding a home in sports cars for the most part. The three cars that have traded fast laps in the 1:39 range are Vautier, Jordan Taylor, and Olivier Pla. Be cautious with the tires. Mike Conway is in the #31 Cadillac DPi-V.R. Conway is a sports car driver who started out in open wheel racing. The #33 Mercedes AMG GT3 is running very well in GT Daytona right now.

We've hit the six hour mark, meaning points for the leading teams, at six, twelve, and 24 hours. Ben Keating will be the next driver into the Mercedes #33. Corvette Racing originally had the idea for a rear view camera, but then, sold that technology to Bosch, and now the rear view cameras are common as replacements for a conventional rear view mirror. Alessandro Balzan has taken over from Cooper MacNeil in the #63 WeatherTech Ferrari. It is easy to get laps back if there are yellow flags. Ladies and gentlemen, we have yet to see any yellow flags in this 56th running of the Rolex 24.

Mike Conway makes his way past the #14 Lexus RC F GT3 in the hands of Bruno Junquiera of Brazil. Cadillac and Dallara hope to maintain what they have, even with huge steps being taken by Mazda with Joest and Acura with Penske. Here's a breakdown of the automakers and their chassis constructors.

Acura: Oreca
Nissan: Ligier
Cadillac: Dallara

Scott Pruett is going to make his final start at Daytona and his final career start, soon. Acura #7 ub tge kabe frin tge kead, A bise cgabge fir tge Acyra, Us tgus a geadlight change, or a setup change? Maybe there's splitter damage. They fueled the car, but no tires were changed. Acura has a new sequence. Mazda #77 is also in the pit lane right now. There was a hole in the side of the bodywork. It was repaired with Bear Bond. That's strong, sticky tape. But can it withstand the wet? Fernando Alonso is preparing to do another stint. Scott Dixon is trying to chase down his Ford team mate and rival, Sebastien Bourdais.

Dixon is quite the driver. He's a racer... pure and simple. He wants to get past Toni Vilander in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari. Corvette #4 pits and has a clean stop. The dive planes were taken off of the Acura. Penske wanted to adjust the downforce. We have about 17 and a half hours to glo. More issues for the #25 BMW? No. They are coming back out on track. Bill Auberlen, Alexander Sims, and company. Acura still leads Cadillac. The #23 United Autosport LMP2 car is still running really, really well.

Dane Cameron has passed Jordan Taylor. The Acura has really improved over the course of this race. Jordan Taylor is running fourth. If you can't count on a yellow flag,.change your race strategy. Everyone has been fairly well behaved to this mark in the race. Sheldon van der Linde moves over for Richard Westbrook in the #67 Ford GT. Patrick Pilet in the #911 Porsche is coming, fast. These chaps are covered by a number of seconds, and amazingly, we have not seen any yellows as of late. Helio Castroneves moves past the #71 Mercedes AMG GT3. Filipe Albuquerque must be turning the wick up.

We have a good ways to go yet. Filipe Albuquerque, Rene Rast, Oliver Jarvis and others, that Audi had, then, they pulled the plug on their endurance racing effort, and somke of the chaps who drove for them have found their way to other top teams. Albuquerque is faster than Castroneves. 1:38.5 to 1:41.3. Close lap times are fine, but there is a trade off if you are not close enough to make the pass on a competitor. Most of these cars have a chance to change the Gurney flap on the rear wing. Castroneves can motor onto the banking, but then, Filipe Albuquerque can close up in the twisty bits.

The bright, colored lights on top of the cars, are for the teams to identify their cars more than anything. It has nothing to do with timing and scoring. Bobby Rahal says the race is surely a test session, because the BMW M8 GT is a brand new car. Bobby Rahal is thrilled to see his son Graham Rahal driving for Roger Penske. Rahal won the Bob Snodgrass award. Snodgrass was the leader and founder of Brumos Porsche, which was a great Florida based Porsche dealer, and also, a race team owner.

Filipe Albuquerque pits for fuel, and goes right back into the race. Castroneves will assume the lead, and Eric Curran is also moving up in the #31 Cadillac.

Rolex 24: Hour 6

Bill Auberlen is at the wheel of the #25 BMW M8 GTE. He is continuing to race, in the enduros, and is also a brand ambassador for BMW. Alexander Sims and Connor De Philippi, these two are hot shoes, and standouts in sports car racing. The #63 Ferrari is back out on the course. Porsche makes a pit stop for the #911. It's routine service. The car looks great and handles well, too. They have a new team manager in Mike Harvey. Morgan Brady has stepped aside from managing Porsche and has gone ahead. Rain has hit, hard. It has begun to deluge and pour at the Rolex 24. Rain tires the order of the evening right now. Bruno Junquiera ran wide in the #14 Lexus RC F GT3. Junquiera went off at turn five. Don't turn the wheel too far. Straighten the wheel and don't slide. Watch out for rooster tails.

Let's hope that this rain shower will be short. Darkness has fallen upon Daytona International Speedway. This is risky. Hang in there. This is a gamble as well. There's a long, long, long way to go. Be cautious. Be conservative about this. There's more grip on the higher side of the banking. Luca Stolz must be on slicks because he's struggling for grip in the #33 Mercedes AMG GT3. Can you keep the car on the blacktop? He has been running ADAC Masters, the German GT3 championship. You run in the rain at the Nurburgring a lot. Don't be intimidated by rain, but Stolz hits the soaked pit lane. The rain has sneaked in from the south, and may be abating, around the New Symyrna Beach, Port Orange, Daytona Beach area.

Jeroen Bleekemolen is now at the wheel of #33. He is the most experienced pilot on the squad. The #20 BAR1 Ligier runs wide, with Brendan Gaughan at the wheel of it. Gaughan is an experienced off road racer, has run in NASCAR, and won, and is now racing in sports cars. Check the car. That's the Multimatic Riley for BAR1, not the Ligier. Will BAR1 race at Le Mans this year? We'll see. That may compromise their ability to race in IMSA. Brian Alder is a survivor. He was crew chief for the old Intersport/Jon Field team years back.

Marcel Fassler and Corvette look to change to slick tires. The chaps on wet tires are losing ten seconds a lap. Don't worry about taking risks at this stage. Four hours to go in the race, when we get to tomorrow, that's a different story. Sebastien Bourdais is on wet tires, and he is very quick. A 1:56.3 for Bourdais. Bourdais and Scott Dixon are 1-2 in GT Le Mans at the present time. All the GTLM cars are running Michelin's even though the regs state it is an open tire class. Michelin is using a commercially available, spec wet weather tire. Rain tires vs. dry weather tires. What do you do?

An ongoing message in a 24 hour race is how you react to problems. There are new sets of slick tires also available if the conditions change, especially at Corvette. Don't let the wet tires overheat and begin to chunk. If this were Le Mans, the risk/reward on tire strategy would be very different because of the length of the track. We've had just one yellow flag so far. Christian Fittipaldi leads this motor race over Helio Castroneves in Acura #7. These spotty showers come from the Gulf of Mexico. It is 64 degrees Fahrenheit ambient temperature at Daytona Beach, Florida, at this time.

Christian Fittipaldi continues to lead overall, and in GT Le Mans, it is the #66 Ford GT of Sebastien Bourdais. Christian Fittipaldi spun at the exit of the Bus Stop, but he had no damage. Big damage thuough for Bill Auberlen in the #25 BMW M8 GT. This brand new, beautiful race car, has lost a tire through NASCAR turn two. He blew a right front tire. He didn't hit the wall. This could be a puncture. Is Auberlen on slicks or wets? Maybe the wet weather tire got overheated. The #5 Cadillac is in the lane for slick tires. Extra heat might be causing these tires to heat up and then, explode.

Ford and Porsche pit in GT Le Mans. Ferrari and Risi Competizione are digging their way back to the front. Driving on rain tires when it is dry, is as much of a nightmare as driving on slicks when it's wet. Acura #6 has just made a pit stop. Be careful on cold tires. It will take a while to put temperature and pressure back into the tires. It's like driving on ice. Bill Auberlen's BMW has right front suspension damage. Can they salvage something? They may have to take the car to the garage to fix the suspension and bodywork damage. The right front fender is torn off the car.

This looks a lot like a NASCAR type failure, where the tire pops and rips the bodywork to shreds. The steering arm is broken. The right front corner is toed out. The #90 Cadillac is pitting for a scheduled nstop and the #51 Ferrari is pitting as well, for Spirit of Race. The infield road course here at Daytona is not going to dry as quickly as the banking will. Helio Castroneves is in a scrap with Christian Fittipaldi. Car #7 vs. car #5. Fittipaldi wants to pass Stephen Simpson in the #99 "Red Dragon". Castroneves passes on the outside. Penske is picking up spots, little by little.

Acura has a great presence in sports car racing. Two DPi cars and three GTD cars. Acura marketing rep John Akita says they will have them here for the long haul. Bill Auberlen has been pushed outside of the garage area, and continues to have trouble. The track is dry now, but that could change at any moment.

Rolex 24: Hour 5

The #31 Whelen Cadillac has had some trouble. Christian Fittipaldi is now at the wheel of the #5. #31 had an air hammer failure for the tires. Something may have gone wrong with the regulator and the nitrogen bottle that provides the pressure for the air hammer. Christopher Mies continues to chase Luca Stolz in the GT Daytona class. There are no weak links in the driver lineups, as all of the factory backed teams, find the best drivers according to their ratings. Giving a shout out to Kevin Buckler and The Racer's Group. This race has been their bedrock for some 22 years, and they won it overall in 2003. Hope to see TRG back at the track soon.

Dirk Mueller leads GT Le Mans in the #66 Ford GT, sharing with Joey Hand and Sebastien Bourdais. Alessandro Pier Guidi in the Risi Competizione Ferrari is coming, and now, Frederic Makowiecki and Scott Dixon are also pressing on well. Fred Makowiecki tries to make a pass, but can't quite do it. Dixon is applying the blowtorch to Makowiecki. Ford has the setups dialed in on the GT as it is the third season for the car. Execute, execute, execute. Stay out of trouble. That's the approach to take. Corvette Racing is competitive running four and five in the GTLM class with Mike Rockenfeller and Marcel Fassler at the keyboard's of each car.

The #24 BMW is being hounded by the #911 Porsche. Augusto Farfus, will race the FIA World Endurance Championship, and the full DTM series. He is racing at Daytona, and will also be with BMW at the Bathurst 12 Hours at Mount Panorama in New South Wales, Australia, in a few weeks. Scott Dixon is trying hard to get past Augusto Farfus. There may be a pit stop for the Porsche, and it;s true. Porsche heads for the lane. Graham Rahal and Simon Pagenaud have Team Penske in fourth and fifth in the overall. The cars look great.

Penske has a great driver lineup in both cars. The Acura is powered by the J35 series V6 Honda motor that is well proven and designed for a prototype, and it was the engine that ESM won the Rolex 24 with in 2016. The #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 is in the pit lane. Cooper MacNeil and Alessandro Balzan will share for the whole season, and Gunnar Jeanette has been driving these last few hours. Ryan Dalziel brings the #2 Nissan to pit lane. Team manager Aaron Rehagen has the program all set, but last year, they were the latest DPi team to get their program launched.

Luca Stolz and Christopher Mies continue to battle for the GT Daytona lead. Rik Breukers in the car now and he is third in class. So many great drivers are coming over from Europe to race in IMSA here in the states as Jordan Taylor pits from third overall in the #10 Cadillac. The Prototype championship will be a major deal, with 16 or so cars in the field. The WTR lineup with Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande, has flown under the radar. The guy is mega quick and he;s giing for it, having put it on pole. Ford also makes a scheduled pit stop.

Christopher Mies steps out of the #29 Audi. He ran the car out of fuel coming into the pit lane. Mies handed the car over to another driver, but, not sure who is in the car. The #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini has taken the class lead, Andrea Caldarelli driving. Kelvin van der Linde is in the Audi. Dirk Mueller has hit the pit lane for a scheduled stop. Can Joey Hand, Dirk Mueller, and Sebastien Bourdais, get the 200th race win for Chip Ganassi? We'll find out in 19 hours or so. Ford is comfortable with their chosen tire compound from Michelin, the exclusive tire supplier for the factory teams in GT Le Mans.

Penske Acura #7 in the lane for a scheduled stop. Ooh. Graham Rahal momentarily stalls the car but is now back on his merry way. Acura #6 pits from the lead. Simon Pagenaud will hand over to one of his team mates. Dane Cameron is now at the wheel of the #6, tiptoeing on cold tires. Baby the throttle so there is no risk of spinning the car. Markus Winkelhock is at the wheel of the #44 Magnus Racing Audi R8 in GT Daytona. Lawson Aschenbach in the #93 Acura NSX GT3, is working on passing Patrick Lindsey in the #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3. Aschenbach is paired up with Justin Marks for the 2018 season.

Bryan Sellers passes Franck Perera, in a battle of the Lamborghini's. Paul Miller Racing and GRT Grasser Racing respectively. Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow are a solid tandem in terms of driver lineups. Roger Penske has used the #6 for many years, here at the 24 Hours of Daytona, as well as in Trans Am and Can Am with the #6. Penske has a long, storied history. Trouble for Jordan Taylor with a cut down right rear tire for the defending race champions. Fortunately, he is now in the pit lane to get service.

The scrum in GT Daytona continues. Lawson Aschenbach is being muscled by Bryan Sellers as he has plenty of apex speed through the middle of the corner. They had less speed during the Roar Before the 24 test session. Andrea Caldarelli, from Italy, is a Lamborghini factory driver and he is a quick bloke in his own right. The Audi and the Lamborghini are very similar mechanically, running the same 5.2 liter V10 engine. Christian Fittipaldi for Action Express, leads this motor race right now.

A pass is made on the #71 P1 Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT3 of J.C. Perez. Franck Perera in the #11 GRT Grasser Lamborghini in close pursuit. Jeff Segal is in the WeatherTech Ferrari, and he has transmission trouble. Rain ahs come to Daytona.

Rolex 24: Hour 4

Corvette is waiting to pit the #3 so the telemtry system could be fixed. But now, they are up to second spot in GT Le Mans. The Acura's ran like tops in testing, as we see the #22 ESM Nissan slow on track with what appears to be a right rear tire problem. The tire has turned entirely into a weed whacker. Pippo Derani at the controls. Be careful, so that the tire does not rip the bodywork to shreds. The manufacturer's midway behind the infield is immense. Just incredible. Win on Sunday. Sell on Monday. Move the needle to sell cars. Joao Barbosa still leads. Simon Pagenaud has brought Acura ARX-05 #6 to second. 107 laps (381 miles) down. Tune your weapon, for sure as we go through the GTLM field. Corvette Racing had lost their telemtry transmitter. Now, everything is back up and running. They are second in class in GT Le Mans.

Car #22 is back on track, but the radiator could be an issue throughout the rest of this motor race. The Nissan took a wallop in qualifying, too. Based on the pit stops, United Autosport now runs 1-2. Phil Hanson in #23 leads Paul di Resta in #32. Joao Barbosa passes new Acura driver, Graham Rahal, who has taken over car #7. Di Resta passes Hanson. Problems for the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE. Tire trouble once more. James Calado at the wheel of it. Ferrari has had a major growth spurt this year, with the number of cars being run, not so much in WeatherTech, but, there were 45 cars in the Ferrari Challenge races earlier this weekend.

Christian Fittipaldi is doing the four endurance races with Action Express, but he is stepping away from driving in the sprint races. He will be in another role on the team, as Sporting Director. 116 laps (413 miles), now on the board. Christian Fittipaldi has done a lot of racing. Formula 1, IndyCar, sports cars, and some NASCAR. Stuart Middleton tired to pass Simon Pagenaud and sent Pagenaud into a spin. This little carambolage took place into the International Horseshoe, but was fairly harmless, even though the wreck, Middleton was sent to the sin bin for it.

Luca Stolz pits the #33 Mercedes AMG GT3. He is second now behind Christopher Mies as he has run Blancpain GT and also in German GT. Christopher Mies will head for the lane, from the lead. They were so, so close last year here to winning. They won Petit Le Mans, and the SRO's California 8 Hours, last fall. Matthias Lauda has now brought the #51 Spirit of Race Ferrari to the GTD lead. The #22 Nissan is now in the lane again. Up to second in GTD is the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 with Madison Snow at the wheel of it. They ran a shakedown at 10:30 P.M. last night at New Symyrna Speedway.

Lauda is now officially in the lane. He is a GTE Am world champion, and has done the same as Niki, his legendary father, an F1 champion. Acura #69 is also in the lane. This team is a great story. It's a non factory factory team, as everyone works for Honda in the factory. Chad Gilsinger just finished his stint, and now, another driver is in. Rik Breukers is now at the wheel of the #11 Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3. A.J. Allmendinger is next up in the #86 machine. Alvaro Parente is another mega star on that team.

Allmendinger passes Breukers for third in GTD. Barbosa leads in the Cadillac, but Scott Sharp in the Nissan and Graham Rahal in the Acura, are hot on his heels. The top five cars are on the lead lap. Fred Makowiecki has put himself inbetween the two Ford GT's in GT Le Mans with the Porsche 911 RSR. Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber are so quick, and Bamber won Le Mans for the second time in his career, and also won the FIA World Endurance Championship crown, but of course, Porsche has now exited the WEC. Clean pit stop for the #2 Nissan. The Nissan could continue to be competitive, but of course, the tires have been their Achilles heel.

Problems for the #77 Mazda again. Tire trouble, another time. These blokes have had nothing but trouble since they arrived. The Mazda engine also runs hot. They had to swap engines earlier in the week. Mazda has the speed. The cars have been revamped entirely from the front end, and also, from the rear bulkhead back. Coming to the end of the third hour and into the fourth. Flames will shoot out the exhausts. The lights will dance in the mirrors. The brake rotors will glow cherry red. Matt McMurry has taken the race lead in the #90 Cadillac. But now, he is in the lane and will relinquish P1.

Graham Rahal takes the lead. Matt McMurry's dad Chris ran a lot in LMP2 cars and he has also had tutored by Englishman Ian James.