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.
No comments:
Post a Comment