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.
No comments:
Post a Comment