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.
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