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.
No comments:
Post a Comment