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.
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