Mazda, in the lane, with the #55. Spencer Pigot will come into the car, and then, Harry Tincknell will finish the race out. The Mazda, is a padiddle, a car with one working headlight, which is legal. Ah. No, it is not a padiddle anymore. It is about to get dark here at Sebring. Soon, it will be pitch everywhere. The camera lens apertures make it look a lot lighter out there than it actually is. You can see the light stanchions, but who knows where the light actually is, other than the setting sun, and eventually, the moon. There is always drama. Recall the fight in 2007 for GT2 honors between Jaime Melo in the Risi Competizione Ferrari and Jorg Bergmeister in the Flying Lizard Porsche. One oif the classic races that there have been myriad of through the 66 year history of this fantastic motor race.
260 laps now complete. 972 miles. Nicolas Lapierre continues to push. Darkness is beginning to fall. You have to be willing to compromise. Where do I make the most of my passing? Then, you have to choose, for the long-term (i.e. the race) your aero package, your spring rates, the overall balance of the automobile. In qualifying, your setups can be entirely different than what they would be during the race itself. When you get the long shots of the cars coming at you at night, you can see that the Prototypes and GT Le Mans cars have white headlights, and the GT Daytona cars have the amber gels on the headlights. Porsche and Ferrari are in the pit lane and so is the Acura #93. Lawson Aschenbach will continue at the wheel of the #93 car, which was not the original plan.
The #911 Porsche pits and there was a driver change. Who is in the #911? Patrick Pilet, it could be. The #62 Ferrari beats Pilet out of the pits, with Toni Vilander at the controls. We have two hours and 45 minutes to go, the length of a standard IWSC sprint race. Get to the end of the stint. Reset the goalposts. Jeroen Bleekemolen is being chased by Alessandro Balzan. GT Daytona cars headed for the lane. Dylan Machavern will be taking over the GTD lead in the #96 BMW M6 GT3. Gunnar Jeanette takes over the #63 Scuderia Corsa, Weathertech Ferrari, from Alessandro Balzan.
Nicolas Lapierre finally takes the lead of this motor race into Sunset Bend. Ferrari continues to lead in GT Le Mans. Could Ford come back to top level sports car racing and race in Prototype? We'll have to wait and find out. There's some really good racing going on right now, especially in GT Le Mans and GT Daytona. No one wants to give anything up. Patrick Pilet is having trouble getting around the #29 Land Motorsports Audi. Nissan #22 is in the lane. Nicolas Lapierre will have one more stint, before Pippo Derani is the final bullet, to finish out the race. Mike Conway leads, and Jonathan Bomarito can come back and retake the lead for Mazda. It is a possibility.
Jonathan Bomarito has had a really good run today. Could they hold on for a victory? Now, they havew the backing of Reinhold Joest, Ralf Juettner, and the whole Joest Racing team. The #3 Corvette is soldiering on, despite it's problems. The #4 sister car is also hanging in threre. The experienced drivers will shine their lights right into the competitor's mirrors to maybe distract them a little bit... to mess with their game plan. Toni Vilander is continuing to push in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE. Everyone always wants more as a race car driver.
Spencer Pigot is now at the controls of Mazda #55. There's a battle in GTD between the #93 Acura and the #29 Audi. Christopher Mies used to be the closer for this team. But, Sheldon van der Linde, he could be the chap to finish this race out. The Joest Mazda program is really showing how much they've improved today, compared to where they were at the 24 Hours of Daytona. We are very close to having just two hours to go in the 66th 12 Hours of Sebring.
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