The GT4 cars are even more evenly matched than the GT3 cars. The GT4 cars achieve their lap times in many different ways. The #6 U.S. RaceTronics Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo is an entry to watch with 15-year-old Steven Aghakani at the wheel of it, sharing with fellow American Richard Antinucci and Briton Taylor Proto. Raffaele Marciello still leads and has the edge on Sheldon van der Linde with the pit stops coming up. Maximum stint time is 65 minutes. Marino Franchitti will get into the lone Ferrari in the field, soon, as Mark Wilkins is off the road with the Hyundai I30N. There is a mechanical issue. He has a loose wheel somehow, or a suspension failure. Adrien Tambay pits the #44 Mercedes AMG GT3. Everyone needs to pit in the next nine minutes. The pit lane will be jammed. We are under our first full course yellow flag. The stewards are giving the leader a margin of protection, but his gap is being chewed into by the leaders, his pursuers.
Under GT3 rules, you have to be in the lane for 50 seconds maximum. Fuel before changing tires. Marciello hands over to one of his team mates. Is something amiss with the fueling rig? Land and WRT also pit. This is tight as the first of eight hours is now done and dusted. Mercedes #43 got held up by some GT4 cars. Yours truly is blending the last part of the first hour into the second hour of the race because there is just tons of action all over the track right now. Whoops. We have drama under yellow. The #22 Automatic Racing Astonn Martin Vantage GT4 is out of fuel, Charles Espenlaub at the wheel of it. Charlie Putman will be next into the car before third driver Eric Lux takes his Stint. The team has had to superglue the car back together after a shunt on Thursday in practice. The car is n the lane for fuel and driver changes. The TCR Hyundai had a broken suspension system and that is why it ran off the road.
No wave bys means that cars will get trapped behind the safe car, but a full fuel load gives you more time to fuel it in the lane, at 145 seconds. We remain under yellow after the pit stops, and we hope for a green flag, momentarily. Oh boy. There will be a GT4 wave by, a gift for the Aston Martin. This is the smart thing to do. Dries Vanthoor can close up on Christopher Mies. Each class can have their own battle so they minimize the risks on restarts. It is a double win. If your class leader is behind you, you will be trapped behind the safety car. The #19 Audi has Dries Vanthoor and Markus Winkelhock. All four championship contenders are in the top four. Maximilian Goetz has to put the welly down, now. The Aston Martin #22 topped off with petrol. The fresh tires are still being bedded in.
Tim Pappas is a lap down. The Black Swan crew has to sacrifice track position and Tim Pappas has to keep the car on the lead lap for team mates Patrick Long and Jeroen Bleekemolen. David Askew spins the #63 DXDT Mercedes on cold tires. He shares the car with Ryan Dalziel. All four lead cars have championship drivers at the wheel. WRT Sporting Director Thierry TSsin, is a former driver, and he knows how to strategize for the team. Now, the #29 Audi may have passed under yellow and he will be dinged for that one by the marshals. Why would Christopher Mies have done something to incur a drive through penalty? Not a smart move by the veteran Audi pilot. After serving this penalty, Mies passes Marino Franchitti in the sole Ferrari in the field.
Mies has to be cautious so he doesn’t abuse his tires. Peter Baron, team strategist says there’s no drama after the penalty. The pass was made under full course yellow. Steven Kane is under real pressure from David Fumanelli. Maxime Soulet is the driver in the sister car. Kane is a little Terrier, and will push hard. Another SteK,a Mercedes, the #44 car of Jack Hawksworth, he is going for it as well. A tight squeeze, forcing the issue on the Murillo Racing GT4 Mercedes AMG GT4. The mountings for the damaged body parts on Hawksworth’s car, is a concern. Mercedes #75 is in the lane, with Kenny Habul at the wheel of it. It is a drive through penalty for working on the car outside the pit box.
He has to get to the 70% mark to earn points. Mat Keegan is now leading GT4 for Panoz. The #12 Ginetta is now second in class, Frank Gannett at the wheel of it. We have another full course yellow, and the #75 and #46 are off the road, with the Lamborghini Huracan GT3, with Steve Dunn at the wheel. Both these cars are beached. The #8 Bentley Continental GT3 pits as does the #29 Land Audi. There is damage to the #75 and the left front corner of the car just wouldn’t turn. Shinya Michimi, one of the drivers in #46, wants to have success, but acknowledges PPM is in a learning curve in their first GT3 race, and he won the 2016 Lamborghini Super Trofeo championship.
Is the tire wrapped around the suspension? If so, that is not good for his championship hopes in the Bronze Cup. Tim Pappas is his close rival. He has finished his stint and Patrick Long, and Jeroen Bleekemolen, will share the car. It’s a question of damage limitation. But, the car is dialed in. We are back to green flag racing now. Fred Makowiecki in the Wright Motorsports Porsche, the #911, is running very well. Patrick Long's experience makes their team even stronger. You can bring cars from Europe, but the manufacturers also support the national series. All the entries are not direct factory cars, but there are outstanding teams operating the cars.
Maximilian Buhk is chasing Dries Vanthoor right now, as Christopher Mies is coming back, and has charged to sixth thanks to the yellow. He is pushing, now, getting around the #626 Rearden Racing Audi R8 GT4 with Vesko Kozarov, David Roberts, and Max Faulkner. Maximilian Goetz is opening the margin up. Again, the Mercedes AMG GT3 is such a compliant car. The Porsche 911 GT3R is a twitchier, less easy car to drive. Compliance means the front and back of the car work in unison. These GT3 cars have tons of downforce. Andy Soucek is running very well, and now, Rodrigo Baptista has the controls of the #9 K-PAX Bentley Continental GT3. The Panoz has made a pit stop. The Brazilian is sharing with Alvaro Parente from Portugal, and American Bryan Sellers.
Christopher Mies will have a drive through penalty for an unsafe release. This was a long while ago, but the marshals are going to penalize him. Mies lit up the tires in the working lane of pit lane. The GT4 drivers can go further on fuel. Reset the fuel to run out of fuel earlier to make the 65 minute stint length limit, so you don't run out of gas. You cannot run an hour and a half on tires because the degradation is greater than saving time on pit stops. Christopher Mies is now up to tenth overall. The mechanic should have spotted that Mies needed to stop for the Panoz. For the #51 Panoz, that may have been a drive through. The middle lane cannot be used to drive out of.
If someone is in the fast lane and you want to release the car, you can, as long as it is safely done, when you transition to the fast lane. Jack Hawksworth, a lap down, is slicing through GT4 traffic. Kelvin van der Linde says, keep digging. There's lots more racing left.
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