Christopher Mies has now made his way to seventh place overall. Trouble for Bentley. They've spent ten minutes in the pit lane, but now have to take it to the garage. Jules Gounon was at the wheel of it, sharing with Jordan Pepper and Steven Kane of course, as Andy Soucek has the wheel of the #8 sister car, sharing with Vincent Abril and Maxime Soulet of course. At the start of the 2018 Pirelli World Challenge season, K-PAX was going through chassis' like candy after cars being wrecked. They facilitated cars coming from Asia so the team could race. Strakka Racing Mercedes is in the lane with two of their cars. By stopping, topping up with fuel, you are back timing the race to the eighth hour at the end. Maximilian Buhk is at the wheel of the SunEnergy1 car, also in the lane, waiting for the delta time in the pit lane to be chewed up and swallowed.
There are lots of calculations. But, there is a system of live timing the driver can see in the car, so they don't beat the pit stop delta of 101 seconds as Baptista brings the generation one Bentley to the lane. Rodrigo Baptista stays in the car, before Bryan Sellers takes over. Sellers says it is hard to drive a right hand drive car. Your apex and reference points totally change. Pro drivers adapt to cars all the time. Alex Riberas also pitted the #17 WRT Audi R8 of Alex Riberas, Sheldon van der Linde and Stuart Leonard. The #99 Hyundai I30N TCR is back on track. Lewis Williamson is now at the wheel of the #43 Mercedes AMG GT3 and has the speed on fresh tires while Andy Soucek needs to pit for new skins, as his tires are knackered more than likely.
Fix the car for safety reasons and also for performance. Now, did a pit crew lose a tire in the lane? That will mean a drive through for one of the Bentley's as Steven Kane is still out there, pounding around. The new Bentley's will be handed to K-PAX Racing after this race is complete, as mentioned. Andy Soucek leads Christopher Mies, and the #87 Vital Speed Ferrari 488 GT3 is in third with Marino Franchitti driving, sharing with Trevor Baek and Jeff Westphal. Stuart Leonard is now at the wheel of the #17 Audi R8. Alex Riberas says the team's race has been mistake free so far. Quick decisions are crucial in endurance racing even though the races are long.
Christian Vietoris is running really well in one of the Mercedes' for Strakka. Problems for the Ginetta as he had to do an electronics reset on the car. Ian Lacy is still at the wheel. Drew Staveley had gone to the lead at the start, and then, faded. The Ginetta is lightweight and has narrow tires. Narrow tires will be chewed up quicker than wider tires. The #54 Black Swan Porsche 911 GT3R has Patrick Long at the wheel of it. It's the first time Patrick Long and Jeroen Bleekemolen have driven together with Tim Pappas. The Ginetta had an electrical issue, and needed a reboot. Control, Alt, Delete. You can't do a Control, Alt, Delete on your golf game or your baseball game, chaps. Hardy har har.
Raffaele Marciello won't win this championship. He has to fall on the sword, and win a championship for the manufacturers. Splitting drivers for the sake of the manufacturer results, can cause one driver in contention to lose, and another driver to win an individual championship. The Panoz is in the garage. Drama for the #51 Panoz Avezzano, the Preston Calvert, Mat Keegan, Ian James car. In GT4, Matt Fassnacht in the #34 Murillo Racing Mercedes AMG GT4 leads, sharing with only one other co-driver, Christian Szymczak. They lead the #2 GMG Racing Audi R8 GT4 of Andrew Davis, Jason Bell, and James Sofronas.
We will get back to the race, there are some technical difficulties with the app at the moment, ladies and gentleman. Will try and catch up.
Andy Soucek has 22 seconds over Christopher Mies, despite tire degradation and Maro Engel was all over Markus Winkelhock, where he locks up! Yikes! He had to release the brake pedal and go outside in the Andretti hairpin, and deary me, Winkelhock slams the door in Engel's face! At least they know who is going to be a target. Momentum is still key with these equally balanced GT3 racers. Winkelhock is blocking deliberately. Now, will the stewards have something to say about that? Only make one move. Don't weave defensively all over the road. Engel looks inside, and yikes! Engel makes the pass on Marcus Winkelhock.
Engel has sliced through the two Murillo Mercedes' in a phenomenal move, look. Romain Dumas is now at the wheel of the #58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Andy Soucek leads this motor race, driving the car beneath it's threshold. Stretch the fuel, because Bentley is on a different strategy from Audi and Mercedes. The Ferrari is in the lane, Marino Franchitti handing over to Trevor Baek. This is the #87 Vital Speed Motorsports entry. There could be problems for Vital Speed since their stop time is longer than expected. Andy Soucek has gone by the #10 PF Racing Ford Mustang GT4 of Jade Buford, James Pesek, and Canadian veteran Scott Maxwell.
Andy Soucek is on his own lap, having not stopped yet. The Bentley Boys are pushing the envelope for an advantage here. The #29 Land Motorsport Audi is in the lane. Christopher Haase will take over the wheel. Depending on where you are pitted, here at Laguna Seca, the pit lane is on an incline, on a hill. So, be careful with the brakes. The Audi is back on track now. Andy Soucek is not too far behind Christopher Haase on pit strategy and pit sequence. The pit stop delta is 1:50, nine seconds off the minimum. Hmmm. Soucek is stretching his fuel mileage. Yikes. The top five cars are running in the 1:26 range, 1:26.8-1:26.9 seconds.
More intermittence from the stream, folks. Hang on a minute.
We have seen little trouble with dropping wheels off the road and dragging sand onto the road. The #51 Panoz Avezzano, is returning to the track after being in the garage for repairs, as we still have some tech difficulties with the stream here. Bentley #8 is now in the lane, and Vincent Abril now gets into the car. Maxime Soulet is the third driver in the #8 Bentley Continental GT3, the second of the two new generation factory cars. Lewis Williamson moves the #43 Mercedes back to the overall lead, as Nick Leventis pits the team car in the Pro Am class.
Strakka Racing has been in prototype competition, but is now solidly racing in GT3. Strakka has also raced McLaren's before. Christopher Haase is running much faster than leader Lewis Williamson. Kudos to the #113 RHC Jorgenson Strom BMW M4 GT4 shared by Daren Jorgenson, Jon Miller, and Brett Strom. David Roberts, Max Faulkner, and Vesko Kozorov, in the #626 Rearden Racing Audi R8 GT4 just pitted, and so has Patrick Long in the #54 Black Swan Racing Porsche 911 GT3R. The maximum drive time for any driver is three hours and 15 minutes, that's total drive time throughout the rest of the race. Don't max out each driver. A three hour stint even in cool weather, would be too tiring. They'll double stint before the finish.
There is still a wonderful sound of a Porsche flat six motor. Just incredible. Apologies, for losing the stream of the race. It is back up and running, now.
Lewis Williamson has a big advantage, 33 seconds, over Maro Engel in the second place Mercedes AMG GT3. Two Mercedes AMG GT3's are leading the motor race. Christopher Haase is doing all he can to bring himself back into contention for the motor race. Lewis Williamson has run a good stint so far as Markus Winkelhock drops a wheel, slightly, in the #19 Audi Sport Team WRT Audi R8. Felipe Fraga is leading in Pro Am. He cut his teeth in Brazilian stock cars, and he has done very well so far in his GT3 career. He did very well in Petit Le Mans, the final IMSA race run at Road Atlanta a few weeks back. Fraga has speed and everything, but he has an effervescent personality and is a likable bloke.
Fraga threaded the needle in GT4 traffic, by the #66 TRG Porsche Cayman Clubsport in GT4 being shared by Derek DeBoer, Sean Gibbons, and veteran, Spencer Pumpelly. The sister car, #67 has at the wheel of it, Chris Bellomo, Robert Orcutt, and Tom Dyer, three more Americans. Dyer, has run in IMSA competition in the North American Endurance Cup. Markus Winkelhock doesn't have the speed and balance with the Audi. The Bentley, has the pace at the moment. Although, the Mercedes AMG's are running 1-2. Audi is fourth. Audi needs a big day to beat Mercedes in the manufacturer's cup.
Romain Dumas with the #911 Wright Motorsports Porsche, is going for it. He's fifth in GT3. Dumas raced at Pikes Peak at the hill climb earlier in the year. Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard had some great runs here at Laguna Seca with the factory Roger Penske run Porsche RS Spyder, battling with the diesel Audi and the factory Acura LMP1 cars. Dumas said of the Bathurst circuit in Australia, that it is a blend of the Nurburgring and Pikes Peak, which is very accurate. A corner on that track, Skyline, is unreal;.
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