Again, Helio Castroneves has retaken the lead, and this marks the 23rd official lead change, counted at the start/finish line in this motor race, as we have entered into the double digit hours of this motor race. So, we are getting close, and a couple hours still to go before breaking the halfway mark. Castroneves has rhe better run, going for the lead, so Dane Cameron decides discretion is the better part of valor and cuts back into line. Castroneves is one of the real veterans, and he loves driving race cars. Castroneves is very excited to come back to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport), ready to improve on his result there last summer.
The #62 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi is sixth in class in GT Le Mans. Patrick Pilet has the class lead in the Porsche, but a slight gap only (1.9 seconds), between he, and the two yellow factory Corvette's including the #4 in the hands of Tommy Milner. Milner is being followed by the sister car. Porsche #912 pitted on schedule, and they were thought to be on a different pit strategy compared to the other teams. #912 is fifth in class. There could have been a penalty for the #912. We will have to check on this. We'll find that out, soon as coverage of the Rolex 24 continues here, on Endurance... The Sports Car Racing Blog, as we are in hour ten of the motor race rightr now. Just under 15 hours still to go.
We have had a dry race to this point and there's loads of grip on the track. We are just 20 minutes away from the witching hour, from Saturday becoming Sunday. Tommy Milner is still being chased by Jan Magnussen, but they seems to be working together, to steam up behind Patrick Pilet and give him some trouble. Car #912, the other Porsche was not in pit lane, but it seems to have fallen down the order quite a ways as we see a pit stop too, for the #25 BMW M8 GT for BMW Team RLL. Tires, fuel, and a driver change for the BMW, and #4 is in the lane as well. Who has entered the #25 car? We'll find out. It was a little bit of a problem for that car, and there's problems for the #84 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac.
They need gaffer tape, and #84 rumbles away, but they are still having a fraught race. Mercedes #33 has made a standard pit stop for tires and fuel as well as the tear off on the windshield being changed. The #3 Corvette is also in the lane, as is the #911 from second in class in GTLM. This is a scheduled stop. Fuel in the tank, tires on, and the car screams away from the pit lane. The Porsche flat six motor is ear splitting and yet beautiful. The GT3 Porsche is rear engine, while the GTLM car is very much a mid engine car. Laurens Vanthoor leads GTLM.
Filipe Albuquerque is almost ahead of all the GTLM cars as the GT Daytona cars pit. Audi #8 is in the lane for Starworks for fuel and tires and the #24 BMW is also in the pit lane for fuel, tires, and a driver change. Alex Zanardi is back in the #24 BMW. Thankfully, his steering wheel is working much better than it did earlier in the race. Zanardi has to be the fastest man on the team in the #24, and of course, on one of his last stints, the special steering wheel was damaged... well, the steering column. But now, he's back in the race. Zanardi has to tiptoe around on fresh Michelin tires. Meantime, Porsche #912 is in the lane for a scheduled stop.
Laurens Vanthoor stays at the wheel of it. The pit stop for the #912 will promote the #5 Cadillac to 11th place in the overall. Cameron Cassels is still at the wheel of the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports LMP2 machine. Cassels won the Masters division in the IMSA Prototype Challenge championship. Cassels began in Michelin Pilot Challenge and has now moved up to the WeatherTech Championship. He has driven #38 for over an hour and he was in for an earlier stint in the afternoon. Kyle Masson has also taken a turn, as has Chris Wright. Robert Masson may have also had one stint aboard #38. He did a triple stint.
Helio Castroneves still leads as we have crossed the 300 lap mark. 300 laps, 1,068 miles complete. We're eleven minutes away from midnight. 808 laps run in the 2018 Rolex 24. The gap between the leading Acura's of Helio Castroneves and Dane Cameron, is at nine seconds even. Renger van der Zande runs ten seconds in-arrears of the Acura's, and then comes Eric Curran. Curran is 2.2 seconds adrift of van der Zande, and Colin Braun in the Nissan is fifth in Prototype and the overall. The #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche has been tumbling through the order after the incident a few hours ago in which Matt Campbell lost a wheel.
Patrick Long is currently at the wheel of it. He is 17th in class. We are behind the lap distance pace from last year. So, it is unlikely we will break any records. Audi #8 for Starworks is still out there. Ryan Dalziel, Ezequiel Perez Companc, Parker Chase, and Christopher Haase. The clock is being monitored, but not really for the time left in the race. More so, for how much time there will be before we see raindrops that are forecast for the early morning. So, it could be that we are going to get some inclement weather in the next few hours. Dalziel says the Starworks car is missing some pace from the Land Motorsports entry.
Dalziel hopes the Starworks car can be competitive once the rain comes. The wet is something that evens things out. The rain is pretty solid to be forecast at 4AM Eastern Time. Good to see Starworks running back in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. There is a balance to be struck at Daytona because of the mixture of oval and road course. The rain might not stop. It will be consistent from the morning, through the end of the race, and beyond. There's a band of poor weather coming off the Atlantic ocean. Trent Hindman at the wheel of the #86 Acura NSX GT3 is laser focused on catching the Lexus #14 with Jack Hawksworth still at the controls.
Trent Hindman is second in class in GTD as we watch the #84 "Banana Boat" Cadillac still in pit lane, still having a beleaguered motor race. The pit crew is working on the front of the car and there is a driver change going on, it looks like. In the GT Daytona class at this time, Jack Hawksworth is running in the lead ahead of Trent Hindman as already mentioned. Daniel Morad is third followed by two Lamborghini's. Mirko Bortolotti runs ahead of Andrea Caldarelli. Sixth spot is the #9 Porsche in the hands of Lars Kern. He is ahead of Jeff Westphal in the WeatherTech Ferrari, followed by Ben Keating in eighth in the Mercedes for Riley Motorsports.
Lars Kern is the only amateurish driver in the top part of the GTD order as we watch a battle for third between the #10 and #31 Cadillac's. Renger van der Zande is ahead of Eric Curran. van der Zande's front brakes are glowing cherry red, so they must have a lot more bias towards the front brakes on the car than the rears. van der Zande is being hounded and monstered by Curran, look. Helio Castroneves overtook team mate Dane Cameron on lap 292. The gap is at ten seconds, and now, the gap has lengthened from second to third. Colin Braun in the Nissan is closing up on the two aforementioned Cadillac's, before we see the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac currently in the hands of Tristan Vautier.
van der Zande passes by the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 with Dylan Machavern at the wheel of it. In pit lane too, is the #7 Acura. Helio Castroneves will stay in the car, but for #6, it looks like Simon Pagenaud will be the next driver into the car. Cadillac #10 is also in the pit lane, look, for scheduled service. At Midnight, the witching hour, there still more pit action happening. The order has been rearranged after pit stops. Eric Curran leads the motor race due to not pitting, and took over on lap 308, at the 1,096 miles mark. Second spot belongs to Helio Castroneves, and third is Simon Pagenaud. Fourth place is Renger van der Zande followed by Romain Dumas who has taken over the #54 Nissan. Misha Goikhberg has taken over the #85 Cadillac followed by the Mazda of Harry Tincknell. Three of the four LMP2 cars fill out the top ten, with Pastor Maldonado leading both Henrik Hedman and Cameron Cassels.
Alessandro Pier Guidi still leads in GTLM for Ferrari and Risi Competizione. Joey Hand in the #66 Motorcraft liveried Ford GT is second in class, ahead of the #4 Corvette of Tommy Milner, the #912 Brumos liveried factory Porsche #912 and completing the top five is the sister yellow Corvette in the hands of Antonio Garcia. Trent Hindman is back to the top of the tree in the #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3. Jack Hawksworth in the #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 is merely 1.4 seconds behind Hindman. Daniel Morad is third in the #29 Land Audi. The two Lamborghini's have been separated by a good seven seconds as Mirko Bortolotti is ahead of Andrea Caldarelli.
The #31 Cadillac did indeed complete it's pit stop, but it has been leapfrogged by the two Acura's. Dane Cameron says splitting the pit boxes for Team Penske is a good idea and it is much more efficient. Dane Cameron double stinted his tires. The DPi teams have 38 sets of tires for the whole week including the race. They've made 16 pit stops during this race so far. We are not yet ten hours into the motor race. We are expecting rain, but also, conserve your dry weather Michelin tires, and double stint the current sets. Colton Herta and Patrick Pilet are in a battle on track, currently. The sister #912 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor, Earl Bamber, and Matthieu Jaminet, they are all going for it and of course early in the race was the trouble with their front splitter. Alessandro Pier Guidi still remains out front in GT Le Mans in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE.
Oliver Gavin, early in the race for Corvette #4, had a steering arm break. But, all nine of the GTLM cars are running between 12th and 20th overall with Ryan Briscoe and Alex Zanardi are two and three laps behind in class respectively. But, they are making comebacks, both of them. Acura continues to lead and the two Mazda's had their issues. Harry Tincknell is still in the #55 car. The sister car #77 retired due to an internal engine issue. Crank case pressure and oiling was an issue for #55, but #77 had a turbo failure. Harry Tincknell is seventh overall and was two laps down, but is now just one lap behind the leaders.
Trent Hindman continues leading GT Daytona, 4.6 seconds to the good over Jack Hawksworth at the present time. Pastor Maldonado leads Henrik Hedman and Cameron Cassels in what is now a three-car battle in LMP2. Alessandro Pier Guidi is flying at the moment, with a 21 second cushion over the #912 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor who has passed Joey Hand in Ford #66 followed by the two Corvette's. Behind them is the #911 Porsche and the #25 BMW. It's been an ebb and flow in GTLM although Ferrari has been at the top of the tree for a good while now. Helio Castroneves has now completed 315 laps (1,121 miles). The gap is stable at 12 seconds between the two Acura's, and another dozen seconds to Renger van der Zande and then to Romain Dumas.
Great to have Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard back in the series in IMSA, not in the same car of course. They ran together for many years for various brands under the Volkswagen Audi umbrella, particularly at Le Mans. Romain Dumas broke the Pikes Peak record and Timo Bernhard in the Porsche 919 Evo went insanely quick at the Nurburgring Nordschleife. VW could run for the electric record at the Nurburgring. Risi Competizione will pit soon and make a driver change. Miguel Molina, the Spaniard will be suited and booted and ready to take over the car from Italy's Alessandro Pier Guidi who we've been singing the praises of due to his consistent lap times.
Risi has one Ferrari alongside the two car teams for BMW, Ford, Chevrolet, and Porsche. Miguel Molina is back into the motor race. Dave "Beke" Sims is the team boss at Risi Competizione, a veteran of motor racing. "Beke" is actually with a different team. He is going to put a new team together, planning to come to IMSA in the latter half of 2019 or in 2020, the Moxie Racing Team. So, we will look forward to that. The top running Ferrari in GTD is the #13 Via Italia Racing entry wearing proudly, the Brazilian flag. But that automobile is running sans headlights and must rectify that situation ASAP.
Mathias Lauda is at the controls of the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 that has dropped down the order. Acura #86 pits from the class lead in GTD with Trent Hindman driving. Hindman may have had a problem earlier, in the form of a puncture or some kind of kerfuffle. Now, the #912 Porsche leads GTLM and the #66 Ford GT is in the pit lane. Jack Hawksworth is now leading in GTD and the sister AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus #12 is also pitting at this moment. The #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche is in pit lane with it's plaid livery. They wanted to represent Canada, but could not find a way as the WRT Speedstar Audi team did, of putting the Canadian maple leaf on the car, so, they went with the plaid shirt livery. It looks like a lumberjack shirt on wheels.
The #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus and the #86 MSR Acura are both pitting right now. Oops. We have a car spun on the infield. Pastor Maldonado has spun. No. It's the #52 PR1/Mathiasen car has spun on the far end of the circuit going onto the tri oval, and that will be very difficult with cars speeding by on the back straight at top speed. This is dangerous. Gabriel Aubry has the car back in the right direction! Phew! No worries there. #52 hits the pit lane for obvious reasons. At this time, there's really nothing in it between the chaps racing in GTLM. Colton Herta set fastest lap so far, quite a while ago.
Herta ran a 1:42.90. All other cars in the class are down to 1:43.30, so it's very close. Ferrari still has the quickest lap at 1:43.104 when Alessandro Pier Guidi was driving, having taken over from James Calado at the time. Trent Hindman continues to drive the #86 Acura. That's the first triple stint for MSR. The car was in pit lane for a long while and the bonnet came up on the car, perhaps, for a fluid check. The #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini has caught back up. Of the 23 cars in the GTD field, a bunch of them have led. It's very close in the class for the GT3 spec cars. It's extraordinary motor racing thus far.
GTD of course is Pro Am class, so the bronze and silver drivers have to do their share of the racing. In DPi, two hours of driving maximum are required. #48 needs a pit stop and so does the #11 GRT Grasser machine after it's penalties that Rik Breukers had to serve. Andrea Caldarelli has run 301 laps (1,071 and a half miles). Roman De Angelis, the Canadian, has just run his latest stint in the #88 Audi. Roman De Angelis ran both U.S. and Canadian Porsche IMSA Cup racing, as a springboard to get himself back into the top level sports cars aftr racing single seater's in Canada. Trent Hindman, as mentioned, he is starting another stint.
The team was topping up the brake fluid on the car. #48 is in the lane for service. Kelvin van der Linde and Frederic Vervisch are going to drive the next few stints for the #88 car. Acura #6 is in pit lane replacing a damaged front nose. This is Simon Pagenaud who has had a woopsie here, look. He's slid off the road, overcooked it at the chicane, and he took a massive shortcut around the International Horseshoe after playing dodge 'em cars with the #19 Moorespeed Audi R8. At the time, Spaniard Alex Riberas with the driver in the Audi. Team Penske takes care of the service on their car in about 45 seconds.
Simon Pagenaud stays in the car as he hadn't been in for too long. In replay, it looks like Pagenaud may have clipped the Alex Riberas driven Audi as a huge chunk of bodywork flew off the car. Helio Castroneves has 41 seconds in hand over Renger van der Zande at the moment. Renger van der Zande has moved into second overall due to Pagenaud's miscue. Now, we also have pit lane action at Corvette. The #4 is in. Routine service for #4 which has been passed by the sister car, #3, Antonio Garcia at the wheel of it. As the Corvette exits, the #57 Acura is also making a pit stop, or perhaps exiting. Hard to tell. Christina Nielsen is driving. Meanwhile, drama as the #19 Moorespeed Audi R8 is off the road once again, look.
Hold on. This is a replay. So, #19 went off onto the grass, and did another car follow him off the road, somehow? That's really odd. I mean, we are also looking back at the problem for the Acura when Pagenaud had it off the road doing a bit of grass track racing. There probably wasn't even contact between the two cars. Pagenaud drops to sixth overall but is out of sync as far as his spot. Corvette #3, Garcia, now hits the lane. A standard stop, the V8 engine burbling away, and flames spitting from the exhaust pipe. The engine is left running on pit stops in IMSA unlike the ACO rules at Le Mans and in FIA WEC where you have to shut the car off.
A major flat spot on the right front tire for the Corvette as it was wheeled away. Cadillac #10 is also pitting as we speak. Scratch that. All three leaders, including #10 are in. Helio Castroneves stays behind the wheel of Penske Acura #7.
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