Rolex 24: Hour 19

We have been given a time for when we will go back to green.  9AM Eastern Time.  So, in another 24 minutes.  We're inside the final six hours.  Some of the cars have almost waterfalls falling off them.  Pierre Dieudonne from WRT Speedstar says that the driver out of the car at the red flag, has to restart, stretching their stint extra.  It's unfortunate for everyone, but, it was a relief to the drivers because the aquaplaning and also, the poor visibility. 

Teams from Europe are accustomed to rain, but it has been falling since almost three hours into the motor race.  The best way to dry the track out is to have cars racing around.    Taylor Proto from Ebimotors says that endurance racing is a new challenge for him between racing in IMSA and Blancpain Endurance.  Proto wants to win a Rolex 24 in the future even though he's had troubles here in 2019.  He has been running in Lamborghini Super Trofeo for two years and he was floored by being passed by Fernando Alonso.  Proto loves racing at the Rolex 24.  Drivers are headed for their cars, which means we can keep racing, soon.

The drivers have to take the restart, who brought the car into the pit lane, and that's why so many drivers were sleeping on their pit boxes.  They had to stay on call and couldn't leave the pit box.  Alex Riberas, Patrick Long, A.J. Allmendinger and others are a couple of drivers in that situation.  Their suits will be wet, and the cars will be steamed up.  So, you need a telescopic stick with a sponge on it.  Put some Rain-X on the windscreen.  The drive times will not be altered too much.  15-20 minutes less than the scheduled minimum times for pro rated drivers.  The engines are running now.

Fernando Alonso will lead the field, with the Acura's behind of Dane Cameron and Ricky Taylor.  Fourth place belongs to Pipo Derani in the #31 Cadillac.  Colin Braun next, four laps off the lead in the #54 Nissan for CORE Autosport, followed another few laps behind by Tristan Vautier in the #85 Cadillac, the JDC-Miller "Banana Boat".  James Allen leads LMP2, in the #81 DragonSpeed car.  Three laps down to him is his team mate, Pastor Maldonado in the #18 DragonSpeed car, and further behind is the third LMP2 machine, the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports car in the hands of Kyle Masson.  Alessandro Pier Guidi leads GTLM.  Laurens Vanthoor, Joey Hand, Fred Makowiecki, Ryan Briscoe, and Colton Herta, are the guys on the lead lap, followed, seven laps down, Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette.

A dozen GTD cars are on the lead lap with A.J. Allmendinger leading Dries Vanthoor, Marco Seefried, Dominik Farnbacher, Kelvin van der Linde, Mirko Bortolotti, Simona de Silvestro, Frankie Montecalvo, followed by the sister AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus, and then comes Patrick Long, Ryan Hardwick, and Jeroen Bleekemolen.  The sun has risen, even though we can't see it through the cloud cover.  Ricky Taylor climbs into the #7 Acura, taking off his overshoes.  The rain has abated a little bit.  We have had a red flag for exactly an hour and a half.  We'll have two to three sighting laps to spot residual standing water.  Beaux Barfield, Race Director, and Paul Walter, Assistant Race Director, have made their decisions as far as track conditions.

Can they get the cars restarted?  That's the first question.  The #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R has steam emanating from the front of the car.  Even the GT3 cars are not up to snuff yet.  Warm up the engines and gearboxes because right now, they are stone cold.  Alex Zanardi makes his way back out onto the grid.  He did bring the car in as he transfers into the car, from his wheelchair.  The GTLM cars have all been closely matched.  Colton Herta ran a 1:42.908 as the best lap, by BMW M8 GT #25, when he was racing earlier in the event.  Jesse Krohn in the sister car #24, did have a major puncture earlier on.

He thankfully didn't sustain more damage that couldn't be fixed.  The safety car is ready to go.  No remedial work has been done, because of the red flag.  Marcel Fassler is back into the #4 Corvette.  At 9AM, we roll back onto the track to restart the Rolex 24.  The rain hasn't stopped, but it's lightened up.  How many of these cars are not happy from being stopped.  Race cars hate staying still and having water in their electrical systems.  More worries for the #50 Juncos Racing Cadillac.  It's got to be raining just as hard as it was when we saw it at 4AM-5AM this morning.  We'll try and get some racing done with five and a half hours left.

You've missed nothing.  We're set to rock and roll.  #33 is at the back of the queue of lead lap cars in GTD as an effect of their pit strategy.  We have pit callers headed for the lane.  One is the #50 Cadillac and the other is the #63 WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3 of Dominik Farnbacher, who will stay at the wheel of the car.  He feels rested enough to keep going.  Four Michelin wet tires and fuel.  Farnbacher is a rainmeister.  The #47 PPM Lamborghini has tape on the front from argy bargy from earlier in the motor race.  These cars are exiting the lane right now and so is the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R.

The #50 Juncos Racing team have done very well so far.  Augustin Canapino has been a stellar driver.  They aren't giving up yet.  On the banking of the speedway, they'll be OK.  The Bus Stop will be tough, and so will turns one, five, and six.  Three on the road circuit will be slippery, and we are ready to race!  Give it a spin!  Fernando Alonso leads Dane Cameron and Ricky Taylor.  Lots of spray in the air as we get restarted.  Trouble for the #48 Lamborghini and the #9 Porsche has smashed the wall with big damage.  He rear ended the Ebimotors #46 Lamborghini!  This is a crash, bang, wallop of epic proportions.

Zachary Robichaud from Canada is used to driving in snow, ice, and rain, but he won't like having damage to his much modified GT3 Porsche.  Full Course Yellow on the speedway, look.  #9 just ran right in the back of a Prototype, one of the remaining LMP2 cars by the look of it.  The whole wheel has come off the Lamborghini.  Poor old Taylor Proto is stuck in the grass.  Debris is scatter on the apron of the tri-oval.  #9 crunched straight into the #46.  Left front damage on #9, right rear damage on #46.  The #46 checked up, and this was a ripple effect crash.  The spray was all over, and no one could see a thing.

Taylor Proto, from England, and his dad, Mark, have raced in Lamborghini Super Trofeo, after moving to California.  The recovery of the #9 car will need a tractor or a very, very, very long tow rope.  A pickup truck on the grass will slip and slide all over the shop.  The safety vehicles will park as close as possible.  Flooded with fans at 2PM yesterday afternoon, and now, the grass is flooded with water, no question.  Zachary Robichaud has exited the vehicle.  So, he's not going to try and get it out of there.  The #48 Lamborghini was also involved in this kerfuffle, Ryan Hardwick at the wheel of it.  That's the Paul Miller Racing car.  A flatbed is parking in front of the #46 Lamborghini, to retrieve it.

There was a bow wave of water in front of the flatbed truck and it looked like the darn thing was about to sink like a boat, but the Lamborghini is missing a wheel.  Three wheels on my wagon, loook, as the flatbed pitches to 45 degrees and the Lamborghini will be winched away.  The loose wheel is being moved back close to the hub, and then, the rear end is in the mud sans a wheel.  That's going to be a bugaboo of the highest order.  The winch is turned on and the Lamborghini is being moved forward, towed through the gap in the wall, straight back to the garage.  The metal extension planks attached to the flatbed are sinking into the grass because of the weight of the GT3 Lamborghini.  Dear me.

Also, what to do, what to do, with the #9 Porsche?  Beam me up, Scotty.  Hardy har har.  That tow rope will kink and snap if the blokes on the safety crew make a mistake.  Work going on on the windscreen wiper on the #25 BMW, look.  The Lamborghini is now level, but can the truck move?  Another track worker is headed to the rear of the Porsche.  Interesting.  The end of the tow strap might not stretch back to the rear of the truck.  Wowzers.  Fans are cheering on the truck for getting out of the mud.  It's made it to terra firma again!  Kudos to the truck driver and the poor old marshals having to recover the poor old Lamborghini with big damage.  Porsche #9 sits forlornly with the bonnet up in the grass and damage of its's own.

Move the stricken race car with the jet blower.  No, don't do that.  This isn't funny, chaps.  Thank goodness these two are OK.  The plaid Porsche, or, "the poutine machine", their race is over.  Ebimotors will be racing in Europe after this, and the Paul Miller Racing team will be running for points, so this will put those blokes behind the eight ball.  The safety truck has done a three point turn inching towards the double yellow line.  The cars are still circulated under this, the 12th Full Course Yellow in addition to a red flag.  527 laps done and dusted, 1,876 miles.

We've been under yellow and red flag for two hours and 40 minutes, and then, back to green, and back over to yellow again.  The tow truck will return to it's safe place, and the secondary pickup truck will also have to move to a safe location as well.  No let up in the weather, as we try for yet another restart.  It's tricky out there.  Give yourselves a wide berth.  Everyone will be slow on the restart lap trying to suss out the conditions.  It'll be hard to get up to full speed and if someone aquaplanes, that's all she wrote for a three way chain reaction motorway smashup.

Both left hand wheels on the #9 Porsche have likely been knocked out of square.  On two separate occasions, the #9 Porsche had headlights that were intermittent.  The #44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini had the same identical problem.  Marco Mapelli is currently driving the #44 as the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche is going behind the wall.  They need to work their magic again to try and get the car back on the track.  The course marshals have gone outside the manual and improvised with clearing these automobiles off the track.  Pit lane is open, look.  The #10 Cadillac and the #6 Acura pit.  Jordan Taylor will replace Fernando Alonso, and they get fuel.  The #6 Acura gets the windscreen cleaned.  These two stop at the end of the pit lane, and wait for the light to turn green on the gantry.

Two Acura's are now at the head of the field.  Simon Pagenaud is at the wheel of the #6.  Ricky Taylor leads as we complete 531 laps (1,912 miles).  #7 and the #31 Whelen Cadillac, did not pit.  The final wave by has alrrady taken place.  The #10 and #6 will start at the tail end of the field.  Kyle Masson pits the #38 car from third in LMP2 with Robert Masson at the wheel of it.  The #81 DragonSpeed Oreca leads with team mate #18 in second, with James Allen and Pastor Maldonado, the respective drivers at the moment.  There is a two lap spread between the cars.  523 laps (1,862 miles) for Maldonado, and 521 laps (1,855 miles) for Allen.