BMW #24 had issues with the pins on the steering column having used Alex Zanardi's special steering wheel. Now, the whole steering wheel pins issue is fixed. Good scrap here in GT Daytona as Nick Cassidy in the #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 wants by the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 with Jens Klingman aboard. They were side by side into the Bus Stop, and Justin Marks is also right there in the #86 Acura NSX GT3. We've got the back part of this race broken. We are starting the sixth hour. Kamui Kobayashi is whistling off into the distance over Tristan Nunez, checking in with the lead battle in the overall and also for DPi. We welcome Graham Duxbury, the South African, to the broadcast booth. He is seeing these new cars and reminiscing what the early GTP cars were like back in the mid 1980s, saying, "we had an on/off button on the steering wheel and that was it. Nothing like all the electronic functions on these modern race cars."
Duxbury's ride back in 1984 was a British built March 83G with the engine and gearbox out of a factory Porsche 956. These boys are driving flat out, and these guys are driving a lot more competitively than in the early years of GTP back in 1984. Don't make mistakes by going off the road or damaging the car. Make up a couple tenths a lap, but if you went off you'd still lose time. Kamui Kobayashi is a half second quicker than the rest of the leading group, running a most recent lap time at 1:34.5. The March Porsche had a rev counter and proper gearbox. Heel toe on the brakes, and be careful matching your downshifts.
Duxbury came from open wheel racing in South Africa, and says that the most pain felt in an endurance race was the blistering on a driver's hands from changing gears with a manual gearbox. The March Porsche had a five speed box. Kobayashi, remember, put Toyota on pole at Le Mans last summer. Kobayashi is a very humble chap according to the IMSA Radio/Radio Le Mans commentators who cover Le Mans every year. Everyone is super impressed with how approachable and humble Kobayashi is. Graham Duxbury has been a guest of Wayne Taylor Racing. Graham Duxbury and Wayne Taylor are buddies. Now, here's a question for sports car racing fans and IndyCar fans who are watching the Rolex 24.
You want to bet that Fernando Alonso and Kamui Kobayashi will be team mates for a full season with the McLaren IndyCar team in 2020? It could happen. Bob Fernley will run the IndyCar program. Zak Brown is bringing sponsorship into the McLaren IndyCar operation. Will the car still be orange? That's the $50 million question. The number of people here for the Rolex 24 is growing. Duxbury believes iMSA's formula is working extremely well. Everyone is available to see the cars and the drivers, and in Europe, the fan access just isn't there. This is a gorgeous time of the evening with the lights on, the brake discs glowing, and the car running extremely well. Kobayashi and Alonso have slotted into the WTR operation extremely well.
Rain is forecast for tomorrow (Sunday), and that might throw a spanner in the works. Now, we have a report that there's some trouble for the #46 Ebimotors Lamborghini Huracan GT3. #46 stopped on the road. It got going again, and the team thought it was one of the other Lamborghini's. They got that car up and running again, thankfully. Now, we have a pit stop for the #77 Mazda RT24P with Tristan Nunez at the wheel of it. Kamui Kobayashi has a 14 second cushion over Simon Pagenaud in second spot. Acura might be into the lane in a lap or two. Reliability of the cars is less of an issue in cooler weather. The number of finishers may be higher unless some bloke skids off the road in the rain, according to Graham Duxbury.
Acura #6 in pit lane for fuel, tires, and a driver change. Juan Pablo Montoya is in the #6 car. Ricky Taylor has taken the #7 over from Alexander Rossi. The DPi cars are gorgeous, and they take cues from the manufacturer's road cars as well. We've been speaking about Acura for a good while now. Well, Juan Pablo Montoya now has his hands full with the #77 Mazda Team Joest Mazda RT24P with Timo Bernhard currently at the controls. We also have Rubens Barrichello, the former Formula 1 driver for the likes of Jordan, Stewart, and Ferrari, at the wheel of the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports "Banana Boat" Cadillac. Jon Bennett is now at the wheel of the #54 CORE Autosport Nissan as well, running third in the overall.
Simon Trummer also has the #84, the sister "Banana Boat" Cadillac, in a good spot. The #54 car has been improving position over the last few hours. Kamui Kobayashi is really going for it. He is not driving with soft, comfortable, fluffy slippers on. In the lane, now, Kamui Kobayashi. No sign of a driver change here. This is a fuel only stop it seems. No new tires taken. Hmmm. Wow. That's real interesting. The car did not come up onto it's air jacks. Loic Duval and Simon Pagenaud are happy with their respective races right now, as there's still over 18 hours remaining. The keys here at Daytona are traffic, and time.
We've only lost one car to retirement, and have just 46 cars running. The #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac for Action Express Racing, back into the lane. It's a regular stop. Joao Barbosa brought the car in. But, last year's Rolex 24 champions are having a fraught race thus far in 2019. Ford GT #67 with Scott Dixon at the wheel, has reached inside the top 30. Eighth in GT Le Mans, 29th overall. The car has a huge chunk of bodywork missing. The problem there is, one taillight is missing, but in IMSA per the regulations, one working taillight is all you need.
Ricky Taylor in Acura #7 has set his fastest lap of the race thus far at 1:34.771. We've already lowered the lap record that was set in the 2018 race by Filipe Albuquerque at 1:36.2. Correction. The Ford GT with the damaged bodywork was the #66 Motorcraft liveried entry with Dirk Mueller driving. The #67 Scott Dixon driven Castrol car is in a bit better shape. Phillip Eng is in the lane with the #25 BMW M8 GT. Getting into the car will be Augusto Farfus. Farfus is in the BMW as the original driver Tom Blomqvist, couldn't get a visa cleared.
Drama for Justin Marks aboard the #86 MSR Acura NSX! He is very close to making a pass into turn one on the #14 Lexus RC F GT3 for AVS driven by Nick Cassidy. Cassidy didn't see him, and that was pretty close and could have ended in tears. Only when you see that on TV, you see how dangerous it is. Don't forget, behind the tire wall, is an even more solid one made of concrete. Graham Duxbury is spot on, pointing this out to the viewers and radio listeners at home. Rear damage on the Acura it seems,, and they have had a good record.
The #912 Porsche has some work to do but they are getting there. They had a major problem with the front splitter on the car early in the race. But, Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor, and Matthieu Jaminet, (or, "jam jam" as he is known by the team), are moving up well in GTLM. Of course, the #3 car had steering issues, too, after being hit by it's sister car. The drivers are using a lot of curb, and the pace is extremely fast. On the banking, you don't have to hold the wheel too much. The infield is tougher. But, tracks like Silverstone, Fuji, or Suzuka (both in Japan), according to Graham Duxbury, are a lot more physical than Daytona is.
We are looking for our class leaders, and have found some of them. Jens Klingman in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 is ahead in GT Daytona at the moment. Behind them is the #71 P1 Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3, and then, the #63 WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3 for Scuderia Corsa, Toni Vilander at the wheel of it. Katherine Legge is back up to fourth in class in the #57 Caterpillar Acura NSX GT3, followed by Patrick Lindsey in the #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R, and Aaron Telitz in the second #12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.
Porsche continues to lead Ferrari in GT Le Mans presently. It's the #912 Porsche 911 RSR vs. the #62 Ferrari 488 GTE. Then comes the #66 Ford GT. Marcel Fassler pitted the #4 Chevrolet Corvette C-7-R- handing the car to Oliver Gavin, and Augusto Farfus has the #25 BMW RLL BMW M8 GT fifth in class. In LMP2 at the moment, the #18 DragonSpeed car is leading in the hands of Roberto Gonzalez. Second in class is the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca, Mark Kvamme at trhe keyboard. Ben Hanley in the second DragonSpeed car, #81 holds third, followed by the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports machine of Robert Masson.
The top three LMP2 cars are within seconds of each other. Kamui Kobayashi leads overall, by 17 seconds over Juan Pablo Montoya followed by Timo Bernhard, Pipo Derani, Ricky Taylor, and Jon Bennett. Ricky Taylor in Acura #7 is losing time behind Pipo Derani. Simon Trummer lost power in the #84 Cadillac for a while, but the car seems to be working fine now. It's cold now and it might cool off more, so the balance on the Cadillac may come back. Acura #57 is in the lane. Katherine Legge gets out of the car. Not sure who got into the car. Speaking of Acura, the #86 MSR car is set to hit pit lane and there will be a driver change. A.J. Allmendinger is poised to take over the car.
Allmendinger is pulling double duty as a driver and a commentator for NBC Sports Network as well. Our pal, Calvin Fish will be the constant commentator in the lineup for all of the 2019 IMSA races. Always admired Calvin's perspective on the races. Meanwhile, A.J. Allmendinger is ready and goes ahead into his first driving stint. Justin Marks brought the car in. There's been a coming together exiting turn one, and a massive wallop for one of the Prototype cars! That's the #52 Oreca we mentioned earlier, Mark Kvamme at the wheel of it, and the right rear of the automobile was absolutely clobbered!
Kvamme couldn't avoid having another prototype hit him, and it seems it could very well have been one of the Penske Acura's! Deary me. This won't be good for Team Penske. This will undoubtedly be a full course yellow. The driver's coming around that corner have to be very careful to try and dodge him. Kvamme isn't going anyplace. Porsche #73 and Acura #86 had made a pit stop before the most recent set we saw. The #12 Lexus was also in the lane just before the full course yellow. The pit lane has just closed, and the GRT Grasser Racing Lamborghini just pitted. They dove into the lane and the #11 Lamborghini just got into the lane right on time. Kudos to Gottfried Grasser for getting his team to spring into action.
Now, we have confirmation that the bright colored DPi in this accident, was not a white car, so it couldn't have been the Acura's. It was yellow, and in fact, it was the #84 "Banana Boat" JDC-Miller Cadillac. It was a glancing blow on the #84. Kvamme spun on his own, and trying to get to the inside, Juan Pedrahita, the Colombian, couldn't see what was going on and slid sideways into the parked #52 racer. That is a really committed corner. Juan Pedrahita lost control on cold tires. May cars locked the brakes to avoid this incident. The pit lane will open very soon.
The #57 Acura is ahead of it's sister car as there is a spin, too, on the banking, look. One of the LMP2 cars has spun, and we are not clear about who it is. Although, it could have been the #52 before it had it's incident on the road course section of the course. Graham Duxbury points out rightly that Kvamme could have been on cold tires and just lost the car. No grip, and around she rotates. Ditto for Juan Pedrahita in the Cadillac. #38 is off onto the grass in the banking as well, look. He spins it, but gets back in the race, and keeps on trucking. Simon Trummer is out of the #84 car. He's fine.
The wave by is going on and watch out for turn two under this Full Course Yellow. It may have been that the engine, the Gibson V8 on Kvamme's car probably went bang. Jonathan Bomarito is seventh overall and he's back on the track now in seventh overall. It's been a pleasure to have commentary this evening from three endurance racing legends, Hurley Haywood, Derek Bell, and Graham Duxbury. The pit lane has opened. Pit stop time, coming soon for Cadillac, Mazda, and Acura it seems. Cadillac #10 is leading, Fernando Alonso at the wheel of it. He's been leading for the last 80 laps. They took the lead at lap 112 (399 miles), and is holding the lead 70 laps later at lap 182 (648 miles).
Coming to the end of hour six, we remain under yellow. Pit stop time now for the DPi's, the leading blokes in this race. #10, #77, #6, #55, all of them are in. The #10 Cadillac has taken new Michelin tires on this stop. Acura #6 is right up the tail of the #10 Pits are closed now, look. Half a dozen cars right out of the lane. Kamui Kobayashi's lead is down to zero. The #31 Cadillac didn't pit during that sequence, strangely. What is their strategy? The field has been split. Next lap by, we will see the GT class pit stops. The stewards have cleaned up this mess pretty quickly. This is the fourth full course yellow, and we have four in total in all of last year's race. Fred Makowiecki for Porsche is leading GT Le Mans, and here is Davide Rigon, and more. GTLM and GTD cars are all in.
Porsche skids to a halt, and Nick Tandy will get on board replacing Fred Makowiecki. Grasser Lamborghini are in the lane as well, as is the Turner Motorsports BMW. Lexus #14 gets fuel and tires, with some damage in the back. Corvette #4 is in the lane, extending the fuel window on the stint he's only begun. James Calado has now taken the lead in class in GT Le Mans. Where is Nick Tandy? Porsche #912 didn't hit the lane, and will; have to cycle through again and get a lap back. The #66 Ford GT came to the lane, out of sequence. Dirk Mueller in the car presently. Where is the Ford? Ah. It's on the other end of the circuit. We shall start another hour of racing, very soon.
We have now, as a guest in the booth at IMSA Radio, Tom O'Gorman who won TCR in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race you have read about already. O'Gorman says the Honda's will improve as the season goes on. Stay tuned for more about the Michelin Pilot Challenge in both the GS and TCR divisions. So, go ahead and read about the MPC race. It was a dandy! Corvette #4 did pit and didn't need as much fuel, and Oliver Gavin leads GTLM, having leapfrogged the Ferrari.
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