We have reached 1/3rd distance in this Rolex 24. The leading margin between Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr is 14 seconds. Cameron ran his most recent lap at 1:35.6. Ricky Taylor in the sister Acura is third, just a second ahead of Renger van der Zande, who is followed by Colin Braun in fifth spot. Ricky Taylor is indeed ahead of Renger van der Zande. The Konica Minolta Cadillac team must have some great brakes on that car, and the driver's have the ability to use the braking points on the course to their advantage. Renger van der Zande is right with Dane Cameron now. We have a car stopped in the chicane. Hard to tell which one it is. One of the GT cars, as we have a full course yellow.
Ah. Again, it is the beleaguered #47 Lamborghini in yet another spot of bother. Don Yount is at the wheel of the Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini. The #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche, which had the wheel issue, did a short fill, before doing a full service. They had a broken rattle gun that couldn't secure the wheel nut. Park Place Motorsports is down two laps. But, a few more yellows and they could break back into contention. Carry on your pace and pretend the drama never happened. Before the yellow, Jack Hawksworth at the wheel of the #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 had set the fastest lap in GT Daytona at 1:45.2. Again, Hawksworth is sharing that car with Nick Cassidy from New Zealand, and American drivers Richard Heistand and Austin Cindric.
Check that. On the same lap, lap 243, Mirko Bortolotti in the #11 Lamborghini went 1:45.049, which is slightly faster than Hawksworth's 1:45.232. At this moment, Ben Keating in the #33 leads GTD ahead of Trent Hindman and Dries Vanthoor. Ferrari #51 did a 1:44.880, but Paul Dalla Lana is still having problems after their clash in the most recent hour. We haven't seen that car return to the track as of yet. Could it be game over for Spirit of Race? Trent Hindman and Dries Vanthoor are following Ben Keating in the #33 Mercedes. Keating is trying to get his drive time done as early as possible and let his co-drivers finish the motor race.
Pit stop time for both the #6 Acura and the #10 Cadillac. Dane Cameron and Renger van der Zande came in liner stern. Drama for the #10, as there is a new nose being bolted to the car. #10 is still sitting in the lane, look. Amazingly, van der Zande ends up ahead of the #31 Cadillac. Wow. Three cars were held at the end of pit lane at the red light. Helio Castroneves is at the wheel now of Acura #7 and Colin Braun stays aboard the #54 CORE Autosport Nissan. Ryan Cullen and James Allen have just made pit stops as well. In GTLM, the #62 Risi Competizione leads in class, and Ben Keating may be due to stop in the #33 Mercedes AMG GT3 as well.
Porsche #911 was ahead of the field in GT Le Mans before the most recent round of pit stops. Alessandro Pier Guidi is now driving the #62 Ferrari. Some takers are in, and most of them are GT Daytona cars. Ben Keating is in the lane, and he will stay in the car. Fuel only for #33 and for the #912 Porsche. Full service for #911. Fuel only for the #4 Corvette. Grasser Lamborghini goes for fuel only. It is still quite warm on this Florida night, but the rain forecast for Sunday is said to be coming earlier and earlier. We could see raindrops by as early as 4:30 A.M. Eastern Time on Sunday.
The rain won't let up until well after the race is finished. Alessandro Pier Guidi stayed out and so did Sebastien Bourdais. So, Ferrari and Ford stayed on track, but Porsche, BMW, and Corvette all came in. Trent Hindman will retake the GTD class lead in the #86 MSR Acura NSX GT3. Robby Foley in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 is back up into the top runners in class in GT Daytona. John Edwards brings the #24 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GT into the lane for a splash and a dash. The #85 JDC-Miller Motorsport Cadillac is in the lane as well. Fresh Michelin tires for the "Banana Boat" and the driver will be back on track immediately.
The #55 Mazda also came to pit lane, the sole remaining red Mazda in this race, that in the dark looks a lot like a toffee apple (a candy apple). Six cars are on the lead lap and the #85 car is separated from the leading crocodile of cars. We're set for another restart. This is going to get really busy really quick. We're green! Here comes Renger van der Zande and Felipe Nasr in the Cadillac's. Colin Brun has held onto third spot. Dane Cameron retains the lead of the motor race from team mate Helio Castroneves. Felipe Nasr has a good run out of the International Horseshoe. A big lockup from Renger van der Zande, but no dice for Felipe Nasr on making the pass.
Tristan Vautier is still at the wheel of Cadillac #85, our old favorite, the Banana Boat. Alessandro Pier Guidi is keeping his rivals at bay in GTLM, for Porsche, Ford, Corvette, and BMW. Seven GTLM cars are on the lead lap. Ryan Briscoe is still two laps down in the #67 Ford GT. Now, it's pit stop time for the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca, with Canadian Cameron Cassels at the wheel of it. #38 was serving a drive through penalty, actually, and the #51 Ferrari is in the race again, but it is serving it's penalty after the contact with the #47 Lamborghini. So, #51 of Paul Dalla Lana was in the sin bin, and now, he's back into the motor race. Spirit of Race have had a star crossed event in this Rolex 24 so far.
#51 was in the lane for exactly an hour. It entered at 9:51 PM and exited at 10:51 PM. Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda have both driven it as well. Now, Dane Cameron has a one second lead and Jan Magnussen is working his way through traffic in the #3 Corvette. Frank Montecalvo is at the wheel of the #12 Lexus and he is chasing Marco Mapelli in the #44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini, a European Lamborghini Super Trofeo champion. Frankie Montecalvo is close to the GT Daytona leaders. Who appears first in GTD? Audi and Acura might be side by side. Nope. Dries Vanthoor and Trent Hindman will be neck and neck.
Dries Vanthoor does lead GTD. There's nothing in it between Vanthoor and Trent Hindman in the #86 MSR Acura. Meanwhile, Jack Hawksworth in the Lexus is reeling in Hindman ever so slightly. We aren't too far away from having the Vanthoor brothers overtake each other. Laurens in GTLM in the Porsche and Dries in the Audi. Patrick Pilet, Laurens Vanthoor, Tommy Milner, Connor De Philippi, and Jan Magnussen, might catch up to Sebastien Bourdais and Alessandro Pier Guidi. Filipe Albuquerque is trying to gain time and run laps. He is currently, in the #5 Cadillac, on his 259th lap of the race. 259 laps, 922 miles.
The outright race leaders have run 274 laps, 975 miles. Dane Cameron leads Helio Castroneves by 1.3 seconds. Colin Braun in the Nissan is third, ahead of Renger van der Zande in the best of the Cadillac's. Felipe Nasr and Tristan Vautier come next. Ryan Cullen leads LMP2 with James Allen in second, as the DragonSpeed cars are 24 seconds ahead of the #38 Cameron Cassels driven Performance Tech LMP2 machine. In GT Le Mans, Alessandro Pier Guidi leads in class in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari. His lead over Sebastien Bourdais is 7.4 seconds. They are followed by Patrick Pilet, Tommy Milner, Connor de Philippi, and Jan Magnussen. So, Ferrari, Ford, Porsche, Corvette, BMW, Corvette.
Blink and you'll miss all of them. Dries Vanthoor still leads GT Daytona for the #29 Montaplast by Land Audi R8 followed by Trent Hindman in the #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3. Jack Hawksworth is next in the #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus, followed by Robby Foley in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3. Then it's Lars Kern in the tartan liveried #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Sunday morning will come in the next hour or so. We're nearly at the end of Saturday. One step at a time. Back to the sharp end, and the gap has come down to less than a second between Dane Cameron and Helio Castroneves.
The #54, #10, and #31 are closing in. Montaplast by Land Motorsport are at the sharp end of GT Daytona, and Daniel Morad is surprised about this because the Audi's were down the order in qualifying. They're sticking to their guns, and they seem to be right on target for a good finish at least right now, but there's a long way to go. The lap times are consistent and they've got reliability from their Michelin tires. It is hard to tell cars apart from one another in the darkness. Now, there's an incident being reported between the #51 Spirit of Race Ferrari and the #5 Mustang Sampling Racing Action Express Cadillac. Filipe Albuquerque at the wheel of the Cadillac ran a 1:35.8, and Paul Dalla Lana is still listed as the driver of the Spirit of Race machine.
#51 turned a 1:57.1 lap. Quite clearly, there has been some argy bargy out on the course. It is under investigation by the stewards. Most of the calls have been for pit lane infractions. A smaller field of cars means fewer incidents. There have been drive through penalties for pit stop infractions, mostly. Filipe Albuquerque is still being chased by Renger van der Zande and Felipe Nasr. Now, Nasr has been catching van der Zande hand over fist, and these chaps are side by side, look. Nearly, some contact between the two Cadillac's! That was a dodgy situation.
Nasr got balked by one of the GTLM BMW's. Colin Braun is gaining time over the two Cadillac's. Alessandro Pier Guidi has a 7.2 second gap that is pretty stable. Pier Guidi, did not pit during the most recent caution. Nor did the #66 Ford GT. Sebastien Bourdais has a two second cushion over the rest of the GT Le Mans field. Pier Guidi has managed to set the best lap for the #62 car no matter who has been at the wheel, with a time of 1:43.104. The Ferrari is flying, eight secondss ahead of the Ford. Traffic for Renger van der Zande out of turn six, flying past the GT Le Mans cars. Traffic is something you have to deal with every single lap.
Renger van der Zande is fourth in the overall and he has 6/10ths of a second, or needs 6/10ths to catch Colin Braun, and now, the two Acura's leading are just 2/10ths of a second apart. Most of the traffic they are lapping are GTD cars, but there is an LMP2 car sprinkled in that lot as well. The Acuras are a quarter of a second apart, and they have now covered 281 laps (1,000 miles exactly). Renger van der Zande is into a rhythm, but does have Felipe Nasr bearing down on him. Olivier Pla in the #55 Mazda hit drama not long ago, and the #77 has retired with turbo failure. Team Joest will be monitoring their telemetry to make sure there isn't a disaster that would befall Pla and company.
Meantime, in GTLM, Pier Guidi's class lead has ballooned to a margin of ten seconds. He ran a 1:43.6 his last lap by. Sebastien Bourdais, meanwhile is keeping the factory Porsche's with their Brumos tribute livery, at bay. Seb is four seconds ahead of the Porsche's who are nose to tail. Laurens Vanthoor is catching Patrick Pilet. The Corvette's and the #25 BMW are also going for it. Jack Hawksworth has caught the Audi, and the Acura in GT Daytona. The GTD scrap is heating up. Corvette dives inside as Jan Magnussen is harrying Connor de Philippi. That might have been a dummy move, and de Philippi stays ahead, as Laurens Vanthoor is now being monstered by Tommy Milner. Laurens Vanthoor is the minnow, while Tommy Milner is the shark, and the shark smells blood in the water.
Vanthoor is being eaten up by Milner at the moment, and Tommy Milner surely is looking for a passing opportunity. Speaking of being monstered, there's a big time scrap in GTD as well. Lars Kern is about to feel the wrath of Andrea Caldarelli. It's Porsche vs. Lamborghini. The bull, is charging. At the same time, Lars Kern has Ben Keating as the next car on his shopping list. Keating in turn, is working his way towards making a move on Robby Foley. So, it's all to play for here in GTD. The GTD boys are not giving each other an inch right now. Keating has passed Kern, and Andrea Caldarelli has been passed by another of the Lamborghini's, the Mirko Bortolotti car for GRT Grasser. So, two Lamborghini's and two Italian drivers are going at it hammer and tongs. This is for fourth spot in class in GTD.
One of the DPi cars safely overtakes the Keating/Foley GTD battle as Foley claps his BMW to the inside in the International Horseshoe. Roman de Angelis is closing up on the Lamborghini in the #88 Audi. Jeff Westphal, Ana Beatriz, and Ryan Dalziel, all of them are closing up as well. So, it's the Speedstar WRT Audi, the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari, the other MSR Acura with the all-female driver lineup, and the Speedstar Audi, all joining in on the fun and frolics in GT Daytona. Lars Kern tries passing Ben Keating on the banking, but, no dice. The Porsche is being caught, hand over fist by the Lamborghini as well, look. We are soon to see a visit to pit lane for the leaders and the #81 LMP2 DragonSpeed car has already made a pit stop. Foley and Caldarelli nearly make contact! Yikes! Caldarelli darted to the right, and he would have been making certain contact with Foley, pitching both of them off the road, maybe.
Caldarelli, in Italian, probably would have been saying, "dang it! Why did I do that?" Ben Keating is doing a sterling job staying with the professional drivers. The fans are loving this racing. Absolutely digging it. Ryan Cullen will now bring his DragonSpeed car to the pit lane a lap after team mate James Allen does so. Allen is eighth overall, leading LMP2, five laps down on the overall race leader. Four automobiles are covered by the proverbial blanket in GTD competition at the moment. The Cadillac's are in the lane now. A driver change for the #31 car as two-time IMSA Champion Eric Curran will now hop aboard #31 taking over from Felipe Nasr, who, with Curran, won the title, last year.
CORE Autosport pits from third. Tires and fuel, and Braun is going to stay in the car. Cleaning the windscreen and the air vents, and Braun gets back into the motor race as all three cars are battling coming out of the lane, look. Yikes! Phenomenal stuff, eh? #10 has surely leapfrogged the #31 machine coming off pit lane. Renger van der Zande goes ahead of Eric Curran. No tire warmers in IMSA. They also have the sticker and the release agent on the tires, so it's like driving on ice. Tiptoe around the first couple corners. Helio Castroneves has done a half an hour on his current stint in Acura #7. Ford #66 in the lane. The pit crew is fixing damage, and there is a driver change. Joey Hand is going to take over from Sebastien Bourdais.
#66 is missing one of it's taillights. Joey Hand is now at the wheel of it. More pit lane action and the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 pitted. It looks like they are due for a driver change. Poor old Robby Foley must be one tired bloke and he'll need some rest. Check that, he's been in the car for an hour, and he did start the race. Bill Auberlen and Jens Klingman have done single stints while Dylvan Machavern did a triple and Robby Foley is going to do a double. Seven minutes from now, we shall have nine hours on the board in this motor race.
Cameron Cassels has brought the #38 LMP2 car to pit lane, and the #29 Audi is also pitting now. Dries Vanthoor pits from the GTD lead and Daniel Morad has now taken the car over from Vanthoor, still leading in class. There was a point in the most recent stint, where the Vanthoor brothers overlapped on the road. Daniel Morad is in the #29 car now. GT Daytona for now, will be headed by Andrea Caldarelli in the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini. We watch the two leading Acura's as Dane Cameron leads Helio Castroneves by 2.2 seconds. Again, Andrea Caldarelli leads Mirko Bortolotti, so, Lamborghini are ahead, and the Lamborghini is powered by the same 5.2 liter V10 as the Audi R8.
Renger van der Zande does not seem to have the speed after his pit stop. He's lost four seconds over the past three to four laps over the front running Acura's as we are coming up to writing another hour and another chapter of this motor race in the book. Ryan Briscoe has made a pit stop in the #67 Ford GT with the Castrol retro livery. Did that car peel off? Ah. He'll be dinged with a drive through penalty because of spinning his wheels while the car was stopped in the pit lane. The rule on wheel rotation is that you can't spin the rear wheels while the car is on the air jacks. In some categories you can't spin the wheels at all during pit stops, for safety. Le Mans and the rules set forth by the ACO is a perfect example.
But, of course, unlike IMSA, in the FIA World Endurance Championship and at Le Mans, tire warming blankets are allowed. The Acura's almost touch in the S bend on the road course. It looks like Castroneves has made a move for the lead and has passed Dane Cameron. Castroneves is 4/10ths of a second ahead of Dane Cameron. it's right/left flick in turns one and two on the road course section. That's the first time we've seen car #7 in the lead of this motor race as so far, #6 is the one that's gotten most of the TV time in the lead.
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