Gulf Racing I s in pit lane for pit work. It’s a routine stop. Matt Campbell is at the wheel of the car at the moment. New rules are being decided, to bring IMSA and the ACO/WEC closer together. There’s a massive challenge on this new format idea. Fernando Alonso still leads as we see an hour and 43 minutes from the finish of this race. You want to form regulations for the cars of all kinds of cars, from marquee brands and recognizable ones. Is it based on a road car? Is it a supercsr? Motorsport in its current form is less relevant in terms of production cars. We have come through a lot of technological change. Rushing ideas is not a good thing. All kinds of categories are being supported, and there is a greater interest in sports car racing, now, more than ever.
Never for so long, have so many cars have run so close together. We are covering as much racing as we were many years ago, back in the 1990s. Kamui Kobayashi is being chased by Fernando Alonso. The BMW and the Porsche have a tad more pace than does the Ford in GTE Pro. In the early years of American Le Mans Series, the late Charlie Lamm from BMW would be asked how much fuel he’d need. But, the question now is, what is your lap time, and how much fuel is needed to meet these lap times. The Corvette is finding more bang for its buck as far as performance as Pastor Maldonado has taken over the #31 DragonSpeed entry.
We have just over an hour and a half of the race remaining. Pit stop time for the Racing Team Nederland Dallara LMP2. Ferrari’s run fourth and sixth righ now. David Heinemeier Hanson is running really well in LMP2 at the moment. SMP Racing is still running very consistently, but they are experiencing understeer. Stay on the blacktop, sunshine. That’s all you can do. Run the preferred line on the track, and don’t go off the road. Simple as that. Nathaniel Berthon is at the controls of the #3 Rebellion right now. Only four LMP1 cars remain in the field, as Alexander Sims puts in the fastest lap in GTE Pro, while the #37 car pits, and Jordan King stays at the wheel of it.
No further action for the incident that delayed the #7 Toyota. The temperature is cooler, and the track has gripped up now, with the cooler temperatures. It gets drivers back into their rhythm as we close in on the finish. Another new nose for the #11 SMP car. They need to adjust the downforce levels. Mikhail Aleshin stays in the car. James Calado is ahead of Kevin Estre, as Alexander Sims is ahead of the Porsche’s and the Ferrari which is the meat in the sandwich between the two of them. It’s never over until the final lap is finished. Daniel Serra mentioned how dark Sebring is, but it varies depending on the driver. You always get some ambient light around the circuit. Maybe some lit palm trees, too.
In GTE Pro, cars have come in and out of their performance window. Every single marque has been in the reckoning to this point in the motor race as Kevin Estre chases James Calado while Mike Conway takes over the #7 Toyota from Kamui Kobayashi. Toyota #7 has been a few tenths slower than their sister car. Overtaking cars is the most important factor. Overtake and adapt. Overtaking is the biggest percentage of your racing. Kevin Estre is right on James Calado’s six right now. He’s going for it, understandably. Now, for the third time, the Aston Martin is dinged for ignoring blue flags, and poor old Mathias Lauda is in dire straits.
Gustavo Menezes is slowing, somehow, somewhere on the track. Pit stop for Rebellion, and Gustavo Menezes remains at the wheel. They are eight laps down to the second place Toyota and ten laps behind leader Fernando Alonso, as the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing car still leads LMP2. Ford GT #66 makes what is close to their final stop, but they won’t win this race, ten laps behind the leader i. Class and out of the top ten of GTE Pro. The left hand mirror looks a little ragged. Toyota still 1-2. The #8 car holds the lead. Mike Conway came close, but couldn’t make the pass through traffic. One more round of pit stops remaining.
Toyota is looking at zero risk to get a 1-2 finish. No battles. No argy bargy. Fernando Alonso finds a clean way to pass the #92 Porsche 911 RSR. Thomas Laurent has power issues on the #3 Rebellion, and they might finish, but they will be ways down. Thomas Laurent is actually driving right now, so maybe the power loss isn’t so dramatic. You can throw one or two laps away really easily on this track. Harry Tincknell is carving out a little bit to Richard Lietz every lap as the #3 Rebellion was trying to pass the #50 Larbre Competition car but couldn’t quite do it.
Patrick Lindsey and Julien Andlauer are very close.
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