One of the two LMP2 cars is off the road, look. Not sure who it is. More electrical gremlins for the #6 Acura, who has been chasing electrical gremlins all weekend, including last night in preparation for this race. The #19 Moorespeed Audi R8 has spun in turn 17 and has spun twice already. Will Hardemann at the wheel of it, sharing with Andrew Davis and Alex Riberas. A penalty for speeding in the lane for the #6 Acura. He is coming down pit lane and will have to sit in the sin bin for disobeying the 60 kilometers per hour, 37 miles per hour, speed limit in the lane. Cameron and Montoya are in need of a win. Their team mates won at Mid Ohio last year. Richard Westbrook is doing very well. They've won Le Mans and Daytona. Sebring has eluded them so far, except for their colleagues winning the WEC race last night. Can they do the sweep? We'll see.
Ford has the advantage in GTLM over BMW and Corvette as well. No Ferrari's are entered in GTLM. There is no Risi Competizione Ferrari here. Pipo Derani leads the motor race by 5.5 seconds, and nothing has really happened at the sharp end as we are into the second hour. Pit stop time again, for Acura. Acura #7 has made another visit to the pit lane. We have another spinner, look. Can't tell who it is other than that it is a Prototype. Ah. One of the Mazda's. That's the #77 car ofn Tristan Nunez who was nudged by J.C. Perez in the #71 P1 Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3. Perez, the Colombian is sharing with German's Maximilian Buhk and Fabian Schiller. Nunez is in the lane for service. Tristan Vautier moves to fourth in the #85 "Banana Boat" JDC-Miller Cadillac, as the #47 PPM Lamborghini of Don Yount has spun in turn five and is hung up on the curb. He high centered it at the Tower Turn, where the water tower is.
The Tower Turn is a blind corner. Porsche #911 is in pit lane. Laurens Vanthoor wants better tire pressure. Pipo Derani pits as well. Pressure change on the tires, and fuel. No driver change yet. Derani is going for his third Sebring victory. Both Action Express Racing cars are serviced and sent. Team boss Gary Nelson and Engineer Ian Watt have the program running very efficiently, as the Mazda pits as well. Jonathan Bomarito, echoes the sentiments of other drivers as to where the wet spots are on the road. The GTD cars have ABS and the anti lock helps the traction in the wet as Simon Trummer leads before his pit stop in the #84 JDC-Miller Cadillac, the sister "Banana Boat". Trummer is in the lane now, sharing with Stephen Simpson and Chris Miller, and Tommy Milner spins in the Tower Turn.
He missed the braking point, hit a puddle, and around he went. The gap closes up at the front. Pipo Derani is weaving through traffic past the #8 Starworks Audi R8 being shared by Parker Chase, Ryan Dalziel, and Ezequiel Perez-Companc. Action Express didn't come to the Sebring test, because they were satisfied with their 2018 setup from last year's race notebook. Ooh. Close shave between the #77 Mazda anhd the #25 BMW. Tom Blomqvist hits the pit lane. The driver's etiquette in the rain has been stellar so far, including the Pro Am and Am drivers. Race the race track. That's the big key right now, boys and girls.
The battles continue in GT Daytona as well, .look. Acura vs. Lamborghini. More pit action, too. Who is in the lane? It is hard to see fronm the picture, as the Mazda gos off and on. More off course excursions for the #77 car. We have now run 31 laps, 116 miles. Helio Castroneves says it is very hard for the DPi cars to get off the corner with this rain, as the GTLM and GTD cars are out accelerating the DPi machinery out of the turns. Helio Castroneves was really running slowly and cautiously in the rain during his first stint. It's still a long, long race. Stay in the game. Play it smart. The #14 Lexus RC F GT3 is in pit lane.
Fuel and rain tires as Richard Heistand stays at the wheel of the Lexus RC F GT3. There's still misting going on here at Sebring, and there's more rain to come. The #66 Ford GT is also in pit lane as we see Helio Castroneves dirt tracking the Acura ARX-05 through Sunset Bend. Aaron Telitz replaces Frankie Montecalvo in the #12 Lexus RC F GT3. He is a rookie in the rain, quickjly learning how to drive a sports car. Telitz also ran the Rolex 24. He is a junior open wheel driver. Ford GT #67 in the lane. Richard Westbrook will stay in the car, and he is having issues with shifting between third and fourth gear.
The cars are not shifting properly due to water in the electrics and the electronics going on overload. Trent Hindman in the lane too, for MSR Acura. Acura #7 spins in turn 17. So Sunset Bend is becoming calamity corner. He went in hot, and took his turn on the whirligig. The Acura is based on the Oreca LMP2 car. Team Penske's setup does not seem to be working, as Jordan Taylor is back in pit lane for tires and fuel. Corvette #3 is in the lane, too, with Antonio Garcia at the wheel of it. Tommy Milner has been in the lane to service the #4 car as well that he shares with Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fassler. Jordan Taylor gets dinged by the stewards with a speeding penalty in the pit lane. It's a 32 second pit delta at 60 clicks.
Ricky Taylor back into the pits, too. They are having tire pressure trouble and surviving on their current setup. The left rear tire needed to be torqued down, and something in the cockpit also needed to be tended to. A mechanic got his hand caught someplace. They dropped the car before the tire was tightened up! Ouch! The seat belts came undone. That's a safety issue, and also something that helps with the G force loading. Tom Blomqvist, Richard Westbrook, and Dirk Mueller are your top three in GTLM. Deja vu as Ford and BMW battle. They did so in the WEC 1,000 miles yesterday as well. It is a battle through Sunset Bend between Richard Westbrook and Tom Blomqvist. Blomqvist saves the car from running into the wall!
His father, Stig Blomqvist, was a rallying champion, and he definitely did the old Scandinavian flick there! Westbrook takes the lead after that stunning save from Tom Blomqvist! Put the welly down just a little more! Dry line? I don't think so, mate. Blomqvist runs wide and yes, he very nearly walloped the wall! BMW Team RLL have won three of the last five IMSA races in GTLM. Justin Marks in the #86 Acura is second in the rotation, being monstered by Zachary Robichon in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche, the plaid car, from Canada, eh. The injured Penske crewman is OK. He isn't hurt. They dropped the car on his hand, but he didn't have any injuries.
He has a bag of ice on his hand, checking the tire pressures. Thank God for that. Pfaff had a torrid time at Daytona, but Zachary Robichon won 18 of 20 races in Porsche GT Cup Canada and the Porsche Cup Canada championship last year. Lars Kern of Germany is the third driver in that automobile. Don Yount had a massive crash in practice in his Lamborghini that needed massive work, skipping practice session, working into the night, and getting that car qualified for the motor race. Sebring has great character, but it is so challenging in both the dry and the wet as we've seen so far today, and yesterday in the FIA WEC race.
Don Yount got out of the car in no time, under his own power and was fine when he was checked over at the care center. The weather is clearing up. Oh my. The ceiling is lifting, and the sun may be out soon. Are we going to go to dry Michelin tires yet? Not for a couple hours. When the first person does it, look at the sector times. Big picture means you don't want to get too aggressive. Be conservative with your tire choice and your driving. Porsche #912 spins, but gets back on track and continues.
Lars Kern, the German, is the next driver in the rotation in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports car. Laurens Vanthoor had no contact with the wall during his spin. Juan Pablo Montoya has taken over the #6 Acura. Cadillac #31 is in the lane from the lead. Pipo Derani will stay in the car, and dry weather tires will go on the car. Felipe Nasr was suited and booted to get into the car. This'll be a wild ride on cold slicks. No tire warmers in IMSA like they are in the World Endurance Championship. It's like a dog on a polished wooden floor. Find any grip you can. It's twitchy on stone cold tires even in the dry.
No comments:
Post a Comment