Brendon Hartley is running extremely well in his first outing with Action Express in the #5 Cadillac. Run good, consistent laps now that we are 1/3rd of the way through this motor race. You're racing, but you aren't going to be risking it too much, going for dive bombing and argy bargy. Settle down, lads. Don't risk an accident. The Ford's have been incredibly strong today. Richard Westbrook, the man is on fire in a good way right now. The Ford's are on the money. They were in the WEC race yesterday and that pattern is carrying over to today. Right now, the Ford's have hit their sweet spot. Lars Kern in the Porsche, Jeroen Bleekemolen in the Mercedes, and Mirko Bortolotti, in the Lamborghini, they are the top three in GT Daytona at the moment. Rik Breukers is driving the car and his dad is here as well. Drivers dig the watches, because they are the most expensive ones in the world. You have to have experience. It is a long road to get to races like Daytona and Sebring. These races are the pinnacle. They are so amazingly special.
There's been an affinity between motor racing and fine watches. The Rolex Daytona watch was supposed to go to astronauts, but it didn't. It went to racing drivers. The Omega Spacemaster went to the astronauts. Wow! Jan Magnussen is screaming past the BMW! Bit of side drafting down the front straight! The Acura was also right there, look. Wow. What a move! Was there a touch? No. Jan Magnussen was committed! Yikes! Tristan Vautier brings the #85 Cadillac DPi-V.R into the lane and Misha Goikhberg is the new driver. Goikhberg comes back out of the lane as Tom Blomqvist hands the #25 BMW M8 GT over to Connor De Philippi. New Michelins for the BMW and a tweak to the shock absorber.
The drivers are not happy with the car, if they are changing setups during the race on the car. Take your medicine, and keep pushing. That's all you can do. Both Penske Acura's in the lane now. They split the strategy as Alexander Rossi is the next driver into car #7. A water bottle change for the #24 BMW and no setup change or driver change. Fuel, tires, and a water bottle for Phillip Eng. Eng sharing with Jesse Krohn and John Edwards. Aaron Telitz in the #12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus was right ahead of the leaders in GTD, holding onto the lead lap. But, now, they've botched the pit stop. Telitz slammed onto the brakes and the car slid forward, the back kicking towards the wall as the car is handed over to Townsend Bell. #31 into the lane from the lead of the motor race. One of the Acura's will get a lap back.
New Michelin slick tires for Nasr. Prototype teams get 24 sets of tires, dry tires. The #4 Corvette is back into the race. Brendon Hartley is in the lane for fuel and tires only and the same for the #10 car. The #54 Nissan also gets into the pit lane for service. The #66 Ford GT of Sebastien Bourdais is in the pit lane. Some of the pit crew guys are as big as football players. It's incredible. Minimize mistakes on the pit stops. Don't slip on the paint. Slipping and sliding in pit lane costs time and track position. Mirko Bortolotti goes ahead of Lars Kern in GTD. Kern is a competent driver, and he is the Porsche road car test driver for Porsche at the Nurburgring. Trouble on the left front of the #71 P1 Motorsports Mercedes... the tire is flat on the left front of the automobile. That's Maximilian Buhk on his out lap. Oh dear.
Ford #67 in the lane, and Ryan Briscoe is into the car for his stint. New tires and fuel for the Ford GT #67. Bea Figueredo is in the #57 MSR Heinricher Racing Acura NSX GT3. Rene Binder pitted the #50 Cadillac, but have they gone behind the wall? They had a litany of issues at the Rolex 24. Now, the #71 car has a penalty for refueling while on the air jacks. Not good. No driver changes for the #9 Porsche and #96 BMW as the #86 Acura NSX GT3 has Mario Farnbacher now at the wheel of it, sharing with Justin Marks and Trent Hindman.
One of the Corvette's, the #4 car, goes off the road at turn seven. Oliver Gavin goes off the road it seems. He's been delayed, eighth in class in GTLM. The team thought they had an alternator belt gone, but it was worse, as they had to change a half shaft. These guys can't buy any luck. Felipe Nasr is racing at 1:48 lap times at the moment in the lead of this motor race. Harry Tincknell is running really well in the Mazda, after his exploits in the WEC race yesterday in the European Ford GT. #55 is in the lane and Olivier Pla will be next into the car. The #71 Mercedes may have been on the dollies during refueling. It doesn't make sense if they are on the air jacks, because they are always on the air jacks for a pit stop.
Lamborghini #11 is in the lane. Tires and drivers are changed. Porsche #911 for Nick Tandy is also in the lane as is the #3 Corvette. Rik Breukers is into the Lamborghini. No driver change for either of the Porsche's as #912 came in. Jan Magnussen is going to stay in the Corvette. The Porsche is clawing away at getting a lap back over the Corvette. You can't have anything under the car if there is a fire or an emergency. They have metal jack stands that hold the car on the air jacks, and a block of wood. Push the car out of the way if there is a fire. You can't have it on immovable jacks. Yours truly, was away, eating lunch, and so, Felipe Nasr came into the pit lane.
Misha Goikhberg took the lead briefly, and now, the #5 Cadillac leads, and Brendon Hartley is at the wheel of the Mustang Sampling racer. Hartley has turned the best lap for that car at 1:49 dead. 1:49.026. Mind the edge of the circuit at turn one, Brendon. The bumps are coming into play and watch that crater in Sunset Bend. That bump is extremely brutal. It knocks the wind out of a driver for a brief second. Goikhberg now in the lane, with the "Banana Boat". No driver change. He's finished fourth at Sebring, twice. Clean the windscreen, and a new drinks bottle as well. The #7 Penske Acura in the lane. Fuel, new tires, and Alexander Rossi stays in the car.
Acura #6 in the lane, and Juan Pablo Montoya hops out, with Simon Pagenaud as the new driver for his stint. There was a slight change in regulations with respect to gathering data. They are plugging the data stick in. IMSA regulations now say to change the data sticks out between the hours of three and five. The #6 car is changing the data stick. They must bring the old data stick to the stewards within 30 minutes. Penske will have to do this again between hours seven and nine for the second data stick change. The reasoning is, in the shorter races, the data fits on the stick to be downloaded for parameters and sampling.
It goes back to the tech center in North Carolina, to adjust Balance of Performance. The longer races equal more data. They've been turning down the sampling rate, but they need more sampling, more data for the dirty words of Balance of Performance, to some. There's something more with the Acura than just the data stick, as Olivier Pla is closing up on the Cadillac's, having passed car #84 and is working on the #10 of Matthieu Vaxiviere. Brendon Hartley sets a new lap record at 1:48.029. Simon Pagenaud is in the #6 Acura and sadly, he has lost two more laps. The lights are individual team ID's, not controlled by IMSA. There is a green Pro/Am light required by IMSA.
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