The #25 Colton Herta driven BMW M8 GT pits. Connor De Philippi takes over the car for another stint. Now we start the 1,000 Miles of Sebring, if you like. We have less than eight hours left. Olivier Pla is in the pit lane for Mazda. It is misting a little bit. Hmmm. The skies are being studied. At the four hour mark, here are your class leaders.
DPi: #31 Cadillac
GTLM: #67 Ford GT
GTD: #33 Mercedes AMG GT3
The #4 Corvette is still fighting their way back through the field. Some drivers have put their windscreen wipers on, as we are seeing some sprinkles out there. Felipe Nasr is back in the pit lane, look. It's time for him to pit after scoring the North American Endurance Cup points. It is beginning to rain again. Now, don't second guess anyone here. Will the #31 car win this motor race after scoring the first slice of the 3/4 pie of NAEC points? If they lose places, I won't eat a pie... I shall eat my hat. Whoops! Ana Beatriz has spun the #57 Acuran NSX GT3. Bad news for the defending GTD champions here at Sebring, the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini. Yes, you've guessed it, it's a data stick issue, compounded by some mechanical woe.
1:57.2, a slow lap for Brendon Hartley. Oh dear. Ford GT #66 is in the lane, and the trouble for the #48 Lamborghini, it's a gearbox issue. Ben Keating slides his way out of the Tower turn and through the Gendebien bends, named for four-time Sebring winner, Olivier Gendebien, before the Le Mans curve. Once again, we are into the fifth hour ofn this motor race. Recall that we started under yellow. It was pouring rain earlier in the morning of course. Sebring is party central. It poured with rain from the end of the WEC race, and continued through the night and into this morning.
Lamborghini leads GTD ahead of Porsche and BMW as well as Ferrari. GTD has been a battle royale. Rain is coming back. GTD teams are praying for more rain. Jan Magnussen is going to pit soon, and the Ford GT's, the #67 leading and the #66 in second, they have done really well. Scott Dixon is set to get back into the car. Pipo Derani has been running really well on slick tires. Felipe Nasr stopped early. Eric Curran is now at the wheel of it.
You are locked into what you have on setups. Now, Brendon Hartley is in the pit lane for scheduled service, and he will step out of the automobile, putting either Joao Barbosa or Filipe Albuquerque. Mike Rockenfeller is getting into the #3 Corvette C-7-R. Car #3 is back on track, Mike Rockenfeller at the controls. This fifth hour of the motor race is flying by. A couple hours from now, we will be at the halfway mark of the 67th renewal of the Sebring 12 Hours. The very first American sports car race was run here in 1950, the 6 hour Sam Collier Memorial on New Year's Eve, 1950. Maybe it wasn't the first, but it was one of the first ones.
We've had more on and off drizzle. Ben Keating is doing his best dealing with the bumps as the #14 GTD Lexus is damaged after an off course excursion. He has mud spewing out of the car. Both of the Lexus cars have damage. AIM Vasser Sullivan are in trouble! Jimmy Vasser has to be steaming with anger at the moment. Philipp Frommenweiler and Frankie Montecalvo ran into each other clearly. The #85 JDC Miller Cadillac is off the road again. The #12 car went off the road and there was some argy bargy. What will Jimmy Vasser and Townsend Bell have to say about that incident? Probably something like, "don't you get the idea that the golden rule of motor racing is, DON'T take your team mate out?!"
Eric Curran leads overall, or I should say, continue to lead. The rear bodywork is pinned in place by four clamps at the back and it is a tad loose. Curran, Joao Barbosa, and the #55 Mazda with Jonathan Bomarito, they are the only three cars on the lead lap. Renger van der Zande is a lap behind in the #10 WTR Cadillac he is sharing with Matthieu Vaxiviere and Jordan Taylor. The silty sand and the water from the rain, makes a silty paste that can clog radiators on these cars. In the #38 car, for Performance Tech Motorsports, but it is unclear who is driving. Corvette and BMW have passed the GTD Mercedes. They are staying ahead of Audi and Lamborghini, with Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen, and Felipe Fraga.
There are more GTD cars on the track than any other class in this motor race. The leader is in the pit lane, and Renger van der Zande can get a lap back from Eric Curran. Joao Barbosa has to be someplace. He's second in the overall. Just trying to see where he is on the road. Olivier Pla has handed the #55 Mazda to Jonathan Bomarito. Touch wood, according to Olivier Pla, but they are understeering with a missing dive plane on the front of the car. The other Mazda, the #77 machine, for that car, it is game over. There's some misting out of a vent hose, where there's oil burning out of the breather pipe on the exhaust. Oil will get by the rings in the engine and cause it to seize up. Joao Barbosa has 11 seconds in hand, in the lead of this motor race.
Barbosa battled a wrist injury last year after falling off a mountain bike. More drivers have been hurt on bicycles than in race cars as there is a pit stop for the #86 MSR Acura NSX GT3. Trent Hindman out, and Justin Marks into the car. The Lexus kerfuffle from earlier, has made AIM Vasser Sullivan very upset. They've spoken volumes about how they feel. Lexus #12 is 11th in the overall.
No comments:
Post a Comment