Welcome to round two of the 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge, the California 8 Hours at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, on the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey, California. This is the third annual running of this race, and the date, has been moved, from fall to spring, as we are racing at the end of March for the first time, unlike the traditional date for this race which has been in October, as the last round of the championship, the past two years. This will be the first part of the race, and we will bring you the finish, a bit later on, as we go through the grid.
We have a few GT4 cars at the back, and Jordan Pepper in the #107 Bentley Continental GT3 starting from pit lane as the engines fire. We are ready to roll. So many different engine notes will be heard. Turbocharged and non turbo, V8's, V10's V12's and flat sixes. The field is on their pace laps. The traction control will kick in and save the tires. Each corner on this track, is so different. One magical corner after another, here at Laguna Seca. Hit your marks. Drivers tripped over themselves in qualifying on occasion. The lights are out on the safety car. The field is ready. Go! Mario farnbacher gets snookered by Alex Buncombe. Gary Paffett already on the move in the Mercedes. Keep in mind, too, we have GT4 and GT Cup cars, too.
Dirk Werner and Matthieu Jaminet are moving up already as the Pirreli tires are getting into their operating window. We watch Maximilian Buhk in the #999 Mercedes AMG GT3. The lone Ferrari is the HubAuto Corsa entry from Taiwan. They have good credentials, and are on top of their game. Fans are coming into the track and they have loads of time to watch the race. Don't damage your tires, but you are booking it at full chat. Controlled aggression is what you are dealing with as a competitor.
Alex Buncombe is now two seconds ahead of everyone else. The Nissan GT-R has the pace thus far. This is the new generation Nissan GT-R GT3. KCMG has lots of credentials in Prototype and GT racing. We review the start as the american flag waved. Matthieu Jaminet lost some time, and the Nissan had some contact off of janine's Porsche. Check that. It was "jam jam" and Dirk Werner, both in Porsche's. The GT3 cars are so, so aerodynamically sensitive. Two different teams. #911 for Park Place and #912 for Wright Motorsports, and Jaminet's dive plane is gone. The surface here at Laguna Seca is very polished and can heat up the tires, without wearing them too much.
Having to not travel, contains costs for manufacturers. Markus Palttala for Bentley has the #108 car. He is very experienced in endurance racing. Check that. It's #107 with Jordan Pepper at the controls. Mario Farnbacher has fallen some four seconds behind Alex Buncombe. Mega size battle here, look, for third. Miguel Molina and Maxi Buhk are chasing the BMW M6 GT3 of Mikkel Jensen. Molina is monitoring Jensen right now, look. But, the BMW is having traction trouble as Christopher haas is gifted the line by Maximilian Buhk. Buhk it, as it were. Well, book it. Mercedes ran second to Porsche in the Bathurst 12 Hour last time out at Mount Panorama. Think big picture.
Martin Tomczyk, Matthieu Jaminet, and others are flying. "Jam Jam", he managed a new track record on his first visit to Laguna Seca here in qualifying yesterday. If you do well in Carrera Cup and Porsche Cup, you will go well as a factory driver. Jensen washes out wide. He's struggling for grip, defending like mad, and he's got all sorts of bother at the moment. Look out as the stewards will be out there to nab you for making too many moves. Each year here at Laguna Seca, they hold the Sea Otter Classic bicycle race and the bikes go down the Corkscrew. Werner and Jaminet are pushing each other, hard, look.
Buncombe leads Farnbacher by some four seconds. Alex Buncombe may be in GT4 traffic as Dirk Werner is harrying Matthieu Jaminet. he tries down the inside in the final corner. Now, a programming note. We will be here for the first part of the motor race until 1PM local time, before the NCAA basketball tournament comes on TV. Then, after basketball is done and dusted, we'll be back for the finish of the California 8 Hours. Mario Farnbacher is holding off Miguel Molina, or trying to. Molina is closing on the Acura hand over fist. The Ferrari has a good turn of speed on long runs as Alex Buncombe leads.
Joshua Burdon, Buncombe's co-driver is making his first start along with the rest of the team here at Laguna Seca. They have high expectations after Bathurst. Burdon is next into the car. The tire degradation is with the track, not the car itself. Track conditions change, and you always wonder how the track will be, as a driver, during your stint. 60 minutes is the minimum drive time and the maximum is 65 minutes. Balance the throttle into Rainey curve. Get traction and don't spin the rear tires up the hill and then back down again into the braking zone. Easy to lock up the left front tire. The third and fourth turns are an addition to the old circuit. The crest up the hill is amazing, and then, even more so, is dropping down The Corkscrew.
Jaminet is hanging on over Dirk werner as they chase Martin Tomczyk in the BMW M6 GT3. Gary Paffett and Maro Engel run wide. A couple kerfuffles to keep track of. Mikkel Jensen has regrouped and he has a buffer so he can run his line and establish decent pace. Christopher Haase is also in this scrap, sharing the #10 WRT Audi R8 with Dries Vanthoor and Fred Vervisch. Martin Tomczyk under attack from Matthieu Jaminet. Tomczyk was a DTM champion before going to GT3. He knows how to race as Jaminet and Dirk Werner right on his six. These are some of the most amazing drivers. Gary Paffett is a two-time DTM champion, having won in 2005 and 2018.
Tomczyk gets a nerf from Jaminet, look. Park Place Motorsports has succeeded here at Laguna Seca in IMSA competition. John Wright, Mike Johnson, and others, are great strategists and team bosses. Molina is probing, and he puts Mario farnbacher off into the dust just a little bit. This track is so low grip as Mario Farnbacher is off in the silt as he tried to slam the door in Molina's face but there was no way. Molina was going to press that door back open. Don't do anything silly, as Jensen, Haase, and Buhk go by the GT4 BMW M4 GT in the hands of Darren Jorgensen sharing with Brett Strom and Jonathan Miller.
Everyone has their own strategy to manage this race. Track limits warnings for a couple cars as we see Martin Tomczyk struggling for traction. Tomczyk does not want to give it up, and ooh! Argy bargy off the Andretti hairpin as Gary Paffett nerfs Tomczyk, look. He was playing through, as they say in golf. Oliver Jarvis also has the sister Nissan in this scrap. Jarvis sharing with Alexandre Imperatori and eduardo Liberarti, and jarvis has his hands full with the Audi and the Bentley. In GT4, Chad McCumbee leads the class in the #40 PF Racing Ford Mustang. Race Director Alain Adam is calling on the radio to drivers to observe track limits.
If you go shallow off the corner, you need more steering input. Christopher Mies and Dirk Werner may get dinged by the stewards if they don't calm down a little bit. Martin Tomczyk has Oliver Jarvis all over him and Maro Engel, Christopher Mies, Markus Palttala and Jordan Pepper, they are all right there. Palttala will be racing at the next event at the Spa 24 Hours in Belgium. The 24 Hours of Spa is a blue riband event. So is this. Buncombe leads Molina. Tomczyk is in the 1:27-1:28 range, and he's struggling as everyone else is in the 1:26 range. Maro Engel is poking his nose in on Oliver Jarvis.
Plunge downhill and we have a car in the lane. Zoeno Mikulasko in the #17 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 is in the lane and so is christopher Mies in the Land Audi. Roll the dice, and team boss Peter Baron is making it work. This is a full service stop and has to be 100 seconds maximum. Refuel the car with the engine off, and two mechanics with one rattle gun, can change the tires. 100.513 was their time, and they executed perfectly to leapfrog their rivals. Christopher Haase continues to race solidly in the top five for the WRT team.
After the pit stop, the green and white Land Motorsport Audi, Christopher Mies, is flying, as Yelmer Buurman is now at the controls of the GruppeM Mercedes. Alexander Imperatori in one of the Nissan's. A driver has to do 60 minutes for points, but can't drive more than three hours and 15 minutes. Christopher Haase in the lane and so is Matthieu Jaminet. Alex Buncombe, likewise, as Jaminet goes short on his pit time. He can use the joker as Sven Mueller takes over the car. Alex Buncombe and Maximilian Buhk are in the lane as Miguel Molina now leads the motor race. Disaster for Nissan as they were 18 seconds outside the minimum, and they'll plunge down the order.
Maximilian Buhk handed the Mercedes to Maximilian Goetz and they didn't execute on the stop whatsoever. Dear me. Seven cars yet to pit as Mario Farnbacher is pressing on. Dennis Olsen is the next driver in Porsche #912 Porsche, but they bungled their pit stop. Matthieu Jaminet took the joker and he's in good shape according to the stewards. Bentley #107 in the lane, with Jordan Pepper driving, and he might be handing over to another of his co-driver's soon. 65 minutes is allowable for a stint unless there is a yellow. Mario Farnbacher also pits the Acura NSX.
The Nissan is on hot tires and now, Bertrand Baguette is now at the wheel of it, but he is a sitting duck on cold tires. Mikkel Jensen pits the #34 Walkenhorst BMW as Chris Bellomo is well under his minimum pit stop time in the TRG Porsche Cayman GT4. The Acura team was having issues with their air jacks. Two Mercedes, side by side, and the Audi is the meat in the sandwich. Wow. Tristan Vautier, 2018 IGTC champion, going for it. Poor Vautier didn't race at Bathurst. Driver stint length for #34 and #44 are under review by the stewards.
Josh Burdon is following Nicky Catsburg. Aussie Tim Slade has the lead in the HubAuto Corsa Ferrari by seven seconds. Slide has Sven Mueller, Nicky Catsburg, and Josh Burdon coming up on him. Burdon is a third generation racing driver. Nicky Catsburg was struggling on knackered tires. Bide your time, the Nissan braintrust has to be telling Mr. Burdon at this point. BMW wants to run the cars they sell, and the M6 GT3 is bigger than some of the cars. But, we live with Balance of Performance and evo kits, to evenly match the cars. No worries about driver stint length time for the #34 and #44 cars. No action.
Everyone else is struggling the same way except for the Ferrari. The car is well balanced and consistently quick. James Pesek has taken over the #40 PF Racing Mustang with Brett Strom third, and Chris Bellomo in second place. Tristan Vautier is flying at the moment battling for sixth place. Tim Slade is now leading this motor race. This is the sole Ferrari in the field. Great battle for sixth as Tristan Vautier dives past Frederic Vervisch. Vautier came up through single seaters and in this pass, he comes from a long way back, and dives inside, washing out to the outside of the track. Amazing.
These drivers have a lot of bandwidth in their minds to keep their strategies and their professionalism at a high level. Don't risk the car. It's discretion being the better part of valor. We are about an hour and a half into this motor race. Tim Slade has been cutting laps quick enough to balloon the lead margin to 14 seconds. Nissan does not have the fastest car, but they are consistent. Sven Mueller is now at the controls of the #911 Park Place Porsche 911 GT3R. Nicky Catsburg has gone to third in class in GT3. Chris Bellomo with the TRG Porsche makes a stop handing over to Jason Alexandridis.
Kevin Buckler is a very savvy team strategist and team owner. Plus, he is a winemaker. A multi talented bloke indeed. Tristan Vautier is flying and he goes past his team mate, ooh, running a rad wide look, through the corner. The ARC Bratislava GT Cup Lamborghini Huracan GT3 runs wide and those blokes had some issues and went off the road earlier in the weekend. That car is shared by Andrzej Lewandowski of Poland, and Slovakian drivers Miroslav Konopka and Zdeno Mikulasko. The car is trundling around on a left front tire that is as flat as a pancake, look.
Ooh! Mercedes #43, Adam Christodoulou is very committed in The Corkscrew. 180 feet from top to bottom on a 16% grade! Yikes! Lucas Ordonez, the Spaniard, is very happy to be a Bentley boy now. The Bentley is an incredible car, a total of eight makes in IGTC. Porsche #912 made a pass on the #30 Acura NSX GT3. That pass is under review. Bertrand Baguette at the wheel of the Acura. Chaz Mostert is just inside the top ten in the Schnitzer BMW M6 GT3, all over christopher Mies. The Audi's are now struggling for grip where the BMW's were a little earlier on.
Yelmer Buurman and Alexandre Imperatori are coming, fast, to join the scrap for ninth overall. Tim Slade continues leading this motor race. Bertrand Baguette is still doing his best to fend off the challenge as Christopher Mies continues applying the blowtorch. Mies goes right to the apex to beat him on the brakes, but no dice there. The Audi evo kit has more downforce but creates more drag on the car. The stewards looked into the pass under yellow by the #912 Porsche on the #30 Acura. No action, as the tire temps are coming up. So different to see the greenery here at Laguna Seca in the springtime.
Downforce helps reduce the tire deg, and every driver will tell you that the car is going to drive like a pig. Another review of a pass between the #18 KCMG Nissan and the #888 GruppeM Mercedes. Yelmer Buurman and Imperatori. Joshua Burdon is settled into his stint, and he hasn't improved the best lap time of the car yet. He is not going flat out at the moment, wringing out the car within an inch of it's life. Nicky Catsburg has Tristan Vautier on top of him. Vautier is a lot like James Weaver, executing decisive passes. Weaver, the British sports car racing legend, was a master at that during his career both in North America and around the world. James Pesek leads GT4 in the PF Racing Ford Mustang.
Pit stops begin in earnest. Yelmer Buurman in the lane, and he will have a drive through penalty as will the #18 Nissan for overtaking under yellow. The #29 Audi is also in the pit lane. Josh Burdon is in the lane and the team manager for KCMG has been summoned to the stewards' office. Katsumasa Chiyo, Luca Stolz, and others, have now changed drivers. Adam Christodoulou has passed Lucas Ordonez in a battle of Mercedes vs. Bentley while Timmy Slade is still in the lead, backing off a shade to 1:27.7, with a 16 second margin. The ARC Bratislava Lamborghini is back out after a four minute pit stop, Miro Konopka now driving. No attrition yet, as we approach hour two.
Nicky Catsburg, in the "Catsburg" seat... play on words of catbird seat. Very nice one there, Calvin Fish. Oh boy. Raffaele Marciello now in the #999 Mercedes, cutting it very close, as the #911 Park Place Porsche is also in the lane. Catsburg is half a minute behind Tim Slade. Nick Foster is now at the wheel of the HubAuto Ferrari, despite a botched pit stop, as Bertrand Baguette is in the lane, handing over to Renger van der Zande. Baguette is a regular in Super GT in Japan. Lucas Ordonez will hand the #108 Bentley to one of his co-drivers. A steamy radiator for the Bentley, but no worries about the rad, as Tristan Vautier and Strakka Racing Mercedes are getting back into the game here.
The Acura was one second outside the minimum pit time. Maxime Soulet is now at the wheel of the #108 Bentley, the Belgian driver. Nick Foster is third, and Lewis Williamson is now at the controls of the Strakka Mercedes. About 20 minutes in our coverage before we break away for a while. Jordan Pepper in the pit lane, from third spot in the overall. Nicky Catsburg in the lane in the Walkenhorst BMW, last year's Spa 24 Hours winner. Lewis Williamson will be harrying Matty Campbell, look. Ooh! speaking of harrying, Augusto Farfus has his hands full with Renger van der Zande.
0.49 over minimum time in the pit lane for Walkenhorst BMW. The battle for third continues. Frederic Vervisch has it. Raffaele Marciello wants it. Some cars with fresher tires have leapfrogged the boys we've seen at the sharp end of this motor race so far. Wow! Williamson makes a mega move on the BMW in replay, look. Vervisch is being harried by Marciello. Williamson is just ahead of Campbell right now. The lead margin for HubAuto Corsa is still 14 seconds. Slade says the balance of the car is neutral even under high degradation on the Pirelli tires.
The Ferrari is good at high speed, but here at Laguna Seca, tire life is key with their traction control system. Cheers, Tim Slade. Great to have him in IGTC competition. Romain Dumas has done really well, and he ran with Roger Penske and the Porsche RS Spyder here at Laguna Seca in the old American Le Mans Series. Their personalities were chalk and cheese for a while, but they both get on very well now after all these years. Great scrap here between Marciello and Vervisch, chasing relentlessly. Those boys are flying at the moment.
Maxime Soulet is in 14th in the overall as Nick Foster in the Ferrari leads. This battle has Dominik Baumann, Luca Stolz, and Maxime Soulet. Bentley team, boss Brian Gush says they have had a tough weekend. #107 and #108 are on the pace, but they are facing stiff competition as always. They showed great speed in the Bathurst 12 Hours. Bentley has some of the nicest swag out there, too. The low grip of Laguna Seca, it is not suitable for the Bentley, unfortunately. Nick foster is wadded up in some serious traffic, just behind the Nissan of Edoardo Liberati.
Let's review how the race has gone so far. There was that stack up at the start, and Buncombe passes Farnbacher. Matthieu Jaminet loses a dive plane as Christopher Haase passes the Mercedes, and Miguel Molina PASSES THE acura. Martin Tomczyk and Gary Paffett in a shemozzle among the two DTM veterans. and we have seen a lot of attack moves from the likes of Tristan Vautier. He ran well with Maximilian Goetz and then with Lewis Williamson as Luca Stolz passes the Bentley. Then, Williamson made a sneak attack on the Walkenhorst BMW.
We'll see you in a few hours, for the conclusion of the California 8 Hours.
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