We are into the second half of this motor race. Trouble for the #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 RSR. Nick Boulle says the car has been losing power since the start of the race. Patrick Lindsey is driving at the moment. The #7 Acura is in the lane. A full service stop, and no driver change. 21 laps on this most recent stint for Helio Castroneves. There's still half of this race remaining. Both of the Porsche 911 RSR's have come to life here. Game over it seems for Park Place Motorsports. They lost a right hand side mirror off the car, and now their issues are going from bad to worse. Toni Vilander has brought the #63 Ferrari 488 to the pit lane. Ricky Feller goes back to the lead, followed by Townsend Bell and Bea Figueredo.
In from the lead, comes Jonathan Bomarito in the #55 Mazda. Olivier Pla has taken over the Mazda, and there's lots of pit stops happening. Cadillac's #10 and #84 are in, and so is the #6 Acura. Chris Miller goes into the #84 "Banana Boat". Cooper MacNeil is at the wheel of the #63 WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3. Jordan Taylor takes the race lead briefly in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac. No weather worries here at Watkins Glen. The weather is perfect. Jan Magnussen is keeping an eye out for the two Porsche's ahead. The screaming flat six Porsche's, the rumbling Corvette's, and the whispering BMW's are definitely racing each other. That battle, is surely on the boil at the moment. Only one Corvette still running, just the #3. The #4 Corvette has come a cropper twice in two weeks. Don't forget Marcel Fassler's massive wreck at Le Mans, smashing into a concrete barrier after skidding into the gravel trap in the Porsche Curves.
Magnussen has closed up on Vanthoor. Both Porsche's are being warned by the stewards about track limits. The GT Daytona scrap is still hot and heavy, too. Townsend Bell and now, Jack Hawksworth, both of them are flying. We have just over the standard distance of an IMSA sprint race left to go in this event. Mazda's continue to dominate at the sharp end. Tristan Nunez and Olivier Pla are the current drivers, slicing and dicing through GTLM traffic. Oh dear. Trouble for the #54 CORE Autosport Nissan. He's stopped between turn eight and nine, after the Carousel. It looks as though the Nissan is busted. It's toast. It's game over for CORE Autosport. They'll have to try again at Mosport next weekend. The Nissan has no ballast, and it has that big twin turbo V6, a GT3 spec engine from the Nissan GT-R.
Pit stop time here, look, for Porsche, Corvette, and BMW. Laurens Vanthoor takes fuel and tires. Antonio Garcia gets into the #3 Corvette. Fuel and tires for BMW and it seems Jesse Krohn stayed in the car. The Nissan is out of the way, off the racing surface, and it is no place near the short chute, the NASCAR short chute. Loss of drive. No mas. Game over for the Nissan chaps. No real need for Full Course Yellow it seems. Mazda #77 is back in. It's a scheduled stop after a 24 lap stint. The #7 Acura is still somewhat in contention. Dane Cameron will take over for Juan Pablo Montoya. Time for lunch and ice cream for JPM.
The #31 Cadillac is in for service. Felipe Nasr is into the car. They've completed their driver rotation. Ricardo Feller makes a scheduled pit stop for fuel and for tires. Olivier Pla and Tristan Nunez continue leading this race. Olivier Pla has a decent cushion over the sister Mazda at the moment. Olivier Pla has been running in the 1:32-1:33 range as of late. No mistakes. Six hours is a long race around this track. Team Penske elected to run their usual two driver lineups. The #10 Cadillac and the #50 Cadillac have both also elected to run with just two drivers as opposed to three. Meanwhile, in LMP2, things seem to be working well for Eric Lux. Eric Lux describes driving the new LMP2 cars like "playing a video game that is painful." He is happy to have his team mates, Gabriel Aubry and Matt McMurry.
Gabriel Aubry will be next into the car, replacing Matt McMurry. Now, we have some drama. An incident here, look, into turn one. Helio Castroneves has been delayed by some type of shemozzle in turn one. It was Matt McMurry, and he still has the class lead in LMP2, in which just two cars are entered. Helio Castroneves should be into the pit lane, very soon. The marshals will be looking at his move on McMurry. No action from the stewards. Ricky Taylor is taking over Acura #7 as they are in the pit lane for scheduled full service, and they're back underway. Lexus in GTD are also in the lane. Slow left rear tire stop on the Lexus for AIM Vasser Sullivan, look. Montecalvo squeals the tires back onto the speedway.
Olivier Pla is picking up the pace. He has completed 126 laps, 428 miles, and has blistered the track with another fast lap at 1:29.657. Olivier Pla, the same bloke we speak of, he's broken his own lap record here at WGIR. Nick Tandy leads GTLM only by 7/10ths of a second. Olivier Pla stays at the wheel. A new, chilled drink bottle, four new tires, and a full fuel load for Pla. He is on full tanks, but the new tires will work out pretty well. PR1/Mathiasen also in the lane. Trent Hindman is chasing Bea Figueredo right now. Lars Kern is third, 30 second in-arrears. Cooper MacNeil and Ricky Feller are next up. Pla just ran a 22 lap stint. That's been the regular stint length for the blokes at Mazda. Katherine Legge takes over the #57 MSR Caterpillar Acura, from Bea Figueredo. Team principal Jackie Heinricher, who also runs it with Mike Shank, is not here this weekend.
Ooh. Some argy bargy, as Joao Barbosa gets chopped by Tom Blomqvist in the #25 BMW M8 GT. Barbosa actually swept into the braking area where Blomqvist had the right of way. Blomqvist is in the lane. Connor De Philippi changes the water bottle in the car, and Blomqvist is back in. Chris Miller takes the #84 "Banana Boat" back on track, and the #10 Cadillac also pits. The #44 Lamborghini has had damage, and carbon fiber is torn away. The #540 Black Swan Porsche pitted as well. Andy Lally is at the wheel of the Magnus Lamborghini. Joao Barbosa slides sideways. The Mazda's nimbleness seems to be working on this track compared to the larger bulk of the Cadillac DPi-V.R.
Corvette Racing and CORE Autosport, as well as the Keating Motorsports Mercedes, and the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini, it is game over for all these teams as the attrition rate is taking it's toll with just over two hours remaining in this motor race. Tristan Nunez is in conservation mode while his team mate is storming around at the moment. Nunez is being circumspect, not forcing the issue with the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac. There has been an aerodynamic imbalance and a teeth shattering shudder for the #540 Black Swan Racing Porsche 911 GT3R of Marc Miller, Marco Seefried, and Dirk Werner.
Porsche #911 is in the lane. Both Mazda's are being held up by Joao Barbosa. The gap between the two Mazda's is closing. Joao Barbosa is trying his best to keep from going two laps down to the leading Mazda duo. Tristan Nunez realizes discretion is the better part of valor. Aerodynamics are more important than horsepower at Watkins Glen. The Cadillac is a very aerodynamically efficient car. 138 laps, 469 miles now in the books. 1:33.7 the lap time for the top cars. We're headed for the last 1/3rd of this motor race. Cooper MacNeil is leading GT Daytona over Ricky Feller and Mario Farnbacher, followed by Katherine Legge.
Dirk Mueller leads Ryan Briscoe at Ford in GTLM, with Laurens Vanthoor in third spot. In LMP2, Gabriel Aubry is leading in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen car. Tristan Nunez and Olivier Pla are half a second apart, followed by Acura and the #10 Cadillac. Both GTLM Ford's are in the lane together. The two Taylor brothers, who used to be team mates, are a full minute now behind Dane Cameron. Tristan Nunez is still being held up by the #5 Cadillac. We've seen some driver changes on these pit stops as the race continues.
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