Saturday, October 12, 2019

Petit Le Mans: Hour 7

Filipe Albuquerque has been struggling with his tires in the #5 Cadillac, the first of the AXR cars.  Tristan Nunez and Renger van der Zande are 1-2, and now, van der Zande has taken the lead.  The #33 Mercedes, Jeroen Bleekemolen is in the lane with a cross-threaded wheel nut.  A recalcitrant wheel nut had to be hammered off with the mallet, the old Birmingham screwdriver.  Renger van der Zande is still in the fight.  van der Zande pits on lap 328.  328 laps, 833 miles.  Once again, we thank Mr. Scott Atherton for bringing sports car racing to the forefront of motorsport.  Darkness has fallen over the circuit at Road Atlanta.  Tristan Nunez is now three seconds clear of Mike Conway. 

The drama is starting to come about, or it will.  Trust me, this race is far from over.  The position marker lighting systems have been working very well for the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship.  Tristan Nunez has just 6/10ths of a second in the lead, ahead of Mike Conway.  Conway, committed, ducks inside two GT class cars.  Nunez has to go to the right side of the #63 Ferrari.  The sealer in the turns is helping with traction here at Road Atlanta.  Felipe Nasr is now some distance behind his team mate, but they are on the same lap.  Nasr is 17.7 seconds behind Conway, while Tristan Nunez in the #77 Mazda RT24P leads the motor race overall.

Ricardo Feller is closing on Bill Auberlen to a half a second margin in GT Daytona, look.  Ford, Ferrari, BMW, Porsche, Porsche is the order in GT Le Mans.  The Porsche's have just not been able to pull the pin and gallop away.  We need some more pace from the Coca Cola retro paint scheme RSR's.  We have been clean and green for a good while.  Bill Auberlen pits from the lead in GT Daytona.  Mike Conway has hunted down Tristan Nunez and has gone by for the lead of this motor race. 

Laurens Vanthoor has pitted and Fred Makowiecki in the sister Porsche will be taking a position over, as the #31 Whelen Cadillac has also made a pit stop.  Ford GT #67 is also in the lane, look, as we see more shuffling around in the GTLM class.  Mike Conway now pits, relinquishing the lead, handing it back to Tristan Nunez.  A 26 lap stint for Conway.  32 minutes to go before the next slice of points for the Michelin Endurance Cup, the next slice of that pie.  Marco Seefried pits the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini.  The #5 Cadillac had fluid added.  Corey Lewis is now at the wheel of the #48 machine.  The #911 Porsche just pitted, again, the cars for the Porsche factory team are in the Coca Cola throwback livery.

We had some suspension adjustments going on on the #912 Porsche as Juan Montoya brings the #6 Acura, and Dane Cameron gets back into the car for another stint.  So much yet to play for as Matthieu Vaxiviere will soon step back into the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac.  Vaxiviere will take the wheel of the car over from Renger van der Zande who has run a fairly long stint.  Ricky Taylor in the #7 Acura is about to pit.  Tristan Nunez has jumped out of the #77 Mazda.  We do not know who has gotten into the car.  They were still refueling, and just took the hose out of the fuel filler before the car took off down the pit lane.  Timo Bernhard is back into the car.  Bernhard has won this race five times before.

Mazda have won three races so far.  There is a tiebreaker here, so, who will win?  Cadillac, Acura, and Mazda, all have three wins apiece.  Tomorrow, one of the Coca Cola Porsche's will make an exhibition lap or two at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama before the beginning of the NASCAR race.     

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