Estre has pitted. So his the Timo Bernhard team Porsche. It's dark now, with less than three hours to go. 194 laps, 553 miles. Porsche won in the final Kyalami 9 Hours in 1982 with the Group C Porsche 956. A Group C car around the original circuit must have been amazing. More lightning, but we have not seen any rain. Valentin Pierburg loses his turning point and goes off the road onto the grass outside the circuit. Christopher Mies is the leder of this motor rce right ow. Again, we are in full darkness now. Most of what you can see, is headlights. Mies in the pit lane, in Audi #29 for Land Motorsport. Kevin Estre runs a 1:46.3, and Luca Stolz is faster at 1:44.7. Stolz is on fire right now, figuratively speaking. He's mowing this field down, trying to catch the race leader. Marvin Kirchhofer is in the top six in Aston Martin #62 he is sharing with Ricky Collard and Hugo de Sadeleer.
Down to Ingwe ands we see Estre running just a tad slower than Stolz. Stolz is cooking right now. Luca Stolz is the man who is bringing his car, his Mercedes, to the finish, as we see grrat pictures here at Kyalami in the darkness. Kelvin van der Linde is being hounded by Kevin Estre. Estre has to work for this. van der Linde won't let him by for free. Luca Stolz is closing, fast! He still can't do it. Kelvin van der Linde ain't gonna give you an inch there, sunshine. van der Linde finally gives way, and some hip and shoulder from Estre. The Porsche mechanics were screaming to the marshals, "get this bloke out of the way, now!" Kevin Estre can finally pick up the pace. Lightning flashes around the track, and surely, thunder crashes as well. Through Sunset, and into Clubhouse. But, going through Sunset in the dark, is very ironic, and does not make a whole load of sense now, does it?
It's real darkness with less than three hours to go. All you have is your headlights. It's as dark as say a track like Sebring in Florida. 200 laps done, and Kevin Estre leads by 3.4 seconds. 200 laps, 570 miles. Now, a pass in progress for second, and the BMW of Mikkel Jensen passes Luca Stolz on the exit of Barbecue! Oh my gosh! That was courage, personified! Mies/Haase/Winkelhock, under investigation for their pit stop time by the stwards as the cars wriggle again through Crocodile. Dylan Pereira is trying to pass Katsumasa Chiyo. More lighting in the dark sky over Kyalami, at night. Luca Stolz presses on. Audi #29 is seventh in the overall. Driving standards flag for Vervisch with respect to his coming together with the GPX Porsche, the #20 car.
Estre is 6.8 seconds ahead of Jensen. We have not seen the Silver Cup leader, the #6 Black Falcon Mercedes AMG GT3, in the hands of Lamborghini Super Trofeo champion, Sergey Afanasiev of Russia, sharing with Hubert Haupt of Germany and Germany's Patrick Assenheimer. The lightning flashes, and the thunder crashes. No night time fishing or golf. You don't want to get zapped. We are two hours and 40 minutes from getting into some wine from South Africa, which I am hearing is very good. Good food, good wine, and racing. There is no major racing on Sunday in South Africa. This race, and the Formula 1 Grand Prix, were always run on Saturday.
204 laps done now. 581 miles. Dillon Pereira under investigation for speeding in the pit lane. Michael Van Rooyen has done a lot of racing in South Africa. Genaro Bonafede has also been organizing races here in South Africa. It's unreal how many of these professional teams have made some errors on the pit lane. We are still dry despite the lightning we have seen in the sky. The wind is blowing and it is cooling, but we have not seen raindrops yet. The sky is still clear. Drive through penalty for Dylan Perreira, with Saul Hack in the car, for speeding in the pit lane. Saul won't be happy about taking that penalty. Ferrari #17 in the lane. This is the Ferrari 458 Italia Group N national car, with the non turbo V8.
This is Pablo Clark Racing, being assisted by Kessel Racing. Again, it is a South African trio. Michael Stephen, Leonard Charles Thompson, and Kishoor Pitamber. Lots of racing left now. Rain is coming, as the air is dry. It is a short burst of rain, but it will come down hard. There's more lightning in the sky. If it rains, anyone on the lead lap could still possibly win this motor race. The lightning is spectacular. Slowly, taunting everyone, is the rain, as we look at Crowthorne. 210 laps done, 598 and a half miles. Matthieu Jaminet runs 47 seconds back. Less than two and a half hours to go.
The rain is falling, and we have a car off the road. It looks like it is a Bentley. It's the #108, Rodrigo Baptista at the controls. It's at the top of the hill through Barbecue. Baptista is out of the car. We might have a safety car coming up. There might be a deluge coming. Will there be a Full Course Yellow? Wow. The lightning is very dramatic. We are now under Full Course Yellow. We are now on lap 213. That is the medical car. Not the safety car. 607 miles. Pit stop time, and we will see slick tires, as there is no rain just yet.
Mikkel Jensen and Kevin Estre both in the lane. Luca Stolz also in. Fuel only for the top two. The Bentley is being retrieved, while the sister car came to the garage for a brake change. Also, we saw pit stops for BMW Schnitzer, and the Luca Stolz driven Mercedes for SPS Automotive Performance, car #10. The rain is tipping down now! We are under Full Course Yellow, going from slicks to wet tires from Pirelli. It's Biblical rain. The pit lane is jammed. This is a mess. Kevin Estre is now in the pit lane, and maybe he went by it when th rain began to come down. Mikkel Jensen is also still on the course.
Kevin Estre steps out of the car, and he hands over to Richard Lietz or Michael Christensen. Not sure who. I think it will be Richard Lietz. What will we do, chaps? Time lost, and the car is waved away. He will keep the lead despite a very incoherent pit stop. Maybe the radios got scrambled. #42, the Schnitzer BMW is also making a stop. It is down and away. Kevin Estre did go off the road coming down through the Mine Shaft. Earl Bamber brought the Dinamic Porsche in for wet tires. Maybe the rain has stopped for the moment. We will see. Richard Lietz leads the race. Both BMW's are second and third. #34 followed by #42.
The track is awash, but it could dry up. Hot race track, cold rain = steam. We are under the Safety Car, now. It is our fourth FCY/Safety Car of the motor race. Richard Lietz is indeed driving the #20 car. Lietz and Kevin Estre said they needed an extra lap, almost spinning out on slicks in the rain. Not a good thing. This race has delivered in the excitement department. There is so, so much history of this race. More rain. More lightning. It's been quite the day of racing. Wet weather in the daytime is doable. Wet weather at night, is much harder. The Black Falcon team is yelling at the marshals to push the car, but no one is down there. Golly. There's debris on the road, and darkness. Ricky Collard is running well in the Aston Martin as Earl Bamber and Valentin Pierburg are in the lane, to reset their stint time, zeroing the clock for another 65 minutes.
It is time get the car pushed out of the gravel. A GT3 car is very heavy. They need a snatch vehicle. Here comes the field behind the safety car. So, we wait. Don't go off the track and puish the car back. Meanwhile, sweep the water up.
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