It is indeed, the witching hour, as at the end of this one, the 12th hour, the 2020 Rolex 24 will be half over. Doesn't time fly when you are enjoying yourself? We've had a lot of green flag racing and that's a good thing to know. The #5 and #10 car came in on the same lap. Loic Duval leads Pipo Derani followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay, the top three. Duval has kept the lead of the motor race. Cadillac has been getting much better fuel mileage on their long runs than have the turbocharged cars in the DPi field. Acura can run 21-22 laps. Mazda runs about 22 laps between pit stops. Dane Cameron has handed the #6 Acura to Simon Pagenaud. The most relevant info to pass on after a stint is how the car is handling and how the track is driving. The Acura is bottoming out and has to make adjustments to the car, especially with the cooler weather.
Dane Cameron says they are a couple sets of tires ahead of their competitors at the moment, but he knows the Cadillac's and the Mazda's have been very strong. Cameron says he'll try to get some rest. It's tougher for a three driver team as far as getting enough sleep. 40 minute stints are short. Four stints equals just two hours and 40 minutes of time behind the wheel, which is equal to an entire IMS WeatherTech Championship sprint race. Cameron says that his favorite part of endurance racing is seeing the sunrise, and getting through the night. That's a very true statement.
In LMP2, the #52 PR1/Mathiasen car is ahead of the #81 DragonSpeed entry. Both cars made pit stops, however, the battle between them is no longer for the lead in class. Gabriel Aubry is doing another stint and Colin Braun has taken over the #81 car from Henrik Hedman. Braun wants to get back on the lead lap. Loic Duval does a personal best time in sector one. Cadillac, Cadillac, Mazda. There is a gaggle of cars that seem to be magnetized to each other. In GT Le Mans, John Edwards leads, but James Calado continues the chase and so does Jordan Taylor, and we cannot forget the Porsche's. This battle is hot and heavy in GT Le Mans. The #4 Corvette, the sister C8.R, has been dealing with an oil leak, and the #3 has been dusted by both of the Porsche's of Laurens Vanthoor and Nick Tandy.
Has the #4 car been withdrawn? No. It's still hanging in there. Things are getting spicy, even at this time of night, as Ryan Hunter-Reay has his hands full, with Ryan Briscoe. Ladies and gentlemen, it's the Ryan and Ryan show, look. Hunter-Reay has won the Indianapolis 500, and Briscoe, he has been on the pole at Indianapolis before, and these two blokes used to race each other in IndyCar quite frequently. Ah, just like old times. It's nip and tuck for Ryan Hunter-Reay, negotiating the scrum for the lead in GT Le Mans, and poor old Ryan Hunter-Reay may have been victim of a little argy bargy out there on the road. There was a scrape up between the Mazda and the Risi Competizione Ferrari in GTLM. So, both of those cars being red, it is hard to tell, but that's two different shades of red paint.
Briscoe has gone around Hunter-Reay as theyare squeezing and squirming their way past GT Daytona traffic. That is the #54 Black Swan Porsche that both of them are negotiating at the moment. Briscoe squeezed around Hunter-Reay into turn one on the outside! Yikes! That was close! Bryan Sellers, meanwhile is in the class lead in GT Daytona at the wheel of the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Following sellers are Mirko Bortolotti in the #88 WRT Speedstar Audi R8 and Zacharie Robichon in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Bryan Sellers has been running a consistent pace as we are within th time of the "zombie" hours at the Rolex, with drivers out there just turning laps.
Mirko Bortolotti, like Kyle Busch earlier, probably had an "oopsy Daisy" moment, and has come back from that after the team manager gets on the radio and says, "OK, Mirko. Focus forward and keep pushing, sunshine. There's a long way to go yet." He's making up time. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have the #62 Risi Comeptizione Ferrari in the lane for fuel and tires as well as a brake change on the front of the car. They are doing a driver change, and Davide Rigon is set to do a stint. Risi Competizione raced just twice last year, here, and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Corvette C8.R is now losing time to the Porsche's, and we speak of Jordan Taylor at the wheel of the #3 car. Laurens Vanthoor and Nick Tandy are both gapping him at the moment.
We have just seen a pit stop from last year's GTLM class champions here at the Rolex 24. Again, those blokes have had a litany of bother throughout the motor race. Right now, they run sixth in class and 32nd in the overall out of the 38 cars that started the race of which a number are still in the hunt. #25 is indeed playing the supporting role. Bryan Sellers is in the lane for tires and fuel, and also, a change for the data stick or the water bottle. You must change out the data stick and bring it to the IMSA marshals so they can analyze it, three times during the race, all at odd numbered hours, between the fifth and seventh hour, the eleventh and 13th hour, and the 17th and 19th hour. The marshalls plug in the data sticks right to their laptop computers and analyze the data in real time, as we see a pit stop for both the #911 and #912 Porsche's taking place.
Bryan Sellers is back on track as well. More GTLM cars are now in the lane and the #3 Corvette was one of them, Jordan Taylor still at the wheel of it. It used to be as soon as you went under the green light, you could fly around the narrow pavement strip to the end of the lane, but now, you have to stay slow into the run up to the International Horseshoe. The #24 BMW M8 GTE is in the lane, and now, John Edwards will hop out and there's a driver change. Chaz Mostert, the Australian, will get into the car, a man who is a veteran of the Australian Supercars championship. It's time to get the data stick out of the car. Mostert helps with the data stick and now he will run around to the left side door and get in the car.
Now, some swaps of position in the DPi running order, as Pipo Derani is losing time to Ryan Briscoe or so it appears. It's now a Cadillac 1-2-3. Loic Duval leads Ryan Briscoe by 12 seconds and Pipo Derani is a further 6/10ths of a second in-arrears of the #10 machine. So, we have #5, #10, and #31 as the top three at this stage. Was there argy bargy between Briscoe and Derani? If so, we didn't see it. The #12 AVS Lexus RC F GT3 has had a scheduled pit stop, Aaron Telitz remains at the wheel of it. He'll do another stint, but to some observers in the lane, Mr. Telitz looks absolutely knackered. NASCAR champion Kyle Busch is staying in the sister #14 Lexus. Olivier Pla at the keyboard of the #77 Mazda, is still the fastest car on the track.
Pla went back to the tail end of the lead lap and was trailing the #6 Penske Racing Acura by 21 seconds, but Olivier Pla has been cooking with the burner on wide open flame here, and he now trails by just 9.6 seconds. So, he's coming in a hurry, putting the welly down indeed. Simon Pagenaud is still working through double stinting the tires on the car. His pace has dropped off from the #55 Mazda of Ryan Hunter-Reay, and the aforementioned #77 Olivier Pla driven Mazda. In GT Daytona, also, pit action at the #57 MSR Acura. Alvaro Parente is taking over the car from Trent Hindman. Parente is a quick driver. The Acura NSX GT3 has been in IMSA for three to four years, but there's something wrong still, with the driving position and the seat on these Acura's. The drivers, like Alvaro Parente, Trent Hindman, A.J. Allmendinger, and Misha Goikhberg, all of them have been dealing with cramping issues in their legs because of the seating position.
So, the cure for that, and for anyone, not just racing drivers, who go through it, obviously is potassium and water. Drink a big glass of water and gobble down a banana. Gobbling the banana will restore the potassium levels, instantly. Loic Duval is also cooking with flames and hot oil at the moment, setting the fastest time of all in sector one on the road. We've gone 57 minutes past midnight and there's a long, long way to go yet. Loic Duval wants to keep the lead now that he's had a bite of the cherry, coming up to 1AM in the morning, Eastern Time. The haze has lifted and it's a crisp, clear evening here in Daytona Beach.
The track is in good shape right now and hence we see these great lap times. Loic Duval has just cut a 1:35.363. Too bad the #19 GEAR Racing Lamborghini is no longer in contention. It's a full season entry for Christina Nielsen and Katherine Legge. The #11 GRT Grasser Lamborghini is some ways down the field after it too, has had a litany of troubles in recent time. The #44 GRT Magnus Lamborghini is sixth in class in GT Daytona, with Andy Lally driving, and he's within 25 seconds of the class lead. Has John Potter driven? He has. But how much time has he put in? The car struggled in Free Practice 3 with a fluid leak in the new gearbox. So far, in the race, touch wood, or touch your head, they are hanging in there.
We have Mirko Bortolotti aboard the #88 WRT Speedstar Audi putting in some stellar lap times and the same is true of Toni Vilander as he is currently driving the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari, the WeatherTech liveried car. Oh boy. More woes for the #11 GRT Grasser Lamborghini as that car is going back behind the wall for more work. John Potter has run four stints aboard the #44 Flex Box Magnus Racing Lamborghini for a total nearing three and a half hours. He still owes an hour. We've seen a penalty handed down, and it's a drive through for the #54 Black Swan Porsche 911 GT3R. Refueling while mounted on jack stands. That's a definite no no in the safety regs department. Hold on a second. Is that right? That's an odd penalty. Everyone refuels on jack stands while doing driver changes. These cars have built in air jacks after all.
Ah. Wait a minute. Hold the phone here, folks, while clarification comes in from Shea Adam at IMSA Radio. There was no driver change, but during refueling they still used jack stands rather than the onboard air jacks. That would be a no no. Hmmm. The plot thickens. Meanwhile,. Loic Duval has reset his own fastest laps of the race by thousandths of a second on laps 389-390. So, 390 laps, 1,388 miles, on the board right now. Ryan Briscoe has been given the same task as Scott Dixon, save fuel, and go fast at the same time. All these blokes are able to do it. Briscoe has been running at least 25 laps, including yellow. The #10 Cadillac has been getting fuel mileage numbers that are better than anyone, however, Loic Duval has made the #5 car come into it's own.
Olivier Pla is now within four seconds of Simon Pagenaud and has run a 1:35.2 which is the fastest lap for the car. The #54 Porsche, and their crew chief, Owen Hayes, said that they've had a diffuser issue and had the car on a jack stand or a manual jack, to make the repair. There's still some bother as they work things out with the IMSA marshals, and in addition, the #9 Pfaff Porsche has been having their fueling rig examined. The pit crew is discussing how to solve the problem, with team manager, Steve Bortolotti. Pfaff is now tenth in class in GT Daytona, with Lars Kern now at the wheel of it. Olivier Pla goes purple, fastest of all, running sixth, after serving a penalty for the car passing another competitor under yellow. Pla uncorked a 1:34.911. Wow. He is two seconds a lap faster than Simon Pagenaud, who is also extremely quick.
That's the first sub 35 lap in the motor race. 1:34.5. Wow. That's cooking! Pla is storming around this speedway. Get the popcorn ready. Simon Pagenaud vs. Olivier Pla. Both of them have raced a lot at Le Mans and are champions in the old American Le Mans Series and in the European Le Mans Series respectively. The top three in DPi, all Cadillac. It's Loic Duval followed by Ryan Briscoe and Pipo Derani. In the LMP2 class, Gabriel Aubry leads the way over Colin Braun and Kyle Tilley. Aubry is going to stay in the car. GTLM, has John Edwards leading for BMW and Laurens Vanthoor runs ahead of Nick Tandy for Porsche. Bryan Sellers leads Mirko Bortolotti and Toni Vilander. Sellers in the Lamborghini, was in the lane, and the car underwent it's brake change during their most recent pit stop.
Toni Vilander did not have a good ending to this race last year after running into a car in the rain in last year's race. He is third in class, 14.7 seconds behind the leader. Filipe Albuquerque just pitted in the #31 Whelen Cadillac, and he ran 20 laps on the most recent stint, and so, AXR is running just a tad shorter on fuel than the other Cadillac's at WTR and JDC-Miller. In the meantime, it's indeed pit stop time for the race leader, as the #10 Cadillac is in the lane. Ryan Briscoe stays in the car and they have time to just do two tires on the right side. They are happy with the wear on the left side Michelin's, and fuel was also added. They are obviously thinking of tire allocation. Now, we see the #77 Mazda RT24P also in the lane for scheduled service.
A clean windscreen and a new drink bottle for Olivier Pla. The pit stop times are not as relevant. There's a minimum time of how far you go with a full fuel fill in the lane. 30 seconds for the prototypes and GTLM cars, and 40 seconds for GTD. Now, it is pit stop time, too, for the #52 PR1/Mathiasen LMP2 car. Gabriel Aubry out of the car, and Nick Boulle takes over for another driving stint. Loic Duval is in the lane in the #5 Cadillac. He will stay in the car, and they are taking four brand new tires and fuel at JDC-Miller. Nick Boulle stalls the car but he is a lap up on the rest of the class, the other remaining cars. Ryan Hunter-Reay is in the lane in the #55 Mazda.
In the GT Le Mans class, it looks like the Porsche's are reeling in John Edwards in the BMW. Laurens Vanthoor is just 3.2 seconds down the road from John Edwards and Nick Tandy is four seconds behind. So, the battle could heat up, and come to a boil in GTLM before too long. At this stage of the motor race, don't make mistakes. Manage your tires. You cannot put fresh tires on on every single stop. There is no ability these days to do triple stints on tires like there used to be. The tires are double stinted seven or eight times. Getting down to the nitty gritty in the last few hours, it'll be single stints for the tires. Some cars are running harder than others, according to Jeremy Shaw's observations.
Bill Riley has done 34 Rolex 24's, and he says his team has to get back on the lead lap and get the brake change done in another six hours. The race pace is the real big issue, with the smaller field of 38 cars that still have a lot of quality. Keeping pushing. No one makes mistakes and the cars run like trains all night. The event is a fast paced one, unlike how it used to be. When you ran two cars in the old days, one would be a rabbit and run really quick and the other car would be a turtle and just sort of run laps and stay in the hunt for as long as possible. Today, that's no longer the case. Every car, every driver, has to be a rabbit. This race has evolved from an endurance test, into a full on sprint. Riley says things are OK on reliability and on tires.
Keep up the coffee and getting enough sustenance and you might be able to make it. The #5 Cadillac with Loic Duval at the controls, he has run the longest stretch of anyone who has been in the lead of this motor race so far, in that position, in P1. We watch Kyle Busch aboard the #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, as he laps past another of the cars that has had a race to forget, the #47 Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 that is several laps behind at this stage. So, there are still cars out there that just haven't had the pace, but it's not like this race used to be in earlier decades where the faster cars ran into boatloads upon boatloads of slower automobiles, when anywhere from 65 to as many as 80-83 cars would start the race. Back in the glory days of IMSA in the 1980s during the GTP era, that would be the case. Loads of quality GTP cars, and some fast GTO and GTU production cars, but then, a lot of cars that were just field fillers, with slower, amateur or gentleman drivers, driving them.
Loic Duval maintains his lead despite the pit stops. Fuel consumption and fuel management. The #55 Mazda ran 22 laps on the most recent stint while other cars ran 20-21 laps, getting the used Michelin tires out of the way, 23 minutes left before halfway. But, guess what lads and lasses, we've just crossed the 400 lap mark! 400 laps, 1,424 miles. We could be in sight of breaking the distance record of 808 laps which was set two years ago in 2018. We could get as many as 820 laps, perhaps. Given the lap of grip, the teams running in the top three at this moment, are all wondering about their tire longevity. That's the three Cadillac's we've been gabbing about oh so often in recent time, the #5 car from JDC-Miller, the #10 Wayne Taylor Konica Minolta car, and the #31 Whelen entry from Action Express.
Cadillac and Daytona, has a great record, and they have shown the cream rises to the top as Loic Duval wriggles his way through the International Horseshoe but stays under control. The #85 JDC-Miller Cadillac, the "banana boat", is a lap or so down, Juan Piedrahita at the wheel of it right now. Helio Castroneves is clawing his way back aboard the much troubled #7 Team Penske Acura. Poor old Helio, he's been struggling make up the deficit of 22 laps that he is down after the team had all that trouble with their Saturday afternoon dust up with the Mazda. He's got 379 laps on the board, (1,349 miles), but just can't seem to make up time to the leader which has just crossed over 401 laps. Again, that's the trusty #5 car, still in P1.
Castroneves just isn't going to get those laps back no matter how hard he tries. Fun fact for the Meyer Shank Racing team, the #86 car, Shinya Michimi at the wheel of it. Ben Waddell, who races in Michelin Pilot Challenge and in IMSA Prototype Challenge, he is the spotter for the #86 Acura. It is so hard to try to sleep with the gaudy, mesmerizing fun house of the Ferris wheel, and it's beguiling bright colors, trying to lure you into a state of hypnosis, hoping that you ignore the ticking clock and get distracted from the motor race itself. It's got to be well worth it, though, to take a Ferris wheel ride. The Ferris wheel shows you everything just above Lake Lloyd. Olivier Pla has blown past Simon Pagenaud in the #6 Acura. #5, #10, #31, is still the top three, it's the Cadillac version of the Three Musketeers, being followed by Olivier Pla, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Simon Pagenaud, the two Mazda's, and the sole remaining Acura in the race.
It is now 1:30 A.M. At this time, yours truly is not on the Ferris wheel. I am back at the hotel, half awake, keeping a close eye on the motor race as it airs on NBC Sports Network. Make that almost 2:00 A.M. as we approach the witching hour and the halfway mark in the 58th renewal of one of the world's greatest sports car racing odysseys. The #77 Mazda has passed Simon Pagenaud in the #6 Acura as we mentioned. Again, the Cadillac's are the three musketeers right now, they are the top three. What will the gap be in a few minutes? We'll find out. John Edwards continues to lead GT Le Mans at the wheel of the #24 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE ahead of the two Porsche 911 RSR-19's of Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor. They are followed by the #62 Risi Comeptizione Ferrari 488 GTE, Davide Rigon at the controls.
Fifth place right now, belongs to the #3, yellow Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, Nicky Catsburg, the Dutchman, at the wheel, after Jordan Taylor, who drove the previous stint in that automobile, had his doors blown off by the Porsche's, figuratively speaking of course, and had to play catch up, big style in order to stay in the GTLM fight. One BMW, two Porsche's, one Ferrari, and one Corvette C8.R. Those are your GTLM contenders. Filipe Albuquerque is pushing, pushing, pushing, bounding over the curbs through the Bus Stop. Remember now, this is the car and the team that yours truly has a vested interest in, and is keeping tabs on. I have told the story, and well, we'll see how they do as the race continues.
Albuquerque is 12.2 seconds behind Ryan Briscoe. We've got three Cadillac's in the top three, from three totally different teams, which has never happened before. Remember, the #5 car used to belong to and was run by Action Express, and they were run by the same personnel and shared a pit box. This year, they are completely different entities. The #31 does not have a data car to rely upon, and well, the #5, no longer has Action Express as the team to rely on, and as I've said, my pal, Bob Johnson is the owner of Action Express and he and the team used to run the #5, but now, because of an agreement, the #5 car is being taken care of under the custodianship of JDC-Miller Motorsports, based out of Savage, Minnesota. Loic Duval, has improved his best lap to a 1:35.347 as Filipe Albuquerque does get balked by one of the GTD cars coming back onto the banking.
Albuquerque is a lucky chap that he didn't get the rough end of the pineapple from that GTD car. The drivers are better. The cars are better. The field is smaller. But, you still have to watch for traffic. Loic Duval is not a regular Cadillac driver. But he's doing a great job. He is running 11.5 seconds clear of Ryan Briscoe. Loic Duval was the 2009 Formula Nippon champion. He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2013 with Audi, driving with a couple chaps who are sports car racing royalty and legends, Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen. He's also had success in Super GT in Japan. Loic Duval scored the Super GT crown in 2010, a decade ago. Duval has not done too many U.S. based races. He usually just does this race at the Rolex 24. He drove for CORE Autosport in the Nissan in a totally different car, last year.
Duval's career in Europe, was on ice. He thought, "goodness. What do I do to keep my racing career going so I don't fade and fall off the radar? Aha. I shall compete in Japan in Super GT." That's what he did, and hence, it has revitalized his career in sports cars now that he's found opportunities here in IMSA, even if only for the Rolex 24. So many drivers have been boosted by going to Japan before coming back to Europe and then to the United States. All the leading cars are running in the 1:35-1:36 range. Olivier Pla is three and a half seconds behind the sister Mazda. Ryan Hunter-Reay only did one race last year, at Mid Ohio. He was a sub for Harry Tincknell as Tincknell was driving at Spa Francorchamps in the FIA World Endurance Championship with the Ford GT program, which of course, came to an end after the 24 Hours of Le Mans, last June.
Hunter-Reay's performance at Mid Ohio was phenomenal. Right now, Hunter-Reay has his hands full with Olivier Pla, his team mate, in the sister #77 Mazda, the white car, as Hunter-Reay is driving the red car. Hunter-Reay has driven prototypes and IndyCars, and of course, he is a champion of the Indianapolis 500 and of the IndyCar championship. Hunter-Reay has his family here this weekend, and the same is true for Tristan Nunez, who has his mother here watching. Racing is a family sport. The extra drivers who come in for this race are just as good as the regular drivers. The quality of the drivers in this motor race is incredible. Olivier Pla is indeed ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Pla has stepped it up indeed. We continue on towards halfway in the Rolex 24. Ryan Hunter-Reay completes yet another lap here at Daytona, going past the #7 Acura, the car that is well down the order at this time. Ryan Hunter-Reay remains ahead of Olivier Pla. A new fastest lap by the #31 Whelen Cadillac at 1:35.403 for Filipe Albuquerque. We are merely nine minutes away from halfway. Loic Duval has now run 409 laps, 1,456 miles. Ryan Hunter-Reay has Mazda #55 in fourth place. We thought the sister #77 Mazda was ahead of his team mate. That's not the case. Instead it's the #7, the much delayed Penske Acura in the hands of Helio Castroneves. They have had a race to forget, but are still pounding around trying to make it to the end.
Olivier Pla is one second behind his team mate at Mazda Team Joest. Olivier Pla has the target acquired. He's not going to flash the lights at his team mate, but he will surely be on top of him and the team on the radio will tell Hunter-Reay, "Ryan, Olivier is coming. Don't get in his way, whatever you do." The GT Le Mans battle is still simmering. We haven't called their number in a bit, but Laurens Vanthoor, he is still in hot pursuit of John Edwards in this fascinating BMW vs. Porsche battle. It's Munich vs. Stuttgart in GTLM. The gap has widened by half a second, and Toni Vilander has dropped away from Mirko Bortolotti in GT Daytona. Ryan Hunter-Reay stays higher on the banking than normal, allowing the #77 to go by.
Edwards had just turned a 1:43.7, and Laurens Vanthoor, runs a 1:43.3. Edwards asked, "who is behind me in the Porsche. Do I need to go faster?" He was told, "it's the Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor." Edwards keys the microphone for the radio and says, "OK", and then, kaboom, he is able to push even harder and go even faster since he knows the pace his rival, his competition, is running at, and he turns the wick up, instantly. Race car drivers have this special power. Once they know they need to push harder and go faster, they do it, instantaneously. Make it happen. It's not "I think I need to go faster." It's "I'm going faster." John Edwards has wanted a win at the Rolex so many times. He has been a bridesmaid in GT Le Mans here at the Rolex, so often. He wants a podium, or even a win.
It's give and take in this GT Le Mans battle. The Porsche has the handling through the corners, the twisty bits on the infield, and then, when they get onto the back straight, the BMW has the power from it's twin turbocharged V8 and can whistle off into the distance. Vanthoor makes a great exit off turn six and Edwards pushes the bye bye button. Bryan Sellers leads GT Daytona by nearly seven seconds over Mirko Bortolotti. Toni Vilander is next up followed by Toni Vilander. Then, there is a huge battle between Andy Lally and Aaron Telitz. So, it's Magnus Lamborghini vs. AVS Lexus. Lally passes Telitz, for fourth, and then comes Jens Klingman in the #96 Liqui Moly Turner Motorsports BMW and he passes Anthony Imperato, who is making only his third start in IMSA in the Rolex 24. He ran at Lime Rock and Road America, last year.
Imperato raced for three seasons in the IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge and in a different GT3 based sports car championship, but now he is hitting the big time, in the WeatherTech Championship and in the Rolex 24. Loic Duval is cruising. His lead margin has ballooned to 12.1 seconds, ahead of Ryan Briscoe. Poor old Filipe Albuquerque is a further 15.7 seconds in-arrears of Briscoe, doing his best to play catch up in the #31 Whelen Cadillac. Olivier Pla is still pushing, pushing, pushing. Olivier Pla sees red, as in the red paint of his team mate's Mazda. He will become like a bull in a China shop. Now, what would you want a bull to see, to make it fight? The answer is, red. Pla is seeing red, in the form of the paint on the sister #55 Mazda. But, I digress, the metaphor of a "bull in a China shop" unless it is a Lamborghini, is one that is worn out, and pretty chuckleheaded.
The three Cadillac's are serenely cruising. Again, Duval leads Briscoe by 12 seconds. The next round of pit stops is coming, and the first Cadillac we should see in the lane, is the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac for Action Express. In the lane now, the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW, the Liqui Moly car. There is a driver change. Jens Klingsman gently steps up over the wall, and there will be a new driver, so it's either Robby Foley, or Dillon Machavern who will take over. Just a tick over twelve hours to go. We're getting close. Get the coffee ready. We're still going for it. It'll continue being a sleepless night for many endurance racing diehards out there. Yours truly is back in his hotel room, but can barely sleep, wanting to watch the action on the TV set. Wow. Just like that, another racing hour is... say it with me... done and dusted.
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