Nunez says Mazda has been double stinting their tires and should have plenty left. We are inside the last three hours as we back time this motor race. It's been very exciting so far as Ryan Briscoe continues to run in the 1:36-1:37 range. Sebastien Bourdais is third, slipping behind Oliver Jarvis' Mazda, the #77 car and the sister Mazda #55 of Jonathan Bomarito, he still is struggling. Dane Cameron in the #6 Acura might be able to make inroads on the red #55 Mazda. Porsche #912 in the lane from second in GTLM. It's a standard stop for fuel and tires, perhaps. Matthieu Jaminet stays in the car, and Matt Campbell is in the #911. He is chasing down John Edwards. What do these two blokes have left in the locker as we come down to crunch time? The BMW has had a lot of oomph to take the fight to the BMW. The #88 WRT Speedstar Audi is in the pit lane for scheduled service. Mirko Bortolotti will finish the race out, taking over from Dries Vanthoor with fresh tires and a full fuel load.
The GTLM pit stop strategies have diverged. Check that. We speak of GTD. Lamborghini leads with Paul Miller Racing, and the #48 car, Bryan Sellers at the controls. Nobody can ease up. The gaps are just not wide enough to offer a security blanket to anyone. Punctures, wrecks, drive through penalties. It's all still to play for. The machinery is tired. The drivers are tired. Into the lane, the #62 Ferrari 488 GTE. Pit stop time for the #24 BMW as well. It's amazing, as we watch the #6 Acura Team Penske Acura ARX-05. That car remains intact even though it's still porpoising and car is still hitting the deck. The floor of that automobile has been taking a beating this whole race. The driver's must feel as though they've been in the drum of a cement mixer this whole race.
The sound is incredible. If you are listening on the radio or the TV and you hear that, it sounds like static. But no. It's the whack, whack, whack, whack, whack, sound of the splitter on the Acura clattering the pavement here at Daytona International Speedway. Porsche pit stop time, and it's the #911 car in the lane for routine service. What will the ride height be on that Acura? The clattering can't be doing that car any good at all. The BMW also pitted. So, the battle continues hot and heavy in GTLM. Bryan Sellers brings the GT Daytona leading Lamborghini #48 to the lane as well. Andrea Caldarelli takes over behind the wheel. New tires, and a cleaning of the grille. There's not as much tire clag in the grille areas of the cars as there was in the overnight.
A pit stop too for the severely delayed #4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that dealt earlier in this race with a cracked bell housing. The #4 had been parked, but it was back on the track, I think. We have run 729 laps (2,595 miles). Sebastien Bourdais is now third in the overall and he will be back to the lane soon. #4 was just behind the wall for another couple hours as Laurens Vanthoor has now lost time to John Edwards in GTLM. Nick Tandy says the race has been a long one but a good one. It's hard to stay ahead of the BMW and it's hard for the Porsche's to pass. We see a pit stop again for the #14 AVS Lexus in GTD. Racing is not supposed to be easy, especially endurance events. You settle into a 24 hour race, but there have been gambles made all the time.
Porsche #911 wants to outrun their sister car as well as the BMW and the Ferrari. We see a driver change for the #77 Mazda on their pit stop and the #5 Cadillac is also in the lane. #5 is in the lane and has gone to their regular stint length instead of coming in early. A bit of bother on the pit stop for the #5. People have worried that BMW will pull out of IMSA. But, they likely will stay despite the fact that they left the FIA World Endurance Championship. Andy Lally says he's ready to go, but also believes Marco Mapelli is set to stay in the car. Pit stop time now, too, for the sister AVS Lexus RC F GT3, car #12. We want to say hello, to Bob Varsha. We're pulling for you, mate.
Andy Lally says that the team has had a few yellows that have taken the team off sequence. He did the sunrise stint earlier, but he's very concerned about what his team mates are doing. Andy Lally realizes he won't take the Lamborghini to the finish. Bob Varsha is a star of race broadcasting and is one of my heroes. We hope to see you back at the track soon. We're headed to the sharp end of this race, the money laps. We are joined by Steve Pattie, from VP Racing Fuels and bang on schedule, the #10 WTR Cadillac, is in the lane from the race lead. It'll be four tires and fuel as well as a driver change. Ryan Briscoe is out of the car and Kamui Kobayashi is getting into the car.
They clean the wheel wells, load the fuel tank, and Kamui Kobayashi is back into the race. We are going to see a race lap record here at the Rolex 24. VP Racing Fuels works very closely with IMSA to formulate enough energy, and of course the weather has cooperated with us as well. Racing fuel is only one element of VP Fuels, using formulations for IMSA, rallying, motorcycle racing, and more. Chemists in Texas also formulate oil for racing on land and water, as well as performance automotive products. Two hours and 40 minutes to go, the length of a regular IMSA race. Electric cars are here to stay, but oil and lubrication will still be needed for electric cars.
Fuel lubricant and coolant are for drive train systems. Water is the enemy, through electrolysis. Water is the enemy of lubrication and so therefore, VP has developed non glycol lubricants and additives. IMSA is looking at one of them as an official coolant, protecting engine parts and reliability. We thank VP Racing Fuels for their participation here in IMSA. We wish Brian Till and Bob Varsha, great recoveries. Kamui Kobayashi must be patient, but his idea of patience is not in any definition of the word we typically know. The #55 Mazda is in the lane for service, but still ailing with it's boost issues. We still have a ding dong battle in GT Daytona. It's the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche against the #88 WRT Audi.
Side by side stuff through the kink and this battle is fantastic. Mirko Bortolotti vs. Patrick Long. This racing has been cutthroat and yet, respectful. Again, we are still looking at a race record distance. Doug Fehan said the #4 Corvette was parked, but no. The #4 Corvette C8.R is back into the motor race. The pit crew tends to have a lot more confidence than does the team boss. Learn and pay attention to detail. You will learn nothing about the car if the thing is just idle in the lane being fixed. Kamui Kobayashi has run his 740th lap. This is mile marker 2,634. Kobayashi like co-driver, Ryan Briscoe, has been consistently uncorking laps in the 1:35 bracket. Sebastien Bourdais is pushing but still cannot catch Tristan Nunez.
The #10 team has an extra set of tires if there is a late Full Course Yellow and the tires are holding up well over a stint. As the ambient temperature warms up, the tires will slide a bit but the team seems to be in good shape. The race began in warm conditions and will end in warm conditions. Kamui Kobayashi will take the #10 car to the checkered flag. The #10 Cadillac's attitude has been comfortable and it's been fast. But the car looks at ease with itself and the driver's don't need to overextend themselves either. A lapse of judgment at this stage can turn your race pear shaped. Consistency though, is what has put the #10 Cadillac and it's drivers into this position as we get towards just two hours of the motor race still to run.
Simon Pagenaud has passed Jonathan Bomarito in the #55 Mazda with it's 2.0 liter turbocharged 4 cylinder engine and if the boost for the forced induction isn't there, they cannot bring any more power to help them. In GTLM, five seconds, roughly splits the #24 BMW M8 GTE and the #3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. Laurens Vanthoor has passed the Corvette and is chiseling away the gap to the BMW in the class lead in GTLM. Vanthoor got into the Porsche on the most recent pit stop, the #912 car. Piers Philips and BMW will be happy with the result of at least one of their cars, the #24 and their sister car has worked its way back up the order even though they've had a lot of trouble, and the same is true for the #7 Acura, which continues to be caboose on the field in DPi but is still running. The car is 20 laps down.
Ben Hanley leads LMP2 in the #81 DragonSpeed car. Ben Keating is second, and Ryan Lewis aboard the #18 Era Motorsports entry is still hanging in there as yours truly still is relying heavily on the official spotter's guide. Unfortunately, we don't get top speed numbers from IMSA any longer. I think we just get lap times, and meanwhile, Ryan Lewis is in the pit lane for service. Fourth in class is the #8 car for Tower Motorsports by Starworks and into the lane comes the #81 DragonSpeed entry. #8 has Nicolas Lapierre at the controls. Lapierre sharing with David Heinemeier Hanson, John Farano, and Ryan Dalziel. Pit stop time as well for the #7 Acura with Ricky Taylor at the wheel of it, learning, running miles on the car, solving their problems.
We've had a lot of green flag racing including that record breaking run that lasted for nearly eight hours earlier on in this race. Some people may argue this race won't be a classic. Well, we've seen an amazing race, whether you consider this motor race a classic or not. Pace and consistency has been shown in spades. Anyone else who has had unscheduled service, has had to fight back, while the #10 car did the same thing, but they've been able to stay in the top position for quite a while. This is a modern endurance event, and in the old days, you'd have to baby the car and run slower lap times and slower pace for the vast majority of the race, thinking back to the classic years of the 1960s and '70s, and also (just as classic), the GTP era of the 1980s and early 1990s, or, the World Sports Car era of the late 1990s.
The overhead views of Daytona International Speedway are immaculate. Yours truly is on his way there, to enjoy the final couple of hours, to see the finish to this stunning motor race. Whoa! A close shave there for the overall leader as Kamui Kobayashi gets split by both AVS Lexus' in the Bus Stop. Hmmm. Maybe a wise man was right when he said, "don't run for a bus." Don't run for a bus, because you are just going to get stymied. One of the GRT Grasser Lamborghini's is off the road too, look. That particular green Lamborghini is one we haven't seen in a while. That's the #11 of American Richard Heistand, Dutchman Steijn Schothorst, Spaniard Albert Costa, and Frenchman Franck Perera.
We've had mega running all weekend and very little respite. No long Full Course Yellow's. Pit stop time for the #55 Mazda. Calculations and changes are expected in endurance racing, for fuel, but especially for tires, with the whole 38 sets of tires for the prototypes through the entire weekend including practice, qualifying, and the motor race. Now, we see the #55 Mazda has stalled and has to be bump started by the pit crew. The car is down and away. As far as the sharp end of GTD, some teams have no idea where their fuel is, but the tires being double stinted, has helped. Single stint the tires all the way to the checkers. This is the #44 Magnus Lamborghini. Their rivals with the Paul Miller Lamborghini and the WRT Speedstar Audi will have to manage their tires. No punctures. You cannot botch your fuel calculations either. You have to be diligent, especially in these last two hours and 15 minutes. Klaus Bachler has taken over the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche in GT Daytona, from co-driver, Patrick Long.
The #44 GRT Magnus Lamborghini has pitted and has come out behind the Paul Miller Lamborghini and the WRT Audi. Marco Mapelli is behind Mirko Bortolotti and the Porsche. Mazda #77 and Cadillac #5 shall pit again soon. The #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari pits from fourth in class in GTLM. Mazda #77 is in the lane as well. Risi Competizione still has not found the pace they've wanted. The #25 BMW M8 GTE is in. Bruno Spengler is in the car, being assisted by co-driver Colton Herta with the water bottle. Cadillac #5 is in the lane as well as mentioned. Sebastien Bourdais may continue in the car. Yes. The door was opened but maybe just to change the drink bottle.
The #62 Ferrari has run well in this race. It's an older car, the 488 GTE. They've run well in this race and will be back for the 12 Hours of Sebring. Daniel Serra looks to be staying at Risi Competizione but some of the other drivers are racing the same car, for a different team, in a different championship, namely the FIA WEC which will be joining IMSA at the next race at Sebring for the "Super Sebring" race weekend, coming up in March, and you will hear a whole lot more about that event and get full coverage as it approaches and when it happens, so keep an eye and an ear out. The Ferrari just has a scosh less horsepower and a taller wicker bill on the rear wing. They've been close but they just aren't quite running on the same level as the other newer GTLM cars. They ran well at Petit Le Mans, the IMSA finale, last year.
The cars ahead of the Ferrari, including brand new cars for Porsche and Corvette, and a rejuvenated BMW M8 GTE, have had more performance this weekend. BMW #24 did do a brake change under green flag racing, overnight, but they are still hanging on. John Edwards and Laurens Vanthoor have been very close, and are five seconds apart, as they have both completed 713 laps (2,538 miles). Matt Campbell has been in contention as well. Meanwhile, Kamui Kobayashi continues to lead and that car has seemingly been on rails. The drivers are enjoying it and so, they've gone faster. If the track and the car come to you, relaxing as you drive, makes you go faster. Ito the lane for service, the #912 Porsche.
They've pitted from second in class in GTLM. A distance check once again for the overall leader. Cadillac #10 has now run 757 laps, 2,695 miles. Earl Bamber is now at the controls of the #912 Porsche 911 RSR-19. Bang on schedule, the #10 Cadillac hits the pit lane, from the lead. Fuel and tires the modus operandi. The order of the day. Scrubbed Michelin tires go onto the car. Mirko Bortolotti pits the #88 WRT Speedstar Audi from second in GT Daytona. Time to get lunch before the motor race is done and dusted. OK, chaps. You all are starting to wax eloquently about soccer again. Can we hold off on the football until after the motor race?, says yours truly with a hearty, raspy chuckle. Meanwhile, the Porsche is in the pit lane for scheduled service.
It's #911. BMW #24 should be in the lane next time by. BMW has indeed been taking the fight to Porsche or vice versa. BMW's race has gone according to plan except for the trouble with the #25 as the #24 is in the lane for service, for fuel and tires as well as a driver change. Phillips says the convergence idea will work out well with the new global platform. But, as we've said, let us see where we are in this race before we start dreaming. Competing at a high level is indeed an intent for BMW. This season has exciting prospects. BMW is in it's third year with the M8 GTE and Phillips says, "oh yes, we know the old girl quite well now", and they do indeed.
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