The diversity of the championship with tracks they run on in IMSA, suits some cars in some places and other cars in other places at other tracks. It's about strategy, too, according to Piers Philips. Philips is the President of BMW Racing Operations. He makes sure the engineers are doing their jobs. He was at Seat, the Spanish automaker for a while. The BMW is being challenged again by the Porsche and the Porsche has made the pass through turn six up onto the banking. Earl Bamber was taking absolutely no prisoners there.; BMW is still fighti9ng. Jesse Krohn is going to have to push, push, push to catch Earl Bamber, and Krohn will drag it back into the tri oval. Jesse Krohn knows exactly where he can put the car.
We are inside two hours left in the motor race. Bamber knew he had to get the pass accomplished before the tires get up to pressure and temperature. We have an hour and 55 minutes to go now. Jordan Taylor, Nick Tandy, and James Calado are next in the order in GT Le Mans. The other cars are good to go to the end of the motor race, we think. They will need two more stops. In GTD, as the Corvette/Porsche battle rages for fourth in GTLM, the leading car is Marco Mapelli in the #44 Lamborghini who has made a pass on Andrea Caldarelli who was in the lane for scheduled pit work. Mirko Bortolotti is third in class in Audi #88. Nick Tandy is all over Nicky Catsburg like the proverbial el cheapo suito here for the final step on the GTLM podium!
Tandy looks inside and then outside, squaring the corner off through the kink. Tandy goes inside through the International Horseshoe, he moves past the Corvette, as Loic Duval moves through in the #5 JDC-Miller Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R. Now, we have a report from the stewards that the #62 Ferrari is being penalized. The wheels were moving while on the air jacks. That'll be a drive through penalty and ruin their race in GTLM as they won't be able to keep up with the Porsche's, the Corvette, and the BMW. The #54 Black Swan Porsche was on the lead lap but will lose that lap after their pit stop, followed by Jens Klingman driving the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW and then comes Alessandro Balzan in the #63 Scuderia Corsa WeatherTech Ferrari.
We're inside the final two hours, into the 23rd and 24th hour. This motor race is still a belter indeed. Earl Bamber is pushing, and now, Nick Tandy is right there as well as we watch Marco Mapelli and Andrea Caldarelli scrapping with each other. They are half a second apart, having run 703 laps (2,503 miles). Caldarelli is nose to tail with Mapelli. Identical cars, nose to tail, no more than a foot apart into the tri oval. This is fabulous! They are well ahead of Mirko Bortolotti in the Audi. Felipe Nasr, for Action Express is being interviewed on IMSA Radio. Again, yours truly has followed this team the whole race, and it has been an up and down race.
There will be more discussion, in a later post, about the weekend for the #31 car. Nasr explains that the race didn't go the way they wanted. The gearbox has been suspect all night. They lost second gear, driving in third gear through the infield. He says, "I feel sorry for the guys, our other drivers, and our mechanics. But that's racing, and we'll get another opportunity soon." Nasr continues, "the race is not over. I will get back in the car and give it my best. I'd love to win this race. That's the aim in the future. The car has some damage to it. It's handling fine, but it can't be perfect. The #10 car has the pace all day long. Hats off to them. But, I feel like we all did well, but the car gave up."
The #31 Cadillac is four laps behind the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac. You drive as hard as you can, but there are no places or points to gain unless someone else has a problem and you don't want to wish ill upon your competitors. Racing karma, if there is such a thing, does not work that way. It's not like a movie where there is a hero and a villain. Meantime, GTD is still rumbling on with the two Lamborghini's and speaking of rumbling, out of NASCAR turns three and four, it's Porsche vs. BMW in GTLM who have been rivals for a long, long time. It's Munich vs. Stuttgart. Remember what I said about not wishing ill on your rivals. You don't. But, you sure want to push them hard and let them know you aren't going to take it sitting down and that you will fight them, cleanly of course.
The BMW closes in on the Porsche and of course, the sister Porsche is still having its hands full with the #3 Corvette. The Lamborghini scrap continues as well. This is wonderful motor racing. We've smashed the record for green flag racing at 280 consecutive laps and almost eight hours. Two years ago, the lap distance record was set in this race, by an Action Express Cadillac, when they won, and ran 808 laps in total. But, fast forward, and it looks like we're going to blow that previous record into outer space. Get out the space blaster and press the button, and let the laser do it's thing, and obliterate the lap record.
We're going to make a huge inroad into the record books. This era has seen things where not a lot of mechanical things break. Bish bash bosh. It's right there in your face. You can see it on your television. Yours truly is seeing it right in front of my eyes as I am perched atop the observation deck between turns one and two here at Daytona International Speedway, soaking in the last part of this motor race. We're 772 laps into this motor race, with a predicted distance of 831 laps. Kamui Kobayashi leads by 31 seconds. James Calado has served his drive through penaltyand just barely stayed on the lead lap for Risi Competizione. They will be back for Sebring.
Lamborghini rumble. It's round two. In the blue corner, Magnus Racing with Flexi Box, and in the red corner, Paul Miller Racing. The battle is on for GTD glory. Andrea Caldarelli nearly has the outside line out of the west horseshoe and into turn six as they turn onto the high banks. Kamui Kobayashi leads Tristan Nunez by 30 seconds, 772 laps, 2,748 miles done and dusted so far. Loic Duval is third followed by Acura and Mazda. Cadillac, Mazda, Cadillac, Acura, Mazda, Cadillac, as Juan Piedrahita is sixth in the #85 JDC-Miller "Banana Boat" Cadillac, while leading in LMP2 it is the #81 DragonSpeed USA Oreca in the hands of Harrison Newey.
He is 1:48 ahead of Gabriel Aubry in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca. Those two cars have been battling back and forth with a couple niggles, but nothing serious. In the meantime, in GTD, in the battle of the Lamborghini's Marco Mapelli is managing to stay ahead of Andrea Caldarelli. Sounds like an Italian race to me. Furthering that Italian flair is Mirko Bortolotti in the #88 WRT Speedstar Audi, a former Lamborghini driver. Klaus Bachler and Jeroen Bleekemolen are next in line in GT Daytona, both driving Porsche's. Let's savor these battles with less than 100 minutes left in the race.
Earl Bamber and Jesse Krohn continue their ding dong battle in GTLM. Ooh! Argy bargy into the International Horseshoe, and the race leading #10 Cadillac gets bottled up in this fracas at least for a wee while. Tristan Nunez has a ringside seat, and speaking of a ringside seat, it's time again for the Lamborghini vs. Lamborghini ten round knockout boxing match. It's the bull fight. But no. We are not in Spain. We are at Daytona International Speedway. There is no matador. It is two bulls, mano e mano. It's two Lamborghini Huracan GT3's for different teams with two equally capable Italian drivers behind the wheel.
Mapelli goes ahead of Caldarelli into the Bus Stop. Corvette #3 meanwhile makes a pit stop. Jordan Taylor will be able to get to the end of the motor race with just one more pit stop needed. The #912 Porsche and #24 BMW are tied together as well and will need two more pit stops. The #77 Mazda will drop to third on the pit exchange as the #5 Cadillac goes ahead, Loic Duval, trying to reel in Kamui Kobayashi. Kobayashi is so quick, that Duval will have to try everything and anything he knows to get by the Japanese master driver, who races with Toyota regularly in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Loic Duval stays out a lap longer than does Tristan Nunez as the Lamborghini tussle continues. They've been team mates at Lamborghini for a long time and now Mirko Bortolotti is in an Audi rather than a Lamborghini. Marco Mapelli was an endurance champion last year in a different championship, in the SRO series that races exclusively with GT3 cars and has their own endurance events. Andrea Caldarelli too, has run in various championships including Super GT. Mapelli has a lap record in a Lamborghini around the Nurburgring Nordschleife. It's the penultimate stop for the Flexi Box Lamborghini.
This has to be a clean stop. Fuel in the tank. Tires changed. Marco Mapelli stays in the automobile and will take the car to the end of th motor race as the coooling system steams soaking up the heat and now, he screams out of the lane and back into the motor race. The windscreen was getting pretty pitted and pretty grimy and so the crew takes a tear off layer off the windscreen. Meanwhile, the #5 Mustang Sampling JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac is also into the pit lane. Colton Herta ceded his position on track to Marco Mapelli. The #10 race leading Cadillac makes a pit stop as well for tires and fuel and no driver change. It's a standard stop. Clean the windscreen and change the tires, and add fuel. No worries. He's back on track.
Kamui Kobayashi might commit himself to one extra stop before the end of the race. Wayne Taylor believes his team has a little bit of an advantage headed for the finish of this race. Taylor says, "I have to agree with the strategists." That said, strategy will change if there is another yellow. Who will go the longest? The final stint will be as long as possible. Team bosses, usually, are open and honest when interviewed about what they are doing, while others might just play their cards closer to their chests. An hour and a half to go. We might bank on a yellow in the last 90 minutes. GTLM is still really close as the Porsche 911 RSR-19 wants to win on debut while the BMW M8 GTE is coming to the end of it's development after it was withdrawn from the FIA WEC with Team MTEK who oversaw it's exploits there.
BMW wants to go out on a high note. However, Porsche, the new car, made it's debut in the FIA WEC towards the end of last year and they are working on doing the same in their IMSA debut, but they have the BMW to contend with. The BMW is a very tough nut for the Porsche to crack. Mazda #55 is in the lane for fuel and tires but no driver change and they are back on track. Into the lane as well, the GT Daytona leader, the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Andrea Caldarelli stays at the wheel of the car. Mirko Bortolotti takes over the GTD lead. Who won the race on pit road between the Lamborghini's?
Bortolotti is in the lead of the race in GTD. The #16 Porsche in fourth spot is still in it and the #54 Black Swan Porsche as well as the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari will be back on the lead lap as well. We've also just witnessed another pit stop for the #911 Porsche 911 RSR-19. That was a quick, clean stop for the #911 for 22 seconds on the air jacks and back down and gone. All of the GTD cars are going to have to take one more stop and likewise for the GTLM machines. More scrapping between the #912 and #24. If there's a yellow now, the pit lane would be closed. There is a gap between Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli and now, Caldarelli has 13 seconds in hand and we see a tire issue for the #62 Ferrari out of the Bus Stop, the Risi Competizione car in GTLM with James Calado at the wheel fo it, and he's had a right rear tire go bang, big style into the chicane. The lining of the wheel arch is against the SAFER barrier.
We may see a Full Course Yellow, and there's a slippery surface flag too. Maybe there will be a Full Course Yellow but we don't know yet. Risi Competizione is changing the right rear tire as it was totally on the deck after losing the carcass of the tire and there's big damage to the right rear corner as well as the inner part of the fender, and the suspension system. It's a tricky job, cutting through steel bands from the tires, wrapped around the rear suspension and the brake discs. The car will be in the lane for a while while the #63 Scuderia Corsa GTD example is also in the lane. We watch the battle continue to unfold in GTLM between the Porschen and the Corvette as they blast past the #11 GRT Grasser Lamborghini, Steijn Schothorst, the Dutchman, at the wheel of it.
Jesse Krohn is catching the Corvette as well as the Risi Competizione team goes to work. The BMW has prodigious power while the Porsche can deal with the traffic. We watch the race leader, Kamui Kobayashi, working his way throughy the GT traffic, slipping up the inside through the left hand kink. Meanwhile, more work going on with the #62 car. They have also lost parts off the rear diffuser and the engine is overheating in the Ferrari as well. James Calado getting out of the car. It could be game over for the #62 car. They have 12 laps over the #25 BMW M8 GTE. A sterling job to get the car back. Calado says that there's a lot of damage to the car and there's no sense to keep going on risking everytuing going flat out on pace. It's better to just throw in the towel for the Rolex 24 and go on to the next race.
C'est la vie. They will be back for the next race at Sebring. We continue watching the GTLM battle and the Porsche comes to the pit lane. The #14 Lexus RC F GT3 is also in the lane for what is presumably the next to last, or last pit stop. Earl Bamber is in the lane with the #912 Porsche for new slick tires and a clean of the windscreen as well as a fuel load as he guns the engine and screches out of the pit lane. Regardless of what teams are up to, Balance of Performance is there. Forget sandbagging. The Ferrari had an advantage, trimmed it, and then they just haven't had the edge. They had the edge at Petit Le Mans at the end of last year, but not here at the Rolex 24.
Risi Competizione will be at Sebring in March. The Balance of Performance for Daytona is different from everywhere else IMSA races. The Sebring BoP has no bearing in what they have here. The #24 BMW has stayed out for an extra lap and will need less fuel than does the Porsche. The Porsche is out on stone cold tires. Will the #24 car backtime and do a short run one stint from the end? The Porsche may or may not be on sequence. Will they do a splash late on? The Corvette has done that and the Porsche's are actually separated. The BMW will have to come in soon. How long will it stay out?
The #81 and #52 cars in LMP2 are 1-2. Harrison Newey leads by a lap or so, to the second place LMP2 car, the PR1/Mathiasen car. Newey leads by three minutes as the #88 Audi is in the lane from the lead in GTD. It is on the opposite pit stop sequence compared to the other GT Daytona cars. An hour and ten minutes to go. No driver change and the car will not be in the class lead. They will need a splash and a dash if they don't want to do a mega fuel save with the amount of time still on the clock. Lamborghini #44 went into the lane earlier than the #48 car. Andrea Caldarelli leads Marco Mapelli by 11.6 seconds. Caldarelli's car was short-filled. Mirko Bortolotti is third followed by Klaus Bachler. The #24 GTLM BMW is in the lane, but was balked by the #18 Era Motorsports LMP2 car coming out of it's pit box. The #24 checked up, stopped, and stalled. But now, they are back into the race.
You can hear the tires squeal but barely hear the motor. This is the penultimate stop for the #24 and will need a splash and a dash. The #911 Porsche has leapfrogged the sister car and where is the BMW? He's out front and on cold tires and then, the Porsche just blows past it! Nick Tandy in #911 sneaks through into the GTLM class lead, ahead of Jesse Krohn and Earl Bamber. The BMW has been shattered in terms of maybe wanting to win this race in GTLM because of the pit stop kerfuffle. No tire warmers in IMSA and the tires take a lap and a half to warm them through driving. That's old school and the way racing should be. Harrison Newey is back on track after a pit stop and he is still ahead of the #52 car, second in class.
#911 will need more fuel than #912 for the final pit stop. Meanwhile, Kamui Kobayashi leads by half a minute over the #77 Mazda, splitting the two Cadillac's with Loic Duval third. Four laps behind now is the #6 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi with Juan Pablo Montoya at the wheel of it. We have just over an hour to go in the race, and the last hour of the 58th running of the Rolex 24 is coming up, shortly. Don't touch that dial. You'll want to stay with us right until the climax, the conclusion of this fascinating motor race. Trust me. I am perched atop the fan deck and just soaking this in. It's absolutely fantastic! Ben Hanley has taken over the #81 DragonSpeed car from Harrison Newey. He is just ahead by two minutes over the #52 car in the hands of Gabriel Aubry. That is the DragonSpeed Oreca, the white car, with the blue stripes and the stars, and blue dorsal fin with Flex Box (or as yours truly has referred to it, Flexi Box), emblazoned on it as sponsorship.
Flex Box is a company that handles shipping and storage and makes containers for such applications. It is also referred to in computer software, but that is a whole other system and company. The DragonSpeed car is sponsored by the shipping and storage concern. Maybe you need a Flex Box that is big enough to transport your race car from one event to the next, chaps. Ben Hanley will take the car to the end of the motor race as the BMW is being hounded by the Porsche in GTLM. Nick Tandy leads by 6.9 seconds but poor old Jesse Krohn is being hounded by the sister Porsche of Earl Bamber. The Porsche is more diminuitive in size, but unbelievably, it weighs 60 kilograms more than the BMW. 1,220 kilograms for the BMW. 1,280 kilograms for the Porsche. 2.2 pounds in a kilogram, and you can do the division math to work out the poundage of those automobiles.
Porsche were given ten extra kilograms after the Roar Before the 24. Kamui Kobayashi leads by 35 seconds over Oliver Jarvis. Loic Duval in the #5 JDC-Miller Mustang Sampling Cadillac is back in third place, and a minute covers the top three. Juan Pablo Montoya comes next and then comes Ryan Hunter-Reay in the #55 Mazda limping to the finish. The same could very well be said for Mattheus Leist, Felipe Nasr, and Helio Castroneves towards the rear of the DPi field, as they are working on finishing the motor race after all of them have had fraught races to this point. Ryan Hunter-Reay is ten seconds off the pace at 1:47 with the lack of turbo boost.
Mirko Bortolotti is third in GT Daytona and has been train lengthed by the two Lamborghini's which in turn are 12 seconds apart. Mirko Bortolotti is being closed upon by Klaus Bachler aboard the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche. We were speaking of Flex Box and what they do with their storage and shipping container systems, well, the #44 GRT Magnus car also has their sponsorship, and so you'd need two different teams to have two separate Flex Boxes to transport their cars from race to race. Mazda #77 is in the lane for it's penultimate pit stop. Oliver Jarvis is getting a new drinks bottle and apparently, one of the other drivers will take that car to the end, which is just an hour away.
Four new Michelin tires, and a windshield teart off is off the car. We are ticking down to the end of the 23rd hour of motor racing. It is... say it loudly and proudly... done and dusted! One more racing hour to go before we decide winners of the 58th Rolex 24, and that final racing hour gets underway, next!
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