Porsche #92 back to the pit lane. They have had a tough old time of it, and they had their woes with power steering earlier on. There was a penalty for Fred Makowiecki in the #91 Porsche. United Autosport #32 is in the lane for service. The same has been true for the #22, in the lane for service. The highs and lows of this race are amazing. It is an emotional rollercoaster. Dominique Bastien, the oldest driver ever to start at 74 years old born in Dunkirk in 1945. Mark Patterson, the 68 year old American, born in 1952, in the #33 High Class Racing LMP2 car. Jota #38 is in the pit box. Another slow zone. Henri Pescarolo is a legend, and a humble, caring person. He ran Le Mans 33 times and won four of them.
He is not here, of course, due to the Coronavirus, but a lovely man. Red Fiver Sport in the lane as we have an ionterview with Richard Dean from United Autosport. Pit stop time in GTE Am for one of the Ferrari's. That is a replay of the #62 car. Richard Dean is from Yorkshire, England, and they've won five of the last six races they've entered for the European Le Mans Series and for the World Endurance Championship. They've acquired Strakka Racing as well, based at the Silverstone circuit near Yorkshire. There's lots of damage to Red River Sport's Ferrari with a bent up door that won't open before they can fix it and they need the illuminated number panel.
We've gone green as the door is off of the Red River Ferrari. Again, more than a dozen manufacturers are interested in the new LMDh IMSA formula that is supposed to be affordable. We hope this is true. They are based around chassis' for Dallara, Multimatic, Oreca, and Ligier, with a Williams hybrid system, a spec hybrid motor on the rear wheels from Bosch, and a spec XTrac gearbox, keeping the undertray the same but developing their own bodies just as IMSA has now in DPi with Cadillac, Acura, and Honda. The LMDh cars can come to Le Mans and the Hypercars will be allowed to come to Daytona. 12 manufacturers. That's amazing!
In the 1980s, during Group C, there were seven manufacturers at the time. A dozen would be amazing. Let's hope it works. John Doonan will be a busy boy. The future of sports car racing is really, really bright. Red River Sport arew back oin track with damage. There are some holes to be filled in with LMDh and Hypercar. The specification has been announced. The manufacturers can firm up plans. The battle for the lead in LM GTE Am is between Paul Dalla Lana and Jonny Adam. This is Am vs. Pro and Jonny Adam might just prevail into Indianapolis. He does it. He makes it stick.
These two lead the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche in the hands of Ricardo Pera. Maxime Martin is closing in on Alessandro Pier Guidi. Aston Martin #98 is in the lane for service and will be exiting back on track soon. No wheel spinning allowed. No Ari Vatanen rallying antics. Drivers are deliberately cutting the first chicane at Dunlop. Cool Racing are enjoying their first Le Mans. Antonin Borga is battling Ben Hanley. It is the #27 DragonSpeed car vs. the Cool Racing car, the #42. Ben Hanley raced at the Indianapolis 500 last month. Toyota #8, Kazuki Nakajima, leading Norman Nato and Louis Deletraz in Rebellion's #1 and #3. Jose Maria Lopez is fourth, six laps down to the leaders after the turbo replacement.
LMP2 are climbing the leaderboard. Could we see an LMP2 car on the podium? United Autosport is running in lockstep. Then comes the Jota #38 Oreca of Antonio Felix Da Costa. In GTE Pro it's Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 Ferrari, 3.3 seconds ahead of Maxime Martin in the #97 Aston Martin, with Nikki Thiim next in Aston Martin #95. Richard Lietz has moved the #91 Porsche to fourth in class ahead of the Risi Competizione #82 Ferrari, with Sebastien Bourdais driving. The leading GTE Am car is next up. That's Jonny Adam in the #90 TF Sport Aston Martin.
Egidio Perfetti is next, the candy maker owns it, and drives with Larry ten Voorde and Matteo Cairoli. Then comes the #83 AF Corse Ferrari driven by Francois Perrodo at the moment. A number of good LMP2 cars have retired from this race. Correction. The Jackie Chan car was disqualified. It was not retired, but it was disqualified. The driver accepted a part when he broke down, from a mechanic and the team manager got a tongue lashing from the stewards. Juan Pablo Montoya, going for the triple crown, he won't get it. He's won Indianapolis twice at the 500. He will have to come back another time and race.
There is a car possibly back in the garage, the #21 DragonSpeed car, which could be out of the race. Juan Pablo Montoya and company could be out, with Timothe Buret and Memo Rojas. Battle for the GTE Pro lead as Aston Martin #97 ekes an advantage out on the #51 AF Corse Ferrari. Aston Martin have their turbo boost back after they got pinged from last year. Poor old Pier Guidi is really wide at Karting. Porsche are being really stymied by the air restrictors. Le Mans is so, so different to anything else. Spa Francorchamps is close but it is not the same. Shanghai has a long straight but there's nothing like Le Mans. G-Drive is in the lane. So is one of the other Porsche's.
Porsche just haven't been able to step up where Aston Martin and Ferrari, as it was for Aston Martin last year. Every team is sandbagging. Rebellion #1 pits. This race is worth double points in the championship. Toyota #7 in the lane. Mazda was the first Japanese company to win Le Mans in 1991, and in the next week after they won, they sold $2 billion worth of cars. So many battles to follow. This has been a whale of a race to write about. Filipe Albuquerque has the wheel of the #22 United Autosport car. United Autosport #32 is in the lane. So is the #22 car. United Autosport is stacking their pit stops.
Antonio Felix Da Costa brings the Jota Sport car in for a pit stop. The winning cars in the museum usually aren't cleaned. You realize that the filth on them means they've been through the ringer. We go back onboard with the #22 of Filipe Albuquerque. Filipe Albuquerque leads his team mate, Job van Uitert. Job van Uitert moves inside in the first chicane. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. The #31 Panis car is in the pit lane and back out again. Job van Uitert needs to put some daylight (OK, darkness) between himself and Albuquerque. Ferrari #83 is in the lane. The #50 Richard Mille Racing Team just pitted their Oreca LMP2 car.
Pit workgoing on, too for Rebellion #3. Filipe Albuquerque has oil on the windscreen of the #22. Everyone was expecting this would be a wet race, but it hasn't been so far. The temperature in pit lane has dropped. The pit crews are still at it. We haven't seen "zombie land" just yet. Another spot of bother for Red River Sport and Charlie Hollings. It is the right rear tire. Aston Martin pits again. We still need to talk about the proper provisonal WEC calendar that is truncated due to the virus. We have to see what happens. Right now there's a test at Sebring for March 13th and 14th, and the 1,000 Miles of Sebring, March 19th, and the 12 Hours of Sebring. A real sports car weekend.
We shall see. Then there's a gap until we go to Spa in Belgium for the 6 Hours, following that, will be Le Mans on June 12th and 13, followed by a new race, at Monza in Italy on July 18th. We have not seen a race at Monza for a long, long time. Then comes Fuji in Japan for the 6 Hours and the conclusion, November 20th at Bahrain.
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