15 hours remain in this race. Kevi Estre leads, as the #66 Audi Sport Team Attempto Audi R8 LMS is in the lane. Mattia Drudi is in the car. We have not had too many changes up front. Lap times are flattening out just a smidgen. It is great that is dry weather. Sometimes at Spa Francorchamps, people are drenched, absolutely soaked, in the summertime. Nick Tandy is now 17 seconds in-arrears of the leader, and Maro Engel is in the pit lane for service. Rafaelle Marciello leads. But we have the Nick Tandy and James Calado battle, continuing, Porsche vs. Ferrari. Nick Yelloly in 13th has taken over the #35 Walkenhorst BMW M6 GT3. Dennis Lind says the team tried double stinting the tires and they seem to be working right. He enjoys the conditions as they change even if there's drizzle out there. It is a shame to have no fans. You could smell the bonfires burning. Let us hope that fans can come back to Spa, next year. No fans, no barbecues etc. We've seen it at Le Mans and Nurburgring as well.
You miss the atmosphere, the fun fair, the concerts, the food vendors and barbecues, those are not here this year due to the pandemic. Let us hope this pandemic is licked by next year so we can have fans back at these wonderful races. Meantime, the gap is between 7/10ths and 1.1 seconds between the front runners. Alex Macdowall leads Gabriele Piana by three laps in the Pro Am class, if I am right. Drive through penalty for Bentley #108, pit stop infringement of some kind. Clement Mateu in the #108 Bentley can't be a happy camper. The final car moving on the road in 46th place is the #87 AKKA ASP Mercedes, driven by World Cup soccer champion, Fabien Barthez. Holy cow!
Barthez was a team owner up to last year, and is now just a driver. But, he is a soccer player turned racing driver. Wow. Pro Am has the battle going still, brewing, between Mitchell and Cheever. Avoid the sausage curbs at the Bus Stop. Be really careful of those things. 14 and a half hours left on the board. A long, long way to go. James Calado continues chasing Nick Tandy. They are still only 1.2 seconds apart. Traffic could still be a factor. You have two guaranteed race winners in cars they know intimately, driving the dang wheels off of them. Leading in Am, it's Christophe Lenz, Michael Petit, Stefano Constantini, and Lucas Ayrton Mauron, which sees two Frenchmen, a Belgian, and an Italian.
Mercedes #88 in the lane. Romain Dumas, James Calado, Nick Tandy, and others, are in the lane now. So is the Kevin Estre Porsche? Well, they are on the same strategy. Pit stop infringement for the #107 CMR Bentley. Pierre Alexander Jean of France, Nelson Panciatici of France, and Seb (Sebastian) Morris, of England, are sharing #107. Laurens Vanthoor is now behind the leading Mercedes now in the hands of Raffaele Marciello, I believe. Jules Gounon is fourth in Bentley #3. Nick Yelloly passes Tom Blomqvist. Mario Farnbacher has been leading and he will pit now. Jonny Adam stops from third in Pro Am in the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin. James Calado is still in the AF Corse Ferrari. Matt Campbell stays aboard the #12 GPX Porsche. Fred Makowiecki stays in the Frikadelli Porsche.
Romain Dumas is out of the #40, having handed that GPX Porsche to Louis Deletraz. The pit stop cycles continue. Romain Dumas is really happy, even with the noise in the pit lane. Romain Dumas says the car has a few issues but is loving the race. Race leader in the pits, and we have rain. Mario Farnbacher in the lane and so is the #11 Team Parker Bentley, Frank Bird at the controls, no relation to Sam Bird who races for Ferrari in FIA WEC. There are no M-Sport factory Bentley's, of course, their final race was the win at Bathurst back in February.
Michel Petit leads in the Am class as Laurens Vanthoor is running with a clean windshield in fourth spot right now. Laurens Vanthoor, is making that flat six Porsche sing, through the Bus Stop and back onto another lap. BamTanThoor, is the new hashtag. It isn't just BamThoor anymore. Nick Tandy seems content with where he is right now, running fourth alongside Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber. Jules Gounon, in the Bentley, is running well, too. He is a BoP track test driver for SRO as well. SRO created GT3 and GT4, and these aren't FIA created categories. The grid has had 26 or more cars within a second of each other, and this formula works, it works really well. It is also "relatively" affordable, and awesomely competitive.
Ooh! There's contact as Ricardo Feller spins in the Bus Stop in the Lamborghini for Emil Frey Racing. That is what you call a "bat before ball" situation. Sheesh. Felipe Fraga still leads this motor race. He still has a massive strip of rubber, of tire debris, on the windscreen. He is about to lap Sergey Sirotkin, for a second time. The Mercedes is not even quickest at Blanchimont. It goes faster out of La Source to Eau Rouge, but coughs and sputters on a less steep climb. Maybe it is because Fraga is in traffic. That's the obvious reason. We are nose to tail in a 24 hour race. Unbelievable. Fraga does not lift into Eau Rouge as the bottom of the car clatters over the bumps. Fraga gets chopped by this lapped Ferrari in it's ownh race with someone else.
Marco Mapelli is closing on Felipe Fraga. Matty Campbell has spun at Piff Paff. He's rejoined as well but hasn't lost a spot. He runs ahead of Fred Makowiecki. Frikadelli has great experienc in 24 hour races, especially at the Nurburgring Nordschleife. The Honda is about three seconds faster than the leader, believe it or not. The blokes that are not holding the leader up while running their own races, are to be credited. This is great, and it is all in the dry. Eddie Cheever III. pits from 20th spot. He is back in the Pro Am lead over Ricky Collard and Alex MacDowall in the two Barwell Lamborghini's. Both of them are touring car drivers.
Jules Gounon in the Bentley has the fastest lap at 2:19 and change. What a great race. We are an hour away from the halfway mark, with confusion with clocks. Don't ask. This is going to be a bear.
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