Dennis Lind is catching Raffaele Marciello, hand over fist. Marciello had someone spin in front of him, as the rain is beginning to pick up. Niederhauser needs a medal, and we will call him, "Mr. Excitement", the nickname, borrowed from NASCAR and former driver, Jimmy Spencer. Meanwhile, Nico Scholl pits Audi #55. Marciello wants by Dennis Lind. No dice. The Italian needs to pass the Dane. Niederhauser is crushing it right now as well, look. Marciello has to earn the right to lead the motor race. At Eau Rouge, Raffaele Marciello is six kolometers an hour faster than anyone else. Six to twelve, actually. Those speeds in Eau Rouge are the single quickest time, not times for every consecutive lap. Dennis Lind wants to stick like glue to the Mercedes. He can't get too close. 258 kilometers an hour through Blanchimont! Unbelievable!
Lind wants a bite of the cherry here. He really does. But if he makes a rash move, he'll get the pit and not the fruit itself. This scrum will allow Thomas Preining to move in. Mercedes, Lamborghini, Porsche, Audi in the top four. Christopher Mies in the lane for service. The second round of pit stops has begun. They are on a different strategy from everyone else. 52 laps, 226 miles into the race. Patrick Niederhauser continues in fourth. Yours truly has been spelling his name wrong. It does not have a K on the end. Dennis Lind and Christopher Mies have pitted. Harder to tell who is where as it is twilight, and night is ahead. A long, long, cold night. The #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes is still running superbly, Raffaele Marciello is going very well right now, despite the fact that he can make audacious moves on the track.
Marciello in the lane, from the lead. 53 laps on the board. The weather is changing. The wind is blowing, and we could have an Irish rain here, according to Mr. John Watson in the commentary box. This time inbetween daylight and darkness is horrid on the eyes and horrid for the teams. There's moisture in the pit lane on both sides. Benjamin Hites has done his stint in the sister #89 AKKA ASP Mercedes as well. Rowe Racing has one of their Porsche's in the lane. Marco Mapelli has taken over the #63 Lamborghini for Orange 1 FFF Racing. #88 is getting sticker Pirelli tires and fuel. He is down off the air jacks, and is back on track. He has a long way to go down. Mapelli just passed him by.
Marco Mapelli is in the lead. Fred Vervisch takes over from Patrick Niederhauser and either Romain Dumas or Louis Deletraz has taken over the #40 GPX Porsche. Luca Stolz is now in the #4 Mercedes as well. New drivers and fresh tires on a slick track, they have to be careful. The gap is 2.9 seconds between the cars. Kamui Kobayashi has taken the lead over Dorian Boccolacci. Dries Vanthoor is also in the #31 Audi, taking over from Christopher Mies. Fred Vervisch is in the #66 Attempto Audi. Raffaele Marciello, fastest of all. Fresh tires make the difference.
Marco Mapelli is going to have his hands full with Raffaele Marciello, soon. Romain Dumas and Dries Vanthoor are flying and Kevin Estre is chasing Matt Campbell. This is GPX vs KCMG. Watch the track limits. If you don't, you are certifiably nuts. Campbell is fending off the challenge from Kevin Estre into Pouhon. Matt Campbell has to give it up, has to concede. Kevin Estre walks through that door as easy as you please after Campbell had a bear trying to get the power down. Race Director Alain Adam says that we have a wet track, and now, it is getting darker. We have light rain. It's not tipping down, but it's drizzling.
Marciello is trying to come back as Lamborghini leads the motor race. We are getting to the magical time of night where the lights pick up the hues of the paint schemes. Someone goes wide at Pouhon, not sure who it was who had an off course excursion. Matt Campbell is still chasing the other GPX car. Campbell wants by Estre. Track limits penalty for Lexus #15. Pushing, pushing really hard. Romain Dumas is being caught. Kevin Estre is bish bash boshing it at the moment. Estre makes the pass, successfully. Fred Vervisch was a sitting duck there. James Calado in one of the AF Corse Ferrari's, he's pushing as well. Calado, sharing with Nicklas Nielsen, and Alessandro Pier Guidi.
Vervisch loses a place to one of the Porsche's. It is getting wetter. James Calado wriggles his wayn through. The track is wet at the lowest point. Rain is in the picture. Lucas Mauron in one of the Lamborghini's gets a tad sideways. The rain is starting to fall in the Bus Stop. This is a whole new ballgame. Everyone will have to get wet tires soon. We've surely got rain. Benjamin Goethe scores yet another track limits penalty for that forlorn #33 Audi. James Calado makes his move 'round the outside of the Porsche, almost three and a half hours into the motor race. Calado, the Briton, is a man on a mission.
Someone is coming to pit lane. Not sure who. It is the #26 Pierre Yves Paque driven Am Audi. Wet tires going on, and for good reason. They ducked in early. It's a play. Will it be successful? We will see, as the JP Motorsport is off the road. Jens Liebhauser has spun, and he is high sided at Campus corner right beyond Curve Paul Frere. He tries to reverse back across the track, and thankfully, he will be OK, continuing. Full Course Yellow. Nope. Green flag. Let's go racing, boys. Boogity, boogity, boogity! No race interruptions there.
Marciello is catching the leader. Look at the rain! Unbelievable! Change to wets. The Mad Panda team is changing tires and refueling. The race has been turned on it's ear, not even four hours in yet. The rainfall on the road is significant. Rain at Eau Rouge. 100% humidity as well. We can still see a dry line at Eau Rouge, but barely. Tiptoe. Do everything gently. Marco Mapelli is sandwiched between two Mercedes' and one is the team AKKA ASP Mercedes. Mapelli makes it stick into the Bus Stop. It was the sister AKKA ASP car to Raffaele Marciello. The gap is shrinking once more.
Mercedes #74 for Ram Racing is in the lane and headed back on the road. Day turns to evening turns to night at Spa. Pit lane speed limit violation for car #84, under investigation. Up to sixth spot, Louis Machiels, the Belgian, car #52, the second AF Corse Ferrari. Track limits penalty for the #84 HTP Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3. That's the Dontje/Ward/Ellis car. Ram Racing, the car we saw earlier, is in Pro Am, shared by four drivers. Hang on, there's some contact between Mapelli and Marciello in the battle for the lead. Was there some argy bargy there?
"The Heart of Darkness", a Joseph Conrad novel, is an appropriate title and description of where we are in this motorn race. Night, at Spa, is now. Marciello is getting his final track limits warning. He can't go too far or he will get a penalty. He was on a cruise a couple hours ago, but now, he has to push. Final warning up over Raidillon after Eau Rouge. Anyhow, the #74 car we mentioned earlier, that Ram Racing Mercedes, is Tom Onslow-Cole, Callum MacLeod, Remon Vos, and Martin Konrad. Meantime, the battle is between Calado, Stolz, and Vanthoor. Laurens Vanthoor, has been picked off by one of the other Porsche's.
Drive-through penalty for ther #111 Mercedes. Now, the rainm m,ay have blown through at this point. Is it starting to dry up again? Can you see anythiung? There's rain at Eau Rouge, but it is dry in other places. You get localized rain at Spa, and other parts are bone dry. No different than tracks like the Nurburgring Nordschleife as well as Le Mans. Raidillon is another place on the road where track limits will be enforced. It's really greasy there, mate, over the curbs. Mapelli and Marciello are in a race of their own just barely three hours into this motor race.
Alex MacDowall and Frank Bird are keeping Gabriele Piana honest in Pro Am. Bentley have been having a torrid meeting here at Spa so far. Long, long time left. But Bentley have been having a bear of a time so far. Audi #26 back in for slick tires. Something wrong with the rattle gun, or a cross threaded wheel nut. Dear me. That's cruel! Stop and go penalty for the #488 Rinaldi Ferrari for a refueling issue. That's the car that Daniel Keilwitz had trouble with earlier. Keilwitz, sharing with Pierre Ehret, Rino Mastronardi, and David Perel.
Kevin Estre is slowly catching Raffaele Marciello. In the Rinaldi car, two German's, an Italian, and a South African. Barwell Motorsports and Herberth are running well. Barwell has the #78 Lamborghini Fred Schandorff of Germany, Alex MacDowall of England, and Patrick Kujala from Finland. Kevin Estre is pushing, pushing, pushing right now. He has moved by Laurens Vanthoor. He flies past the Garage 59 Aston Martin. Estre is 12 seconds, ten second, behind Marciello. Yikes. He's flying. The gap is dropping quick. Lamborghini, Mercedes, and Porsche will be welded together, very soon. The sheer amount of light from these headlights is unreal.
2:18s are the best laps we've seen, but everyone is down in the 2:22, 2:23 bracket. Kevin Estre closes on Raffaele Marciello. Mapelli is doing everything right. Robert Renauer has crashed out of 42nd spot. He's crashed in Pouhon, but continues. More rain at Pouhon. He spins, and boom, into the wall. Watch the suspenion, watch the radiators which are vulnerable to a frontal impact, and be careful if you are a Porsche pilot. Robert Renauer, Altfrid Renauer, Daniel Allemann, and Ralph Bohn, sharing the car, who do a lot of 24 hour races, especially in Creventic, a different series.
Hiroshi Hamaguchi had a major crash a while ago. He may be parked and that car may be out. But we don't know yet. Drive through penalty for speeding in the lane for the #84 HTP Mercedes. That's an odd image of some scaffolding or grandstands next to the track. Eerie with the gray background. Poor old Phill Ellis spun earlier. That's a camera shadow through Raidillon it looks like. A creative art shot. Seven and a half seconds between second and third. The KCMG Porsche is flying. Nick Yelloly in sixteenth spot, is 16th with the sister Walkenhorst car of Nicky Catsburg higher up. Bentley #9 dinged for track limits. That's the Andy Soucek, Alvaro Parente, Rodrigo Baptista car.
Everyone is being caught out by the conditions. Marco Mapelli's lead is just barely ahead of Raffaele Marciello. Marciello can catch him. He can use his natural pace. Kevin Estre is still back there, too. Marciello will have his hands full with the Porsche. Audi #30 is going to pit soon. Dennis Marschall, Matthieu Vaxiviere, and Ferdinand Habsburg in that car. A German, an Austrian, and a Frenchman. Hour three is now going to be done and dusted. Don't worry about other cars around you. Run your race for the time being. Long way to go.
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