Nick Tandy to third place as Dennis Lind pits the Lamborghini. This is an unscheduled pit stop. Eddie Cheever III. is second in the #93 Ferrari, and third, is Thierry Boutsen, running the Boutsen Ginion Racing team. Boutsen's son is running the team. Thierry Boutsen raced in Formula 1 for a number of years, and sports cars as well. We have a Bentley, the #3 car, going off the road. Jordan Pepper is tenth in the overall right now. He was at the end of the Kemmel straight. Frederic Vervisch pits and now, Raffaele Marciello and Nick Tandy battle for the lead. Matteo Cairoli also has the Dinamic Porsche in the pit lane, car #54, the first of the two Dinamic Porsche's. Matthieu Jaminet is running well in inth spot, actually passing Jordan Pepper and moving to eighth place.
Maro Engel and Dennis Olsen for HRT and Frikadelli respectively. Lamborghini #63 came in off sequence to pit lane. Is Dennis Lind still in the car? Yes. He was there before as well. They may have been going for a driver change. Can't be too sure. When you stop more times than your rivals, you tend to fall like a stone down the order. Race Control checking on an incident between the Emil Frey Lamborghini and the Tech 1 Lexus. Albert Costa, Giacomo Altoe, and Franck Perera driving, and Altoe at the controls now. Where is the Tech 1 Lexus? Not sure. Timothe Buret is a couple laps down it appears. Argy bargy, look, between Jordan Pepper and Matthieu Jaminet.
Stay on the gray stuff and don't hit things, like walls. We are seeing a lot of shuffling. Jordan Pepper is njust thundering over the curbs while the body language of the car is looking good even though the other cars like the Ferrari's are more svelte. Daniel Serra is next up. Miguel Molina runs ninth as Raffaele Marciello leads Nick Tandy, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and Kevin Estre I believe. Daniel Serra is into the pit lane. Valentin Hasse-Clot is back on track, but was in the garage. He has entered the pits another time as Giacomo Altoe runs tenth in the Emil Frey Lamborghini, a team that ran Jaguar's for a number of years in GT3 and GT World Challenge Europe.
Ferrari vs. Lamborghini is a real scrap at the moment and we have a driver change for the #159 Aston Martin, James Pull taking over. Fred Vervisch is also charging, and those two are right ahead of Dennis Lind. Miguel Molina and Giacomo Altoe are pushing. Lots of passes happening right now. K-PAX is moving their way up the order. When you start from the pit lane, the back, or even the middle of the grid, it is a long haul. The drivers just have to finish the race after having their car rebuilt. Eddie Cheever III. is fending off the challenge of Sandy Mitchell. This is the battle for the Pro Am class. Kevin Estre in the pit lane.
Audi #66 serves a stop and go penalty. KCMG Porsche in the garage. They have a problem. Something is wrong. Kevin Estre is not happy. He is slumped in the car. Is this a brake change? He seems to be OK actually, not flustered. The door is open, or is coming off. It is a suspension change, the upright is being changed. It is not planned. They have a brake change going on, but also, the hub is busted. It is game over for the sister car. That's the #21 Josh Burdon, Edoardo Liberati, Alexandre Imperatori car. Game over.
Raffaele Marciello pits from the lead as we ride aboard with Eddie Cheever III. through Pouhon and through the curves. Marciello is still the fastest driver. Nick Tandy in the #98 Rowe Racing Porsche is in the lane for service from second. Raffaele Marciello also in the lane and so is Alessandro Pier Guidi, plus Jules Gounon in the #3 Bentley. Rear tires are fresh and the front tires are scrubbed on the #98 Porsche. The lead changes we have seen and will continue to see are gripping and fun to watch, but it is no indication for what we will see tomorrow.
Kevin Estre has sunk to 25th place. Not good. Sandy Mitchell is gaining on the Ferrari ahead. Eddie Cheever III. and Sandy Mitchell battle for Pro Am honors. The Ferrari is still in front. Barwell lead Silver with Fred Schandorff, and their second car is second in class. Team boss Mark Lemmer must be really happy. Mitchell dives for the pit lane. Jonny Adam is third in class in Pro Am. Jens Klingman is fourth in the Boutsen Ginion BMW. Barwell in the lane in the #77 car. This is Sandy Mitchell. The teams can use six tear off strips on the windscreen. It gives you clear vision for a short while. But they can get scratched or oiled down, fairly easily. Also, there are chunks of rubber from tires, that look like bugs on the front of a road car.
The top contenders are running really well. It is damp in the air but the cars are handling well. Estre has dropped to 33rd overall but sets a green sector, best sector time. Oliver Wilkinson in the lane with the McLarenh. Lind leads Marchiello, Vervisch, Tandy, Calado, Pittard, Cairoli, Engel, Makowiecki, and Jules Gounon, now in the #3 K-PAX Bentley. So many leaves are being sucked up and spat into the air. Sparks from the brake calipers can also be seen in this video game of lights in the night at Spa. Matty Campbell is 1.3 seconds behind the Bentley, not Romain Dumas like we first thought. Matt Campbell is 1.3 some odd seconds back.
You have to be nailed, flat to the floor, from Campus through Stavelot. If you aren't fast, you are giving away time. That's just how it is. A bit of a lift through Eau Rouge. But he was on it, Jules Gounon. Wow! Eau Rouge is a stunning corner. Just stunning, and in a Bentley! Jeepers! Mario Farnbacher is now in the #29 Honda NSX GT3 on fresh Pirelli tires. The track is dry. It is not damp. Nick Tandy is chasing Frederic Vervisch for third place. Calado is closer to Tandy than Tandy is to Vervisch. Nick Tandy raced at Road Atlanta at Petit Le Mans in IMSA last weekend. David Pittard pits the #35 Walkenhorst BMW from seventh spot.
Timothe Buret has handed the #15 Silver class Lexus RC F GT3 to Thomas Neubauer. The brakes on these cars are the size of dinner plates, and you need all that stopping power. Meantime, Truly, this race is really just 24 one hour sprint races. We are almost at 1:00 A.M. on Sunday morning in Belgium, 6:00 P.M. Central Time in the United States. Dennis Lind leads the motor race. Drive through penalty for the #159 Aston Martin for causing a collision with car #918. #918 and Mikkel Joos has been in the garage forever. James Pull has taken over the car. That incident was forever ago. Ancient history by now. Jeepers. Drive through penalty for the #66 Audi for speeding in the pit lane. 60 kilometers an hour is so slow. He came screaming into the lane. He came in, stopped, and drove away.
Eddie Cheever III. pits from the Pro Am lead, putting him back on schedule with the other Pro Am drivers. Sandy Mitchell pitted three or so laps back. Mitchell will catch Cheever III. Stay on the gray stuff, don't hit things, and don't incur penalties. That's how you stay competitive in a 24 hour race. Fred Vervisch completes his penalty. So, right now, we see Tandy and Calado, battling for third spot. Don't speed in the pit lane! Come on! Hold the limiter button down. Lind leads Marciello, Tandy, Calado, and Cairoli, the top five. Engel, Makowiecki, Gounon, Campbell, and Molina.
Don't panic. Just run the race. Grind it out. The compression through Eau Rouge. It's unreal. It's pressing the air out of your lungs as you are bolted into the seat. Each car handles differently. These guys run GTE class cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship, which are a tad more complex, but the GT3 cars are awesome machines just the same. Tandy went a shade quicker than Calado, but both are pressing really hard. Lamborghini #63, the leader, moves around the Lexus, putting it a lap down. Another lap down or so it seems. The Lexus is fourth in Silver with Thomas Neubauer, dchasing Lucas Legeret in the AKKA ASP #89 Mercedes AMG GT3. Dennis Lind leads over Raffaele Marciello, gaining and losing time. The gap is opening up.
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