Final two hours of the season. So, the #77 Mazda of Olivier Pla has just exstended his lead. GTLM pit stops for Porsche and the #912 Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor, Neel Jani car. The Mazda is very fast although the suspension compliance is really a bugaboo on that car. The Mazda is the most stiffly sprung DPi car. The Acura's and the Cadillac's are far more compliant over these bumps. It grabs the race track with the bumps. Olivier Pla is still leading overall. Alessandro Balzan and Patrick Long have passed Matt McMurry, but, McMurry and company don't have to win the race. They could win the championship on a tie breaker. Farnbacher and McMurry still lead GTD points.
The #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche is in the lane, and Jan Heylen is going to take the car to the end of the motor race. They don't have to win, but they might just go for it, trying to run down the #63 WeatherTech Ferrari. The championship has swung back in the favor of the #7 Acura. Helio Castroneves is finished with Team Penske after this race is over. They are up by one over Wayne Taylor Racing, and Action Express remains third. Porsche has to muster up pace to push to catch the BMW. Renger van der Zande is going to finish the race for the #10 Cadillac, going for a championship, replacing Scott Dixon in the car.
They are five laps down, and just push the car for the love of driving the thing. An hour and 40 minutes to go. Anything can happen. BMW #24 has another pit stop. Krohn/Edwards/Farfus had troubles earlier going through a brake change. MSR makes a pit stop and Mario Farnbacher looks like he will finish this race. Matt McMurry, he won an LMP2 championship in 2019. Now, he is looking for a GTD title and is an engineer for Honda. Mario Farnbacher back on track. Bruno Spengler has another pit stop now and Connor De Philippi, I believe, has gotten back into the automobile for the finish. We have just over an hour and a half to run in the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Cadillac #31 is in the lane for service. There's been a lot of pushing and shoving between drivers in this race, because of the prestige of this motor race, championships, and drivers who are looking for drives for the 2021 season. We have seen a pit stop for the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari. Ah. What else has been happening? Not too much at this late stage. Drivers and teams are just trying to get to the finish and we do have champions to crown yet this evening. Let's take a ride to the checkered flag. In DPi and GTD, we are still going to see where things are.
Olivier Pla has been a spectacular driver this evening. He is suited to high downforce sports cars. He did well as a Ford factory driver in Europe with Chip Ganassi. But, he is even more suited to a DPi, a prototype car. Dave Price, who has run very well in open wheel and sports car racing, Pla raced Ryan Briscoe, Robert Kubica, and Nico Rosberg in Formula 3. Pla was touted to be wildly fast. David Price said that Pla was going to be a hot shoe and he sure was. Still is. Helio Castroneves, in his final run for Team Penske, Ricky Taylor gets into the car. An hour and a half left on the board.
Penske won four out of five races in rcent time. Their #7 car has recovered quite a bit. They are potential championship winners. But there is still an hour and 27 minutes remaining. This race was delayed some 34 weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The motor racing community has lost Jim Pace, a winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring and the Rolex 24, in 1996. He was headed for being a doctor but wanted to race. He was from Monticello, Mississippi. He shared a podium with his brother Will, at the Rolex 24. Jim Pace, passes away, from the Coronavirus, at age 59. Jim, pal, we will miss you. Rest In Peace.
Mazda #77 is in the pit lane. Olivier Pla and Jonathan Bomarito run 1-2 for Mazda with an hour and 20 minutes left. The #77 car had a full service. Oliver Jarvis is going to finish this race. The #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac has pitted, and Sebastien Bourdais is now in the car, replacing Loic Duval before the end of the race. Mazda #55 is in the lane now, and Harry Tincknell will finish the race replacing Jonathan Bomarito. The manufacturer's battle in DPi is going to be between Acura and Cadillac. So much pressure on drivers who come in as third wheels for the teams in these endurance races.
Pipo Derani is not ready to speak about this incident yet that he was involved in with Juan Pablo Montoya. Juan Pablo Montoya is surprised because they wer saving fuel and knew the #31 car was there, and he blames Pipo Derani for being impatient. Montoya says that he is not sure which part of the car was affected, but they still have a good amount of speed. Montoya is philosophical. Lawson Aschenbach has passed Alessandro Balzan, and the #5 Cadillac is back in the lane to fix a flat tire and replace bodywork after damage with a Porsche.
JDC-Miller Motorsports had been running third, after contact with a Porsche. An hour and six minutes to go as the #10 Cadillac of Renger van der Zande pits for tires and fuel, one point behind the #7 Acura. A tap as Sebastien Bourdais made the move from turns 14-16 and he gets biffed by Earl Bamber who thought Bourdais was going to mash the gas, and he didn't, so, contact. One hour and five minutes to go, and the two championships left to be won are separated by a single point. Audi #30 in the lane for a driver change, which could be their final driver change of the evennt here at Sebring, and likely will be.
Mazda #55 is chasing Cadillac #10. We have seen battles in the GTD class as well especially between Acura and Ferrari.
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