Corvette #4 is back on track. Darren Turner, in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin leads GTD. GTLM is being led by Earl Bamber as we are under green again as it is a battle between Briscoe and Montoya. Briscoe is pulling a gap on Juan Pablo Montoya as we go back to GTLM. Augusto Farfus vs. Earl Bamber. Farfus is pressing Bamber, and I don't have to tell you, hard. Bamber is trying to defend, and he is opening up a margin over the BMW with Farfus at the wheel. Ryan Briscoe is leading Juan Pablo Montoya by 7/10ths of a second. The battle in GTLM between BMW #25 and Corvette #3 is hot and so is a scrum in GT Daytona as the #74 Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 chases the #63 WeatherTech Scuderia Corsa Ferrari. Scrapping between those two chaps, through the esses. Yikes! That's close racing indeed and we can see the #86 MSR Acura and the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini in the fight as well.
Better late than never, to get the 68th 12 Hours of Sebring in. Porsche struggled all year and then won both Petit Le Mans and the most recent event at Laguna Seca, two weeks ago. Ryan Briscoe leads the motor race, still. The GTLM battle between Porsche and BMW is still hot and heavy. Simon Trummer leads LMP2, sharing with champion Patrick Kelly and Scott Huffaker. Kelly is returning to racing after a serious accident in a road going car. The #8 Tower Motorsports by Starworks car, spun earlier, but they are clawing their way back and are third in class. John Farano at the wheel of it, sharing with Mikkel Jensen and David Heinemier Hanson. The GTLM battle resumes. Farfus wants by Bamber.
Track position is key. Threre was a time when endurance racing was enduring, but now, it is flat out, push, push, push. Pit stop time for the #52 in LMP2. Ryan Briscoe continues to lead the motor race. Sebring, to this day, is still an operating airport. Ryan Briscoe will be a free agent at the end of this race. Where will he go? Will he be in sports cars? Will he be in IndyCars? We have to find out. It sounds like Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque will likely be racing with Wayne Taylor next year, and Chip Ganassi will perhaps come back to the WeatherTech Championship next year.
Earl Bamber continues to lead GTLM and he will join with Team Hardpoint to run with a GT Daytona Porsche. AXR in the pit lane. Felipe Nasr will do another stint after fuel and tires. Cadillac #10, Acura #6, and Cadillac #5 all pit. Simon Pagenaud gets into the Acura. Meantime, Ryan Briscoe stays in the #10 Cadillac. We have seen pit stops for both the #77 Mazda and the #7 Acura. Ryan Briscoe continues to lad the motor race overall, as Bryan Sellers had an unscheduled stop in the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini, with a deflating right rear tire. They changed the tire and got back on the road. Sellers sharing with Madison Snow and Corey Lewis.
Darren Turner in the lane, sharing his #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin with Roman De Angelis and Ian James. Gar Robinson and Lawson Aschenbach have had a good season. Acura #86 is in the lane, Matt McMurry at the wheel of it. They have had trouble with understeer into the corner and oversteer out of the corner. Porsche #911 leading GTLM is in the lane, and now, Earl Bamber will drive the #912 and Fred Makowiecki is now in the #912 car. Ferrari #63 in the lan as well. Jeff Westphal out of the car, and Alessandro Balzan now into the car.
Colton Herta is now at the controls of the #25 BMW, learning lessons from his dad, Bryan Herta, a great driver. Also, Nick Yelloly, he was at his father's 60th birthday party in England and got the call from BMW to come and race at Sebring, so, he went home, packed up, and got a little time on the simulator, and showed up. Rumors are that BMW might downsize to the endurance races. Will Honda allow Colton Herta to be an endurance driver with Acura? You have to make good decisions. Where can I go, and when? Don't just collect checks as a racer. You are determined, as a driver, to win motor races. We hope BMW will be back in IMSA, full-time in 2021.
After this race, the season on the blog is not over. We still have coverage of a few more races. So, stay tuned for those. One or two might be back timed to when they happened, or they will be blogged as extras. Meanwhile, Corvette #3 is in the lane. Colton Hrta is confident. Gabby Chaves and Ryan Norman won the championship in Michelin Pilot Challenge for Bryan Herta Autosport and Hyundai yesterday. You will hear about more Michelin Pilot races too. Meantime, flat tire for the #8 Tower Motorsports by Starworks car who has had a fraught race. Also, we just saw the #57 MSR Acura in the lane with Trent Hindman driving, sharing with Misha Goikhberg and Joey Hand.
Tristan Nunez is second, chasing Ryan Briscoe. Mazda will run one car next year, and Tristan Nunez can only drive for them in the endurance races. Heavy contact for the #51 Inter Europol Oreca LMP2 car. Polish driver Jakub Smiechowski at the controls, sharing with Naveen Rao from the United States and Englishman Matt Bell. It seems like Jakub Smiechowski will be OK. That's good. That was a hard crash. He lost it going into Sunset Bend and backed it into the fence. You get in there, and the weight transfers with a lightening rear end. You are damned if you do and damned if you don't, and end up walloping the wall.
We are under the fourth yellow of the race as DPi cars are allowed to pit. The field will pit soon. Michelin Endurance Cup points will be paid soon, but we won't be back to green in another six minutes, so we don't know how the endurance points will fall, at least at this juncture. The pits are open. #10 stayhs out and everyone else is in. Acura #6, with Simon Pagenaud at the controls, he has driven every iteration of Acura prototype. Felipe Nasr giving way to Pipo Derani it seems as they almost get contact with an LMP2 car. The #10 Cadillac might get the endurance points at four hours.
Another twist in the championship and in this motor race. 33 minutes since the last stop for the #10, and they will need to pit under green. Scott Dixon is ready to go but maybe someone missed the call. We are approaching the end of another racing hour.
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