Strategy is the focus. We are watching Christopher Haase. Audi had trouble here last year and this year, they are a tad behind the eight ball, but they have a huge number of star drivers. A stellar, stellar driver team. Christopher Haase is closing in on Sheldon van der Linde. The curbs and the race track surface are dry. Mario Farnbacher also continues to push very, very hard. Sheldon van der Linde, running very hard. Haase is driving perfectly through the corners. He is not overrunning the curbs at all. Matt Campbell is eating slowly but consistently into the gap held by Christopher Haase. Honda leads BMW. Audi in third place. Looking across the countryside, back to Johannesburg, and we might have more rain coming. Will it be a spritz? Or will it be more? Saul Hack is driving the #9 Perfect Circle Porsche. Andre Bezeudenhout, says that we just have to hold on and wait for the deluge. Have your boots ready, says Andre. It's really quiet. There's no wind. The barometer has dropped.
Saul Hack is being chased by Mirko Bortolotti. It's the amateur, Perfect Circle Porsche vs. the professional Audi Sport Team WRT car. Sheldon van der Linde is closing up on Mario Farnbacher, and fast. The top three have now all concertinaed into a formation of sorts. These three cars are extended to their limits without being in overdrive. Christopher Haase is really pushing. There will be more pit stops coming in the not too distant future here. Seb Morris does as well, and we see David Pittard and Mirko Bortolotti in, and the Honda has also made a pit stop for Bertrand Baguette getting in the car, replacing Mario Farnbacher on the pit exhcange. It is nip and tuck between the Audi and the BMW and the BMW moves by.
That was fortuitous for BMW. Patric Niederhauser in for a second stint into the #44 Audi. Pit stop time as well for Matt Campbell, the GPX Porsche, #12. Patrick Pilet will be in that car. Laurens Vanthoor stays at the wheel of the #54 Dinamic Motorsports Porsche which has also just pitted. Pilet has to stay ahead of the #44 Audi of Niederhauser, and he does. Niederhauser has to pounce now. Into Sunset, Niederhauser is stymied, and Patrick Pilet consolidates his spot through Sunset and Clubhouse as well through Leeukop. Niederhauser is still pushing down the hill into the Crocodiles. No dice . Niederhauser is right on Pilet's six, look.
This is a mega sized battle. The Honda still leads. Bertrand Baguette now driving and Baguette leads by quite a few seconds. Charles Weerts, Nick Yelloly, Alex Buncombe, Saul Hack, and Markus Winkelhock, round out the top ten. Niederhauser really, really has the pace. We might see more bad weather. It is still possible, without a doubt. Maybe some rain on one part of the circuit while other sections remain dry. Braking down into turn two, climbing through the sweep, Patric Niederhauser losing ground to Patrick Pilet. 109 laps, 311 miles. Sheldon van der Linde says BMW is having some brake issues, but they are running well in the #34 car for Walkenhorst Motorsports.
Maybe the rain might just come back. Sheldon van der Linde is counting on more rain coming before this motor race is done and dusted. There are no mega high speed areas of the course here at Kyalami. Meantime, Niederhauser is pushing Patrick Pilet but he might find that discretion is the better part of valor. Niederhauser tries to get a tow. Not quite. They are losing ground relative to the top two. Bertrand Baguette first, Nicky Catsburg, second, in his first stint at the controls of the #34 Walkenhorst BMW.
The next pit stops are estimated to be in 45 minutes. We don't have published stint times for a race like the Kyalami 9 Hours because of the odd numbered duration. Bertrand Baguette has a 4.8 second lead now over Nicky Catsburg. This has been a great race so far and the #7 Bentley, very sadly, is still the only car retired from the motor race. Patrick Pilet continues to run in third spot. Patrick Niederhauser is still fourth. Amazingly, Honda has continued to be absolutely metronomic in their performance thus far. Laurens Vatnhoor is chasing the Audi, I believe. Check that. It is Earl Bamber in the #54 Dinamic Motorsports car. It is warm out there, but with less humidity. In the old days, you had manual synchromesh gearboxes.
More dust on the road. Ah yes. Earl Bamber is indeed in the #54 Porsche. More overrunning out of the corner as Nicky Catsburg is thrashing the BMW at the moment. Nicky Catsburg has won the 8 Hours of Indianapolis, the 24 Hours of Spa, and the Nurburgring 24 Hours. But today, he is fighting that BMW M6 GT3 indeed. The pace is dropping. Catsburg was a master driving the BMW Z4 GT3 as well, for Marc VDS Racing, several years ago. Porsche #12, with crude math, they could win the championship at the end of this motor race. GPX could be champions by a single point. Porsche #12 is whittling its way up the order. The Porsche is a 50+ year old design. Patric Niederhauser is coming and so is Earl Bamber.
Baguette leads, but is not as quick as Pilet, Niederhauser, or the others. 118 laps on the board, 336 miles. The weather is changing again. Humid, no wind, clouds. The track temps are coming up. Temperatures are increasing very slightly. The humidity is there and there's no wind, as we heard from Andre Bezuidenhout earlier. Patrick Niederhauser, again, is like a little terrier. He is GT3 racing's version of Scrappy Doo, Scooby Doo's little brother. Bamber wants to get the pace back. The Dinamic Porsche is pushing. Niederhauser is trying his hardest to catch Patrick Pilet in the Porsche.
Bertrand Baguette leads by six and a half seconds. Baguette can race his own pace and maybe, so can everyone else, in this portion of the motor race as we are going to be at half distance before you know it, or the halfway mark in terms of time I should say. Patrick Pilet is not quite being caught by Patrick Niederhauser, although the Patrick and Patrick show has been quite entertaining, don't you think? Niederhauser is bish bash boshing it right now, but through The Crocodile, he is still pressing hard and is right on Pilet's tail. Niederhauser wants to make the move.
Earl Bamber is still not as quick as these two. Patric Niederhauser closes up under braking through Crowthorne. Pilet ran wide onto the dirt. Up the hill and through Leeukop they go. It's horses for courses, or rather, parts of the circuit suit the Porsche and other sections suit the Audi. These cars are so amazingly evenly matched. Bamber has clear road ahead of him. He is pushing, pushing, pushing, but is the car willing? Nicky Catsburg too, is being warned about track limits, moving between the Mine Shaft and The Crocodile. We are ten minutes shy of the end of the fourth hour of the motor race.
The halfway mark is fast approaching. Meantime, Jaminet/Pilet/Campbell are currently a point ahead of Farnbacher/Van der Zande. They have to hope the #12 slides down the race order. The teamwork for Team Honda Racing, has been incredible. Keep out of trouble. Stay on the lead lap. The final hour of the motor race is the key. You have to be in contention. Who knows what will come. Rain? Lightning? Last year, we saw loads of all of that. Nicky Catsburg is dropping into the clutches of Patrick Pilet. A queue of cars is forming up behind Pilet or so it seems. Nicky Catsburg is seven and a half seconds behind the leading Honda.
It's like chiseling a sculpture piece by piece, and a bad image if you like, of a yappy little terrier doing sculpture. Oh boy. If fans were here, you'd have some really nice Italian cooking to try for lunch. Saul Hack brings the Lechner Perfect Circle Porsche into the lane for service. Niederhauser is chiseling his way into Pilet's space on the road. Nick Yelloly is being monstered by Markus Winkelhock. However, Winkelhock is two laps down. It was three laps down earlier on in the race. Look after your Pirelli P Zero tires. Current thinking from the locals is that it will stay dry. Maybe we won't have any rain. We have five hours left on the board.
Dropping through the Mine Shaft, it is still Pilet vs. Niederhauser. Poor old Patrick Niederhauser is just not having the best time trying to move around the GPX Porsche. Andre Bezuidenhout stays clear of the leaders.
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