20 years ago, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his dad, Dale Earnhardt, shared a Chevrolet Corvette C-5-R with Kelly Collins and Andy Pilgrim. Some great memories of an incredible motor race that year. Mike Conway in the #31 Whelen Cadillac. Chase Elliott says he is not running up to the level he wants for some reason. Yours truly was eating dinner. In the time that was happening, we saw Robert Megennis go off the road in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 he is sharing with Zach Veach, Townsend Bell, and Frankie Montecalvo. #31 was in the pit lane for repairs with the air intake getting stuffed up and the splitter being damaged on the front of the automobile. We saw pit stops as well for others. The race has not failed to deliver. We see that Connor De Philippi ran off the road and is now back in the saddle.
Indy Dontje continuedinues to lead the motor race in GT Daytona while Nick Tandy has the GTLM lead. Tristan Vautier has handed off the #5 Mustang Sampling JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac to four-time IndyCar Champion Sebastien Bourdais. Cadillac and Dallara have assisted JDC-Miller with more work on the car. We have not seen a real performance advantage on the Cadillac's, with a long way to go. In the lane, now, the #48 Ally Bank Action Express Cadillac with Mike Rockenfeller at the controls. New, scrubbed tires are onto the car, and this set of tires has been scrubbed to get the release agent off of it. Double and triple stinting scrubbed tires is going to be key for the overnight hours. They will do as many double stints on tires as possible tonight before we see single stints tomorrow morning towards the checkered flag.
Cadillac #01 for Chip Ganassi Racing is in the pit lane for service as well. Kevin Magnussen was in the lead of the motor race, for a wee while. Also, as we hear from J.R. Hildebrand in the #42 GT Daytona Audi R8 for NTE Sport, just had his car in the pit lane. Not sure which of the other three drivers are in the car right now, whether its Alan Metni, Andrew Davis, or Don Yount. Now, we have also seen pit stop time for the #10 Acura ARX-05. Not sure who is in that car. Actually, yes, we do know. Ricky Taylor is at the wheel of it right now in the lead of the motor race.
We've not spoken of the LMP3 cars lately. Spencer Pigot leads George Kurtz, Yann Clairay, and Laurents Hoerr right now. Corvette in the pit lane with the #4 car. Nick Tandy in the lane and he's back on track. Don Yount is in the #42 car. J.R. Hildebrand is not only a racing driver but is an adjunct professor at Stanford University in Automotive Technology. Helio Castroneves is now in the #10 Acura and he had a tire problem in the pit lane. Going into the night, there's repetition of the stints. To finish first you must first finish. It's a dang cliché. But it's absolutely true.
You have to survive during the night for the daylight to come back. Only twice in the past 17 years has the polesitter won the Rolex 24. Kyle Petty, Ken Schrader, Bill Elliott, and Ricky Rudd, drove a Ford Mustang in GTO at the Rolex 24 in 1986 for Jack Roush. Pace, pace, pace. Matteo Cressoni and Roman De Angelis have been scrapping quite a bit in GT Daytona. Sebastien Bourdais leads the motor race. DPi cars are high downforce and they are very similar to open wheel cars even though they are heavy.
The front brakes do more work than the rear brakes on a prototype, a Daytona Prototype International. Sebastien Bourdais continues to lead by 7/10ths of a second over Scott Dixon in the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. The lead battle is between Bourdais and Dixon. Bourdais is not giving into the pressure. Ed Jones in the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari has to move aside. Jones sharing with Bret Curtis, Ryan Briscoe, and Marcos Gomes. The #5 car had corner exit speed while the #31 had corner entry speed. Very good on the brakes. The same is true for the #01 Cadillac. It is how you come off the brake pedal and how stiff the front end of the car is.
In GT Daytona, as the prototype cars sweep by, Russell Ward leads over Charlie Eastwood, Klaus Bachler, and Andrea Caldarelli. Winward Mercedes vs. TF Sport Aston Martin, Wright Motorsports Porsche and also the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini. There was a LMP3 car moving in as well but Eastwood slams the door in his face and takes the GTD lead. The GTD and LMP3 cars are within a couple miles an hour. 177 for GTD and 180 for LMP3. GT Daytona cars have antilock brakes. Four Full Course Yellows in the opening two hours and we've been clean and green for the most part since.
Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon are rekindling their old IndyCar battles. Daytona International Speedway is a very special place. Formula 1 is a very cutthroat evnrionment and so is sports car racing to an extent. But maybe not as much. Meanwhile, Bachler and Eastwood are pressing each other. Russell Ward is now running his second stint in this car. Philip Ellis and Maro Engel are also in this car. Winward has won other national Pro Am 24 hour races. The GTD drivers are really having to keep on the lookout. It is so hard, with the closing rates between the prototypes and the GT Daytona cars.
It is so mentally taxing for these drivers to do what they do. We are soon to come to the end of another racing hour. A small number of fans have been allowed to see this race at the speedway. Will Turner and his team cooked a chicken in a two and a half hour race and ate it afterwards. In theory you could cook a meal in a race car, but I don't know if you'd like to do something that wild. Meantime, speaking of cooking, Scott Dixon is right on Sebastien Bourdais's gearbox. To the outside, look, Scott Dixon is moving in for the lead. Who is braver on the brakes? Dixon tries the over/under and he can't do it. Dixon has to give it up.
The cars are at a level where you can drive hard and brake at 100%. Stay off the curbs in the Bus Stop, but push it hard, otherwise. We see two of the best blokes who do road racing in the business. They play the game at a very high level, as the #5 is in the lane. Sebastien Bourdais will do a double stint. They are in and out, done and dusted. Take care of the equipment. That's what you want to do. If you are double stinting tires, don't smoke them. Cold tires you do need to get the mold release off. But wheelspin is hard on the motor and the transmission, the drivetrain of the car.
When do the tires come in or stay in? They need to built temperature and pressure.
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