Stephen Thomas is 53 years old, and he is being assisted by Thomas Merrill, his co-driver, and his driver coach, former sports car driver, Ross Bentley. Corvette #3 is running well. Antonio Garcia sharing with Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg. Renger van der Zande leads the motor race in the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. These Mobil 1 liveries have plenty of heritage, but it is hard to not see a Corvette in yellow. So, the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus is in the lane. Frankie Montecalvo out, and into the car, Robert Megennis. There are some great battles underway right now. The siser Lexus RC F GT3 is now in the lane for Vasser Sullivan. This is the #14 being shared by Aaron Telitz, Jack Hawksworth, and Kyle Kirkwood.
Also in, the #44 Magnus Racing Acura NSX GT3 in the Mach 5 Speed Racer livery. John Potter sharing with Andy Lally, and Spencer Pumpelly, a team that has been together a while now. Not sure which of the three is driving. Meanwhile as we look again at GT Daytona, Lexus battles the Paul Miller Racing #1 Lamborghini. Bryan Sellers sharing with Madison Snow and Corey Lewis. Mathieu Jaminet, Porsche factory driver is now in the #79 WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR-19. Meantime, Jimmie Johnson did lead seven laps earlier. He says he was trying to work through GT traffic and got too wide, losing grip through Sunset Bend. He says the car is still driving great and the #48 team is playing catch up. The grip is down and the wind direction has changed. Simon Pagenaud is fifth overall right now. Jimmie Johnson will get into the csr again this afternoon.
Pipo Derani is back on track in the #31 Whelen Cadillac, but is three laps down. Renger van der Zande continues to lead. Battles ensue all over the track. Right now we watch GT Daytona and the scrap between SunEnergy1 and Hardpoint EBM. Mercedes vs. Porsche. We have not spoken of the driver lineup aboard Porsche #88. This is the car shared by Christina Nielsen, Katherine Legge, and Bia Figueredo, an all female diver lineup. There is a second EBM Porsche as well. Rob Ferriol sharing with Earl Bamber and Trenton Estepp.
Good run for Turner Motorsports in the #96 BMW M6 GT3 with Aidan Read, sharing with Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley. Foley was a high school football player and is now a sports car driver. He had a leg injury at age 14 playing football and baseball. He had a passion for racing, and if he did well in school, he could race and has done so since, so he must have gotten good grades. It's co-driver Vin Barletta's birthday. Barletta raced with Turner Motorsports yesterday in Michelin Pilot Challenge. Mazda are focused on winning, even though they will not be back in the WeatherTech Championship in 2022. They could come back to prototype racing, as LMDh comes to fruition in 2023.
Harry Tincknell is a Multimatic contracted driver. Porsche or Audi could race with Multimatic in LMDh, and we shall see what develops in years down the road. Now then, only 3.7 seconds between Renger van der Zande and Ricky Taylor. Ganassi continues to lead the motor race. Pit stop time too for the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05. It looks like fuel, tires, and a driver change. Pipo Derani is clawing his way back, going around the United Autosports LMP2 car and a spin there, look, for the #33 LMP3 car in the esses. This is the Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier of Joao Barbosa, Yann Clairay, and Lance Willsey.
Now, the #10 Acura is in the lane for service as well. Fuel, tires, and a driver change. We are into hour two of the motor race. Cadillac #01 is in the lane from the lead, and Renger van der Zande hands the car over to Kevin Magnussen. Magnussen is still learning about sports car racing and it is his first time at Sebring ever, other than testing even though his father Jan Magnussen has won this race five times. New leader. Simon Pagenaud now leads the motor race in the #48 Ally Action Express Cadillac. Now, some lead changes as well in LMP2 and LMP3. Ben Keating moves by Stephen Thomas and the two of them are scrapping for sure while Rasmus Lindh leads LMP3 over Oliver Askew.;
Thomas in the pit lane for a scheduled stop. In GT Daytona, Kyle Kirkwood is now driving Lexus #14 and Trent Hindman is now in the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche. Ryan Hardwick, who we have been wondering about after his Daytona crash, he says he shall focus on the sprint races in 2021 and not the endurance events. Renger van der Zande says Pipo Derani thinks he can jump over people and says that Pipo is too wild. Pipo Derani drives on a knife edge. #31 is back to pit lane for service. #48 is in as well. Simon Pagenaud stays in the car and is now back on track. Pagenaud is passed by the Mazdfa and the #5 JDC-Miller Mustang Sampling Cadillac.
#8 is in the pit lane for Tower Motorsports. This is the LMP2 Oreca, again, #8, in the hands of John Farano of Canada, and Frenchmen Gabriel Aubry and Tim Buret. A battle between Ricky Taylor and Kevin Magnussen is clean. Ganassi Racing won overall here at Sebring in 2014 with Memo Rojas, Scott Pruett, and Marino Franchitti. Significant trouble for the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 and they go behind the wall as the #99 Porsche of Rob Ferriol spins and continues. Tim Keene, Action Express team manager says that they had position on the #01 and they feel like they are the bug. The spares inventory at Action Express has a couple more spares, but hopefully they can keep their noses clean.
Meanwhile, in LMP2, the plot thickens, look. The battle rages on between PR1/Mathiasen Motorsport and WIN Autosport. The PR1/Mathiasen #52 Oreca is being shared today by Ben Keating, Scott Huffaker, and Mikkel Jensen, 3/4 of the team that raced it at the Rolex 24 back in January. Again, they are being hotly pursued by the #11 Win Autosport entry. Thomas Merrill at the wheel of it. Jesse Krohn, meanwhile, at the wheel fo the #24 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE, has incident responsibility for running into Rob Ferriol. We will hear from Tom Kristensen and David Hobbs later on. Excited about that. So, as we get back to the race, Tristan Vautier is in jeopardy of going a lap down and into Cunningham Corner, Vautier is making life hard for Ricky Taylor.
He is entitled to fight, but Taylor, as the leader, has no idea why this is happening. Vautier will try to motor away. Deary me. Another cluster of traffic into turn 17. Vautier does go a lap down. Meanwhile, we ride aboard with Kevin Magnussen as he is closing in on Tristan Vautier. Big damage, look, to the #99 Porsche 911 GT3R. This is the second Team Hardpoint EBM car, the Rob Ferriol, Trenton Estepp, Earl Bamber car, with damage on the left front corner of that automobile. That is a serious tire rub as well. The car is headed for pit lane as we speak to sort out the damage.
A driver change is also happening. There could have been a cut down tire on that Porsche for sure. We are ready for another racing hour fairly soon. The sister EBM Hardpoint Porsche with the all female team of Christina Nielsen, Katherine Legge, and Bea Figueredo, are running well. So, Ricky Taylor leads Kevin Magnussen, Dane Cameron, and Jonathan Bomarito. The first two hours of this motor race has seen a lot of drama. Simon Pagenaud has the wheel of the #48 and Jonathan Bomarito in the #55 Mazda. All seven DPi cars are within a few seconds. Simon Pagenaud in the #48 Cadillac has the fastest lap of the motor race at 1:46.5. #48 has seven or so laps more of fuel than most of the other DPi automobiles.
Pipo Derani moves around the #23 Aston Martin of Ian James that made contact with the Cadillac earlier. More scrapping, look, in GT Daytona as Kyle Kirkwood is under pressure from Trent Hindman and poor old John Potter has just not had the speed in the Magnus Racing Acura NSX GT3.
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