Many teams needed a yellow, but Tristan Nunez's woes continue. The engine cover and rear attenuator come off as they are looking for a black box. An Engine Control Unit. A Gearbox Control Unit. A sensor. They are two laps down. Filipe Albuquerque continues to lead. Tristan Nunez was a star at Mazda when they ran two cars in the DPi class in the past. Compartmentalize the issues. The electrical woes continue for the #11 car. All of the LMP2 cars are virtually identical. Oreca chassis' and Gibson engines built in England. Pit lane is closed. IMSA will open the pits when it is safe. The accumulation of marbles, tire clag, is going to be hard to deal with as the tires get cold under these Full Course Yellow periods, and the rolled up rubber is all over the road. It is a major clag fest out there as Jimmie Johnson found out the hard way earlier on.
Harry Tincknell is back into the #55 Mazda. Jonathan Bomarito had his knee caught on the steering wheel of the car during the driver change. This tweaked his knee, and maybe he banged it on the wheel exiting the car. Pits open for DPi cars. #01, #60, #55, and #10. Fuel and tires for #01. Fuel and tires also for the #60 machine. Simon Pagenaud and Tristan Vautier stay out. Alexander Rossi will be the next driver into the #10 Acura. Bodywork repair, or a ride height adjustment is going on on the #60 MSR Acura. This is the Cameron/Montoya/Pla entry. They are using a pair of Vise Grip pliers or something to fix that automobile. Juan Pablo Montoya is into the car.
Simon Pagenaud now leads the motor race as we have begun the fourth hour. More woe for Tristan Nunez and the #11 Win Autosport team in LMP2. They need an electronic component from the paddock. Pit stop time now for GT Daytona. Lars Kern out, Laurens Vanthoor in, in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche. Jan Heylen will get into the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche, he will start his second stint. For Vasser Sullivan, they are doing a driver change, tires, fuel, and a brake change. An early opportunity for a front brake pad change, is a good idea to get ahead of the game. These two cars will go to the back of the queue as the mechanics are synchronizing the pads into the calipers. We are under the safety car, so, if nothing goes wrong on the pad change, the Lexus boys will be in the pound seats.
Corvette #4 in the lane with Nick Tandy at the controls. They had a misfire earlier and are still trying to figure that out. The misfire has not gone away on the silver Corvette for the 25th anniversary of Mobil 1 providing lubricants for Corvette. Can Nick Tandy beat the safety car? Yes. The two Lexus' have also made it back on track and beat the safety car to avoid going a lap down. If the timing on a brake change is wrong, one side pushes the calipers back, and if the other side isn't set, the calipers get pushed through. It is one fluid motion with the pry bars and the mechanics have to look at each other spot on to coordinate it.
Both Action Express cars stay out. We are ready for a restart. Simon Pagenaud leads and maybe the #31 can get back on the lead lap. Harry Tincknell for Mazda second, and for third, Filipe Albuquerque. Nasr moving in on Tristan Vautier in the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac. Vautier locks up in the hairpin. More hot and heavy battles, look, in GTLM. Corvette vs. BMW vs. Porsche. Bruno Spengler vs. Jordan Taylor in the #3 Corvette C8.R. The DPi scrap continues and is still as hot as ever.
Simon Pagenaud has grown his margin and run a 1:49 dead. Nasr at 1:50.5. Two GT Daytona cars have just crashed! Oh dear! The #28 Alegra Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 of Billy Johnson and Franck Perera have clobbered the wall, pushing the tire wall and the concrete barrier back. That is at the exit of turn three before The Carousel. Jeepers creepers! We need a replay for this. That concrete barrier has definitely been moved. Billy Johnson is OK. But, is the car drivable? He has the engine running. Franck Perera is out of the Lamborghini and just fine as the crowd cheers. He must be favoring a leg or a foot or something.
In replay, we can see, oh my, Perera had brake failure. He was angling the Lamborghini to try making the corner and the antilock brakes failed or something. Ouch! Was that a stuck throttle? Billy Johnson had absolutely no clue that was going to happen. Jeepers creepers! The barriers are still beoing moved and so are the tires. Yours truly took a short break to have a bite to eat. We remain under yellow. Now, in crashes, you have to collapse into the moment. Don't tense up. Stay loose, move your hands away from the wheel, but let yourself go. Don't tense up too much in bracing yourself because you will hurt yourself. Be careful. You know you are fine, but if you've had the wind knocked out of you, that's scary.
Just a tad over eight hours left on the board. We have not gone to the red flag. We have stayed under Full Course Yellow after the Billy Johnson, Franck Perera incident. We are back to green and Simon Pagenaud is in the lead holding off Harry Tincknell in the Mazda. Tristan Vautier and Felipe Nasr are still laps down. Pagenaud is pulling away. Filipe Albuquerque is being monstered by Scott Dixon. Shades of the Rolex 24 back in January. A little contact between Earl Bamber and Jan Heylen. Heylen and Ferriol are being pressed by the #1 Paul Miller Racing Lambirghini, and oh dear! Corey Lewis and Earl Bamber have made contract in Sunset Bend, just before the corner. Straight to the pit lane for Corey Lewis.
Lewis spins and gets a good ke-thunk to the right rear by the Porsche, the #99 of Bamber. Bamber has right front damage and that #99 has been the cork in the bottle all day. Both of these blokes are in strife indeed. Pit stop time for Simon Pagenaud in the #48 Ally Bank Cadillac. The yellow flags are cycling the strategy. Now, a driver change, and they came up six minutes short on points for the Endurance Cup as Kamui Kobayashi are back. Billy Johnson and Franck Perera are both OK. Perera says he did have a brake failure and he couldn't get brake input from the pedal as it went right to the floor. Perera has his first crash of his career.
Billy Johnson says he is bummed for the Alegra Motorsports Mercedes team. He was at the apex, and crashed into the Lamborghini. Two strong podium worthy cars. Franck Perera is the only racer I know who hasn't crashed until now in a 25 year career! Holy moly! The most recent Full Course Yellow lasted for 28 minutes. We watch Matt Campbell in the Porsche 911 RSR-19, the 4.2 liter flat six howling as he makes his way around the track. The technical variety of the cars in IMSA is amazing. The Porsche is a great driving car and is easy on the eyes, too. The LMP3 car is getting monstered by Campbell. That is the #7 car, for Forty7 Motorsports being driven by Austin McCusker.
Earl Bamber and company will go back to the garage. What an eventful race so far as we have another racing hour coming up. Meyer Shank Racing now run second behind the #55 Mazda of Harry Tincknell.
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