In comes the sister Sainteloc Racing Audi in the Silver Cup class as well. This is car #27, Lucas Legeret of Switzerland at the controls. The car is getting a scrubbed set of Pirelli P Zero slick tires. The car is in good shape. There’s smearing on the paint but that is to be expected and Legeret is in gear and down and away. Ryuchiro Tomita hands the #31 WRT Audi to one of his co-drivers as the car is refueled and away. So, it is either Valdemar Eriksen or Frank Bird now in the car. Ah. Frank Bird now at the wheel of it. #51 will head for the lane soon. Will the Iron Lynx entry block one of their fellow Ferrari’s? The #93 Sky Tempesta Racing machine is in the lane for service just behind where Iron Lynx are pitted on the downhill side, so in the endurance/heritage pit lane.
Alessandro Pier Guidi has just gained four seconds in one lap. Charles Weerts and Marco Sorensen are both losing time to the Ferrari through traffic. Come Ledogar and Nicklas Nielsen have both done incredibly well and now, Alesandro Pier Guidi hits the pit lane with a 4.2 second advantage and that team, Ledogar/Nielsen/Pier Guidi, have earned points for the championship too. Driver change, tire change, fuel. So, Come Ledogar will take over and Charles Weerts is in the lane in Audi #32 for WRT as well, look. Lamborghini #63 is running well but they have a drive through penalty in their future.
Marco Sorensen has the #95 Garage 59 Aston Martin, but they are headed for the garage to do their technical pit stop/brake change. Take your medicine. This is standard procedure. Although the sister #188 Aston Martin with Chris Goodwin at the controls, took a long, long time to do their tech stop and are now buried way down in 46th place. The #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes is also in the lane for service and for a driver change. Jules Gounon brought the car in from fourth place. So, it is either Raffaele Marciello or Dani Juncadella getting into the car. My guess is it is Marciello who will take it over. We watch the mechanics at work on Aston Martin #95. There’s clumps and chunks of rubber caught in the bodywork.
They clean the windscreen, and the car is hot, extremely hot, all over the place. The mechanics are checking for play in the hub, the wheel bearing. Into the lane now, too, is the #66 Audi Sport Team Attempto Audi in the lane. Christopher Mies has done his stint and he will hand over to one of his co-drivers, brakes steaming away. The two drivers give each other a pep talk as the Aston Martin is back on track. Some teams have chosen scrubbed tires and others have fresh, new boots on the car. Where will Nikki Thiim rejoin? Mattia Drudi has finished his stint. Christopher Mies, I think is in the car. There’s steam coming out the top of the helmet through his balaclava. It’s hot.
Alessandro Pier Guidi says that so far, the team and the car are doing well, and they have taken the points. It’s a long, long race yet. Anything can happen. The car is running well and Nicklas and Come, his co-drivers are doing well. Pier Guidi says the Ferrari is quicker in cooler conditions. So, he will get some rest now and is content to say that the car has an advantage. The drivers are extremely fit, eat well, keep their weight down. These people are true athletes. Racing is not a stick and ball sport. But these folks are true athletes in every sense. No candy bars. No guilty pleasure food. Eat well. In the Silver Class, Mad Panda Motorsports and the #90 Mercedes AMG GT3 still lead. Ricardo Sanchez from Mexico is at the controls.
Second spot in Silver sees Axcil Jeffries now at the wheel of an identical Mercedes, the #7 AMG GT3 for Toksport WRT. Third spot is the Garage 59 #159 Aston Martin. Tuomas Tujuula, the Finn, has that car in a good spot. He is just ahead of the #93 Sky Tempesta Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 now being driven by Jonathan Hui, the driver from Hong Kong. Then comes the #53 AF Corse Ferrari and we ought to see who is driving that car. Hui, followed by Matt Griffin, and Alessio Rovera, as we see some sparks shooting off one of the cars on the overrun.
That is the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes which could have suspension woes. We’ll have to see. They are third overall, but sparking on the left side? No tire trouble or so it seems. Is there a broken exhaust? We shall see what is going on with this car. We look at the AWS Race Vision speed trap through Raidillon and right now, Jules Gounon is fastest in the #88 Mercedes at 241 kilometers an hour (151 miles an hour), followed closely by Christopher Mies in the Audi and David Pittard in the BMW both running at 240 kilometers per hour. Thomas Neubauer in the other #35 Walkenhorst BMW still has the fourth fastest speed tied with Nikki Thiim in the Aston Martin, at 239 kilometers an hour. However, Neubauer and company are out of the race with the second Walkenhorst Motorsports BMW having retired earlier on as we discussed.
Four manufacturers in the top five speed traps. The Audi and the Mercedes, going down the hill, the Mercedes is lazier through the turns, hence the sparks we see. Jules Gounon, the Frenchman, runs third in the overall just behind the Audi and it is hopping on the left rear corner. Sparks are fine, but something may be amiss on the left rear of that automobile. How will AKKA ASP handle this newly arisen issue? The sparking is unusual, and the car is losing ground to it’s rivals. Jules Gounon’s teeth must be chattering. Team radio sounds like a set of false teeth, windup false teeth. Running over the curbs you damage the car. It has been a symptom for a while for the pole sitting automobile. They have clawed their way back up to third but are still a lap or so down. If they’ve picked up shock and damper woes, other people will have to be careful.
Don’t run over the jagged sections of the curbs. That’s what track limits are for and they are surely hitting the rumble strips too. The Pro-Am battle is down to under a second with Jonathan Hui leading the class over Alessio Rovera and Matt Griffin, three Ferrari’s. The order has changed and now, Rovera leads over Griffin and Hui is now third who has had a lap go awry. Pro-Am is quite the battle especially for the same teams of Prancing Horses. Matt Griffin is a veteran Ferrari driver who won the European Le Mans Series championship many moons ago.
Henrique Chaves is next up in the #77 Barwell Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3. The V8 Ferrari is not a V12, but it is still evocative. Matt Griffin has won the European Le Mans Championship and then the old iteration of GT World Challenge, in 2014, the old Blancpain GT Championship. The drivers really enjoy this race, and you can have cars come together and then drift apart and then cross paths again in a few more hours. Timing and scoring is a fascinating thing to take a look at. Meantime, the #51 Iron Lynx Ferrari continues ticking. Jules Gounon in the #88 Mercedes is still going ‘round with the sparks, but he is not losing too much time. However, the handling must be going away on that Benz.
Maybe they are eking the car out for the next pit stop. You’ll have to stay out there and keep pushing on. Keep soldiering on. How many points during a 24-hour race will your car handle at 100%? Not after the start. No different than being a rugby player who has been dealing with injuries. Many of the cars have now served their long technical pit stops. We wonder who may get another drive through penalty. It will either be for track limits or speeding in the lane. The #63 Lamborghini has been having Damocles’ sword held over it. Now we watch a battle for ninth spot between the #54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche of Klaus Bachler and the #25 Sainteloc Audi with Christopher Haase at the wheel.
The #50 HubAuto Mercedes is in the garage for a differential change. Nick Tandy has now dropped to 11th in the #47 KCMG Porsche 911 GT3R. He has dropped one spot from the last time we checked in on him. So, he is out of the top ten for the moment. Come Ledogar leads the motor race by 14 seconds ahead of Charles Weerts. Ledogar is slower than Weerts right now. 2:21 for Weerts and 2:23 for Ledogar as Jules Gounon only lost a second or so to Weerts, hanging onto third by 43 seconds over the #37 Nico Muller driven WRT Audi. Ben Barnicoat runs fifth for Jota in the #38 McLaren and sixth goes to Andrea Caldarelli who is aboard the #63 Orange 1 FFF Racing Lamborghini.
Caldarelli is sixth in the overall and pressing on well, thank you. Christopher Haase is still in hot pursuit of Klaus Bachler. The #32 WRT Audi has picked up 52 positions and they were jolly lucky getting the rub of the green during a safety car. Keep your noses clean in this motor race ladies and gentlemen as we approach 5:00 A.M. and another hour before sunrise with mist continuing to linger in the air. Some cars will come into their own and start handling better as daylight comes to the fore. It will be much easier to see the cars in the daylight. The aspects we won’t see when daylight hits are the glowing brake discs and the flames shooting out of the exhaust.
We can split this race into three, equal, eight-hour segments, into thirds. By the end of this race, you will have tired, dry, grainy eyes. So, keep some eyedrops handy or splash your face with water every so often if you want to stay awake. Coffee will also help, but that’s not the only solution. Audi have the most cars in the top ten but the championship regulations for GT3 provide close racing with all these amazing manufacturers and cars. The gap has been reduced slightly now between Come Ledogar in the lead and Charles Weerts in second. Traffic is the deal. Ledogar loses the advantage and then it yoyoed back in his favor. Jules Gounon is half a minute behind but is 39 seconds ahead of Nico Muller.
He has a cushion over Muller but is falling away from the top two. #33, the Rinaldi Racing Ferrari spins at La Source, but continues and rejoins the race. That car has Fabrizio Crestani at the controls and is 19th in the overall. The #90 Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes continues leading the Silver division but drops a place in the overall from 14th to 15th, being passed by the #4 HRT Mercedes. The #38 Jota McLaren is fifth overall, Ben Barnicoat at the wheel and he is in the lane. Jules Gounon, after the sparking on the left rear corner, he is still cutting good lap times.
Christopher Haase passes Klaus Bachler through La Source. Drive through penalty for the #63 Orange 1 FFF Lamborghini for speeding in the pit lane. Andrea Caldarelli is fifth in the overall. How the front runners are being pinged for speeding in the lane, I don’t know. David Addison and John Watson were talking earlier saying you set the speed limiter to 49 kilometers an hour. Maybe there is an electrical or technical issue, but it is down to the driver. It is the sole responsibility of the driver to set the limiter. Come Ledogar now leads this motor race over Charles Weerts by 21 seconds.
Jules Gounon continues in third place. We are creeping ever closer to daylight. Iron Lynx and WRT are looking stronger and stronger. We await the #63 Lamborghini to serve a drive through penalty from fourth spot. Yes. Race Control makes another mention of the penalty. Come in soon, lads. Come in soon. Bouncing over the curbs, using all the road rather than exceeding track limits, down through Pouhon, touching the curbs on the inside, flashing the lights to the car ahead. Down the hill. The team manager is arguing his point with the stewards, and so, the penalty has been suspended. Negotiations currently underway.
The team boss will have run up to see the Race Director ant he Clerk of The Course, begging, “don’t give us a penalty! We did nothing wrong!” The Ferrari goes as wide as possible and does the dummy through La Source. The Lamborghini outbrakes the Ferrari, powering down the hill through Eau Rouge in the dark. What a famous and brave set of turns! On the left-hand side, a car exits the lane and we have about 45 minutes ‘til sunrise. The skies are certainly lightening. The team manager’s job is to fight for his team if the penalties doled out are believed to be unwarranted.
Jules Gounon hanging on in third and Andrea Caldarelli has just unlapped himself. The LED headlights flashing do distract the drivers and that is what they are meant to do in a way. Way back in the day, headlights were more like candles and did not provide much light. Come Ledogar leads Charles Weerts now by 20 seconds. Weerts is 30 seconds ahead of Jules Gounon. There are two other cars from AKKA ASP. Their #89 car is 12th overall, in the hands right now of Lucas Auer. Formula 1 driver, and a ten-time F1 race winner, Gerhard Berger, is Lucas Auer’s uncle.
Berger also raced here at Spa in the 24 Hours in the touring car days back in the mid-1980s with BMW. Auer and company could work their way to the top ten places. Penalties are far less than we’re used to, but they are scattered around, to quote SRO lead overnight commentator Bruce Jones, “like confetti being thrown around at a wedding.” Ha! Good one! We’ve heard very little about penalties in recent hours.
Caldarelli pits from fourth and I believe he is serving his drive through penalty, flashing the lights and that was the drive through penalty, and he is now way down in tenth spot. Maybe 11th spot. Car #32 started 54th but they have not served a penalty at all. Another car is now under investigation by the stewards, Audi #25 for Audi Sport Team Sainteloc being shared by Markus Winkelhock, Patric Niederhauser, and Christopher Haase. They are under investigation for a refueling infraction. Aston Martin are fastest with Niki Thiim, running in the 2:20 bracket. Jules Gounon, sadly, is losing time to the Aston. Gounon has the Mercedes is third overall, pogoing it’s way over the bumps.
Nick Tandy is back up to ninth place in the overall. Caldarelli will have to serve the drive through penalty! How agonizing! He will have to serve the penalty and just take the medicine and get it done. The driver clicks the radio and says, “again! Really? You must be joking!” Let’s have a Captain Cook and see if he comes to the lane. Nope. Not this time. The pace of the #32 WRT Audi has been simmering right along as well with Charlesd Weerts at the controls.
We have also seen an off-track excursion for car #85 but are having trouble seeing where said car is in the running order. Wait. Wrong number. No #85 in the entry. Nicki Thiim runs fourth overall still. We are probably more worried about speeding in the lane than being pinged for track limits. Thiim is eating chunks out of Jules Gounon, running only seven and a half seconds down. He will push hard. His dad, Kurt Thiim, raced in German Touring Cars, in the old version of DTM.
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