The Audi's are coming into the picture as we see the Audi's pass the Random Vandals BMW. Giacomo Altoes continues on his way in the lead of the motor race. One hour now done and dusted, starting hour two. Pro-Am cars will be a lap away from hitting pit lane for a maximum stint time of 65 minutes. Engel works inside the GT4 Automatic Racing Aston Martin. Again, we will talk about that car. Mooneyes, the famous performance parts company, is sponsoring that Mercedes, animated by someone at Walt Disney Studios. Engel is being challenged again, look, by Nielsen. He has the energy in the tires earlier in the stint but Nicklas Nielsen is now stymied in traffic. Traffic will play a part as they find slower cars. Daniel Juncadella in the #89 AKKA ASP Mercedes is the next car on their shopping list.
Kenny Habul pits the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes and Russell Ward has served his drive through penalty which has taken over 51 minutes. Giacomo Altoe has to pit and he started from pit lane. He still has to finish his stint and get to the lane to stay safe from running afoul of the rules. Boom. Altoe is in the lane now. Alessio Rovera puts the sister #71 AF Corse Ferrari into the lead. Nicklas Nielsen ahs cleared through the GT4 cars, and h dear, George Kurtz has a cut tire! Left front tire, gone. Alessio Rovera is being called for a drive through penalty for a pit stop violation and reviewing the restart. Wow! This is unreal. We see the pit stop for Giacomo Altoe in the TR3 Racing Lamborghini #10. #71, the Ferrari has tp serve a drive through penalty for a pit violation at 50 clicks.
Crucial Motorsports and Paul Holton in their first race, he leads the motor race overall in the McLaren. Dix cars, the top six are nose to tail. This is car #59, the Crucial Motorsports McLaren. Paul Holton is the leader but is the cork in the bottle as he is followed by Daniel Juncadella in the Mercedes. #71, improperly grounded in the lane during fueling. Engel goes on defense and here comes Nielsen. Charles Weerts is back there as well, look. Turn five is not a quick chicane. It is a jog into the old F1 loop and back onto Hulman Boulevard.
Lapped traffic playing a role as Fred Poordad in the #20 Wright Motorsports Porsche is in the way, the Porsche 911 GT3R. Weerts and Niederhauser and losing ground to Holton, Juncadella, Engel, and Nielsen. Juncadella slams his way ahead of Paul Hilton. Holton s going to turn up the heat and here comes Engel! Daniel Juncadella is now leading. Team boss Jerome Policand, former driver, is watching from home in Europe. Engel is being monstered by Nielsen. Alessio Rovera is now 34 seconds behind in 12th spot! He got snookered on that drive through penalty and trouble for the Random Vandals Racing BMW of Paul Sparta! Deary me!
WRT are the only European team that raced here at Indianapolis last year that are back again. For Ferrari, this is the first time a 488 GT3 has ever raced here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Nielsen working on Engel in the Mercedes ahead. There were Ferrari Challenge races here at Indianapolis earlier in the year that data was logged from for the AF Corse team. Holton has the McLaren second. The top six are all in the camera shot. Daniel Juncadella, Paul Holton, and the rest as Patric Niederhauser passes Charles Weerts.
Juncadella, Holton, Engel, Nielsen, Niederhauser, Weerts, the top six. Lucas Legeret is next up followed by Andrea Caldarelli, Dakota Dickerson, and Matt McMurry, the top ten. The Audi's are renown for being very compliant on their setup and very well balanced. So they can hang onto the tires longer than the other cars. Maro Engel is being harried by Nicklas Nielsen right now. GT4 traffic ahead as Matt Travis is split in the #47 Nolasport Porsche Cayman GT4. Travis sharing with Jason Hart and Scott Noble.
The faster cars will surprise a car that doesn't anticipate the move. Engel and Nielsen still racing for third spot. Someone is smoking up ahead as Daniel Juncadella, the Spaniard, is extending his lead over Paul Holton and the #98 Random Vandals BMW M4 GT4 has suspension woes. Troubles too for George Kurtz and the #04 DXDT Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. Their flat tire earlier has affected the electronics on that car. The race is starting to settle down. Paul Holton has a phalanx of other GT3 cars coming after huim. Lucas Legeret in the #26 Sainteloc Junior Team Audi R8 followed by the #3 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Andrea Caldarelli.
Their lap time is 1:35.8 while the Ferrari is over a second ahead at 1:34 dead. Sainteloc's car has Aurelien Panis, Lucas Legeret, and Nicolas Baert, a Frenchman, a Swiss, and a Belgian. Paul Holton is sharing the McLaren with some of their factory drivers including Rob Bell and oh my, Engel passes Holton who goes off the road and here comes Nicklas Nielsen. Patric Niederhauser has a head of steam. Holton had some argy bargy almost, but they keep it clean. Engel and Nielsen go by. As I was saying, Holton is sharing with Rob Bell and Ben Barnicoat.
Patric Niederhasuer nails a pass on the inside of turn ten. Holton wants by Niederhauser and Charles Weerts is going to push. He can barely keep it on the road. Niederhauser is flying right now! Niederhauser is the 2019 ADAC GT Masters champion. Daniel Juncadella's lead has ballooned to 6.5 seconds over Maro Engel and Nicklas Nielsen. Juncadella again, six and a half seconds ahead. Is this Audi's race? What can they do? Weerts nearly gets clobbered by a GT4 car. Engel, Nielsen, Niederhauser for second spot. Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari. Robin Frijns and company will not be in contention. So Audi just has two bullets left in the gun.
Engel leads Nielsen and Niederhauser. He has the best car on the road running in the 1:36 bracket along with Daniel Juncadella in the lead of the motor race. Traffic is so much more than at the 24 Hours of Spa because a ton of GT3 cars is a lot, but there's a bigger delta with the GT4 cars being entered in this race too. Holton has to give it up and is passed by Charles Weerts up to fifth while Holton is demoted to sixth. The opening 90 minutes have been amazingly frantic here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Alessio Rovera is carving his way back through the field and he is 40 seconds down on the race leader.
Maro Engel, Nicklas Nielsen, Patric Niederhauser, and Daniel Juncadella leads the motor race. He was not supposed to be here. Felipe Fraga was supposed to but he had visa troubles to get into the United States. We will also see the Italian star Raffaele Marciello into the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes later on today. Every SRO championship has been extremely competitive in 2021. Andrea Caldarelli and Jordan Pepper have dominated the North American segment of the championship. That Lambroghini though, is an evil handling race car.
That said, the cars are getting better and the drivers are learning them. They are racing against the established GT brands like Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin. Kevin Conway, former NASCAR Cup Series rookie of the year, leads GT4 in the #68 Smooge Racing Toyota Supra GT4. Conway sharing with John "Smooge" Geesbreght, and IndyCar and sports car driver, Englishman Jack Hawksworth. They've drivent ot he front as Jeroen Bleekemolen has now taken over the Porsche Cayman GT4 from his brother Sebastian Bleekemolen and Tim Pappas is the third driver. That's the #54 Black Swan Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport.
Alessio Rovera has the fastest car on the road although Nicklas Nielsen cut the fastest lap so far of 1:34 dead. 1:34.089. That was Nielsen who had uncorked that lap. We all expected things to get faster and faster in qualifying yesterday, but the Pirelli tires give up their golden lap early in a stint. James Clay traps Alesandro Pier Guidi. He has lost track position. Patric Niederhauser behind him in the #25 Audi Sport Team Sainteloc Audi R8. Three other teams chose to wipe out their qualifying time to put on a fresh set. It is like old Indy 500 qualifying where you pull your time and qualify again. 53 laps in the bag, as the Wright Motorsports Porsche ahs spun in the #20 Wright Motorsports Porsche. Fred Poordad, Jan Heylen, and Max Root sharing. Heylen I believe at the controls. Something may be wrong with that car.
53 laps, 137 miles complete. Daniel Juncadella's lead to Maro Engel has ballooned to 6.8 seconds. Maro Engel has Nicklas Nielsen still right on his six. Incident under review between Jan Heylen and then the #111 Classic BMW BMW M4 GT4 car. That was a late edition to the entry list. BMW will introduce the M4 GT3 next year. The M6 GT3 was supposed to have a sendoff. But they withdrew as we said because Turner Motorsports withdrew due to Michael Dinan's non COVID related illness. Patric Niederhauser has a Captain Cook on the inside of the Ferrari. Nicklas Nielsen has more lap time than Maro Engel and Engel has been more proactive in second place with the #99 Mooneyes Mercedes.
Everyone is trying to eat clock and make dramatic moves later, but you study your moves at first honestly. The handling could be going away on some of these cars, on old tires, stepping out a bit. Daniel Juncadella leads by 5.3 SECONDS. Close shave with Trent Hindman in the #2 GMG Aston Martin Vantage GT4 and Patric Niederhauser in the Audi. Nielsen is getting frustrated by Engel and here comes the Audi of Niederhauser! Pit stop time for Engel, Niederhauser, and more as the yellow flag is out.
Full Course Yellow, now. Engel in the box. Refueling first with a full load of 40-42 seconds and then the tire change. The Lamborghini Urus safety car picks up Daniel Juncadella who catches a major break. But he wanted a pit stop. They cannot refuel while on the air jacks. Daniel Juncadella has to pit. Here he comes along with Nicklas Nielsen and others. These blokes are going to be caught in safety car crocodile. All the lollipop men are out there helping in the lane but in the name of safety, a car controller and just four mechanics plus tire and data techniicians. Driver change at AKKA ASP. Ferrari #51 being serviced as well. The Craft Bambooo Mooneyes Mercedes is ahead of the Ferrari. The Audi boys will see this as manna from heaven.
Winkelhock and Weerts move up. The #68 Toyota Supra and the #54 Porsche Cayman also pit. Smooge Racing vs. Black Swan. Bill Riley is calling the strategy on that car today. His pit crew is servicing that automobile as well. #25 got track position but had a slow stop. Minimum stop is 1:58. You can't be between the 1:20 mark and the 1:58 mark. He is well under the mandatory pit stop time. No joker there. The AF Corse Ferrari's have the #71 in fifth and the #51 in seventh place. They were just outside the top ten and they will be back in the fight. Everyone is now bunched up behind the safety car.
Come Ledogar will be able to drive the #51 Ferrari and these two yellow flags have put the cat among the pigeons as we have the incident under review between Wright Motorsports #20 and Classic BMW #111. Suspension repairs going on on the #20 Wright Motorsports Porsche. Fred Poordad, Max Root, and Jan Heylen the trio in that car. The #111 Classic BMW is being shared by Dominic Starkweather, John Capestro Dubets, and Alex Filsinger. Markus Winkelhock has dispensation to leave after his final stint as his wife is due to give birth to their child back in Germany. Good luck to them with the new baby.
The leading car, does not have to be the overall leader. The wave by is being done, but the GT4 car snakes past one of the GT3 cars and nearly clobbers him! Yikes! Lights off on the safety car. Closing in on two hours down. 1/4 distance nearly done. Markus Winkelhock will lead the motor race with Maro Engel behind. Green flag again and away we go! Engel is right on Winkelhock's rear bumper. The GT4 car is released right into the restart from the lane! Egad! Engel has Weerts all over him and Markus Winkelhock lights the fuse and he's gone. The beleaguered Inception Racing McLaren is splitting the top four. Mercedes, Ferrari, Audi, all have potential to win.
Antonio Fuoco passes Nicolas Baert. Yikes! Fuoco picks up a spot on the McLaren, and two DXDT Mercedes have crashed into each other! Winward Mercedes also crashed! Scott Smithson, Erin Vogel, and Russell Ward! Oh man! This is a mess and contact too between Maro Engel and Charles Weerts off the road! The race continues as thesre cars get themselves together whil eht eFerrari's are moving up. Markus Winkelhock leads over Antonio Fuoco and Come Ledogar. Winkelhock now leads by three seconds.
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