Markus Winkelhock leads the motor race over Antonio Fuoco followed by Come Ledogar. Ledogar sharing with Nicklas Nielsen and Alessandro Pier Guidi. Nicolas Baert in the Silver Cup is next up followed by Mirko Bortolotti in fifth in the #3 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini. Nicolas Baert, the Belgian, in the #26 Sainteloc Junior Team Audi R8. Baert, the Belgian sharing with Swiss Lucas Legeret and Frenchman Aurelien Panis. In Pro-Am, GMG Racing leads in class in the #34 GMG Porsche 911 GT3R with Porsche factory driver Dennis Olsen of Norway and sharing with team boss James Sofronas, and Kyle Washington. John Geesbregth leads GT4 in the #68 Smooge Racing Toyota Supra GT4.
We've crossed past two hours done and dusted as Markus Winkelhock leads the motor race. Audi came here gunning for the manufacturer's championship with three bullets. Two of those cars have had major trouble. Markus Winkelhock is in the only surviving Audi. Pit stop for the #25 Audi is under review by the stewards. He likely could have used the one second joker but maybe not. It is easy to run afoul of these stops, but an experienced team wouldn't do that, especially not the Audi group. Winkelhock, Fuoco, Ledogar, Bortolotti, and Baert, the top five. They have a pit stop review and two collisions between five cars that we are looking at.
Winkelhock passes John Geesbreght. There is a Damocles dangling over the #25 Audi for a stop coming in too low on the time. Antonio Fuoco is pressing on hard, scything his way through GT4 traffic. Mirko Bortolotti is up to fourth and we wonder about their lap times. They are keeping their noses clean. What will we see. Giacomo Altoe in the TR3 Lamborghini is fastest at 168 miles an hour while the other rivals on the speed charts are at 167 miles an hour. Christopher Mies will soon get into the #32 Audi. He says that there is no damage to the car. He plans to be in the car soon and feels the Audi is not quite the strongest car.
He says the endurance is what they have while their rivals at Ferrari have the speed. But, there is indeed a drive through penalty issued to the car for the contact with Maro Engel. Weerts into the pit lane from seventh to serve the drive through penalty. He was cokmitted on the inside and spun himself and Engel out. No action taken on that fracas we saw earlier with the Mercedes'. The #19 car has been retired. The damage too siginficant to continue. So, Erin Voggel, Michael Cooper, and Thomas Merrill are out.
Antonio Fuoco is coming in a hurry and so is Come Ledogar. Smooge Racing and John Geesbreght, their pit stop is under review by the stewards. Maybe they failed to ground the car or had too many people in the pit lane. More traffic battles as lapped GT3 cars split the leaders and Fuoco chasing Winkelhock, hard. There are driver changes and slower cars will have different drivers at the wheel. Winkelhock able to clear the GMG Racing Porsche Cayman before Fuoco was able to. Fuoco, the Italian, is playing catch up with Winkelhock, the German. Purists at Indianapolis hated the fact that others wanted to open their arms to stock cars, Formula 1, MotoGP motorcycles, and sports cars.
This event has been embraced by American and international drivers and teams. Mirko Bortolotti threading the needle between a few GT4 cars with less than six hours remaining now. Winkelhock, Fuoco, Ledogar, running 1-2-3. K-PAX has won nine races this year but they didn't test here at Indianapolis. The warmest part of the day will be right before we finish this motor race. Maybe K-PAX are playing the long game as Fuoco wants the lead and gets it over Markus Winkelhock. Winkelhock tries opening the door, and through turn 11 into the braking szone, Winkelhock gives him the lane and loses traction.
Open the door and Fuoco says, "grazie mille" and steps right through. Russell Ward and Winward Racing are now out in the #33 Mercedes AMG GT3. Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, and Marvin Dienst, are out. Game over. John Geesbreght and Smooge Racing continue to lead in GT4 but their most recent pit stop is still under eeview as Tim Pappas is second. Fuoco's pass on Winkelhock is being reviewed by the marshals. The #2 GMG Aston Martin Vantage GT4 are third in GT4 with a stout lineup. Jason Bell, Andrew Davis, and Trent Hindman sharing the car. GT4 top speeds at 155-156 miles an hour. Dominic Starkweather, Nick Galante, and James Clay, all are BMW drivers.
John "Smooge" Geesbreght, Am champions in GT4 still lead. They are using fluctuating speeds and the marshals wonder about this. Antonio Fuoco leads and the #70 Inception Racing McLaren, has had braking woes. Fuoco and company remain in the lead over Markus Winkelhock. Alessio Rovera and Callum Illott are Fuoco's co-drivers. We are close to the two and a half hour mark. No action taken by the stewards for some of the argy bargy we have seen. But, pit stops continue to be under review. You cannot give back 53 seconds if there is a drive through penalty. Randy Hembry is the SRO America Race Director.
Strategist Mike Johnson is calling the strategy on the #2 GMG Aston Martin, from home. The GT4 cars can be mobile chicanes. That's cruel, but it is true. Winkelhock, look, is in a pickle. Can he let discretion be the better part of valor? The GT3 drivers have to learn how the boys and girls in GT4 drive. Come Ledogar now has third place in the sister AF Corse Ferrari. Ledogar is closing in on Winkelhock. Does Ferrari have extra in the locker over the lone Pro ranked Audi?
#70 will get another drive through penalty. Brendon Iribe will be steaming. Fuoco cuts a 1:36 while the next six cars are a half a second apart. The #3 K-PAX Lamborghini has a different setup than the #6 sister car. They've always been on the back foot. Giovanni Venturini and Corey Lewis have had their woes. Nicolas Baert along with Lucas Legeret and Aurelien Panis, Baert has Timur Boguslavskiy behind him. Baert is a TCR touring car racer. Boguslavskiy has won the overall GTWC Europe championship before.
Boguslavskiy is monstering Baert for fifth place as we still have Ferrari and Antonio Fuoco leading the motor race. It is the battle of the B's in fourth through sevent. Baert, Boguslavskiy, Bell. We have Ashtyn Harrison running really well and the same goes for Taylor Hagler. Lapped GT3 car, GT4 car, in traffic. Baert does not defend and Boguslavskiy moves into fifth and Kyle Washington runs wide on the ABS and into the grass. A wee bit of agricultural racing there. That's what traffic does for you. It giveth and it taketh away.
Kyle Washington has off road truck racing exoeruence and Boguslavskiy nearly gets chopped by a GT4 car! Speaking of off road trucking! Holy mackerel! GT3 cars are identical, but not in terms of the different cars. They are all different, but have similar performance levels and we have a car off the road at the end of turn 17. Lots of smoke. What was that about? A massive lockup or a car that is off the pace. It is the Classic BMW/Fast Track Racing BMW, one of them. Charles Weerts has found Maro Engel once more. Wow.
More pit stops coming as Maro Engel is in the lane from inside the top ten. Driver change imminent. Engel handing over to Luca Stolz and Jules Gounon will finish up the race. He is the newcomer to the Mercedes factory driver roster. Luca Stolz produced the fastest lap in qualifying. Ferrari #71 in the lane from the lead, Antonio Fuoco in the car and now, he will hand the car over to his co-driver and into the car goes Alessio Rovera once more. Most of the fornt runners will pit soon as the 65 minute stint length is up. Boguslavskiy in the lane. Rob Bell, in the lane. Not a very good stop for the #99 Mercedes unfortunately.
Ferrari #51 is in now. Come Ledogar is now into the car. Raffaele Marciello is in the #99 Mercedes. Paul Holton is back into the Crucial Motorsports McLaren #59 replacing Rob Bell. The #20 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R is back out on track after fixing suspension damAGE. Max Root, Fred Poordad, and Jan Heylen will just have to make up laps and see where they can finish. Meanwhile, Alessio Rovera is in the #71 and Nicklas Nielsen is now bringing the #51 to the lane. Will Nielsen stay in? Will there be a driver change? Drive through penalty for a pit stop violation for the #25 Audi R8 for Audi Sport Team Sainteloc.
We saw both of the WRT Audi's have issues. Markus Winkelhock serves his penalty. 53 seconds is the delta from pit in to pit out. Nicklas Nielsen is indeed in the #51 Ferrari, running ten seconds behind the sister car. Ferrari qualified well but they have had tons to overcome. Antonio Fuoco says the car is very balanced and they know the race is still long. They need to push and it s hard to overtake GT4 machinery. That's true. Alessio Rovera back into the car and the car is handling very well. Rovera leads, Nielsen second, Mirko Bortolotti now third in the Lamborghini.
Raffaele Marciello now at the wheel of the AKKA ASP Mercedes in fifth. Close shave there with Rovera througb GT4 traffic! Eek! The SRO has ideas to get back in the game for different cars under the slow parts under yellow at 60 to 80 clicks. The wave by procedure works well too. Mirko Bortolotti in third, pounding and slamming his way over the curbs. We are getting ever closer to the end of the third hour. Who will win the GT World Challenge America points? K-PAX Racing, with Jordan Pepper, Andrea Caldarelli, and Mirko Bortolotti, have already clinched the 2021 GTWCA title.
Ashtyn Harrison, along with Matt McMurry, and Taylor Hagler are running in third in class. Giovanni Venturini is 11th in the sister K-PAX Lamborghini. Ashtyn Harrison and Compass Racing will win the final race of the GTWCA season.
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