Ashton Harrison, she has had a wonderful stint and has done the HPD Academy program porud, now with Mario Farnbacher at the wheel. Taylor Hagler, Dakota Dickerson, and Jacob Abel, sharing another Acura NSX GT3, second in Silver. The Racer's Edge Motorsports team led by John Mirachi, car #93. Their program dominated SRO America last year with Trent Hindman and Shelby Blackstock. The #68 Smooge Racing Toyota Supra continues losing ground in GT4 as Sebastian Bleekemolen leads in class in the #54 Black Swan Racing Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport. Into the pit lane, Guy Cosmon, second in GT4, to the lane. Cosmo in the Steven Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4. Oh my. Jason Bell is slow in the GMG Aston Martin Vantage GT4, car #2. Something is wrong there. Andrew Davis and Trent Hindman also on the driver's strength. Lots of grass in he grill.
This car is suffering from electronic issues. Hopefully all it needs is a Control, Alt, Delete. Nick Galante moves ahead to second in class in GT4 as Jacob Abel goes by. Yup. We have a Full Course Yellow. Aston Martin stuck on the road. This is major news for cars further down the order. Christopher Mies and others will get an opportunity. The #51 Ferrari and the #6 K-PAX Lamborghini are now done with their pit stop. Marco Mapelli at the wheel of the Lamborghini. Fuel in first. The overall leader needs to catch up with the safety car before pitting. What about Antonio Fuoco? We shall see. Nicklas Nielsen is held up in the pit lane by the Classic BMW BMW M4 GT4.
This will reshuffle the deck. We were talking about the Stephen Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4 earlier. Sean Quinlan, Tom Dyer, and Guy Cosmo. We have more pit callers in GT4. An unknown car is being examined for incident responsibility. The #2 GMG Racing Aston Martin has a battery issue. They are trying to pull out the second chassis but how can you enter a second chassis? Maybe they just need to retrieve the battery from the spare car. K-PAX Racing are now in second with lapped cars in between Jordan Pepper in second and Antonio Fuoco.
Fuoco is shot out of a cannon! Holy cow! These two are split from their class leaders and Mario Farnbacher passes fellow HPD racer Jacob Abel. Luca Stolz looking to get a lap back and passes Jacob Abel. Stolz has relit the fire. Christopher Mies is at the tail end of the lead lap. He is listed nearly a minute back behind the back of the leading crocodile. That could have been a splash and dash on fuel, more likely, a drive time reset to adjust strategy. The longest you can go on a stint is 65 minutes. You can reset by going back throuhg the lane.
Christopher Haase has his hands full trying to move around the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes AMG GT3 of Kenny Habul. 12th overall, fourth in Pro-Am, run by Gradient Racing. Gradient Racing have been linked to Acura in the recent past. Haase wants to move past Kenny Habul and does so. Fuoco leads Pepper by 15 seconds I believe. Check that. 12 seconds. The #47 Nolasport Porsche Cayman GT4 is stuck in the gravel. Jason Hart needs to be rescued after spinning. In the background, look, there is another Porsche that spun off the road to the other side.
What a tough break for the second place GT4 car. We are staying green for now. Fuoco is really pressing hard. He leads Ppepper, Haase, Juncadella, and Come Ledogar. Ferrari #51 is penalized for incident responsibility for a stop and hold + 30 seconds. Wow! Pit stop time for the #71 AF Corse Ferrari. Short fuel only as we have a safety car on the road. Christopher Haase pits and the #51 sister AF Corse Ferrari drives through the pit lane not knowing if he can take the penalty. Maybe it is a stint length reset. This is weird. Jordan Pepper and K-PAX Lamborghini cycle through to the lead of the motor race.
The Audinhas damage, the #32, from running into a stopped Porsche in the lane just before the control line. Christopher Mies was trying to overtake in the lane under the safety car. Another damaged Audi. That was the EBM Giga Racing Porsche that was stopped in the pit lane! That's really weird. Fifth in line, Daniel Juncadella in the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes. The strategy card has been put on the table. Pepper, Juncadella, Fuoco, Ledogar, Haase. K-PAX and team strategist Thomas Blam have rolled the dice. They've leapfrogged Ferrari at this stage.
The car we saw in the gravel trap, has gotten back underway, the Porsche. No rain in the forecast on this sunny Sunday afternoon at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We still have debris on the road and so this Full Course Yellow continues. High quality race drivers, they can go fast and make it look simple whereas us laypeople are just stunned by that fact. We are five minutes away of doing this race on three more maximum stint lengths. Two more pit stops could be the recipe if your strategy calls for it. Strategy evolves. It is not something you're totally locked into from the green flag all the way to the end of the motor race. Mercedes #99 tops up on fuel. The transit time on pit lane does not count. It stops when you enter the lane and begins again when you exit.
Luca Stolz still shown at the wheel of the #99 Mooneyes Mercedes. The #51 Ferrari must take the green flag and then has two laps to serve the penalty or the stewards will stop scoring you. Crucial Motorsports are in the lane for a driver change with McLaren #59 and here is Aurelien Panis as well in the #26 Sainteloc Audi. We have not seen Jules Gounon in the #99 Mooneyes Mercedes yet. Scrubbed tires. You are given a dozen sets of tires and had an extra set for the pole shootout if you made the cut for that. Jordan Pepper now leads the motor race. But his lead has been behind the safety car.
The TR3 Racing Lamborghini is in the pit lane now. Russell Ward did not reach the distance threshold to beat Robby Foley and Michael Dinan who are not in this motor race today of course. We are close to a restart. So, we will be back to green. Jordan Pepper leads Daniel Juncadella. K-PAX lead this motor race on home soil. Pepper weaving to put temperature in the tires. Side by side, look, between a couple cars. Dennis Olsen gets trapped and so many cars get the clag on the tires, as our pal David Hobbs calls it. The two yellow and red Ferrari's run third and fourth.
Christopher Haase is fifth followed by Chrostopher Mies in sixth. The #51 Ferrari that scored pole still has a stop and hold to serve and he will serve it now. A 30 second hold, and he will lose a minute to everyone else. That was for contact an hour or so ago with the #68 Smooge Racing Toyota Supra GT4. So, Ledogar will lose 2/3rds of a lap. There won't be enough pace to reset their race. They will have to dig hard to get back from this one. Penalty now served. So, the Ferrari is clear of the Lamborghini for now, but will almost be a full lap behind.
Maybe the whole field is not quite up to speed. Daniel Juncadella is now second. We don't believe Juncadella and Pepper are quite the fastest cars in the motor race. Track conditions could involve but there's not a big temperature delta between now and then time we see the checkered flag in about three hours, so, at 5PM this evening. Oh dear! Pippa Mann with a flat tire on the #7 Nolasport Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport. This is turns 5, 6, and 6A. Pippa Mann tries to move over. She knew something was wrong and the left front tire blows catastrophically! She was introduced to Sean Gibbons through her mechanic Dougie Livingston. Sam Owens was also on that team.
Full Course Yellow and the Ferrari #71 is in the lane. All these teams will now be able to go for two more stops to the finish of this race. AF Corse will be able to come back. K-PAX has not pitted yet. WRT Audi's in the lane as well. The top two stay out. Luca Stolz stays out as does Pepper. Sainteloc are back in the lane here for the sister car. Nicolas Baert pitted late. Luca Stolz, I believe he is now back on the lead lap. Such a shame for the Porsche Cayman team. Now, Jordan Pepper is into the pit lane and so is the Mercedes of Daniel Juncadella. Another twist and turn in the tale of this IGTC Indianapolis 8 Hours.
Pepper is going to hand the car over to either Andrea Caldarelli or Mirko Bortolotti. Fresh tires and topped up with fuel. They will lose their track position they've gained. They were behind the eight ball with an early puncture and they have to back down the mountain again. They have to climb back. 1:58 on that pit delta. They could use that as a joker but not cumulatively.
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