#01 right on the back of the #31 now getting briefly stymied by a BMW. The case is back on. Again, #31 must finish ahead of the #10 Acura to win the title, or likewise, the #10 can win if they finish ahead of #31. Yours truly, is betting on #31. I know the team, and the car, and they have put their best foot forward this year, especially in the last three or so races. The paddock is jammed. Felipe Nasr is being hounded by Renger van der Zande. Kevin Magnussen is not in the car today. van der Zande and Magnussen's families have gone on vacations together. They will remain friends even though Kevin Magnussen is now going to Peugeot's Le Mans Hypercar team. #31 in the lane for Action Express, making the right decisions as Pipo Derani will get into the car.
A stint and a half on tires for the #31 as the sister #48 Ally Action Express Cadillac is in the lane as well. Derani must not go down a lap to Sebastien Bourdais. Jimmie Johnson handed a drive through penalty for speeding in the lane. Not good. Mazda #55 in pit lane, too, Jonathan Bomarito at the wheel of it. It has been very loose. Jimmie Johnson serves his drive through penalty. This is the final run for the Mazda team. Next time by, Filipe Albuquerque will hand the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura to Ricky Taylor. Sebastien Bourdais will get into the #5 JDC-Miller Cadillac, and Bourdais is handing the car to Tristan Vautier. Bourdais will race with Cadillac next year, but with Chip Ganassi Racing.
Ricky Taylor is back on track. #01 in the lane now. Scott Dixon, six-time IndyCar champion will take over. Pipo Derani now must pass Ricky Taylor to stay in the championship fight. Derani is pushing, pushing, pushing and wants to pass the #10. Lapped traffic ahead of this DPi battle and Derani continues to push. Huge battle between Bourdais and Magnussen. An LMP3 car cuts across the motorcycle chicane. The two DPI contenders are right together. #31 is having a really solid day. Felipe Nasr says tires were fine but the traffic was a bear. Still, the car is handling very well. The racing is intense. Look after the car.
This will be who is ahead of who. All the time you are thinking big about the championship. Be sensible and careful. #91 is off the road and back on and Jim Cox nearly slugs the #30 of Ari Balogh! Yikes! Pipo Derani is a very aggressive driver, but he knows he has to cool off a wee bit. Lightning strikes, minefield. Pick your analogy. Meantime, the #91 Riley Motorsports LMP3 entry of Jim Cox has been penalized for his off road style reentry to the circuit and has been dinged with a drive through penalty by the stewards. Cox sharing with Dylan Murry and Jeroen Bleekemolen.
The #55 Mazda too, is working it's way through traffic, in the swansong for the Mazda boys in IMSA, for now, after racing in the championship with various cars for decades and decades. More woe for the #91, Jim Cox. He is spun and into the tire barrier, going nowhere fast. That collision was with the #2 United Autosport LMP3 car. Pit stop time now under Full Course Yellow as the Lexus is slow and the #31 pits for fuel. They are thinking we might see a yellow and here is the #60 MSR Acura in the lane too. Wise move. Pit lane will close at Full Course Yellow time.
Full Course Yellow, now. Full Course Yellow. Into the garage, the #88 Hardpoint Racing Porsche 911 GT3R. Benji Hites goes out f the pit lane on cold tires, and gets slammed by the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus and Hites is on a rug, and it slips out fron under him. Montecalvo might be going back on track. It is going to get colder and colder tonight. So, the marshals will clean this up. Acura #10 is sent to the back of the queue after a pit lane infringement, but no penalty. We remain under yellow and while we were away, the #48 Ally Cadillac entered the lane for service and got back on track.
We are midway through the third hour of the race at this point. After further review, the marshals have decided and said Ricky Taylor was not in the lane. Wayne Taylor says he will listen to his driver, his son. So he acquiesces for the moment and they are at a fuel disadvantage to the #31 Cadillac. Helio Castroneves could win the Rolex 24, the Indianapolis 500, and the Petit Le Mans. Hello to Mario Andretti, the legend. Cars weaving around to clean and build heat into the tires. We are set to go back to green flag racing as Jonathan Bomarito wriggles his way off turn 12!
Ricky Taylor chasing. Pipo Derani cleaning his tires. Derani wants to move forward trying to catch Tristan Vautier and Ricky Taylor as the #3 Corvette C8.R has grass in the front grille. Augusto Farfus now in the #24 BMW M8 GTE. He is pressing the Corvette. Mr. Toad's wild ride for the #3. Jordan Taylor just doesn't have the tire temperature just yet. Antonio Garcia wants a Petit Le Mans on his CV. GT Le Mans has been fierce racing for years and years and the drivers at ten tenths all the time. Farfus is pressing Taylor, hard.
Jordan Taylor has been training hard with brother Ricky Taylor for a triathlon at Daytona International Speedway. Jordan Taylor says he is still learning how to drive a GT car. Be patient as the GT car has more mass than a prototype does. GT Daytona, the GT3 cars, are even heavier. Aaron Telitz is now at the controls of the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus and we see the red #25 BMW M8 GTE of Phillipp Eng. Jordan Taylor gets chopped by an LMP3 entry there. Spin there again for the #2 United Autosport car. That's Andy Meyrick at the wheel fo it. He has some debris coming off that car. Meyrick is a veteran driver. Just an unforced error under accleration on corner seven exit.
The LMP3 cars do have traction control, but the wheel speed sensor can go south on impact sometimes. It calculates the difference in wheel speed. Derani and Nasr are now 49 points behind the #10 WTR Acura for the championship of Taylor and Albuquerque. Discretion is the better part of valor for this championship. In a few hours the driver's will have the sun right in their faces cresting these esses. The glare is really starting to get lower and lower. Almost done with the third hour. Just over seven hours left. Endurance, chaos, fun, gorgeous weather. Wow.
Sunset just after 5:30 P.M. Eastern Time. We welcome Dave Burns, Steve Letarte, and Brian Till to the broadcast booth with Kevin Lee and Dillon Welch in the pit lane. Traffic giveth and traffic taketh away. We always say that. But remember it. Don't let the traffic bug you. Be patient. The sun is still right in the driver's eyes. At pit lane exit, the sun is right in your face. Unreal. That hill to turn three is steep! Jonathan Bomarito in the #55 Mazda leads. Good racing in the final GTLM race ever, more than likely. Garrett Grist is now at the controls of the LMP3 leading JR III. car.
Being careful is not always the best approach. Run your pace, focus forward. Maybe that is a better way to put it to be truthful. Some argy bargy there between a couple prototype cars. Difficult to tell who they are as we approach the end of another racing hour here at the Petit Le Mans. Still a long way to go, driving again, into the blazing sun.
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