Eight yellows for 50 laps and last year we saw only six yellows in the Petit Le Mans. Some fans have campfires burning now before the race ends. Time for dinner. Now, it is dark as a dungeon at Road Atlanta. But the real deal is the clock. The intensity is going to ramp up. All DPi cars, all seven, on the lead lap. The other classes all have four to five cars on the lead lap, each. Who do we want to finish? How many tire stints? You know who your closing driver will be. How many stints will they do? Can you double stint tires? What is your drop off? Start putting together strategy. Pit stop time after we saw Rasmus Lindh and Tom Gamble. Now, Dane Cameron will take over the #60 MSR Acura. Rossi and Nasr will stay in at Wayne Taylor Racing and Action Express.
Tristan Vautier is getting into the #5 JDC Miller Motorsports, Mustang Sampling Cadillac. Tristan Nunez now takes over the #11 Win Autosport LMP2 and Scott Huffaker is back into the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry, the championship winning car, which is now reattaching a loose door. GTLM and GTD pit stops now underway and everyone is in for wholesale fueling, tires, and driver changes. Again, back time the race. Put your hottest shoe in the car for the end of the motor race. Who will it be? Time is of the essence, as we are under four hours to go. A few lights for the fan and marshal post areas. New driver aboard the #10 Wayne Taylor Konica Minolta Acura.
Filipe Albuquerque into the car. No damage to the car. Ricky Taylor should get into the car for the finish. Rossi knows the deal. #10 if they finish ahead of #31, they are champions. If the reverse is true, and the #31 finishes ahead of the #10, they are champions. Can't overstate that enough. Three hours and 50 minutes remain. The #1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini is in the lane as is the #54 CORE Autosport LMP3 car. GT Daytona cars also in the pit lane as we see the #44 Magnus Racing Acura NSX GT3, with the Speed Racer livery, the Mach 5 livery. John Potter, Andy Lally, and Spencer Pumpelly, sharing that car.
We are ending the eighth Full Course Yellow. The #31 Cadillac for Action Express now leads in the overall and DPi. Felipe Nasr now leads the motor race, fully dark, with three hours and 45 minutes left. In the back of gthe track, it gets dark in a hurry. It is very dirty offline as well. Everyone knows the track. Running through traffic, where is offline? Explaining the visibility with a lane and a half road, it is unreal. At 30 miles an hour it's bad, but six times faster, oh my God! Matty Campbell tries and passes Alexander Sims. Sims says no way, sunshine. He moves past Matt Campbell. Corvette, Porsche, BMW, Porsche.
Alexander Sims followed by Matt Campbell, Jesse Krohn, and Fred Makowiecki. IMSA does their best to balance things out between the manufacturers. Felipe Nasr still leads as we see Dane Cameron being monstered by Earl Bamber right now. The talent level is top notch in the WeatherTech Championship right now. Using simulators and being able to practice driving. Practicing in the virtual world, it's amazing. Earl Bamber slept last night and had no idea he would drive today and sure thing, he got the nod when Kevin Magnussen had to stand down because of illness. Bamber will be in a second Chip Ganassi Cadillac next year.
Zach Veach, he is leading in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. He and co-drivers Frankie Montecalvo and Robert Megennis are still in the running for a victory in class here at Petit Le Mans. The #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche have made a rear wing adjustment. The #74 Riley Motorsports LMP3 car and the #54 CORE Autosports LMP3 car are both off the road and one of those cars seems to have gotten it back together and gets back onto the circuit. #54 is A OK. Meanwhile, Felipe Nasr continues to take the #31 Action Express Whelen Cadillac around Road Atlanta, looking for a championship.
Spencer Pigot leads LMP3 with the #30 JR III Motorsports car. Spencer Pigot goes by and we have seen issues for both Scott Andrews and George Kurtz. LMP3 cars have a rudimentary traction control system with about 470 horsepower. Felipe Nasr continues to lead the motor race and they want to finish ahead of the #10 Konica Minolta Acura. Again, if the reverse is true, the #10 will be champion. When you go out on cold tires, again, it is like driving on ice. Tire warmers allowed in Formula 1, but not in sports car racing. Those tire blankets are helpful but they are verboten in IMSA. Some drivers can get a fast out lap on stone cold tires.
The track temperature is only at 50 degrees Fahrenheit. We have ambient temps in the low to mid 40s tonight. This is Daytona weather in the evening in January at the Rolex 24, honestly. Aluminum wheels dissipate the heat, while steel wheels on the old generation NASCAR cars that just retired, they retain the heat. Felipe Nasr continues to lead the motor race. Tristan Nunez continues to lead LMP2 while Scott Huffaker is coming in a hurry. Once the tires come to temperature, there will be more grip than we have seen all day long. The #74 of Scott Andrews in LMP3, the championship leader, locking the brakes! Yikes!
It is happy hour now, but you still have to push it. Scott Huffaker, Ben Keating, and company are already champions. Ben Keating is very excited. He took the start and knew he'd win. He says he got the monkey off his back. They are now running for the Michelin Endurance Cup and a Petit Le Mans win. Ben Keating has also wrapped up the Jim Trueman award, and so, he will get an automatic invite to the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year. There are four driver ratings in Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Platinum are factory drivers. Gold are less limited than platinum for factory team drives.
The drivers are rated based on experience and records. You can have Bronze, Silver, and Gold rated drivers in a Pro-Am class. Keating raced all over the world. He will do nine races. Four IMSA events and six WEC events. Ten events. WEC runs with IMSA at Sebring next March. He gets a buy one get one free deal at Sebring with both series next year, in March. Haven't had a bish, bash, bosh or a well, well, well moment in this race yet. But there's still time for that. We shall see. Meanwhile, back to the racing. So many races at Road Atlanta this weekend. The Mazda MX5 Cup races were incredible this weekend.
We have a stopped car and the driver is out of the car. he car is visible but not the driver. We have the masked racer there, Racer X. That is the #83 LMP3 car that has been having issues. British driver Josh Skelton needs to be rescued. That motorcar has given up the ghost. It is msoldering like the damn thing caught on fire. At least the driver is OK. You never get out of the car unless you see and feel the flames. It could be smoke. It could be steam. The safest spot you can be is still in the car with your safety harness on. There is a fire out the back of the car. A slight barbecue. Maybe an oil fire. Does he pull the fire bottles? No. No Halon cloud there.
Three hours and 15 minutes remaining here at Petit Le Mans. It is very dark here at Road Atlanta. Pits are open and we have customers. The #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac has a driver change as Pipo "The Dynamo" Derani is in the car. MSR #60 Acura, WTR #10 Acura in. No driver changes. No driver change for the #5 JDC Miller Motorsports car. Tristan Vautier stays in the car. The left front tire changer on the AXR team almost got clipped by the #10 Acura! Mama Mia! Time now for GTLM and GTD pit stops.
Alexander Sims leads GT Le Mans and he will stay in the car. They are carrying the torch for Corvette Racing. BMW's and the WeatherTech Porsche's are in the lane. In GT Daytona the #12 Vasser Sullivan entry is in. The #4 Corvette C8.R peels out of the lane. Driver changes, and we will tell you about it. Bundle up, light the campfires. It's a cool one out there at Road Atlanta this evening. Lift and coast to save fuel under Full Course Yellow.
We have an interview with Chad Knaus, crew chief for the #48 Acvtion Express Ally Cadillac. High pace and cold temperatures. This has been a fun race for Knaus working with the Action Express team as we are ready to go back to green. Kamui Kobayashi is at the wheel of the #48 right now. We see many members of the Hendrick Motorsports team on the #48 pit crew. We shall see what Kamui Kobayashi can do from caboose on the field in DPi. Kobayashi has great pace. He is a quiet guy and he does his talking on the race track.
75 Formula 1 starts, and a podium finish in his home race in Japan. He is a plug and play kind of a guy. The restart is set. Green flag! Punch it. Pipo Derani flies away from the rest of the field. Get tires up to temperature and here is Dane Cameron moving to second aboard the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura. Dane Cameron now trying to pressure Pipo Derani for the race lead. Wow. Guys that are exacting their driver and fuel strategy. Recalculating, just like your GPS. Now, a big thud into the #1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini, being slammed by the #42 NTE Sport Audi. Yikes!
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