Dane Cameron is a man on a mission right now with under three hours to go. Pipo Derani should hand over the #31 car to Nasr or Conway. Montoya and Castroneves know the Acura. Dane Cameron could have been the bullet for the end of the motor race. We thank Steve Letarte for being here in the broadcast booth. Just under three hours to go. Good battle afoot in GT Daytona. This is the Pfaff Motorsports #9 Porsche who leads in class and we ride aboard. The #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin is behind. not sure where that car is overall. Ross Gunn sharing with Ian James and Roman De Angelis. My apologies, it is the other way 'round as Aston Martin leads Porsche now. Zach Veach was racing Pro Mazda at age 17, a decade ago here at Road Atlanta. He is happy to be here in a sports car.
Frankie Montecalvo is driving now and Zach Veach will do a double stint to the end. The Lexus RC F is a good handling car in cooler conditions. Watch out on cold tires. Again, stone cold tires. We have seen a fantastic year of racing here in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. We are closing in on the duration of a normal sprint race. Dane Cameron leads Pipo Derani now by 4.3 seconds but again, AXR is going for a championship, not necessarily a race win. Filipe Albuquerque still needs to catch up to the Cadillac, the #31. Dane Cameron might have a double stint to the end of the race. He would have a two something hour break and then run a double stint.
Two hours and 45 minutes left. So, the #5 JDC Miller Motorsports car is in the lane. No driver change. No new tires. Just fuel. Double stints. We have not had a long green flag run because of the yellows we have seen today. Will anyone do an extra lap and get the advantage. Track position is critical. If you can get it, you are indeed in the catbird seat. Scott Dixon, six-time IndyCar Champion takes it around. Earl Bamber hopes Kevin Magnussen is OK. He is wearing one of Marcus Ericsson's IndyCar racing uniforms because he got a quick call before breakfast to come and race.
Bamber will be in the full-time second car for Chip Ganassi Racing. There is a level of excitement coming in as a sub. Earl Bamber was a Porsche factory driver forever and is no longer. Porsche must be kicking themselves. He was with them for a long time and won with a Porsche prototype at Le Mans. Scott Dixon nearly gets chopped by a slower prototype! Eek! That was the #7 Forty7 Motorsports LMP3 car. We say farewell to Dave Burns, Steve Letarte, and Brian Till. We will hear next from Leigh Diffey and Calvin Fish once again. We are bang on 2 hours and 40 minutes, the length of a time of a WeatherTech Championship sprint event still left to race.
We have our pals Leigh Diffey, Calvin Fish, and Townsend Bell, back in the booth. It would be spectacular for Helio Castroneves to win the Rolex 24, the Indianapolis 500, and the Petit Le Mans. The #10 WTR Acura have not found the performance edge. We have about four more pit stops for DPi and the cold tires will mean this is going to be very treacherous. Can people double stint the tires? Tristan Nunez is leading LMP2 having a sterling drive. Nunez will drive with Pipo Derani next year at Action Express. Scott Andrews continues to lead in LMP3. Andrews, the Australian, with Gar Robinson and Felipe Fraga.
Gar Robinson raced a Trans Am event, a TA2 event, reminding him to run smoother on the track in a race. He is very happy with racing LMP3 with loads of downforce. Fred Makowiecki in the sister WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR-19, is leading in GT Le Mans. The BMW and Corvette cars have been strong despite the Corvette team being down to one car. This is the final race for GTLM. Everyone might be holding their cards close to their chest. But it will be hot and heavy in the last two and a half hours to go.
What a shame for Jordan Taylor, Antonio Garcia, and Nicky Catsburg, for having that horrid accident after they won a championship. In GT Daytona, the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin is leading with Roman De Angelis at the wheel of it. Spencer Pumpelly and Magnus Racing in the Acura, they have had some trouble. They are likely to change cars again. They have raced with Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini, Acura, and where will they go next? Frankie Montecalvo has the #12 Vasserr Sullivan Lexus in third. Connor De Philippi runs off the road and understeers, hitting the Michelin signage.
The leading #60 Acura in the lane for service, handing the car to Juan Pablo Montoya. Action Express pitting as well, in control of the championship. Four Michelin tires. Pipo Derani will do another stint and then Felipe Nasr will finish with a double stint. The Michelin tires are 49 degrees, stone cold, and a tight race off pit lane! Yow! Derani gets the edge and here we go. But there is a Full Course Yellow and a sigh of relief for the DPi boys to get their tires up to temperature. Wow. We see debris on the front straight after Connor De Philippi's incident.
Again, ran wide, missed his mark into the turn, and whacks the Michelin billboard. He probably had the gearbox short shift or something. In too tall a gear, you don't have the gear. Game over for Connor De Philippi, and the transmission has gone bang on that BMW M8 GTE. Tenth Full Course Yellow. We will miss the wonderful racing in GT Le Mans. But the GT Daytona entries, the GT3 cars, they are amazing. Matt Campbell, loved by Porsche, will go back to his homeland in Australia and run with Australian Supercars in their blue riband event, the Bathurst 1,000 at Mount Panorama in Bathurst, New South Wales.
What on earth happened to the BMW? Connor De Philippi says that the last corner bit him, going off the road. One prototype went wide and another came up on him and he couldn't see it and went off the road. That was a simple mistake by Connor De Philippi. He missed the apex by a foot and was way offline. He was probably checking his sideview mirrors. Navigating this circuit at night is a bear. The track temp has plummeted. 56, 67, 75, 71, 63, 54, 51, 49. Starting temps between 47 and 57. Chip Ganassi and the #01 Cadillac dropped a lap down. They had an overheating brake caliper.
So, #01 will be in limp home mode for the next couple hours. Earl Bamber has run extremely well getting back into prototypes. In GT Daytona, Laurens "Larry" Vanthoor and company are leading the championship, with a second place finish or better. Sharing with Zacharie Robichon and Lars Kern, they have seen their championship rivals in the #1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini. All three of these drivers are parting the team and they are going to GTD Pro next year so they will have factory Porsche drivers at Pfaff Motorsports from Canada in their lumberjack livery.
Green flag as the #10 Acura passes the Mazda. Albuquerque is now closing on the #31 of Pipo Derani. Juan Pablo Montoya maintains the lead. Pipo Derani is probably managing the championship deal, knowing there are two hours to go. Pipo Derani is thinking risk vs. reward. He lost the rear tires on acceleration. Back it down just a shade. Tim Keane, Action Express team manager, looking on. 1.2 seconds between Pipo Derani and Filipe Albuquerque.
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