Endurance... the sports car racing blog: January 2022

Watch extended highlights of the Rolex 24 at Daytona from NBC Sports. Leigh Diffey, Calvin Fish, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dave Burns, Brian Till, James Hinchcliffe, Steve Letarte, Townsend Bell, Marty Snider, Kevin Lee, Dillon Welch, and from IMSA Radio, Bruce Jones and Jonny Palmer.

https://sportscar365.com/videos/watch-extended-highlights-of-rolex-24-2/

2022 IMSA Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Post Race

Post-race video from MidKnightR1 after the 2022 Rolex 24 at Daytona ends.

Sunday, January 30, 2022

Rolex 24: Hour 24 (the finish)

Less than an hour to go now. 55 minutes. Castroneves, Duval, Taylor, Derani, the top four. WTR is the only team with a consistent lineup and Helio Castroneves goes deep in the corner. Duval and Taylor are coming. MSR team boss Michael Shank, looking on. Here comes Duval! Taylor and Derani third and fourth. Duval is slicing into Castroneve's lead and we have a Full Course Yellow for a stopped Lamborghini on the road. Pfaff and KCMG are going to go down to the wire in GTD Pro. Race off pit lane. #2 and #9, they are scrambling off pit lane. Here comes Loic Duval trying to run down Helio Castroneves. We're under our 17th Full Course Yellow! Giacomo Altoe in the #19 TR3 Racing Piloti Lamborghini is stranded off the road. Altoe has sahred that car with Bill Sweedler, John Megrue, and Jeff Segal.

Pit stop time. All DPi contenders in the lane. Splash and dash for #60, #5 taking sticker Michelin tires. One more stop still left. #31 had more petrol in the tank. GTD cars in the lane now. #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari and manu, many more. Final stops in GTD Pro and GTD. Aston Martin for Magnus Racing, down and away. Serviced and sent are these GTD cars. 38 minutes to go. Tom Blomqvist is shattered. He needs to use the restroom and maybe just chill until the end of the race so he does not make any mistakes. AXR and JDC-Miller in the lane. Splash and dash for the #31 and #5 Pipo Derani told to save more fuel than you've saved, ever. LMP2 final stops. DragonSpeed, G-Drive, Tower Motorsports and others, in and out. Splash and a dash.

Ben Keating has a chance to win two Rolexes in DPi and LMP2. #52 in LMP2 third. Sticker Michelin's for Loic Duval #5. We might just see pushing and shoving at the very end. Taylor locks up. Duval off the road. Here comes Derani, or not. Derani cleaning his tires. Taylor behind Castroneves. GTD Pro has Pfaff and KCMG. Omnipresent scrapping between those two. Jack Hawksworth in Lexus #14 is in the fight too. In replay, Derani almost hits Taylor and Duval gets snookered. Cold tires for Derani. No grip.

Castroneves and Taylor scrapping with Derani and Duval all over each other. You can short shift to save fuel and lifting and coasting helps. Throttle application as well. Don't jab the gas pedal. Be smooth. Gain time. Lift and coast. Colton Herta in LMP2 has to chase down Louis Deletraz. 25 minutes to go now. Nothing really happening just yet. The top four sizing each other up. Flying formation. Same with top two runners in GTD Pro. It is an enviable record for WTR for four in a row with 20 minutes left.

Castroneves will be in GTD traffic, a huge clump. Pipo Derani is three seconds away. This is it. 20 minutes to go. This is the first race of the whole season. The biggest race in IMSA. Traffic ahead. 30 mile per hour speed delta between DPi and the GTD's. The two Acura's tiptoeing through traffic. Side by side stuff. Traffic giveth. Traffic taketh away. Duval passes Derani. A gap forming between the two Acura's. #60 ahead of #10. Herta forces Deletraz off the road in LMP2 and Deletraz almost comes back across the track! Incident under review.

Colton Herta leading LMP2. GTD Pro. Laurens Vanthoor tryuing to shadow and probe Matty Jaminet. Laurens Vanthoor side by side and cannot get to Jaminet. Herta coming through ad Vanthoor pushes im out of the way. Herta is balked and will gap the Porsche's. Vanthoor is pushing Jaminet hard. Side b side stuff right here. Jaminet will toss it iand get slammed by the LMP2? Nope. Deletraz down to third in LMP2. No more argy bargy from the stewards to #2. Ricky Taylor has lost time to Helio Castroneves with a three second lead. Taylor may be saving gas. Duval in deep trying to catch Taylor. Castroneves' lead grows.

Herta leads Giedo van der Garde and Louis Deletraz in LMP2. Alessandro Pier Guidi and Jack Hawksworth have faded in GTD Pro. Side by side and pushing and shoving between Vanthoor and Jaminet. Vanthoor in the gray. Jaminet leans on him. This is dodge 'em car stuff! Wrestling match between these two for GTD Pro! Felipe Nasr, 2021 DPi champion who will drive for Porsche and Roger Penske next year. Jaminet still leads. Here comes Jaminet! Taylor 1.8 seconds behind Castroneves. Here comes Jaminet. Vanthoor on the knife edge. Cstroneves is onhislast lap. M Side by side. Jaminet takes the lead! Where is the leader?

Dodge 'em cars. Porsche Cup race. No white flag yet. Vanthoor crashes in the Le Mans chicane! Jaminet will win GTD Pro. Meyer Shank win the 60th Rolex 24. Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud, Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis. DragonSpeed take LMP2 honors with Eric Lux, Devlin DeFrancesco, Pato O'Ward, and Colton Herta (a contingent of IndyCar drivers make up 3/4 of that team). GTD Pro goes to Matty Campbell, Matty Jaminet, and new Porsche recruit, Felipe Nasr. GTD also goes the way of Porsche and Wright Motorsports in the #16 car.

Winning drivers, Ryan Hardwick, Zacharie Robichon, Jan Heylen, and Richard Lietz.

Overall/DPi: #60 Castroneves/Blomqvist/Pagenaud/Jarvis Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05

LMP2: #81 Lux/DeFrancesco/O'Ward/Herta DragonSpeed USA Oreca 07

LMP3: #74 Robinson/Fraga/van Berlo/Cooper Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan

GT Daytona Pro: #9 Campbell/Jaminet/Nasr Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R

GT Daytona: #16 Hardwick/Robichon/Heylen/Lietz Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R

That's all from Daytona. Tomorrow, there will be a more comprehensive wrap up of the race. Stay tuned for that. Yours truly is bushed after watching what I think has to be my 25th Rolex 24. I've seen a bunch of them including one in person. If I keep typing, I'll just put typos everywhere. So long, everybody, from Daytona Beach, Florida, and Daytona International Speedway. Next up for IMSA, another classic Florida enduro, the 12 Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway in March. Can't wait for that one! Take care.

Rolex 24: Hour 23

An LMP2 lead scrap between Colton Herta and Nico Lapierre. The #13 AWA LMP3 entry of Matt Bell has come to a stop. Wheel bearing busted? Loose brake line? What is this? Bell can coast to the apron. What will the marshals do? Jumbo LMP2 Oreca into pit lane. #10 just dod a splash and dash. Mike Conway has moved up to second. #60 also came to the lane. Westbrook, Conway, Taylor, Blomqvist, the top four. Westbrook will come in and hand off to Loic Duval, topping off the petrol tank. For #10, team boss and three-time winner as a driver, and three-time defending Rolex champ, needs a yellow. They have a yellow. So they are on identical strategy to the #60 Acura.

#31 and #5 both in. #5 changed to Loic Duval and the #31 AXR entry has pitted as well as DragonSpeed in LMP2. Mike Conway is now in the seat. The #13 AWA LMP3 car of Matt Bell and company is being cleaned up and there will be a general track sweeping. We have not had a yellow for five plus hours and we have the highest track temp and ambient temp now. GTD Pro cars now in the land along with the regular GTD entries as well. No team in the history of the Rolex 24 has ever won four-straight. We have over 45 cars on the track of the 61 starters. 48 of 61 are still running. 2,500 miles already completed.

WTR can make it on four stints. In GTD Pro, the Porsche's are going to scrap with each other. #9 and Pfaff Motorsports can win this thing. Laurens Vanthoor has won a lot of 24-hour races but not Daytona and he wants one on debut in the USA for KCMG. Jan Heylen is ready to go. The Ferrari is battered, not broken. We have others in contention in GTD like Aston Martin and many more. Green flag! Tom Blomqvist will battle Ricky Taylor. Where are Loic Duval and Mike Conway going to be? Heavy traffic ahead. Here comes Blomqvist on Taylor. Two Acura's and two Cadillac's.

Loic Duval is catching the Acura's and Mike Conway is there as well. The #60 and #31 have to do driver changes to Helio Castroneves and Pipo Derani respectively. The Acura's can go longer than the Cadillac's, but the AXR team could top off and be on an even keel with the Acura boys. Tim Keene, Gary Nelson, Bob Johnson and Whelen Engineering might be able just to hit it bang on the money. This is going to be mega. 90 minutes remaining. Good battle of the Porsche's in GTD Pro. Pfaff, KCMG, Wright Motorsports.

LMP2 turning up the heat. Racing Team Nederland passing DragonSpeed. Here's the Porsche battle again, look. It's like a Porsche Cup race in GTD Pro. 2001, once more, Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove with his father, the legendary Dale Earnhardt, seven-time NASCAR champion. Heylen in the GTD Porsche keeping up with GTD Pro. These cars are of the same spec. All pro driver lineups in GTD Pro and Pro Am in GTD. GTD Pro have red numbers and red side view mirrors. Yellow headlamps and green side view mirrors on the GTD cars.

Rinus Veekay and Colton Herta, two IndyCar rivals chasing for a lap. Now for the overall lead. Blomqvist is all over Rciky Taylor. Blomqvist pushes the pedal down and goes for the lead! Drag race to the Bus Stop. Blomqvist has the preferred line. Less than an hour and a half to go. Ricky Taylor almost outbrakes himself and Blomqvist is back in it. This is full attack mode and here come Duval and Conway in the Cadillac's. It is a four-car race now. Blomqvist has more fuel. Here comes Duval on Taylor! This is unbelievable! Duval takes Taylor and here comes Conway!

Blomqvist has cleared out by 1.3 seconds. Jaminet, Vanthoor and Pier Guidi scrap in GTD Pro. This is a major scrum between #9 and #2. Jaminet vs. Vanthoor. Vanthoor gives Jaminet the chrome horn. He says, "I know you're there, sunbeam." Colton Herta under siege for Louis Deletraz in LMP2. 74 minutes on the board. The LMP2 cars are trying to get by the GTD Pro entries and GTD entries. A speed differential is 30 miles an hour compared to nearly 80-100 miles an hour 30-40 years ago. Deletraz got the point by on the last Full Course Yellow. All five classes up for grabs.

This GTD Pro battle is scintillating! This is good stuff here. Vanthoor creeps up on the back of the #9. Two Porsche GT3R's. The classic Porsche flat 6 motor. #5 JDC-Miller Mustang Sampling Cadillac cutting it to the last possible moment on the stop. Driver change. Who is in the car? Many celebrities have raced here too. Frank Beard, Patrick Dempsey, Craig T. Nelson, Jason Priestley, Paul Newman, and others. All hands-on deck in the NBC booth. Tom Blomqvist, a DPi rookie. He has been incredible. Helio Castroneves will take the #60 car to the end. Stack the deck. You need closers. #10 in the lane. Handling trouble for the car, slightly. The #10 will have to hurry.

What about the #31? Troubles on the left front rattle gun for the tire. Conway second to Blomqvist. Scrubbed tires on the #10 car. Conway is 5.6 seconds behind Blomqvist. Here comes Blomqvist to hand the #60 to Helio Castroneves. Mike Conway in the lead. Castroneves leads Taylor by 33 seconds. Conway has a 37 second lead. Pit stop for the #31. Mike Conway will hand over to Pipo Derani. So, Castroneves seems to have leapfrogged Derani in the lane. Vautier chasing down Taylor. Where are Castroneves and Derani? That is what we want to know.

Duval gets tagged by a McLaren GT3. The leaders are clearing lapped traffic as they battle. Simon Pagenaud wants to win a Rolex 24. He came second in 2021 with a different team.

Rolex 24: Hour 22

The #54 CORE Autosport LMP3 car of Colin Braun, and Spencer Pumpelly in the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin. These two cars need a yellow. The #44 wants to get a lap back. The #31 Whelen Cadillac comes out of the pits. In comes the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac for fuel, tires, and a driver change. Wayne Taylor Racing is back in the lead, and we have Acura's running 1-2 over the Cadillac's. We are coming up to the time of a sprint race. Going as hard as you can, sometimes can be a fallacy. Watch the curbs in the Le Mans chicane. To the lane, the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Mike Conway is back aboard the #31 as we see the two Ganassi Cadillac's have had trouble along with the second AXR Cadillac, the #48 Ally entry. It's indeed sprint race time. #10 now in the pit lane. Conway moving up and Blomqvist now leading in the #60 entry.

Racing is the epitome of a team sport. Having done 3/4 of a day's work, then the race begins, and then, they have to take a whole day to tear down the pit boxes and load the car and the transporter. No mistakes. Everyone has to be on their A game. Richard Westbrook is now third and we see the #60 Acura in. Richard Westbrook and then Tristan Vautier to finish? No. Loic Duval might be the closer. Cadillac has the speed while Acura has the fuel advantage. Tom Blomqvist will hand the #60 over to Helio Castroneves. Three-wide into the International Horseshoe. LMP3 argy bargy across the grass for Rasmus Lindh in the #36 Andretti Autoport entry. I got it, I got it. I don't got it.

A penalty for speeding in the lane for the #54 CORE Autosport LMP3 entry. Matteo Cairoli slides to a stop in turn five. He overcooked the corner. That was bizarre. Townsend Bell is back in the #12 Lexus RC F GT3 for Vasser Sullivan. Bell is on his third stint right now. Zacharie Robichon still leads GTD and Frankie Montecalvo will be back in the #12 Lexus. There is an airbag in the helmet, and it is inflated to push the helmet off if there is a head injury. It has never had to be used, the helmet airbag. Richard Westbrook is in the lead in the #5 JDC-Miller Cadillac. Ricky Taylor will finish out the motor race in the Acura. The Cadillac's are burning fuel while the Acura's are more efficient. But this event will again come down to a shootout, probably.

Dennis Olsen for KCMG and Matty Campbell for Pfaff battle in Porsche's for GTD Pro. Ganassi Cadillac's have had issues for the fuel pump for the #02 entry and a litany of woe for the #01 as well. Danielle Shepherd is a simulator engineer who has become a lead engineer at CGR on Cadillac #02. Wright Motorsports did not race here last year but they are pressing on for a possible win in GTD this year. The AXR/WTR battle resumes as Mike Conway battles Filipe Albuquerque. This Porsche scrum in GTD Pro has been fascinating. KCMG vs. Pfaff, trading blows all day, all night, and all day again. This battle between #10 and #31 is for second.

Mike Conway was spooked into lifting. Filipe Albuquerque almost runs right into the back of Mike Conway! Yikes! That was scary business! Richard Westbrook is pulling away. Just a shade over two hours to go. The ambient and track temperatures will continue to change. Wright Motorsports now in the lane and now, Jan Heylen is getting into the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Zacharie Robichon is getting out of the car. Heylen won the 2021 Michelin Pilot Challenge championship. Robichon, at the outset of the pandemic, took up bread baking. Anyhow, back to the racing. Mike Conway. Wheel to wheel. MSR and AXR and Conway seems to get the best of Tom Blomqvist for now.

Blomqvist is closing up. This is a breathtaking scrum in DPi! Blomqvist goes outside Conway and makesit stick. How will Conway respond? Loic Duval will finish out this race in the #5 Cadillac. Westbrook hits the pit lane. One more stint for Westbrook. He will then hand it over to Loic Duval to bring it home. Mike Conway will do his last stint. Pipo Derani will finish the race for AXR. The Cadillac's have the speed. The Acura's might have the fuel mileage. Loic Duval, Ricky Taylor, Helio Casroneves, Pipo Derani. Traffic, traffic, traffic. Acura #10 has yet to pit. He leads Blomqvist, Westbrook, and Conway.

WTR can do three stops so Taylor will do a quadruple stint. #31, #5, and #60 will go in and do driver changes on the next stop while Taylor does a quadruple stint. Josh Pierson, age 15, and he will be 16 very soon. Here comes #10. Josh Pierson says he has done well in his firstRo;ex 24 and is ecstatic to be here. Pit stop time in the #10 camp. The ace driver in the car. Will this be an advantage for WTR? Limit risk. MSR in the lane. Josh Pierson racing PR1 in IMSA LMP2 and United in LMP2 in World Endurance Championship. Pierson supports Alzheimer's as his grandfather has Alzheimer's. Great cause.

Closing in on two hours to go with the #60 MSR Acura in the lead of the motor race. Matthieu Jaminet leads Laurens Vanthoor in the GTD Pro battle of the Porsche's. Mike Conway is now back to fourth place.

Rolex 24: Hour 21

Pit stop time for McLaren and a brake change on the car. It was a seal failure, actually, on the McLaren. Not a brake change. Matt Campbell defends from Alessandro Pier Guidi. We're also keeping an eye on the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in GT Daytona for John Potter, Andy Lally, Spencer Pumpelly, and Jonny Adam. To the lane comes the #60 Meyer Shank Acura. Fuel and tires at the very least. Just under four hours to go. Pipo Derani has gone back to third and the two Acura's are now back to the front. Derani oves back to second. If we get no more yellows, this race comes down to strategy. Loic Duval is now in the #5 Cadillac passing Filipe Albuquerque. Pipo Derani now retakes the lead. Richard Westbrook and his team are on a different strategy to the Action Express Cadillac. He wants to see more front aerodynamics and the track conditions are changing like crazy. Out laps are horrendous. Loic Duval is now 4.5 seconds behind Pipo Derani.

Watch out for the white sticks in the Bus Stop curbing, the Le Mans chicane. Cut the chicane finer and finer as the curbing wears away. The cars are not hopping over the curbs. Potter, Lally, Pumpelly, and Adam in the #44 Aston Martin are a lap down but they can get back into it in GTD currently third. Lally and Pumpelly have both started the Rolex 24, 20 times. We will check in with Mr. Le Mans himself, Tom Kristensen. You won't want to miss it. We do say hello to Tom Kristensen. He has wins at Sebrng, Le Mans, and Petit Le Mans. When the car gets sharper and you gel with it, there is nothing better. But if you haven't, it is tougher.

It is lovely feeling to be in touch with the car, on a rubbered in track even on a cold night. Two Cadillac's being chased by two Acura's. Loic Duval was teammates at Audi with Tom Kristensen at Audi in 2013. He is a fast driver. He has been maturing in American racing according to Kristensen. The Acura's could get quicker as the track rubbers in. The draw of endurance racing is, we are bitten by the bug as drivers and fans. So, Kristensen says that you always want to do better and optimize the automobile.

There are so many elements that need to be brought together. Prove yourself. Have camaraderie with you teammates. Tom Kristensen has shown us the gallery of his winning cars and trophies as well as his helmets, motorcycles, diecast cars, and he has his son's soccer trophies. Now of course, there is more meshing between the Daytona 24 Hours and the Le Mans 24 Hours. We have the 60th anniversary of the Rolex 24 now. We will have the 100th anniversary of Le Mans next year. Hypercar and LMDh, are huge. Tom Kristensen called Pierre Fillon, Presidnt of the ACO to congratulate him on the century mark of the race and the Le Mans corner at Daytona. We will again see a Daytona corner at Le Mans.

Take more risks but be sure of what you want to do. More grip is available in the tires, maybe, in spite of the cold. Drivers prove to their teams, mechanics, and families, that they are the best. The cold will be a huge deal for the pit crews. It was dark and cold in the wee hours of the mornng. Loic Duval is now hounding Pipo Derani for the lead. This race has become a sprint. When do you pull the trigger to go for it? Duval in the lead, Derani in second, fighting, fidgeting as the hours wind down. #31 in the pit lane now for service. Pipo Derani will stay in for a double stint. Loic Duval stays out after #31 came and now, they come.

They are changing tires and doing a driver change, doing the undercut. Albuquerque and Pagenaud move to the front in the Acura's. The #26 LMP3 car is off the road with mechanical woes. Nolan Siegel at the controls. The Acura's have a ways to go before deciding to pit before a probable yellow flag. Crucially, back time this motor race to the end. The #48 Ally Cadillac of Jimmie Johnson has spun. Cold tires on the out lap in the International Horseshoe and Jimmie Johnson just spun the car. Cold tires and he got the right side tires on a painted curb.

Acura #10 pitting. Routine service and scrubbed tires. They have one lap on them to get the bright sheen of the release agent off the tires. By design, there are not enough tires in DPi to change for every stop. Doubling and tripling the stints on the tires is very important. Acura #60 in the lane with Simon Pagenaud. A spinning Lamborghini in the first turn on the road course. That looks like the TR3 entry, car #19. Hard to tell. Four DPi entries still on the lead lap, the cars we have been speaking of Filipe Albuquerque gestures to the #60 MSR Acura. They wat to work together to run down the Cadillacs. Loic Duval leads Pipo Derani.

Tom Blomqvist is back into the #60 MSR entry. Porsche #2 for KCMG pits in GTD Pro. High intensity and extra track position is still a huge deal, a huge part of this 60th anniversary Rolex 24. We continue watching the Acura. The #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche is in the pit lane. Felipe Fraga is the leader in LMP3, still and that is who we are watching on track right now. Loic Duval still leads Pipo Derani overall with only three hours to go. Duval leads Derani by eight and a half seconds. The top four are covered by 18.6 seconds.

Rolex 24: Hour 20

Patrick Pilet is catching Matt Campbell in GTD Pro. The tug of war has been going on across all five classes. Trouble for the #66 Gradient Racing Acura, slow on the apron of the trioval. Actually, he may be off on the backstretch. Mike Conway leads the motor race, still, and there is a ways to go, but it is close to money time. Louis Deletraz and Pato O'Ward are close togetherfor the lead in LMP2. Mike Conway has opened a gap that has ballooned now to 18 seconds. Mikkel Jensen in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports car. Ben Keating has done seven hours and 20 minutes of driving between DPi and LMP2. The speed he had in DPi on fresh tires, 1 and 1/4 seconds off the leader's pace. Wow. He is a Bronze driver.

Kay van Berlo and Niclas Jonsson are the top two in LMP3 ahead of Sebastian Priaulx and a lap down, Josh Burdon. Oliver Jarvis wants by Richard Westbrook. Two Cadillac vs. Acura battles on the road for the top four places with just over four and a half hours of racing to go. The #31 Cadillac is double stinting on tires in the cold. As the #60 Acura continues with Oliver Jarvis, they put time in the bank on fuel. Running long, they could short fill and have an advantage on the other DPi cars. The cold is playing a major factor. Is there drop off on the tires? That is what AXR has to wonder about. If it doesn't, well, if there is a yellow, hang onto your tires.

Earl Bamber in the Ganassi Racing #02 are 28 laps down. Conway cuts a 1:41 and his lead has been whittled down to ten seconds. We say hello again to IMSA President John Doonan. Momentum has doubled the field, and the regulations stabilization makes team see that teams from around the world will be able to run the same cars anyplace in the world. DPi ends homologation at the end of this year, and we will see GTP next year, with five brands and a single source hybrid system, and the engine of the manufacturer's choice. Mike Conway's lead is shrinking. Now, the collaboration continues between IMSA and the ACO, and the new Le Mans chicane, and there may be a Daytona chicane at Le Mans on the Mulsanne Straight. There will be a Daytona chicane at Le Mans. Not maybe. It will happen. IMSA has 18 brands of cars showcased in their different series.

Mike Conway went off the road a wee bit in turn five and he almost ran into one of the Corvett'es. Rossi is slicing into the lead of the #31 Cadillac on degrading tires and now, they are in the lane for tires and service. So, a driver change, handing over to Pipo Derani. Derani should be the closer. Four and a half hours, so, he will get a couple of stints. Tristan Nunez will also have another shot. Full fuel load at Action Express as well. The #01 Ganassi Cadillac pits as well. Fuel, tires, and a driver change. A nose change it appears for the #5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac as well.

DragonSpeed #81 IN lMP2 has made a pit stop. Any more takers? More Porsche vs. Ferrari action in GTD Pro. Factory drivers for both teams. #48 in the pit lane for Action Express and Hendrick Motorsports. Alessandro Pier Guidi will be pitting before Matty Jaminet I believe. Fred Schandorff still second in GTD in the #70 McLaren for Inception Racing. He passes for the lead around Richard Lietz. Simon Mann is next up in AF Corse Ferrari #21. JDC-Miller Motorsports are repairing the existing nose from the #5 Cadillac. Tristan Vautier has been in the wars a little bit throughout this race. Mike Conway has had a spirited battle. He thinks the car has good pace and it is close between the top four and they did get ahead of the Acura's.

It is risk vs. reward with the tires in the frigid cold. The rear tires start to go away quick depending on stints. It is always a fine line. Keep it clean. Do not trip over slower cars. Pipo Derani now closing up for second on Alexander Rossi. Rossi tries breaking the draft in NASCAR turn two. A lapped car at the Le Mans chicane, give up the entry to the turn. Pipo Derani has now moved around Alexander Rossi. This race isn't done yet. Pipo Derani is now chasing Richard Westbrook in the #5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Mustang Sampling Cadillac. Rossi and Pagenaud in the Acura's close at hand.

Smoke rising from campfires as fans are doing their level best to keep warm. Or, also, cooking breakfast. Class leader in LMP3, Kay van Berlo is in the lane for service. No driver change. Serviced and sent. In the pit lane, the GTD leading Inception McLaren, car #70, with a leaking gearbox overnight. But they lead GTD right now. Westbrook leads by four seconds now over Pipo Derani. Louis Deletraz leads Pato O'Ward by 20 seconds or less in LMP2 as we see a pit stop in GTD for the #47 Cetilar Ferrari ad now the #79 WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT3R chugs its way out of the pt lane and is back on track.

Heat up the tires on the out lap. Push, push, push, without tearing up the tires. Pipo Derani is pressing Richard Westbrook for the lead of the motor race now as we approach the end of another racing hour. Turn on "The Dynamo". The champ is on the money! Westbrook defends but Pipo Derani tucks it to the inside to take the lead into the Le Mans chicane, but Westbrook is coming back. Derani throws the block. This is not go time yet. We still have over four hours to go. Tristan Vautier and Tristan Nunez went at it earlier in the race as Alexander Rossi remains third, three and a half seconds behind.

Marcus Ericsson has the #02 Ganassi Racing Cadillac. All five classes, have cars on the lead lap, with four or so hours left. Wright Motorsports vs. Inception Racing still in GTD. Here comes the McLaren on the Porsche. The Heylen and Schandorff battle continues in GT Daytona. The Belgian vs. the Dane. Heylen has found the pace and dives inside gaining the lead back. Porsche, McLaren, BMW, Lamborghini. How do you make these makes competitive with each other? A tough task for the IMSA tech team.

Rolex 24: Hour 19

On fresh Michelin tirs it is still slick and Matty Campbell has now taken over the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche from Felipe Nasr. Good scrum in GTD between the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche and the #57 Winward Mercedes AMG. Richard Lietz and Philip Ellis doing battle down the backstretch to the Le Mans chicane. Good gesture after naming Le Mans' chicane on the Mulsanne straight, the Daytona chicane. So, we will see convergence between Daytona and Le Mans soon with GTP/LMH. Dirk Mueller has nearly gone off the road but gathers it up in the #15 WeatherTech Mercedes AMG GT3. Jack Hawksworth is pressing Toni Vilander while the #26 Muehlner Motorsport entry in LMP3 goes off the road on the out lap for C.R. Crews.

More pit stops coming as we are getting steadily down to the nitty gritty. It is almost time to lay the cards on the table for the Rolex watches. How bad do you want it? Ricky Taylor scything through traffic and the GTD battle. Left front tire down on the #42 NTE Sport Lamborghini, Benja Hites, the Chilean driver in trouble. So, the #10 Acura is going to pit and hand the car to Alexander Rossi. Who will close? Hites ran wide off turn one and we could see a yellow for this. He is still slowly trundling 'round. That Michelin has a massive flatspot and it came right apart. He is on the apron of the backstretch. It was paved years ago to keep cars from flipping, recall stock car flips by Rusty Wallace here in the 1990s, in 1993, and a flip in the 1996 Rolex 24 by the British, Jaguar powered Lister Storm driven by Northern Ireland's Kenny Acheson. That was a wild one.

Action Express in the lane for fuel, tires and a driver change. No driver change at AXR. Mike Conway will stay in the car they are keeping pace with the #10. Taylor has been saving petrol. Poor old Hites has a major wobbly wheel there, look. 33 seconds for a pit stop from Whelen Engineering from Action Express. It is a traffic jam on the banking. The track is heating up and so is the competition! Wow! Acura #10 is in the lane. Alexander Rossi into the Acura. We are ready to hear from Leigh Diffey, Calvin Fish, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Pit stop time now too for the #24 BMW Team RLL BMW M4 GT3. Not sure who is in that car at the moment. A GTD Mercedes scrap on the road through the horse shoe and headed for turn six. #10 off the road and back on. That will lose time for Alexander Rossi. Rossi wriggled his way over the curbs on his second lap on cold Michelin tires. Rossi is back to the lead of the motor race. Still very cool in Daytona. In 1966 it was 28 degrees overnight in this race, not as cold, but almost, last night. The out laps on cold tires have been an affect on many of the top runners.

Castroneves on cold tires is trying to maintain his lead. Rossi and Conway both are catching up. Mike Conway on the inside, trying to pass Rossi. Conway is an FIA World Endurance champion and a Le Mans winner. Helio Castroneves leaads and has been on a tear, going for his second straight Rolex 24 win for Acura. Very mild conditions make it easier. Mentally with 61 cars on the road, wow. It is mega. So, Gary Nelson has something to say about the plan for Action Express. Nelson says it is nice to be close to the end and be within striking distance.

Stay on the lead lap and run flat out. The Acura's are very strong. They have shown what they have, and Action Express will race them to the end. AXR just nabbed second away from Alexander Rossi. The #31 has been off the road at least three or four times, and now, they need to keep it on the blacktop. It is a five-and-a-half-hour shootout at the OK corral. AXR looks at the competition, tries to find an advantage, and then, pull the trigger. AXR has won with three drivers, with four, and with five. Your event has to be trouble free, and let drivers sleep as long as they can and then get them going 15 minutes before getting in the car.

At the Roar Before the Rolex 24, last weekend, track position is key. Mike Conway is reeling in Ricky Taylor little by little. Helio Castroneves is trying to gap Alexander Rossi. Richard Westbrook still holds fourth place in DPi and here comes Mike Conway slicing past Alexander Rossi for second place. Rossi up top and Conway down low. Conway tries hanging tough under braking and gets the job done. This is a cat and mouse game. Rossi is wriggling around, halfway through his stint. After 8AM Eastern Time, the #57 Winward Mercedes of Phil Ellis went behind the wall and they have broken the bonnet pins.

The bonnet was dislodged, and at high speeds at Daytona, the windscreen would be shattered. This is a full season effort for Winward. Bryce and Russell Ward bought into the HTP Mercedes team in Europe and have gone from there. The #42 Lamborghini is also in limp home mode back to the garage with just about five hours and 20 minutes left on the board. Mike Conway, working lapped traffic. Castroneves leads Conway by a second and a half and here comes Conway! He is on the attack, on the blitz. Conway got chopped by the Pfaff Porsche. He has more lapped traffic to deal with. Conway is applying the blowotorch.

Be forceful but decisive. Conway will get a run. Traffic plays a role here. Risk vs. reward in traffic. Where is the edge? Can we afford to take downforce out of the car? Conway tries Castroneves, not enough to get the job done. In GT Daytona, Austin Cindric says how cold it is. It feels like the winter Olympics here at Daytona according to Cindric. This lead battle is unreal. Mike Conway is sizing Helio Castroneves up. Just like a speedway NASCAR event. Mike Conway is playing mind games with Helio Castroneves. He is a World Endurance champ and a Le Mans winner and Conway takes the lead!

Mike Conway not happy with Castroneves and not happy with lapped traffic. The #31 will pit now and the #60 will stay out longer. The Cadillac has had to short pit. Pipo Derani and Tristan Nunez will be next into the car. The #01 Cadillac trundling down the pit lane and still have drama. Alternator trouble for the #01 and fuel pump for the #02. Three laps in fuel difference between Action Express and Meyer Shank with five hours and ten minutes to go. The #5 JDC-Miller Cadillac makes a pit stop as we have been watching Mike Conway storming out on the track.

Castroneves has less pressure and is leading. Now, the #10 Konica Minolta Acura in and out of the lane. Mike Conway has dropped to fourth place. Castroneves, Rossi, Conway, the top three. AXR has had to pit early for fuel. Mike Conway is now second passing Rossi and Helio Castroneves is in the lane. Four tires, fuel, and a driver change at Meyer Shank Racing. Oliver Jarvis will take over the wheel. Because of the cold, there is no grip in the tires. Track position is crucial. Mike Conway has gone by Oliver Jarvis and he has to warm up the tires. So, Mike Conway is in the lead once more.

Richard Lietz leads GT Daytona along with his co-drivers at Wright Motorsports. Hard to see this #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche and not think about the now retired Patrick Long. Jan Heylen has won the Porsche Cup. Lietz leading over Simon Mann in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3. We have ten more GT cars in the field compared to last year. Westbrook threading the needle on Rossi for P3. Wow. Conway now leads Jarvis by 15 seconds. The plot is thickening with five hours left in this motor race. Fred Schandorff in the #70 Inception Racing McLaren has come to second in GTD. Matt Campbell has finished his stint in the Pfaff Motorsport Porsche.

Rolex 24: Hour 18

The #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac is in the pit lane third in class and in the overall. More work being done on some cars. We are getting ready for battle. You have to drive at least four hours, but no more than four in a six-hour period of time. Pick your closer for who will finish. Start back timing this race. Tom Blomqvist stays in the #60 Meyer Shank Acura. Many cars on the lead lap in all classes. We just do not know when the winning pass will be made. We just have no idea. Brew some coffee, munch some peanut butter toast or a bagel or something, and get ready for action in these closing stages. Old reliable #48 for Action Express and Hendrick Motorsports is still pounding around. It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

It looks like Jimmie Johnson could be in that car. Here comes the sun! Finally! Maybe on the #97 Mercedes, and oil line maybe came loose from hitting the curbs. The #97 Mercedes was on track but is now back in the garage. The driver says to the team, "I have no power." Hmmm. Well, the plot thickens. The #02 Ganassi Racing Cadillac is also in the garage. Hopefully the rising sun can warm the speedway. Now, #02 with Alex Lynn having issues, with a fuel pump on the car. That will put the sister CGR entry behind the eight ball just as it was with the #01 with an alternator belt issue. Earl Bamber was in the car. He says that the fuel pressure issue reared it's head again.

Here's it all again, in slow motion. Green flag! Tom Blomqvist leads over Ricky Taylor, Tristan Vautier, and Tristan Nunez. #01 is 40 laps down, Scott Dixon at the controls. Keep your head down and keep pushing. The Ganassi entries will be in an extended test session. Now then, the #15 Mercedes AMG GT3 has Austin Cindric at the wheel of it, and he raced in the Michelin Pilot Challenge event on Friday. #22 has spun, the United Autosports LMP2 entry off the road, Guy Smith, and Josh Pierson has also spun the #11 Win Autosport Oreca LMP2 as well, look. He had to take evasive action and is back in the game.

The purple glow of dawn fingers the sky in Daytona Beach. Lots of driver changes over the offseason. Rinus Veekay is chasing Ferdinand Habsburg for the lead in LMP2 and Devlin DeFrancesco has made his way back up into contention, and almost brushing the wall is Veekay! Holy smokes! Rinus Veekay says the LMP2 car is very narrow when it is twice as wide compared to an IndyCar. All kinds of traffic in GTD Pro. The #81 DragonSpeed entry was stalled in neutral on the pit lane. If the rear wheels spin on the air jacks, it is a penalty. Don't harm a mechanic. Here comes Julien Andlauer passing teammate Austin Cindric. #79 Porsche on #15 Mercedes.

Just over six and a half hours to go. The sun continues to rise just after 7AM Eastern Time. We have a 3.56 mile lap with 12 corners. Of 533 laps completed, 90 laps under yellow. That is 17% of the duration thus far. HelioCastroneves is readyt o get in the #60. In the #01 entry, Renger van der Zande is ready to go. In the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura, lurking in second spot, Alexander Rossi will get into the car. The #31 Action Express entry will have Mike Conway and Mike Rockenfeller getting into the #31 and #48 respectively. We are getting set to come to the end of the race. Have the foundation and the execution. What are the intangibles? WTR have won on raw speed and managed this race. Can the other teams like AXR or MSR or JDC do the same? Once you win your first, it takes confidence to win more and you build it up.

That is why the motto of my pals at Action Express is Expect to Win. Jump rope, get your heart rate up and get the blood flowing if you can. You just do not know when you will get into the automobile next. Blomqvist, Taylor, Vautier, Nunez, the top four. The sun has not increased the thermostat in Daytona Beach, nor has it done so in Minnesota where yours truly lives. Taylor now runs 4.5 seconds behind Blomqvist, Vautier, 5.9 seconds out, Nunez, 8.8 seconds behind. Ferdinand Habsburg leads LMP2 by 3.6 seconds over Rinus Veekay with Devlin DeFrancesco eight and a half seconds down and Scott Huffaker nearly ten seconds down.

LMP3 sees Michael Cooper over a minute ahead of Colin Braun with Sebastian Priaulx and Gabby Chaves both a lap down. We were going to get to the gaps in GTD Pro and GTD but will do so in a wee while. OK. Laurens Vanthoor for KCMG leads Daniel Serra by 7.2 seconds, Felipe Nasr by 7.9 seconds, and Jack Hawksworth by 8.2 seconds. Tristan Vautier receives a warning for contact with the #47 Cetilar Ferrari, Giorgio Sernagiotto, the Italian, at the wheel of it. Renger van der Zande now steps into the #01 entry testing for the next race at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

In GTD, Zach Robichon leads by 2.2 seconds over Jordan Pepper. Phil Ellis is 8.7 seconds down. 12 seconds to Scott Andrews in the #32 Mercedes. Toni Vilander next up. Helio Castroneves is readying himself to drive another stint in the #60 MSR Acura replacing Tom Blomqvist. Mike Conway is now back behind the wheel of the #31 Whelen Cadillac. #60 to the lane. Four tires, fuel, and a driver change as Helio Castroneves gets in. The sun is coming up at Daytona while it is still 34 degrees ambient. Castroneves in a double or triple stint. Helio Castroneves or Simon Pagenaud may be the closer for the #60 team. Mike Conway has moved to third place. Work from the checkered flag backwards.

That is how the team bosses are going to be crunching numbers and strategizing. Minimum drive time is four hours per driver. Two hours in the minimum and maximum is four hours in a rolling six-hour bloc. Drive time will be critical. Don't make a pig's breakfast out of calculations if you are an engineer. You are mentally worn out by this time. Jordan Pepper in the Mclaren is thundering away trying to move in on Zacharie Robichon as Rinus Veekay is pressing on in the #29 Racing Team Nederland entry. The #33 Sean Creech Motorsports LMP3 entry was seven minutes short and that was Malthe Jakubsen.

Sebastian Priaulx now at the wheel of it in the #33. Some left rear damage on the wing of the #33 but it is no issue. Ricky Taylor has now taken the lead trying to get four consecutive wins for Wayne Taylor Racing. Mike Conway is pouring on the steam, moving in on Helio Castroneves. When he switched from IndyCar to sports cars, he has found his feet. Tristan Nunez is very happy with his stint returning to DPi. It is a 24-hour sprint race. Every lap counts. He is learning a bunch about the car and the team in one race with Action Express. Chaos on cold tires in freezing temperatures, driving on ice. Tristan Nunez is making his 11th start in the Rolex 24.

He was a Mazda factory driver for a decade, and he still has time. He is from Florida. Ricky Taylor actually continues to lead the motor race overall. Rinus Veekay chasing Ferdinand Habsburg for LMP2 honors. 60 years of history here at the Rolex 24. Wow. Drivers have to be committed fully to running a DPi entry. Chase Elliott, when he ran with AXR last year wanted to do it, but he could not because of the commitment to the new NASCAR Cup car developing it. These teams need commitment to run for the Rolex watch. Maybe next year. The sun is up and we have a couple NASCAR races to go or the duration of a World Endurance event to go.

We have just seen a pit stop for the #79 WeatherTech Porsche.

Rolex 24: Hour 17

So, we have completed 2/3rds of this race. We still have a full third left. Several cars rejoining the track from green flag pit stops. This might be Ollie Milroy's first Rolex 24. Milroy leads GTD over Jonny Adam by 14+ seconds. Zacharie Robichon, the rapid Canadian, is now aboard the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Lucas Auer continues aboard the #57 Winward Motorsports Mercedes. Millroy to the lane for service. Tristan Nunez continues to lead to the tune of 7.8 seconds. We are just two laps away from the 500 laps completed marker. 500 laps completed, 1,780 miles. 833 laps is the record, in 2020, the year yours truly was at the speedway to see the Rolex 24 in person. Tristan Vautier is slightly eating his way into the gap behind Tristan Nunez. Nunez has run 15 laps, and Vautier, 14. It is the Tristan and Tristan show.

We have another Full Course Yellow and so, we will see more pit stops. We need to find out what the reason is for this 14th yellow. The previous green flag was an hour and 47 minutes. What on earth happened? This is a big accident for an LMP3 entry. The Andretti Autosport car is off big style in the Internatuonal Horseshoe. It is the #36 Andretti Autosport Ligier with Rasmus Lindh, the Swede, at the controls. Felipe Fraga continues leading LMP3 ahead of Jon Bennett. It could be game over here for Andretti Autosport. Wait a moment. It is not Andretti Autosport. It is the #6 Muehlner Motorsports America entry, and the second time they've gone off the road.

Joel Miller was at the wheel of it, having pranged the barrier. His co-drivers, Efrin Castro from the Domincan Republic, Moritz Kranz of Germany, and America Ayrton Ori. So, Andretti Autosport fans, you can breathe a sigh of relief as Rasmus Lindh continues in the race in that automobile. The car will be recovered and maybe it will head to the lane under it's own steam. Prototypes will pit soon before GT's come in. Emergency service for the #3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. Nicky Catsburg needed to hit the pit lane. Corvette hit drama with alternator issues for the #4 entry. These cars are now GT3 cars reverse engineered and also run at Le Mans in 2021. Nunez, Vautier, Blomqvist, and Stevens, the top four.

Nunez leads the motor race. Pit stop time as prototypes have already made their stops and here come the GTD Pro and GTD runners. Gradient and NTE Sport are two of the teams in the pti lane. The race to end is on. We welcome Dave Burns and James Hinchcliffe to the booth. Green flag back in the air, now. Tristan Nunez being monstered by Tom Blomqvist and now, Nunez is off the road after being slammed by Tristan Nunez. Nunez has to slice and dice his way back up the order. He has enough time. Tristan Vautier might serve a penalty. Little argy bargy incidents can add up towards the end of the race.

Team strategist Tim Keene expects the #5 entry to get a penalty. Now then, Simon Mann is slow in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari. The fracas between the #5 and #31 is under review. KCMG and Pfaff Motorsports are still battling in GTD Pro along with the Ferrari #62. Laurens Vanthoor, Felipe Nasr, and Davide Rigon. #21 was biffed by a prototype headed for the lane! Yikes! 53 of 61 starters still running. Eight official retirements and only eight, from the race thus far. Tristan Nunez has now dropped to fourth place, 13 seconds behind. Will AXR be able to claw their way up? Tom Blomqvist now leads Earl Bamber and Ricky Taylor.

Colton Herta leads LMP2 ahead of Ferdinand Habsburg, Scott Huffaker, and Rinus Veekay. LMP3 has Felipe Fraga ahead of Malthe Jakubsen, George Kurtz, and Rasmus Lindh. In GTD Pro, it is Daniel Juncadella for Mercedes ahead of Davide Rigon for Risi Competizione Ferrari, Laurens Vanthoor in the KCMG Porsche and Felipe Nasr in the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche. It is still dark, just about 6:20 A.M. The cold weather has really affected the fans, the drivers, and the pit crews, all. All five DPi cars are on the lead lap. We are in the "zombie land" stage with the pit crews sleeping between pit stops while the cars race. Laurens Vanthoor has now passed Daniel Juncadella for the lead in GTD Pro.

Davide Rigon is all over Juncadella now. Tom Blomqvist continues to lead the motor race ahead of Earl Bamber and Ricky Taylor with Tristan Nunez now fourth. 22 laps down, Jose Maria Lopez is now in the #48 Ally Action Express Cadillac. Helio Castroneves is on deck for another stint to take over from Tom Blomqvist, kitted up 20-25 minutes before and we have a spin in the Le Mans chicane for George Kurtz in the #54 LMP3 entry for CORE Autosport. He lost it on corner entry into the Le Mans chicane. Maybe the was a mismatched downshift, locking the brakes. The #11 Win Autosport LMP2 car of young Josh Pierson, he has a stop + 60 penalty.

Trouble now for the #97 Mercedes, smoke pouring from the front of the car. It could be tire smoke, maybe engine smoke. Hard to tell. There's a lot of dirt and clag on the road. Maybe there is carbon fiber in shards out there. Juncadella went over the curbs and picked up some shrapnel somewhere. The curbs are good for lap time but bad for car reliability. One of the LMP2 entries is off the road. There's oil all over the road and that Mercedes might be puking oil out from someplace. Full Course Yellow, for the 15th time. The sun will be rising at Daytona very soon and we will be in daylight in a wee while.

Yes. A whole bunch of smoke emanating from that Mercedes, from under the bonnet. The snatch truck has retrieved the stalled G-Drive LMP2 entry. WeatherTech Racing have crowded their way around the motor in the Mercedes to see what is going on. The sun will come up in about 25 minutes with some clouds around too. So, #97 is now being pushed back to the garage. This is an oiling issue. I was right. The car was chucking oil out. This is the 15th yellow flag of the event, with all the traffic, and the cold. Pit road is closed. Wake up the crrew. It is time to go for it. So, the leaders have indeed pitted and now, we are going to see people double stinting tires.

Oil dry, cement dust is being laid down. Watch out for the cement dust on the road when we go back to green flag conditions. It is going to be really dodgy out there. Scott Huffaker spun and James Allen was stranded and is on the rollback to head back to the garage. James Allen scored an LMP2 podium here at Daytona in a rain soaked event in 2019. GTD Pro and GTD pit together. Laurens Vanthoor is in the lane along with Flipe Nasr and Davide Rigon. The dueling between the Porsche's and the Ferrari has been unreal. The sun is starting to rside at 20 minutes to 7AM Eastern Time. The Inception McLaren, one of them is still in the lane.

Yes. The rear deck is off of the McLaren as the crew makes repairs. Now they are buttoning it up and will send the car back on track.

Rolex 24: Hour 16

We have just spent about an hour and a half under green. This is the 13th Full Course Yellow of the race. 393 laps under green. Pipo Derani has completed 465 laps, 1,655 miles. We still do not know who was on fire. It will be pit stop time again very soon. The turn one line is fairly traditional. The LMP3 car is far off the road. What happened to this said automobile? It could be the #7 Forty7 Motorsports Duqueine of Antoine Doquin, the Frenchman. This car has had issues as we see Felipe Fraga still leading LMP3 aboard the #74 Riley Motorsports entry. Doquin is safe and sound, Thank God. IMSA Radio pit reporter Shea Adam has just tweeted that. Let's hope Doquin has not inhaled noxious black smoke. Cadillac #02 and Acura #60 have been into the pit lane. The #48 Ally Cadillac has also pitted.

Colton Herta and James Allen, for DragonSpeed and G-Drive have pitted, plus the #29 Racing Team Nederland entry. James Allen in the #69. Rui Andrade for Tower Motorsports in the #8 has also pitted and the #33 Sean Creech Motorsports entry of Malthe Jakobsen is in the lane too, from fifth in class in LMP3. Doquin is out of the car and the car is now being back on the flatbed truck drenched in fire extinguishant. Game over. Did not see the incident. All we saw was the smoke cloud in the darkness. What a quality field this has been this year. The #99 Team Hardpoint Porsche is in the pit lane in GT Daytona.

Stefan Wilson is in the car at the moment and the car looks like it is in great shape. Also in the pit lane, the #15 WeatherTech Mercedes AMG GT3. Patrick Assenheimer at the controls of the #15 entry. This is the Proton USA entry in GTD Pro. Matthieu Jaminet in the Pfaff Porsche leads the Vasser Sullivan dayglow yellow Vasser Sullivan Lexus followed by Davide Rigon in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3. The #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac is in the pit lane now. Eight and 3/4 hours left. 61 cars started this race. We have to see how many are left. Matteo Cairoli is currently in the #79 WeatherTech GTD Pro Porsche 911 GT3R. Malthe Jakobsen was supposed to get into the car but his co-driver Dr. Lance Willsey needs more time before handing over to Jakobsen.

We await the green flag. Pipo Derani leads Loic Duval, Will Stevens, and Simon Pagenaud, currently. What will happen on this restart? Kyle Kirkwood has now gone past Davide Rigon and is behind Matthieu Jaminet. We will restart at the end of this lap. Conor Daly has tweeted about Wayne Taylor being a cool dude and a professional in motorsports. Down the backstretch they come, approaching the Le Mans chicane. The safety car has disappeared and gone up the road. Pipo Derani leads the pack of Dpi's to turn one. Here comes Simon Pagenaud on Will Stevens. Stevens is a rolling roadblock for Alex Lynn and Kamui Kobayashi is back out in the #48 Ally Action Express Cadillac with Hendrick Motorsports. The #01 Scott Dixon driven Ganassi Racing Cadillac is laps down but still out there.

Pipo Derani kicks up dust in the chicane! Yikes! Loic Duval has passed Pipo Derani for the lead. Will Stevens is now chasing down Simon Pagenaud. The Acura's are faster on the speedway than the Cadillac's are or so it seems. This is English weather we have in Florida this weekend. Dylan Murry leads LMP2 over Colton Herta, James Allen, and Rui Andrade. We are a few hours away from sunrise. Loic Duval uncorks the fastest lap of the race at 1:33.834. Pipo Derani, 3.3 seconds behind. Porsche's lead in both GTD classes right now. The #69 G-Drive LMP2 has severe tire damage and is sparking while the sister car is serving a drive through penalty.

We wonder why Kevin Magnusen lost the lead an hour or so ago. Right rear tire is down on the #69 G-Drive car in LMP2. Hopefully the wheel arch and the rear deck are not damaged. They will have to replace the tail on that car. Nose to tail now between Duval and Derani. A few seasons ago, these cars were run by the same stable but not anymore. Derani is now reeling in Duval. Derani is now 1.6 seconds behind. Traffic giveth and traffic taketh away. G-Drive #69 going behind the wall for suspension repairs. They need to cut the tire away from the suspension, and it has spiraled out of control from G-Drive and Algarve Pro Racing, a team or two from the European Le Mans Series.

The GTD Pro and GTD cars are pouring their way pnto the straightaway. Kyle Kirkwood vs. Davide Rigon. Brad Goldburg and company at the Performance Tech #38 LMP3 car said that there was a fuel pressure issue on that car about an hour or so ago. Cadillac #02 has pitted 33 times while the race leading DPi entries have only done 24 pit stops. Rigon has passed Kirkwood in GTD Pro. Matthieu Jaminet for Pfaff Motorsports leads Dennis Olsen for KCMG. Daniel Juncadella is now at the controls of the #97 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes, and we have a spin for the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin who is rejoining at the Le Mans chicane, Spencer Pumpelly at the wheel of it. Quick spin and he is back on his way.

He slid across the grass and he hit the wing on the... boom. Ah. Maybe the rear window fell out of that car. Pipo Derani pits froms econd spot in the #31 Whelen Cadillac for Action Express. Fuel only, and no tires. Tristan Nunez is now back in the car, in the #31. #5 is now in the lane as well, look. This was predicted. Loic Duval in from the lead of the motor race. There was some confusion about changing tires and they did change the tires. Tristan Vautier now at the controls. Tristan Nunez is back in the #31 Whelen Cadillac indeed. Nunez is now fifth. The Tristan and Tristan show is underway. Simon Pagenaud, Alex Lynn, and Will Stevens will pit. Stevens is in now aboard the #10 WTR Acura. Will Stevens almost hits Will Owen in the #22 United Autosport LMP2 car! Where there are two Will's, there's a way! OK. That was bad.

Jan Heylen and Lucas Auer have been switching back and forth. The #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche and the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes. Ollie Milroy is in the sole remaining McLaren for Inception Racing sharing with Brendon Iribe, Fredric Schandorff, and Jordan Pepper. Brendon Iribe is a McLaren specialist and Inception Racing ran a Ferrari at Le Mans last year in the GTE-Am class of the FIA World Endurance Championship. Pagenaud and Lynn should both pit soon. More stops for LMP2. It is very nippy out there for Florida. Grab coffee or tea and stay warm. So, Colton Herta hits the lane for DragonSpeed and he is down and away. Rui Andrade and Nicolas Lapierre have pitted. Lapierre is in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsport entry sharing with Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen, and Scott Huffaker.

Lapierre has been the gold standard in LMP2 particularly at Le Mans. Daniel Juncadella is catching Davide Rigon hand over fist for third in class in GTD Pro. Ollie Milroy is trying to catch Lucas Auer while Jan Heylen leads GTD in the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche. Seven brands in the top eight of GTD. Porsche, Mercedes, McLaren, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Lexus, BMW. We are an hour and a half or so away from sunrise. Tristan Nunez has moved back to the lead of the motor race. 6.6 seconds the margin.

Rolex 24: Hour 15

10.2 seconds separate Kevin Magnussen in the lead of DPi from Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura. Jimme Johnson is now back on the track after a pit stop. We see Pipo Derani still third and Loic Duval fourth. Well, it is great to see the #48 Ally Cadillac back on the road. At halfway, there were seven cars on the lead lap before the #48 and the #01 entries hit trouble. The #01 is still having issues with the wiring loom. Johnson and company are now back on track and trying their hardest to make up time. 45 minutes in the garage to get the crash damage fixed. Jimmie Johnson and company are now 25 laps down. Mike Rockenfeller, Jimmie Johnson, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jose Maria Lopez. This is Lopez's first Rolex 24.

Close call there for Tijman van der Helm in the #69 G-Drive LMP2 car. He ran once in Michelin Le Mans Cup but is a single seater racer in Formula 3. So, he is learning the sports car racing ropes. The #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche has been off the road in the west horseshoe as Mikael Grenier has passed for the class lead in GT Daytona. Jan Heylen is 2.9 seconds behind. Loic Duval is seven seconds adrift from Pipo Derani and Oliver Jarvis is doing what he can to be in striking distance of the Frenchman. Filipe Albuquerque is now 17 seconds in-arrears of the #02 Ganassi Cadillac of Kevin Magnussen. 437 laps onj the board for the top three, 1,556 miles. Rui Andrade is trying to catch Patricio O'Ward. 15 and a half seconds between them. Third is Giedo van der Garde and then Tijmann van der Helm. Pato O'Ward is in the pit lane for service.

A driver change, in the #81. Jimmie Johnson is in recovery mode in the #48 Ally Cadillac. Colton Herta now in the #81. Acura #10, Filipe Albuquerque in the lane and Loic Duval in the #5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac. Simon Pagenaud is now up to second in front of Pipo Derani. 4:00 A.M. Eastern Time. So, we are in that "zombie land" stage by now. 442 laps, 1,573 and a half miles. Magnussen now leads Derani by 29 seconds. Trouble for the TR3 Lamborghini, the #63 entry. Andrea Caldarelli at the controls. In GTD Pro, it remains Jules Gounon in the lead of the class.

Dennis Olsen is trying to move in on Ben Barnicoat. We wonder now where the #59 Crucial Motorsports McLaren which has had a fraught race. They were having gearbox troubles earlier on/. The #59 may have received the marker of doom. We have a car stopped or moving slowly between turns three and four on the tri oval. We are staying green. Pipo Derani is now in the lead for the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac, 8/10ths of a second over Will Stevens who is catching up. Let's not count our chickens. Loic Duval is third and is in striking range as well. Simon Pagenaud and Kevin Magnussen are also right in the fight as well.

Kevin Magnussen is now moving in to get back towards the front of the field as Pipo Derani now leads by four seconds. We have seen some woes for the #63 TR3 Lamborghini I believe, as we follow the lead battle in DPi. The alternator issues we have seen, may be a byproduct of cold weather. Six seconds covering the top three places. Rain and cold have affected the Free Practice sessions for this race as well. Free Practice was pointless for accumulating the data. Kevin Magnussen is balked again by one of the GTD cars, there is an Aston Martin there, the Magnus Racing #44. Is that the Masked Racer? Racer X, from Speed Racer?

That is actually Tom Gamble in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin apparently. Pit stop time for the much delayed #48 Ally Cadillac. Jimmie Johnson out and into the car, it looks like Kamui Kobayashi. Will Stevens is now second and reeling in Pipo Derani, trimming his advantage by a second and a half, down to 2.6 seconds. The lead gap is now growing and going back to 3.3 seconds. We are down to 30 degrees Fahrenheit in Florida. Holy moly Martha! Loic Duval is trying to pass Will Stevens and they split the #9 Pfaff Porsche! Yikes! Matthieu Jaminet must have almost had a heart attack there! Loic Duval wants by Will Stevens, and he wants it now.

Stevens is still fending off the challenge of Loic Duval. Duval has more grip and then makes it stick passing Stevens again. Through the Le Mans chicane they go. Will Stevens has tried and made the pass on Loic Duval, and those two are five seconds behind as the #32 Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes wriggles off the road with James Davison, the Aussie at the wheel of it. So he got the rough end of the pineapple there, at least briefly. Cadillac #01 is in the pit lane another time for regular service it appears. Duval is in the lane and now the order shuffles.

Tire temps and pressures are a problem, and they are a reverse cumulative issue. Don't fall off the edge of a cliff on that. GT3 cars run 26 lap stints. Acura #10 to the pit lane for service. We also see the #02 in. Frost on a racetrack is a scary proposition. Simon Pagenaud, on the pit exchange, he has taken the lead and Pipo Derani is now trying to pass Alex Lynn. The #60 MSR Acura is in for tires and fuel with Pagenaud at the controls. Pipo Derani has moved back up to second. Frost issues would be in the pit lane more than on the track, thanks to an astute observer and IMSA Radio fan Dave Alcock. Jules Gounon has already run the 12 Hours of Abu Dhabi, the 24 Hours of Dubai, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and he will also do the Kyalami 9 Hours next weekend, and, the four races in Asian Le Mans Series which yours truly really hopes to cover again.

Full Course Yellow again, for the 13th time. There is a car on fire behind the scorign tiower. A fire has broken out in a car. Pipo Derani is still listed in the lead. Now, who is on fire? We need to know. Coming to the end of yet another racing hour. Now we need to figure out about this car that is on fire. It is very chilly up on the roof. There is a car on fire behind the scoring tower. Maybe there was some type of collision. We have completed 15 hours. One of the LMP3 entries may be on fire. We need to check the car and the number.

Rolex 24: Hour 14

This has been a race of the most incredible twists and turns and it ain't over yet. Deary me. What next in this motor race? What next? We haven't had a deary me until now and I ought to add a well, well, well in there because a couple of the top teams have run into issues. Major dramas overnight here at the Rolex 24 as the odyssey continues. The #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac is back in the garage. Alex Palou had issues with the tape from the tearoff getting into the intake manifold. Now they have trouble with the altnerator belt and the battery not charging, while gettin a brake change, as well as they will button up the bonnet on the car. Minimize time loss. That is what they want to do. The Ganassi team is not satisfied that they have fixed the issue yet.

They can do the front brake change as well and get an unlimited number of people on the car. They are diagnosing possible further trouble. We're getting ready for another restart. This is a race with the most unbelievable twists and turns. Andy Lally is in front in GTD for the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin. Jules Gounon leads GTD Pro. Kay van Berlo in LMP3, Louis Deletraz in LMP2, and Richard Westbrook leading the overall. So, we are now back to green. Westbrook and Albuquerque scrambling and Filipe Albuquerque gets snookered on cold tires! Helio Castroneves did the same thing earlier but got it wrong. Oliver Jarvis is third and Mike Conway in fourth place.

Mike Conway in the #31 making a move on Oliver Jarvis for third, or trying to. Albuquerque really wants to move in on Westbrook. He has the high side on Westbrook! No dice and Westbrook snatches it back. Kevin Magnussen in the red #02 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. JDC-Miller Motorsports lead the motor race, the 2021 winners at the 12 Hours of Sebring. The Cadillac's seem to get temperature and pressure quicker, but then the Acura's also come to the fore. This race has been a real ding dong and continues that way.

Albuquerque holds station. He is looking to get the tires in their sweet spot. He needs a good drive off turn six to go after Westbrook. Westbrook is going to do all he can before maybe having to give it up depending on what Albuquerque has up his sleeve. #48 is back on track, 13 laps in-arrears. That will be hard to overcome in the next ten hours and 45 minutes. Mike Conway is fastest on the road running a 1:35 dead. Our intrepid pit reporters Parker Kligerman and Dillon Welch are still freezing down there in the lane. You can see your breath down there. Almost like Minnesota! Yikes! It will be even colder as the night goes on.

This 2022 Rolex 24 has been unbelievable. When we get to the morning, things are going to get weird. Sunrise is an amazing deal, so be watching in another four hours or so. Everything is chopping and changing as the race keeps going. Trudge, trudge, trudge. Just keep putting in the miles and the laps. 403 laps, 1,435 miles. We join our pals at IMSA Radio for the insomniac shift at 3:20 A.M. Eastern Time. Hello to Jonny Palmer and the boys. The top DPi's are now on the lead lap, with the top five. It will be a trying test for the #01 and the #48. Again, welcome to 3:00 A.M. in Florida. Filipe Albuquerque keeps going and we see a car that might be spun out. We have Jonny Palmer and Bruce Jones on the radio now with Joe Bradley in the pit lane.

Westbrook, Albuquerque, Magnussen, Conway, Jarvis, the top five. Le Mans will have the Daytona chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. Wheel to wheel between Albuquerque and Eestbrook and now Kevin Magnussen says, "I'll have some of that" and moves in. So, Westbrook is down to third place. Westbrook might just have Mike Conway to deal with as well. Magnussen is right on Albuquerque's six right now. This is an incredible battle on this cold night at Daytona International Speedway. You can have pur pace, but have the gap made, by dint of traffic or good driving. Kevin Magnussen could very well be even quicker than Albuquerque.

The gap is condensing once more. 1:35.632 for Albuquerque. Rene Rast second fastest but sixth in LMP2. Holy cow. He is in the #68 G-Drive Oreca. Kay van Berlo leads LMP3 and is a lap up on Joao Barbosa. Jimmie Johnson and Sebastien Bourdais remain in the garage. We think the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche had spun in the west horseshoe. Sebastien Bourdais has had alternator woes as we talked about earlier on. Mike Conway has dropped a second and a half away from Richard Westbrook and the other leaders as the #10 entry has uncorked its best lap of the race so far.

Magnussen takes the lead having some contact with Albuquerque and Richard Westbrook in the #5 entry moves past as well, look. Mike Conway is getting racy as well, monstering Richard Westbrook as well! Magnussen has taken the lead of the motor race and he is pulling away. Magnussen is a second and a half up the road. Magnussen did not dive to the inside, he went 'round the outside. Elton Julian, team boss at DragonSpeed agrees that this is a cat and mouse game in LMP2 as well. The boys are having fun out there. Let them race, but do it clean. Push on. The pace is hot.

The cold is making this race extremely difficult. The DPi's are like they are driving in the rain in this bitter cold. Albuquerque recovered from getting spooked by Westbrook, or rather by Magnussen. We could have had a huge shemozzle there. There is a difference between racers and drivers. Our pal John Watson, who commentates on the SRO enduro races, always says that. James Calado leads GTD Pro for Ferari and we have Jules Gounon, Andrea Caldarelli, Ben Barnicoat, Matt Campbell, Alexandre Imperatori, and Patrick Assenheimer in contention in the class.

Andy Lally still leads GT Daytona in the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin followed by Mikael Grenier and Stevan McAleer in two of the Mercedes cars from SunEnergy1 and Gilbert Korthoff. The Racing Team Nederland #29 LMP2 has pitted and we have also seen pit work from the #29 Racing Team Nederland entry as the #10 Acura has pitted out of sequence compared to it's DPi rivals. Westbrook and Magnussen in the lane now. Oliver Jarvis has gone to the lead in the #60 MSR Acura which was off the road earlier on. Mike Conway seems to be moving up in the #31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac. Mike Conway has also made a pit stop.

Pipo Derani takes over in the #31 car. Jarvis pits from the lead. Loic Duval, also is now at the controls of the #5 car. You have brake disc dust all over the car but no real smattering of bugs all over in this cold. Pipo Derani is now chasing after Filipe Albuquerque. Magnussen, Albuquerque, and Derani have all pitted. It is a five-horse race in DPi and these cars and tires just were not made for these cold conditions. Don't let the red mist come down. That's a bad deal if you do. Andy Lally, leading GTD, has been in every full blooded GTD race since 2014 when the merger happened that created the new IMSA.

Mike Conway says that the battle has been a good one and it is hard to get by the Acura's on mid corner and exit speed. Get lucky with traffic. The car is decent. Restarts are tricky but they are hanging in there at Action Express. Off for a snooze, that is what Mike Conway is looking for. Three abreast to the trioval. GT3 cars side by side thundering to turn one. The #48 Ally Action Express Cadillac is back in the race with Jimmie Johnson. Sebastien Bourdais says that the wiring harness is having to be repaired on the #01 Cadillac. It was more than an alternator belt. Wiring looms are a pain in the fanny! James Calado from the lead of GTD Pro is in the lane.

We will see GTD Pro and GTD standard pit stops across the board. Pipo Derani has now moved up t third past Loic Duval. 30 pit stops from Kevin Magnussen and company, 3.6 seconds to the good over Filipe Albuquerque. Jules Gounon has pitted the #97 WeatherTech Mercedes and Mikael Grenier likewise in the #57 Winward Mercedes too. They might have a driver change fr that car. More GTD cars also came to the lane while #97 is now back on track. #57 has also pitted and they have taken debris out of the grille squirting it out with an air hose.

When you work the lane at Daytona at night, there are pools of light but there are dark shadows down there too. Pit stop time too for the #79 WeatherTech Porsche as well. Alexandre Imperatori continues in the #2 KCMG Porsche as we see the timing loops being triggered at the end of the pit lane. So, a couple of Porsche's in a battle in GTD Pro. Alessio Picariello has spun off the road! Yikes! Cold tires in the western horseshoe. That was a massive twitch! You cannot believe it is this cold, but darn it, it is. Picariello, the Belgian, is back on his way. It is freakishly cold here at Daytona.

There's a massive snowstorm out east. One of the windscreen tearoff's makes it's way free from said screen. Jules Gounon has moved to third proceeding past the pitting Ben Barnicoat in the #14 Lexus. So, Kevin Magnussen leads over Filipe Albuquerque. Pipo Derani still in the third spot with Loic Duval next up. The pit stop cycles have been shifting around. Matt Campbell is now at the wheel of the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Campbell brought it in and stays in the car more than likely in the tartan plaid Porsche.

Jules Gounon should be in front in GTD Pro along with Davide Rigon in the Ferrari. Albuquerque is nine seconds down on Magnussen and then comes Pipo Derani and Loic Duval. Matthieu Jaminet, the Frenchman is actually in that #9 car now. Ben Barnicoat is on the lead lap and he has warm tires but still cold tires for "Jam Jam"

Saturday, January 29, 2022

Rolex 24: Hour 13

We have seen numerous teams and all competitors, to let them know the tire pressures are being monitored. The #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 has retaken the lead in GT Daytona. IMSA President John Doonan is very excited as the LMP2 and GTD Pro and GTD teams from Europe coming in. There are scouts here for the race. The driving quality has been great in IMSA these last few years. Sports car racing has a bright future. The GTD cars seem to be cooperating. If you are being overtaken by a DPi or other prototype, stay low. Richard Westbrook continues to lead this motor race and he is now pitting. In IMSA, with GTP on the horizon, the IndyCar drivers are having a big advantage to race these cars as they are very similar to the open wheel entries.

Use strategy and take care of current pit stops. IMSA also has to keep looking ahead. The #48 Ally Action Express Cadillac has pitted. Mike Conway has moved up to fourth in the #31 Whelen Cadillac. Bourdais and Albuquerque are inbetween in second and third. As IMSA is executing this season, we are about to see a legacy moment for the world of endurance sports car racing. GTD and GTD Pro racing together, this is fantastic to equate these GT3 cars. No waiting for Europe. He is leading GT3 racing to the feature. Doug Fehan, who used to be with Corvette, he has good things to say about this GT3 convergence plan.

Jim France, Ed Bennett, and John Doonan, they believe "the market will speak" as far as cars and teams that can race. Consumer identifiable and available to customers. The business model works a treat. The GTE/GTLM homologation was ending. So, now, GT3 is definitely to the fore. They race worldwide. With GTP, manufacturers can showcase for overall victories. Not all brands can get their becuase of their brand strategy, powertrain strategy or cycle in nameplates. 13 GTD Pro cars and 22 GTD cars, 35 GT3 cars out there.

Maro Engel leading GTD Pro right now as we see the #47 Cetilar Ferrari backing it into the fence, and we have a pit stopmfor the #01 Chip Ganassi Cadillac. Ford will be coming with a Mustang GT3 in 2024. That is a mere two years away. Still bitterly cold in Daytona. The forecast will be warming up next week but not for today with an expected daytime high of 55 degrees by the time this race ends. Acura running 1-2. Jimmie Johnson is now in the #48 Ally Cadillac. All seven DPi cars in contention. Richard Westbrook has worked his way back to the top level of sports car racing after being with the Ford factory team, the Ford GT, and also in the Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in the beginning of 2020 before the pandemic.

Now, young blokes are going to sports cars instead of open wheel racing. Richard Westbrook, at 46 years old, still has the vitality to be racing sports cars. Being an IndyCar driver, it is a very small universe. But sports car racing, it sounds like we will have a bigger tent with manufacturer involvement as well, and do not forget the GTP ranks coming in. Maro Engel is now in the #97 WeatherTech Mercedes AMG GT3. Drive anything you can. That is the best advice for a youngster getting into this sport to be totally honest.

Pit stop time now for the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura. Fuel, tires, and a clean windscreen at the very least for Helio Castroneves who I believe is still in the car. Nope. Oliver Jarvis is now back into the car for MSR. DPi has been wide open while other cars have been able to get back in the fight. The #60 MSR Acura comes to a stop in turn six! Jarvis is off the road! Cold tires, almost getting to the wall. So, Jarvis is back on track but he has to get back in it, but discretion can be the better part of valor. The record low at the Rolex 24 was 28 degrees in 1966. The #60 has to have a flat spotted tire.

Sebastien Bourdais has taken over the lead in the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Pato O'Ward is now leading LMP2. So, Sebastien Bourdais has taken the overall lead. Devlin DeFrancesco and Colton Herta are in this car as well in the #81 DragonSpeed LMP2 entry. Elton Julian who runs DragonSpeed was a promising racing driver poised for Formula 1 and could not get there. He has become a team boss and they've won this race before in LMP2. Eric Lux has been a longtime driver with Elton Julian. Louis Deletraz is next in line ahead of Giedo van der Garde and Luca Ghiotto. The Acura teams know they are being harried by the Cadillac's. It is a three horse race among the Cadillac's between Ganassi Racing, JDC-Miller, and Action Express.

The cold makes for horrid track conditions. We are all trying to stay warm and awake tonight at Daytona and for yours truly, writing about the race from Minnesota, staying warm, wishing he were at Daytona. I would like to come back next year for the GTP debut. But, hopefully it will be warmer in a year's time. An off track excursion for the #48 Ally Cadillac for Action Express, Sparks emanating from the right rear corner of the car. He spun in the Le Mans chicane. Jimmie Johnson at the controls. He made contact with the #15 WeatherTech Mercedes in GTD. Suspension damage for the #48.

The #48 makes the hard left to the garage and the pit crew is taking the bodywork off the car. Dirk Mueller in the #15 WeatherTech Mercedes tagged the #48. The rear fender of the Mercedes tore through the #48. Contact happened on the narrowing turn at some point on the road. The #48 is in dire straits as Sebastien Bourdais leads overall in the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Richard Westbrook second in the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac and Mike Conway is third in the #31 Action Express Whelen entry. At the exit of the Le Mans chicane, the #71 T3 Motorsport North America Lamborghini is off the road and is still stranded.

Misha Goikhberg is at the wheel of it, the Canadian, sharing with Franck Perera of France, Matteo Llarena of Guatemala, and Maximilian Paul of Germany. So, lots of damage for the #48 Cadillac. They are still diagnosing the issue. The driveshaft has probably been bashed into the side of the transmission. The pickup points of the transmission and the frame have been damaged. Not good for that team. Out of fuel for the #71. Goikhberg is still stranded out there and the marshals will have to find some way to get him back to the paddock and the garage. DPi pitstops will be happening soon. Richard Westbrook and JDC-Miller Motorsports stopped right before the Full Course Yellow.

Sebastien Bourdais, Mike Conway and others, will maybe need fuel shortly. Bourdais is 20 laps into a stint. 20, 21, 22 laps for a DPi stint. Pits are open for prototypes. We will be at the end of another racing hour in about a minute. Bourdais did not decide to pit. #60, #10, and #31 are all in. Routine service for the DPi entries. The #01 is headed for the garage as well! Oh my! Sebastien Bourdais to the garage! Holy smokes!

Rolex 24: Hour 12

We will be at halfway at the end of this hour but now have a Full Course Yellow on the speedway. The #11 Win Autosport LMP2 entry is stranded on the road. Josh Pierson, Harry Tincknell, and Jonathan Bomarito are sharing the car. This is going to be a short yellow with a closed pit lane. Steven Thomas wants to get to the paddock. Now, Tristan Nunez will need fuel and has not pitted for 46 minutes. He will have to go for it under green, so he does not have to take emergency service and be sent to the tail end of the queue in DPi. Car #11 has been rescued. This is actually the first entry for PR1/Mathiasen. John Potter has been running very well with Magnus Racing, now in an Aston Martin Vantage. Potter shares with Andy Lally, Spencer Pumpelly, and Aston Martin hot shoe Jonny Adam, an Aston Martin factory pilot.

Green flag. Tristan Nunez ducked to the pit lane and so, Helio Castroneves has taken the erstwhile lead. A lucky break for the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac. They will get him back out on the lead lap. Bamber pressing Vautier and yes, he makes the move stick! Yikes! Don't lollygag. Keep pushing hard. In laps and out laps are vital in these cold conditions. Helio Castroneves stretches the margin over Bamber and Vautier. Now then, spin there, for the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Lamborghini making contact with the #21 AF Corse Ferrari. Luis Perez Companc was caught out and now has big damage to the right rear corner of that automobile.

That CarBahn Lamborghini is a former Paul Miller Racing entry and Paul Miller Racing has swapped to BMW with an M4 GT3 but are not here because they have to prep their car and will be at the next race, the 12 Hours of Sebring. Tristan Nunez passes Alex Palou and moves up a place behind the sister #48. So, we saw some argy bargy there between Mike Skeen and Alessandro Pier Guidi. Skeen is a very talented driver at the same pace as GTD Pro. Drive through penalty for one of the GTD cars and a penalty as well for the #20 High Class LMP2 entry. Now, for the lead, it is a scrum between Helio Castroneves and Earl Bamber.

The Acura's have more top speed and better transitional characteristics in the Bus Stop than the Cadillac's do. Through the Le Mans chicane, especially. Think big picture. There is more than half this race to run. 45 minutes until halfway. Every car in DPi save for the #5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac has been a lap down at one time or another as this motor race continues here at the Rolex 24. Congratulations, we've made it to Sunday morning. There's a long, long way to run left here ladies and gentlemen. Alessandro Pier Guidi did give a bit of a whack to Mike Skeen. A warning issued by the stewards to Alessandro Pier Guidi. Everyone should be able to race fairly.

Dodging and weaving around the GTD cars, we can see Castroneves moving ahead of Bamber. The Acura just has a little edge in the braking zones. At Hardpoint Racing, they have a plush unicorn handwarmer. There is just no time though in DPi with the fuel stints. No mistakes can be afforded on pit stops. Ganassi rotates three pit crews through the race for both of their cars. Bamber is not letting Castroneves out of his sight. Felipe Nasr in GTD Pro as a Porsche factory driver, is pressing Jack Hawksworth for the class lead. Bamber is really harrying Castroneves. Bamber is really catching Castroneves. He tapped the brakes early anticipating the traffic to get a lunge off the corner.

The leaders are going to lap Alex Palou soon. Bamber moves past Castroneves. Castroneves has to pit and do so sooner than the #02 Cadillac does. The #60 is in the pit lane. Castroneves will stay in the car, fuel and tires I beleive for the #60. Maybe just fuel, and the two leaders are both pitting at the same moment. Castroneves slides in the warmup lane. Both the #02 and #31 Cadillac's have spun! Nunez back in the fight but losing time. So, Nunez back up and running but will have to play catch up. Another spin in the Le Mans chicane and that is the #81 DragonSpeed LMP2 and he gets back in the race. Not sure who is driving.

Marcus Ericsson on cold tires was the one who spun and collected Tristan Nunez. #01 is in the lane and we also saw Tristan Vautier off the road too in the #5 JDC Miller Mustang Sampling Cadillac. Now, a lead change and now, a penalty for Meyer Shank Racing and Alexander Rossi cycles to the front in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura. Mike Rockenfeller is third in the #48 Ally Cadillac for AXR and Hendrick Motorsports. The incident between Ericsson and Nunez is under review. Ericsson will be penalized likely for the argy bargy with Nunez. Now, Philip Ellis is leading GT Daytona in the #57 Winward Mercedes AMG GT3. They are legitimately confident with a full-time program for 2022 more than likely.

Mercedes, Porsche, Acura, McLaren in GTD. Philip Ellis, Kyffin Simpson, Zacharie Robichon, and Ollie Millroy. Kyffin Simpson is from Barbados/The Cayman Islands. We have a genuine battle for second between Mike Rockenfeller and Richard Westbrook. The #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 is being shared by Kyffin Simpson, Till Bechtolsheimer, Marc Miller, and Mario Farnbacher. Action Express moving back up. Tristan Nunez now fourth right behind teammate Mike Rockenfeller. Alex Palou says the #01 Cadillac had no power at CGR but then fixed the issue. They remain on the lead lap. We have the #26 Muehlner Motorsports LMP3 entry off the road and under Full Course Yellow with just 20 some odd minutes to the halfway mark, more like ten. This is the #26 shared by Americans Nolan Siegel and CR Crews, Cameron Shields from Australia, and Ugo de Wilde of Belgium.

The wheel came off Nolan Siegel's LMP3 car. Radio trouble for the #10 Acura and we see Filipe Alnuquerque into the car. GTD Pro and GTD cars pitting. Richard Westbrook now leads in the #5 JDC Miller Motorsports Cadillac over Mike Rockenfeller in the #48 Action Express/Hendrick Motorsports Cadillac. Bourdais and Castroneves come next followed by Mike Conway now in the #31 sister Action Express Whelen Cadillac. Extra pit work going on for the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 in GTD. Possibly a front brake change going on for that car.

We are nearing halfway, finishing the 11th Full Course Yellow in this race. Gilbert Korthoff Racing are running well as a young team in their first endurance event. Mike Skeen sharing with Scott Andrews, Stevan McAleer, and James Davison. Richard Westbrook is now in the lead of the motor race in the #5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Mustang Sampling Cadillac and here comes Mike Rockenfeller. Sebastien Bourdais and Helio Castroneves scrapping with each other. Stragglers in GTD traffic as well, look. Castroneves will get a run on Bourdais who could very well be a sitting duck into the Le Mans chicane. Rockenfeller half a second ahead of Castroneves. The #60 MSR Acura is hooked up despite earlier tire pressure troubles.

Tire pressure is a really touchy subject as a minimum cold tire pressure has been set by Michelin and mandated by IMSA stewards. Halfway home in the Rolex 24.