Take a look at the #81 DragonSpeed car. Eric Lux sharing with Devlin DeFrancesco, Colton Herta, and Pato O'Ward. Watch for Jarett Andretti and his co-drivers Josh Burdon, Rasmus Lindh, and Gabby Chaves. Find your lane. Control the aggression, and don't make a pig's breakfast out of the International Horseshoe. Watch out for cold tires on your stints. We had the #18 Era Motorsports entry of Dwight Merriman spinning and reversing the car. So, safety car lights out. It is time to race. Here we go. On pole is Acura #10. Filipe Albuquerque driving. We're underway! #10 will take an early. Here comes the #5 Mustang Sampling JDC-Miller Cadillac, Tristan Vautier at the wheel.
Split start for the GTD cars. The #5 will take the lead of the motor race from the #10. They hit the sweet spot last week in the roar. Kamui Kobayashi is pressing hard in the #48 Action Express Ally Cadillac. He has won this race twice and finished runner-up as well. To the Bus Stop for the first time. We have just started to hit traffic. 35 GT3 cars in this motor race. They will be packed together all day. Every 15 minutes the prototypes will be lapping the GT's. Contact between Vasser Sullivan with the Lexus and the WeatherTech Mercedes. Ben Barnicoat vs. Austin Cindric.
Marco Mapelli is your current GTD Pro leader in the #63 TR3 Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Kamui Kobayashi is being harried by Filipe Albuquerque. Nowhere to go on fresh tires for the #10 Acura. Vautier in the #5 JDC-Miller Mustang Sampling Cadillac leads. It is not too windy at Daytona today. But it is cold. The mad scramble continues in GTD Pro/GTD. Lamborghini, Porsche, McLaren, and more. The DPi field is already beginning to work traffic. The #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac is making a move on the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura.
Trouble early for the #54 CORE Autosport LMP3 car. Jon Bennett, sharing with Colin Braun, George Kurtz, and Nic Jonsson. The GTD Pro/GTD battle is already heavy as we go on board the #57 Winward Mercedes AMG GT3, the defending GTD class champions here at the Rolex 24. Russell Ward sharing with Philip Ellis, Mikael Grenier, and Lucas Auer. The Corvette C8.R's are also beginning to move up, switching to GTD Pro this year. More weight and less power for the Corvette. 60 years means a boatload of memories. The 3 hour Continental race, the first event in 1962, won by the late, great Dan Gurney, in a Lotus 19.
Kamui Kobayashi has made his way up to second spot behiund the #5 JDC-Miller Cadillac of Tristan Vautier. This is the Mount Everest of motorsports especially with the cold weather in Daytona Beach. More drivers are in this race today than combining the regular season entries for NASCAR Cup, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and IndyCar. You are passing 20 cars a lap. It is wild. Traffic and weather, just like on your local news, will be big stories. We saw Robert Wickens, finishing on the podium in the Michelin Pilot Challenge race yesterday. He must be incredibly relieved and incredibly happy. He wants to win for sure.
The Hyundai team had geat pit stops. He can go for a championship. He has come back to racing, to win. NBC Sports analyst James Hinchcliffe, a former IndyCar driver as well, he knew how relieved Wickens was to get on the podium. Well done, Robert. Kudos to you, mate. Just an amazing performance! Take a drink of champagne, and then spray it. We now see Kamui Kobayashi leading this motor race. With Robert Wickens and Memo Gidley, both, they have the desire after their huge accidents, and they have now both come back to racing. Bless those guys. Just amazing. Meanwhile, Kamui Kobayashi took it three wide to the inside and then, boom, he found an opening and threaded his way right through, as easy as you please.
Risk assessment is the key as a racing driver. Kamui Kobayashi was willing to take the risks and he is stretching the gap out over Tristan Vautier and everyone else. Pipo Derani, the reigning DPi champion in the #31, he is sixth. Some editorializing if you don't mind. Yours truly, who is pals with Action Express and team boss Bob Johnson, thinks this is the year that AXR will break through for a fourth victory. We shall see. Meanwhile, back to the racing, and we can see the scrap developing in GTD Pro between the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche and the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. Slowly, carefully, through the International Horseshoe they go.
The GTD Pro and GTD field are beginning to sort out. The #59 Crucial Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 is ahead of the Porsche #9 for Pfaff Motorsports. Jon Miller at the wheel of the #59. He is being monstered by the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R of Matthieu Jaminet. We will see Ford coming back to GT with the Mustang in 2024. Sebastien Bourdais moves around Tristan Vautier for second. They were teammates at JDC-Miller Motorsports last year. Excited for the new LMDh/GTP class next year. We will talk more about that. Meantime, Kamui Kobayashi is pressing hard. He pounds espressos and is all ready to go.
The telltale congestion and traffic is beginning to show with the LMP2 and GTD entries mixing it up. McLaren, Lamborghini, Lexus. Take your pick. The #97 WeatherTech Mercedes AMG GT3 is back there ready to pounce, too. This is quality motor racing as we get underway here at the Rolex, mate. Lexus vs. Lamborghini on the high banks. Three-wide as one of the other GTD entries zips by on top. That is the McLaren I believe, which we have just spoken about. You have both WeatherTech cars up there, the Porsche 911 GT3R and the Mercedes AMG GT3.
#79, the Porsche shared by Cooper MacNeil, Matteo Cairoli, Julien Andlauer, and Alessio Picariello. We had six grand marshals. Jack Roush, Wayne Taylor, Mario Andretti, Hurley Haywood, Scott Pruett, and Bobby Rahal. What a bunch of legendary drivers! Ben Keating leads LMP2 for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. He is racing two prototypes in the LMP2 car and the #5 JDC-Miller Mustang Sampling Cadillac. Keating sharing the Cadillac with Richard Westbrook, Loic Duval, and Tristan Vautier. #48 to the pit lane. First stop of the day. #5, #10, they are also in. Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 Ganassi Cadillac inherits the lead.
Four mechanics and two rattle guns with a 30 second fuel load. Bourdais shares the #01 with Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande, Scott Dixon, and Alex Palou. Jimmie Johnson is making his ninth start in the Rolex 24. So happy to see Jimmie back with Action Express and Hendrick Motorsports. #01 is indeed in the lane and so is the #31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac. Pipo Derani, Tristan Nunez, and Mike Conway. Kobayashi in the #48 is a real leader to their team sharing with Jimme Johnson, Jose Maria Lopez, and Mike Rockenfeller. Johnson is very happy. We can see the Rolex watch, in it's box. If you win the Rolex, keep it safe so it is not stolen.
Jimmie Johnson will go full-time in IndyCar in 2022. He will again race with Chip Ganassi Racing in IndyCar. Bourdais is now in the lead of the motor race. Make that Kamui Kobayashi. Now he is back at the top. Traffic ahead and the DPi boys are really having to slice and dice. The GTD traffic is unreal. Watch the grip levels. Find your lane. Jeepers creepers! Bourdais locks up. No ABS on the DPi cars. Kobayashi and Bourdais have been scrapping and Kobayashi moves a little wide. But he is pushing hard. In the cold, you have to find the sweet spot with these Michelin tires. Kobayashi is tapped by the #34 GMG Racing GT Daytona Porsche and now is back on the button.
That #34 entry is being shared by Kyle Washington, James Sofronas, Jeroen Bleekemolen, and Klaus Bachler. So, a couple experienced Porsche drivers in that car, actually, three. Sofronas is a Bronze driver but like Ben Keating, is remarkably quick. Keating works his way by a couple of the other GTD entries. The McLaren we have alreadymentioned and one of the two Mercedes for WeatherTech Racing as we now ride along with the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Ian James, Roman De Angelis, Darren Turner, and Tom Gamble on the driver's strength there.
In Europe and in other championships in the states, we see this mix of all GT3 cars. Now we are seeing it in full force here in IMSA. Kamui Kobayashi continues to convincingly lead and is now ahead by 4.5 seconds, cutting through the traffic like a hot knife through butter, taking the most risk to get through the traffic. Into the International Horseshoe, he locks the brakes. The Rolex 24 is 24 one hour sprint races in the present day. Tire management is critical. Put your fresh tires in the sun. Good idea. But, when it is cold, the tires have to go on the car stone cold. No tire blankets allowed unlike Formula 1. Put the tires in the transporter. But then IMSA said, no, boys. You cannot store the tires in the hauler. You have to have them out in the lane.
Kneed the tire like dough for a loaf of bread. Get temperature into the tires. No temp in the tires on a green track, watch out. Pit exit is a bugaboo late at night on cold tires. Famous drivers have wrecked there. The prototypes have to creep their way through there. Kamui Kobayashi now leads Tristan Vautier by 6.3 seconds. We see Earl Bamber leading Sebastien Bourdais as the two Ganassi Cadillac's scrap. A multi-car team at Ganassi as well. #01 shared by Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande, Scott Dixon, and Alex Palou. In the #02, Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Marcus Ericsson, and Kevin Magnussen.
Kamui Kobayashi is in attack mode already, pushing like there's no tomorrow. The conundrum with sports car racing is that every driver drives and behaves different, in the same car you just passed. You have to know how the different drivers in the same car, behave. The drivers push harder and race harder year in and year out. Holy moly! We have a huge crash! Dwight Merriman has crashed in turn six and clouted the nose! Dwight Merriman at the wheel of it. Full Course Yellow. Ouch! This car has warm tires. What on earth happened here, look, to Dwight Merriman? Merriman sharing with Kyle Tilley, Ryan Dalziel, and Paul Loup Chatin. The LMP2 cars are very twitchy under braking and Meriman locks the brakes, spins, and whacks the barrier.
We saw this same behavior last November in the cold at Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. It is like yanking on the emergency brake in a road car. Big damage to the #18. That motorcar will need a new nose. Ryan Dalziel will share the #18 with Dwight Merriman for the full season and we will see Kyle Tilley in for the other endurance events at Sebring, Watkins Glen, and Petit Le Mans. So, under Full Course Yellow. Kamui Kobayashi will make moves other drivers would not early on. We have seen this, too, with him driving the Toyota in World Endurance racing. He is a scrapper, a fighter. Keep the race car in one piece. We have a restart imminent. Everyone just has to reset and we are getting close to pit stops. 61 cars in the lane, and it is super tight, like sardines in a can.
With the #18 Era LMP2, they are finished. Game over. What a horrible shame for the defending LMP2 champs. These cars are very modular, just like when you are a kid playing with Legos. Pit stop time for the prototypes. Any takers? Yup. Kobayashi in the lane for fuel and no real tire changes. Same is true for the #5 JDC-Miller Cadillac. That is the only privateer DPi entry. Tristan Vautier still in the car. Ben Keating leads in LMP2. He is going to swap over to the #5 Cadillac. We have a GTD Pro entry in the lane for emergency service. That is the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3.
The #8 Tower Motorsports LMP2 is in the lane too, shared by a quartet of drivers including three international drivers. John Farano, Louis Deletraz, Rui Andrade, and Ferdinand Habsburg. Risi Competizione were on their floor dolly rotating the car and so was the #8. The two LMP2 cars are boxed in. The floor dollies are used a lot at places like Le Mans where the pit lane is really congested and the garages are right next to the lane. Pit stop time now too for GTD/GTD Pro. The GT cars have pitted on the next lap just like always.
They are crammed in the lane as well. Pfaff Motorsports #9 in the lane for tires and fuel and Matthieu Jaminet stays in. Leading GTD, Lance Bergstein will replace Jon Miller for the next stint. They are at pit out.
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