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"
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