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.
No comments:
Post a Comment