There is no real place to rest here at Kyalami. There are only one or two straightaways and a lot of corners. At Spa Francorchamps, you have time to get yourself together and take a breath during the lap. Here at Kyalami, it is much more physically demanding. Full service at WRT and the #32 Audi. Fuel, tires, and a driver change, as Raffaele Marciello is pressing on, passing Mattia Drudi. Drudi is back on track now. Some championships, spinning the rear wheels constitutes a penalty. Is that true in IGTC? Hard to say. We have seen that weeper, that water puddle since the start of the race going through Crowthorne. Fuel, tires, and a driver change as well for the #51 AF Corse Ferrari. Some of these cars might still make a brake change before the race is over. So far, no one has had to make a brake change.
We could see this race being dry until the end and we won't have the typical wet weather towards the end of the race that we've seen in prior years. Raffaele Marciello has regained a spot over Miguel Molina in the sole remaining AF Corse Ferrari. He is pulling a gap on worn Pirelli P Zero tires that have lost some of their sharpness while Molina is on fresh tires heading for Leeukop. Markus Winkelhock steps out of Audi #25 which is taking a full service. We need to see who will get into the car. The professional drivers assist with the driver changes while the national drivers may forget to do so because they are bushed after their stints. Kelvin van der Linde likely has gotten into the #25. Let's see. It is Kelvin van der Linde into his home race.
Charles Weerts will be spitting bullets, freaking out over van der Linde being ahead as his father Yves Weerts is looking on. Great scrap between the two Aud's and they negotiate one of the national Lamborghini's. Devisive maneuvers required around the national traffic here at Kyalami. The amount of dehydration is major in endurance racing including heat soak. The cockpit gets warmer and warmer whether the car is front engine or rear engine. A gap has opened between van der Linde and Weerts at just beyond a second or so.
Raffaele Marciello leads Miguel Molina and Kelvin van der Linde. Two drivers have cut the fastest laps of the race so far. Miguel Molina and Raffaele Marciello have set those times. The gap is 7.6 seconds between the top two. Fastest lap for Come Ledogar at 1:42.602. No Porsche 911 GT3R's in this race this weekend. We saw plenty in IMSA at the Rolex 24 last weekend. No Aston Martin's in this race either. We saw one or two in the Rolex 24 last weekend, incidentally. The gap grows between Marciello and Molina. 8.1 seconds now between Marciello and Molina. Miguel Molina not able to respond to the Italian. He is actually racing under a Swiss license.
Full darkness is an hour or so away. Marciello passes the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes. Marciello clicking off the laps. The gap opening to Miguel Molina in second spot. The metronomic performance and pace, continues. It is like a slowly stretched rubber band. We welcome Bruce Jones back to the commentary box. V8 Ferrari vs. V8 Mercedes vs. V10 Audi. In this event it is somewhat unlikely the lap record set by Porsche and Matt Campbell in 2019, may or may not be broken. We don't know yet. Nicolas Baert is two laps down to the race leader in fifth overall, followed by Kenny Habul and Mark Patterson, the Australian, and the native South African.
Arnold Neveling and company are best in the National division. The gap is now 9.1 seconds. 'Tis true. Arnold Neveling is eighth overall. The late afternoon light has a soft glow and darkness will be upon us soon. We've had a spritzing or two of rain, but nothing like the downpour from yesterday. This place is a cracking circuit. Races here are the best known besides probably, the Dakar Rally which used to be run through the African desert. The leader passes Mo Mia in the #80 MJR Motorsports Audi R8 GT4. If we had a packed grid like in 2019, there would be more cars to overtake. Ah, the days of sports car racing before the pandemic turned the world on it's head.
Marciello is a man on a mission, uncorking a 1:42.592. Pit stops can shuffle track position. Marciello leads the sole remaining AF Corse Ferrari by ten and a half seconds. Nicolas Baert moves past Mark Patterson and Patterson left him space. Baert in fifth spot sharing with Lucas Legeret and Simon Gachet. Marciello has completed 183 laps, 521 and a half miles. Tschops Sipuka now is at the wheel fo the Lamborghini. Sipuka raced Volkswagen Polo's in years gone by, a compact hatchback built by VW. The local South African drivers will be learning how to race in the hours of darkness as well. It is easy to make small mistakes that can add up.
1:42.446 for Raffaele Marciello, only 4/10ths off of Matty Campbell's all-time lap record from 2019. Three and a half hours to go. There's some debris in the middle of Barbecue Bend. But it is inconsequential. Daylight fades here at Kyalami while Raffaele Marciello, through Sunset and Clubhouse, has the lead uncorking a 1:42.380 as a new fastest lap of the motor race so far. He is building and padding an advantage is Marciello. All cars must now have their headlights on. The ligh is fading fast.
Miguel Molina is indeed driving his socks off to keep up but Marciello is ahead by 16.4 seconds. Some fans are still sticking around to check out this great motor race. Kelvin van der Linde, meanwhile, is faster than is Miguel Molina. One of the great recent South African drivers we have seen in SRO Europe is David Perel. This circuit is undulating and has a bit of everything in the corners and includes altitude too of course. Side by side stuff here between Mark Patterson and Charles Weerts. Thankfully, Patterson knows discretion is the better part of valor in the fading light here at Kyalami. Kyalami means "my home" in Zulu.
Pit stop time for SunEnergy1 and the Mercedes AMG GT3 now has Martin Konrad at the controls, replacing Kenny Habul. Cold tires mean you are on a knife edge on your out lap. We saw plenty of that in the frigid weather at the Rolex 24 last weekend. Raffaele Marciello in the lane now for tires and fuel. Light is fading here at Kyalami. As the temperatures drop, will the Audi boys hit their sweet spot? We shall see. They are not the match of the Ferrari's and they did not have to match the Mercedes'. Audi though, they are not within striking distance of the Ferrari's.
Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts seem to be within striking distance, but the Ferrari's are still pressing on. We have a mostly dry track as the ambient temperature is cooling off. Raffaele Marciello has just pitted. Should Raffaele Marciello and Jules Gounon keep going, they will give the championship, I believe, to Timur Bougslavskiy. It is in the middle 20s Celsius insofar as track temperature. Remember that air is scarce. Your heart rate is up because your heart is pumping like crazy with thinner air up here. So it takes a toll on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Kelvin van der Linde was a driver who was not a part of the Rolex 24 at Daytona last weekend although I think he has run it before. Cannot remember.
Marciello has been cutting some very good laps in recent time. Light continues to fade. It is much darker in real life compared to what we see on a television camera or if you are watching this race (as I am) on an iPad or mobile device on the Motor Trend app. Audi #25 have spent the least amount of time in the lane, so, just 5 minutes and 44 seconds. AKKA ASP has spent 6 minutes and 8 seconds. The track has grip with rubber in the surface from the tires, but it is not rubbered in that it is greasy. Take a complex mechanical sport like motorsport with the human factor and it washes out equally on a track, up hill, down dale and so forth.
Nicolas Baert raced in Formula 4 open wheel cars and in TCR touring cars over the last couple years and now he is in a full on GT3 car. Joining a top team like Sainteloc is a huge help. It is like an open university of motor racing. This is essentially a production-based race car, but you will never see a production car as amazing or quick as a GT3 car. Mo Mia leads GT4 in the sole Audi in that class. The sole car in that class. The car stopped at pit entry hours ago but they are back in the fight now. Firemen and track marshals had a tow rope and pushed the car so it would start again. They are 59 laps down to the leaders.
Michael van Rooyen is two laps ahead of Tschops Sipuka in the National GT class with the Lamborghini's. Alfa Romeo and Lancia have been popular here and so have Maserati and Ferrari and there was a parade of historic cars before the race began. Martin Konrad is back in pit lane with issues for the front engined car in a mechanical sense. Are they going to push the car back to the garage. Put it on the dollies and bring it to the garage to fix it. Now heels and tires on that car right now. Maybe they are doing a brake change.
There's steam out of the car.
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