We have just seen a battle of the sports car superstars. Kobayashi vs. Bamber. Now, Mike Rockenfeller will be scrapping with the #02. The car is kicking brake dust out on the #48. Are they using the brakes more? The #74 Riley Motorsports LMP3 is back on course but it is now down the order. Malthe Jakobsen, Dakota Dickerson, and Rasmus Lindh, the top three in LMP3. Bill Auberlen and Turner Motorsport lead GTD over Maximilian Gotz in the #28 Alegra Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 as Antonio Fuoco runs third aboard the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari. Maximilian Gotz has the Risi Competizione Ferrari trying to get a lap back, the #62 entry. Mike Rockenfeller has taken over the #48 Ally Cadillac from Kamui Kobayashi. Mike Conway along with Jose Maria Lopez, and Kamui Kobayashi could not get into the Cadillac until finishing the race with Toyota in World Endurance yesterday and Kamui Kobayashi made that decision himself.
Kobayashi says he enjoyed his stint. However, he had no drink bottle. He needs to rehydrate. They gambled and stopped for new sticker tires. There is a contract that says the Toyota drivers could not go and race for someone else until after the WEC races are over. So, he had to obey Toyota and their people. The #54 CORE Autosport LMP3 car had a bad switchboard, killing the electronics and stalling the car. Bill Auberlen leads GTD. We need to check the rest of the GTD and GTD Pro order. Game over for Riley Motorsports with a holed radiator and the water pushed all the way out of it. Bad luck for Kay van Berlo, Gar Robinson, and Felipe Fraga. The Stoffel Vandoorne pits the Meyer Shank Acura #60. We are getting closer and closer to sunset. #33 Sean Creech Motorsports car leads in class. Mikkel Jensen leads Giedo van der Garde in LMP2 as van der Garde is now in the pit lane for service.
We have also watched the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin of John Potter, Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly, a team that has been switched manufacturers over the years. 260 laps now completed. 972 miles. Earl Bamber leads the race for Ganassi Racing in the #02 car with Loic Duval second, 27.1 seconds behind in the #5 JDC-Miller Mustang Sampling Cadillac. Stoffel Vandoorne driving the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura. Pipo Derani is inching towards catching Vandoorne in fourth place. Mike Rockenfeller is fifth in the #48, eleven seconds ahead of Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing Acura. Bamber, 30 seconds to the good at the front. Mikkel Jensen leads LMP2 as the barbecue scent is wafting over the track. We'll have official sunset in ten minutes. Kamui Kobayashi does not run a helmet blower and he doesn't use a drink straw. He uses a squirt bottle and had to go to the infield care center for an IV drip.
Earl Bamber leads the motor race ahead of Lopic Duval, Stoffel Vandoorne, and Pipo Derani. Malthe Jakobsen leads LMP3. Jordan Taylor leads in the #3 Corvette C8.R and in GTD the leader remains the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3. Earl Bamber turns a 1:47.285, his best lap of the race so far. Pit stop time for the #52 PR1/Mathiasen LMP2 leader. Jensen is out so it is Scott Huffaker taking over. Steven Thomas has finished his stint in the #11 Win Autosport LMP2 car. He did double duty with WEC yesterday as well as IMSA. Ryan Dalziel has also pitted in the #18 Era Motorsports entry, an LMP2 car. Earl Bamber pits from the lead and Loic Duval will pit soon from second place. 263 laps now done. Traffic has not thinned out by any means. Within the distance of a regular season sprint race... 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Pit stop time for the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW, Robby Foley taking over. The #28 Alegra Motorsports Mercedes pitted as well and so Antonio Fuoco inherits the race lead in GT Daytona. Fuel, tires, and Joao Barbosa in the Sean Creech LMP3 car. Pipo Derani pits the #31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac as we see Earl Bamber pitting the #02 Ganasi Racing Cadillac. Bamber out of the car and he must be knackered. Not sure if Alex Lynn or Neel Jani stepped in. The #33 Sean Creech Motorsports car is leading LMP3. The GTD Pro class is being led by the Corvette #3 and the #02 pits from the lead.
Earl Bamber will relinquish the driving seat to one of the co-drivers. Loic Duval moves to the front of the motor race. I would think it was Alex Lynn. Yes. Alex Lynn it is. Loic Duval is now in the lead in the #5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac, and he will need to pit next time 'round. Stoffel Vandoorne next in the queue. Duval hits the pit lane, and the #48 Ally Cadillac will be in the lead of the motor race, Mike Rockenfeller. Routine service for the #5. Meyer Shank in the pit lane as well. They are a way behind the leaders.
Good pit stop for the MSR boys. We are looking at oh, four more stops in backtiming this race to the end. Sunset and darkness are on the way here. You can see that as we go onboard with the #79 WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT3R, slithering all over the road, the shadows are growing in the evening twilight here at Sebring. When this place gets dark, it will get really dark. Just wait a few more minutes. It will be pitch black everywhere. Pipo Derani is cahsing down Stoffel Vandoorne at a great rate of knots. Dusk at the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring with two and a half hours to go. Vandoorne and Derani were fighting for position and Derani spins off in turn sixteen.
Maybe Derani turned in early and this will be a drive through penalty for the #31. Damage to the #60 Meyer Shank entry. Last year, Pipo Derani did get involved with a few incidents early in the season in 2021 and of course Action Express came back from that and won the title. Stoffel Vandoorne does not have any damage to the car. Pipo Derani will serve a drive through penalty and maybe be able to stay on the lead lap, just barely. #60 dodged a bullet. The damage to the #60 was not sufficient. Race Control may not penalize anyone here. We'll have to find out. This could become a slugfest between the #60 MSR Acura and the #31 AXR Cadillac.
Vandoorne maybe did not have any idea that Pipo Derani was there. No penalties from Race Control? Ah. There is a warning to the #31 and to the #60. Michael Shank is watching the race from Dallas/Forth Worth, Texas, for the IndyCar race at Texas Motor Speedway tomorrow. Alex Lynn continues to lead, looking for his second win in the 12 Hours of Sebring having won in his only previous race here, in 2017, with Wayne Taylor Racing, coincidentally, also aboard a DPi Cadillac. Mike Rockenfeller runs second aboard the #48 Ally Action Express/Hendrick Motorsports Cadillac. But if Vandoorne gets back to Derani, there could be trouble brewing. Let's hope cooler heads prevail here. Lynn, Rockenfeller, Duval, Vandoorne, Derani, the top five.
Alex Lynn aboard the #02 Ganassi Racing Cadillac is now caught in lapped GTD Pro/GTD traffic. Mike Rockenfeller remains in second spot as mentioned. We have been green for over two hours. A number of teams need a reset and need another Full Course Yellow to be truthful. The strategists are back timing the race. Mike Rockenfeller is in the pit lane for service and he had a drink bottle problem earlier. The fuel is in the car and four new Michelin tires on the car. Darkness falls. Kamui Kobayashi was toast after his stint needing an intravenous at the medical center. Any of the three can get this #48 car to victory lane.
The Action Express/Hendrick Motorsports team looked at and discussed the brake issues on the car, with loads of brake dust going out of the wheels. In the old days, brake changes were far more commonplace in these enduro races than they are now. The carbon brakes, when they thin out, they get overheated and turn cherry red in the darkness. It depends on what kind of brake pads teams want to use. The lights are on in Sebring. GT Daytona cars still use amber headlight gels on the cars. Everyone else uses white headlights and LED running lights to show where the cars are on the road for the spotters and for the fans to be able to see in darkness.
Robby Foley leads GTD feeling the heat from the #47 Cetilar Ferrari. Robby Foley vs. Giorgio Sernagiotto. The Italian, in hot pursuit of the American. Next up is the #62 GTD Pro Risi Competizione Ferrari, laps down. Years ago, Joey Hand for BMW was battling the Risi Competizione Ferrari. He thought he had to do a banzai move on a Ferrari but it was not the same one. The #29 Racing Team Nederland LMP2 entry slices past the Ferrari. Super Sebring weekend is coming to a close but it remains extremely hot. We are not done here yet by a long shot.
The sun has set and we are racing into the darkness. Racing here at night means it is very difficult to hit your marks as it will be pitch black. Find your night owl. Who is feeling it? Who has the eyes to drive in the darkness? Give me the ball. Let me win the game. Alex Lynn continues to lead DPi and overall. Vasser Sullivan's two Lexus RC F GT3's, and James "Sully" Sullivan explains their mission control center in the pit lane to bring the two cars, the #12 and #14 together for info sharing and data analysis. They have telemetry, and telvision cameras to see where their cars are on the road. Jack Hawksworth could finish out the race in the #14.
In the #96 Turner Motorsports camp, they have been fighting Ferrari #47 all day. Bill Auberlen says the #96 BMW M4 GT3 going for it, in his 500th race as a BMW driver. Wow! That's remarkable! Bill Auberlen trained and lost 20 pounds. In his 400th start at the 2017 Petit Le Mans for BMW, he won. Into the pit lane the #48 Ally Cadillac. AN unscheduled pit stop. They were looking at the brakes and they have to do a brake change under green. Crew Chief Chad Knaus says there is zero brake temperature or a rotor. The left front rotor has melted away!
Oh my gosh! The rotor is shot. This puts the #48 Action Express Cadillac with Hendrick Motorsports out of contention. Maybe they were a tad aggressive on brakes. Who knows. There's brake dust everywhere. The disc, caliper, and pads have melted themselves together on the right front. Alex Lynn continues on in the lead with just over two hours to go. A driver change in the #48 as the pit crew is still feverishly working on the brake change. Multiple cars in several classes are on the lead lap with just wo hours to go. DPi cars are running 40 minute stints under green. GTD cars run almost an hour on fuel. GTD cars are closing in on their penultimate pit stops.
Pipo Derani hits the pit lane from third place. They will change the nose of the car as the dive planes and the splitter are damaged, or they are looking for additional downforce in the cool of the night. The new nose is different. The dive planes are different and have edges on them. So, they've changed the balance and they looked at the right front brake rotor. Rear grip and front downforce have to be balanced. There has to be an equilibrium, so the car does not become undrivable. In that time, there was also a driver change as Pipo Derani hops out and Mike Conway takes over. Conway will do a triple stint to the finish of the motor race.
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