At this point, only half a dozen cars have retired. 47 still left. Bamber trying to flash the lights to distract Westbrook. Maybe the #02 will have an advantage in the corners. Westbrook enters turn three deep, locking the brakes. You can tell he is feeling the pressure from Bamber. Nunez still eighteen seconds out, looking to give Action Express a podium spot. Westbrook is balked by slower traffic. It's on now! Bamber is right on Westbrook's six! Into the hairpin at turn seven. Bamber cannot make it stick. Into the Fangio Chicane. Managing traffic is a big deal. Pick the right lane. Bamber goes for it and makes the pass. Wowzers. The Ganassi Cadillac has more grip than does the JDC-Miller car. Identical machinery but with different setups on the cars depending on what the teams wanted to do.
We have seen action all over the track here at Sebring and right now the focal point is definitely in DPi for the overall victory. Oh dear! Oh dear! #02 has spun off the road! Well, well, well. Just as we were singing the praises of Earl Bamber, he has thrown the Cadillac off the road. Now, will this allow the #5 and #31 to catch up? Will Bamber get back into the lead of the motor race? The plot doth thicken. He ran just a smidgen over the curbs and that tossed the car into a spin. Closer inspection shows that Bamber was alongside a GTD car of some description, and that unbalanced the cCadillac, sending him spinning off the road.
He is back on track now. But, he has Westbrook pulling away and Nunez closing in. Tom Blomqvist the Rolex 24 winner and Ricky Taylor, in the two Acura's, they are not a factor. Final pit stops coming for GTD cars as the #47 Cetilar Ferrari is in the lane where outside of the pit lights to illuminate the team's boxes, it is incredibly dark. Pitch black, everywhere. The #57 Winward Racing Mercedes is also in pit lane. Any other takers? Not sure. Bamber has cut the gap to Westbrook as we see a replay of the spin. The Ferrari wadded up the road a wee bit. Bamber though, that was his mistake. No action taken by the stewards. Bamber is upset with the GTD car. The car is fine. Push, push, push.
Bamber is channeling his frustration, recovering, going after Westbrook to be sure. Again, we see the perils of running in traffic in the dark of night here at Sebring. That is how this race has always been since 1952. That is what it's founder and creator, Alec Ulmann, wanted. He wanted an America version of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We have not had the opportunity to pay attention to the lead battles in the other classes because those seemingly have settled down. It is the overall victory being focused upon. Bamber still in hot pursuit of Westbrook, equal equipment for both drivers save for individual team setups.
The car seems to be undamaged, for Earl Bamber, a veteran GT and prototype racer in sports cars. Other class leaders, while we have the time. Mikkel Jensen is a lap up on everyone else in LMP2 in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Oreca. In LMP3, Garrett Grist leads his nearest competitor by 23 seconds, so, Grist in the JR III. car is 23 seconds ahead of the #33 Sean Creech Motorsports entry in the hands of Malthe Jakobsen. The other cars are laps down and way out of contention... Rasmus Lindh in the Performance Tech car, and the AWA entry that we have seen spinning like a top, in the hands of Lars Kern. Kern, though, that is no disrespect to his ability as he is, or was, a Porsche road car test driver at the Nurburgring Nordschleife. So, he is a wheel man without a doubt.
Corvette #3 in the pit lane from the GTD Pro lead. The #12 GTD Lexus ducks into the lane ahead of Antonio Garcia. Four tires and fuel, and Garcia will take the car to the finish. Lexus #14 hit the lane the lap before. The window is open for final stop for GTD Pro and Aaron Telitz is 50 seconds behind Antonio Garcia. Everyone else, Bortolotti, Gounon, Campbell, and Eng, are still further behind, and here are a few other cars laps down including the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin which may be retired. Porsche, Acura, and Ferrari not in the GTD Pro fight. It will be a two horse race to the end much like it is in DPi.
A similar story in regular GTD. Antonio Fuoco in the Ferrari leads Bill Auberlen in the BMW M4 by 16 seconds. Daniel Juncadella in the #32 Gilbert Korthoff Mercedes is third followed by Toni Vilander in the AF Corse #21 Ferrari, and Jordan Pepper in the #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3. Andy Lally is a lap down in the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin. Two laps down, the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Scott Andrews, and Katherine Legge in the #99 Team Hardpoint Porsche. Further down the order, and retired from the motor race, the #28 Daniel Morad driven Alegra Motorsports Mercedes, and the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Jan Heylen, who was in strife from the opening hour of the race this morning
Final pit stops. Garcia is a three-time winner at Sebring and almost won in 2021 battling Connor De Philippi for BMW. Garcia and company came home sixth at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Corvette Racing were the odd man out when GTD Pro was announced. They had to go through engineering exercises and gymnastics to make the Corvette a GT3 car. 20 more horsepower was given to the car on Balance of Performance before qualifying. Garcia and the Corvette are running well, running great lap times. Corvette won in 2017 in the 12 Hours in GTLM and also in the sprint event in 2020 that we had here on a hot Saturday in July. The battle for the overall win continues between JDC-Miller and Ganasi. You've missed nothing.
Bamber goes back past Westbrook. Bamber made up a six and a half second deficit. Wow. Westbrook has nothing left to throw at Bamber, not even the kitchen sink. Westbrook lost power getting into the clag on the outside of the circuit through turn 16 and down the Ulmann straight. Nunez in the #31 is now ten seconds behind, a solid podium. Chip Ganassi Racing looking for their second overall Sebring triumph. Corvette, Lamborghini, and Lexus are still scrapping for GTD Pro honors, and, a cool entry that we have not given a call to, that Wayne Taylor Racing is a part of. They are with Racer's Edge Motorsports. Ashton Harrison, she is racing for the first time in the WeatherTech Championship. Harrison says her co-driver Kyle Marcelli is a qualified pro running in other championships, and Tom Long, has been her driver coach for the better part of a decade.
The idea is for Ashton Harrison to learn how to do these endurance races. The color red is significant for the team. Harrison, she has run with Wayne Taylor Racing in Lamborghini Super Trofeo and Harrison studies the engineering and the data as well. She is trying hard to understand everything. So, Ashton Harrison is doing a fine job in her first IMSA start. DPi final pit stops are imminent. Richard Westbrook pits from second place in the #5 car. So, this is the final stop for the JDC-Miller boys, taking it to the finish.
Tires, fuel, and a drink bottle top up for Richard Westbrook. Tristan Nunez inherits second place behind Earl Bamber. Can he stay there? Can he push Bamber? Or, will Westbrook cycle back through to second? Bamber has not pitted yet. He needs fuel and needs it now. He is in the danger zone and now is in the lane. Pipo Derani will take the #31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac to the end of the race. Tristan Vautier did get into the #5. Mea culpa. Tom Blomqvist in the #60 MSR Acura has come to second place. Bamber and team are right in the window for fuel and could very well maintain the lead. Bamber guns the motor and they are down and away.
#31 and #5 both did driver changes. Vautier and Derani. Each team has their bullet in to the end. The Acura's are getting better fuel mileage than the Cadillac's, but wait to pit. Ricky Taylor will take the #10 to the finish. Vautier now third and Bamber leads. Final stint changes are rare. But Mustang Sampling and Action Express both want a reset and want to chase down the #02 Ganassi car. JDC-Miller asked Richard Westbrook, can you find more pace? He said, "nope". Action Express, on the horn to Tristan Nunez, "can you find more pace? Nope. I've given everything I have." What's the solution? Bish, bash, bosh. You put in a new driver who is ready to go and ready to squeeze every last ounce out of the car to get it to the bitter end.
Maybe one race car suits a driver more than the other. Maybe AXR got out of sync with driver times. That is a question for my pal who owns the team. Bamber has to stay focused on getting the car to the end. A Le Mans winner with Porsche. Will Earl Bamber be a Sebring winner with Cadillac? He has to keep his nose clean for the last 34 minutes. Vautier runs 7.2 seconds down. Pipo Derani is nearly 18 seconds down. We need a reset with a yellow. But if it stays green, Bamber might have this motor race in the bag. Bamber is in the pound seats, but you know darn well that Vautier, Derani, and Blomqvist are going to be digging and digging hard to find something.
A Full Course Yellow could put the cat among the pigeons. Bamber, in the lead, can give it up a shade, being in the race lead. He is the rabbit. Vautier and Derani are the hounds. Richard Westbrook says the #5 does not have a lot for the #02. They have a cooling issue in the cockpit forcing the team to run single stints to the end of the race. The car itself is running very well. Westbrook jokingly said "I think I want a gin and tonic after my stint." Joao Barbosa, leading in LMP3 with Sean Creech Motorsports says his team has done a tremendous job. Malthe Jakobsen will take that car to the end of the race. They lead the division by 20 seconds.
Can anyone catch Bamber? Will there be a yellow to reshuffle the deck? Half an hour on the board before this race is over. The #10 Acura is all over the road but still tracking in a straight line here at Sebring over these ntoroiously bumpty concrrete surfaces, going by lapped traffic. This 70th renewal of Sebring and the 12 Hours, has been amazing. It has been hot insofar as the action and the temperatures, just like always. Cetilar Racing leading for Ferrari in GTD have had an eventful motor race. In hour two, they were biffed into a spin. In the sixth hour, a massive spin into the turn one, backing the Prancing Horse into the tire barriers.
The door had to be changed after that fracas. Hour eight, the car and team were penalized for shoving aside the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3. How ironic, that in hour 11, they'd claw their way back to the GT Daytona lead, passing who else, but the #96 BMW they'd run into earlier in the going. Cetilar Racing, with the all-Italian trio of Giorgio Sernagiotto, Antonio Fuoco, and Roberto Lacorte, they are in the fight once more. That's not a dainty race car. It has become a New York City taxicab. Fuoco in the car leads by 47 seconds in GT Daytona over Daniel Juncadella, the Spaniard who is a Mercedes factory GT3 driver in the #32 Gilbert Korthoff Mercedes AMG GT3.
They scored a podium at the Rolex 24. Five cars on the lead lap in GT Daytona. Toni Vilander is third in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari and in fourth is the recovering Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3, the #96 car, with Robby Foley now at the wheel of it to the end. We have seen seven Full Course Yellow's today but have not had one since 5:30 P.M. this afternoon. The strategy keeps going out the window in spite of the argy bargy we've had. Last year we did see a Full Course Yellow. But we don't know if there will be one, or if it will go clean and green for the last 25 minutes. Vautier is keeping Bamber honest and Pipo Derani remains third, 14 seconds down from the top two. Mikkel Jensen continues to lead LMP2 and as we explained earlier, he is a lap up on his competition.
PR1/Mathiasen needs a five second splash and dash on petrol. They hope for just one more stop. Tristan Vautier and company are pushing hard. But it is incredibly hot in that Cadillac. Richard Westbrook absolutely knackered after his stint. The tension is palpable at CGR with Alex Lynn and Neel Jani. Earl Bamber is mustering the pace to hold off the JDC-Miller entry. No cooling in the #5 entry. He was totally spent. If you don't have all the cooling vents working in these cars, they will cook you like a roasting chicken.
Blomqvist did not want to give it up on Taylor. The Jarvis Slam will not come through. He will only have the LMP2 victory in the WEC race yesterday. Ambient temperature still warm at 80 degrees. Vautier eats 8/10ths of a second out of Bamber in sector one. Vautier is pressing on, hard. The fans haven't left yet. They've been here all week and have seen a great race today as well as the other races with Michelin Pilot, Porsche Cup, and World Endurance. Vautier has his eye on Bamber. He is closing in. 17-18 minutes to go. Last year when JDC-Miller won, Sebastien Bourdais was the driver to bring it home, not Tristan Vautier.
Vautier four seconds down on Bamber. Derani, 12 seconds down on Bamber. Vautier stymied through Sunset Bend by a Ferrari. CGR engineer Danielle Shepherd is lead engineer on the #02 and she engineered Scott Dixon's IndyCar as well over the years. Both #01 and #02 have been in the wars today. 15 minutes to go. Who will win? Two or three cars still in it. The cars streak through the darkness here amid the orange groves of central Florida. The great race, drawing to a close. The scrap between #02 and #5 continues. Traffic still a factor.
Bamber has extended his lead back to four seconds through traffic. Derani now 10.3 seconds down. He is gaining time but may still settle for third. On a clean track with no lapped traffic, Vautier can catch Bamber, in a perfect world. But, this is far from a perfect world. Ganassi engineer Michael Harvey was also a Porsche factory engineer when Earl Bamber drove for the Stuttgart marque. Tristan Vautier continues to give chase. Christian Fittipaldi has won this race before as a driver. Now he is team manager for JDC-Miller Motorsports. Fittipaldi says the car is better in cooler weather. They are going for it right to the checkers.
With ten minutes left, we still have scrapping for position among the GTD cars in both the Pro and regular classes. The GTD cars will be obstacles in traffic for the leaders. Something with the setup suits the JDC-Miller Mustang Sampling car. Third place is vehemently fought for and is done dso in GTD Pro right now. Jules Gounon for Mercedes vs. Aaron Telitz for Lexus. #97 did not practice and they had engine issues during Thursday Free Practice. They needed a new motor after the engine went bang at Daytona. Gounon is not in it for the title. He will throw caution to the wind against Telitz. Shades of what we saw between the Porsche's in GTD Pro at Daytona with Laurens Vanthoor scrapping with Felipe Nasr.
WeatherTech Racing of course fielding a Porsche and a Mercedes. GT Daytona leader Antonio Fuoco is biding his time because he has a 40 second gap in GT Daytona over seocnd place Daniel Juncadella and he wants no part of this madness for the GTD Pro positional fight. Telitz brakes in deep right on the threshold. You know that Gounon wants this podium place. Gounon is staying right with him. Be smart. Don't do anything rash. Six and a half minutes left. Pretty interesting call for Aaron Telitz to be drafted into the Lexus GTD Pro entry from the regular GTD entry. Regular driver Kyle Kirkwood has IndyCar commitments for their second race tomorrow in Texas at Texas Motor Speedway.
Vautier 3.5 seconds down on Bamber. Now 4.2 seconds down. Derani still third, 10.3 seconds out. Vautier has gobs of traffic to negotiate while Bamber has clear sailing for the most part. Derani is still fastest among the top four, three seconds ahead in lap time. Executing every lap cleanly is hard to do because of the traffic. There are no spy gadgets. No oil slick, no smokescreen, no road tacks. The title battle will be one for the ages. We have the six hour race at Watkins Glen and then the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta to come, but loads of sprint racing with just two drivers. We have many teams who can go for the title this year. Meyer Shank Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Action Express, JDC-Miller Motorsports. It is going to be hotly contested.
Bamber just clicking off the laps. The gap is 4.3 seconds. Chip Ganassi Racing won this race in 2014 but they never won GTLM with Ford in all the years that program existed. The onboard camera shots at night are amazing. The moon, peaking through the darkness. It has been mostly clear. We were hearing about rain showers but thankfully, those showers did not come in spite of the extreme heat. The last thing you need is rain on top of everything else here at Sebring and thankfully we dodged a major bullet today and had none of it. White flag this time around. He has to do two more laps to get the checkered. White flag next time by. He does not have enough of a margin. Vautier is 3.7 seconds down. At 12 hours, the time expires.
Bamber locks the brakes. It ain't over 'til it's over. A lap and a half to go. Bamber hung up with Telitz who is slowing down and might by off the GTD Pro podium! Oh my! Mercedes #28 moves over. Vautier is coming hard. He too has to get through the traffic. Earl Bamber, white flag. One lap to go. Bamber has been on the charge in spite of some mistakes. The New Zealander will be a winner here at Sebring. Vautier was very close, the Frenchman. Alex Lynn's undefeated record will remain. He won in 2017 in a Cadillac for Wayne Taylor Racing, in his most recent appearance. He will win again. Earl Bamber will add an overall championship at Sebring. Earl Bamber, Neel Jani, and Alex Lynn get the job done.
GT Daytona honors go to the all-Italian Cetilar Racing team for Antonio Fuoco, Giorgio Sernagiotto, and Roberto Lacorte. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports score the LMP2 win tonight. Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen, and Scott Huffaker are the winning drivers. A big win for Ferrari. In LMP2, Malthe Jakobsen for Sean Creech Motorsports wins LMP3 with co-drivers Joao Barbosa and Dr. Lance Willsey, win in class. GT Daytona Pro honors go once again to Corvette Racing and their #3 C8.R. Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor, and Nicky Catsburg win. Mirko Bortolotti second and Jules Gounon third. Corvette win Sebring. Jordan Taylor earns his second Sebring Corvette win after winning with Alex Lynn and his brother Ricky overall in 2017.
The fireworks go off over Sebring International Raceway. What a race.
Overall/DPi: #02 Bamber/Lynn/Jani Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R
LMP2: #52 Jensen/Keating/Huffaker PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07
LMP3: #33 Jakobsen/Barbosa/Willsey Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GT Daytona Pro: #3 Garcia/Taylor/Catsburg Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R
GT Daytona: #47 Lacorte/Sernagiotto/Fuoco Cetilar Racing Ferrari 488 GT3
So, that's a wrap from Sebring International Raceway and the 70th edition of the great half day race, the once-around-the-clock odyssey. Next up, the sprint race season begins for IMSA on the fabled streets of Long Beach, California, in three weeks time. See you then. So long, for now, everybody. Take care.
No comments:
Post a Comment