Into the second half of the motor race now. You can come up on the same car all the time, but it will have a different driver at the wheel of it. The worst part is if a driver has a bone to pick with another car that you as a driver have nothing to do with. Michael de Quesada says that the race is going very well for Alegra Motorsports. There is a massive residual debris field down the Ulmann straight! Bill Auberlen in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW carving his way through the traffic and we have a Full Course Yellow out again for the fifth time today. That looks like bodywork. Maybe the #13 AWA LMP3 car spread the majority of that junk all over the road. Or, it could have been something falling off the Mercedes, the #57 Winward machine. Fans and competitors have been enjoying this race so far but there is still a long way to go. We have indeed passed the halfway mark.
Derani and Rockenfeller continue to run 1-2 for Action Express followed by Taylor, Lynn, Vautier, and Blomqvist. Mikkel Jensen leads Ryan Dalziel, Josh Pierson, and Duncan Tappy in LMP2. We shall check LMP3 and GTD Pro as well as GTD later. Back in 1952, the first 12-hour race ran here. This is the 70th anniversary. Fans line up for a week ahead of this race weekend to claim a parking spot at the track. Pit action resumes for the prototypes as we see most of the top runners in DPi in the lane. Both cars for Action Express, JDC-Miller, Wayne Taylor Racing, and Meyer Shank Racing, all pit. I believe we saw LMP2 and LMP3 stops as well.
Frits van Eerd who has a grocery store chain in Holland, he has moved over after winning the WEC LMP2 championship, to IMSA. Dylan Murry has the wheel of the car. Frits van Eerd lived in Orlando, Florida, for a while and got to see the Grand Touring Prototype cars back in the day at Daytona International Speedway. He has remodeled the model of European grocery sales to the same way it is done here in the United States with customer focus first instead of all focus on food suppliers. Frits van Eerd has a New Orleans style party band called Factor 12. He is one of the amazing personalities in our sport. We now see a slew of GTD Pro and GTD cars that have just made regular pit stops under Full Course Yellow.
Under this yellow, Acura lead with Ricky Taylor followed by Tom Blomqvist. WTR vs. MSR. The JDC-Miller, Action Express, and Ganassi Cadillac's are still in it. One Ganassi Cadillac vs. two for Action Express and one for JDC-Miller. We are setting up now for another restart. Ricky Taylor leading Tom Blomqvist. Tristan Vautier wants to make a move but can't make it work. Jose Maria Lopez wants by Tristan Vautier. Three wide in GT Daytona and GT Daytona Pro. Jack Hawksworth vs. Nicky Catsburg, Phillip Eng, and Matty Campbell. Phillip Eng wants to pass the lapped Ferrari, the #62 Risi Competizione entry which he cannot get by. Eddie Cheever III. I believe is driving that Ferrari right now.
Jack Hawksworth vs. Nicky Catsburg and now, Philip Eng passes Cheever. Catsburg vs. Hawksworth and Hawksworth holkds on but just barely. Oh dear. Harry Gottsacker has slammed the wall in turn 17, again! Holy mackerel. The front end is totally ripped off or severely crunched. We are going to see a Full Course Yellow, probably, if Gottsacker cannot get back moving again with the car under it's own steam. Full Course Yellow. Nicky Catsburg is a Corvette driver for the enduros but is also still contracted as a BMW factory driver in European GT3 racing. Gottsacker. Gottsacker never turned and crunched into the tires.
More often we see Harry Gottsacker driving in Michelin Pilot Challenge in a front wheel drive Hyundai Elantra N TCR. It could be the only issue is nose damage on the car, but there could be more as the safety crews, the marshals, come to his rescue. No one was near him and he seemed to have gone off the road all by his lonesome. Another LMP3 car now in pit lane and that is the #13 AWA entry. We are around halfway through the seventh hour. For Risi Competizione, they are learning a new car and a new tire. For a number of years, each manufacturer in the old GT Le Mans class had their own confidential tire for each car.
They could separate from the GT Daytona cars. Now, everyone races one compound of Michelin Pilot tire. A new car, a new tire, and far more traffic. Everyone has the same Michelin racing slick if you are in a GT Daytona car. The two classes can now share data for setups as well. All tracks have mandated pressures set by Michelin. Spotters are scissor lifts high above Sebring International Raceway to tell drivers of hazards on the road. IndyCar and NASCAR use spotters all the time. Yours truly would be too scared and squeamish, with a fear of heights, to be atop one of those scissor lifts, especially in a strong breeze! Yikes!
Fans of all ages enjoying themselves and watching some fabulous sports car racing at Sebring today. A number of drivers in the 12 Hours today also ran the 1,000 Miles of Sebring yesterday in the World Endurance Championship. Green flag and Ricky Taylor ekes out a gap over Tom Blomqvist and now we see Jose Maria Lopez pass Tristan Vautier moving up to third place. Acura have never won Sebring in the DPi era while Cadillac has several wins and Mazda, when they were here, also won. We watch the battle too between Tristan Vautier, Tristan Nunez, and Earl Bamber next in the queue. Jack Hawksworth runs wide in turn 17 and Nicky Catsburg will pounce. Right on his six. No way for Phillip Eng to get into the fight either.
He is in it, but this is going to be a wee bit of a concertina effect. The front aerodynamics on GT cars are just as sensitive as an open wheel racer. Catsburg running offense and defense at the same time. The Lexus is fast on the straights and good under braking. 5 liter V8, in the Lexus. 5.5 liter V8 in the Corvette, and 3 liter V6 in the BMW M4 GT3. Catsburg is getting impatient and he needs to clear Jack Hawksworth. Jack Hawksworth is being passed now by Nicky Catsburg and so Hawksworth is going to fall easily into the clutches of Phillip Eng. Eng attacks Hawksworth and is going to try motoring past Catsburg as well, look.
When darkness falls, things will get wild. Night will fall at 7:45 P.M. Eastern Time. We see more headlights and about 6:30 P.M., the sunset is horrendous for the drivers. The sun is setting due west down the backstretch. Ricky Taylor leads the motor race. Taylor and his father's team last won this motor race five years ago in 2017. He is looking to repeat. But he has right on his six, the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura and the #48 Ally Action Express/Hendrick Motorsports Cadillac as well. The Nicky Catsburg and Phillip Eng story continues to be written in GTD Pro as Catsburg is doing all he can to stay ahead of the BMW driver. Philip Eng has become a danger man here in the last few moments.
It looks as if these two blokes are scampering away from the Lexus and the Ferrari for Jack Hawksworth and Eddie Cheever III. We will have 1,300 miles registered at the end of the 12 Hours of Sebring on this 3.74 mile circuit. Ricky Taylor leads the motor race still over Tom Blomqvist. We have seen the Cadillac's come to the fore, but now, Acura have changed that and have gone to the lead. Ricky Taylor, once again, slicing and dicing through GT Daytona traffic. He is 7/10ths of a second ahead of Tom Blomqvist. Oliver Jarvis said that there is a big change between the Mazda DPi and the Acura DPi. He had to get used to the V6 turbo motor in the Acura and how the traction control worked.
Tristan Nunez absolutely jumps over one of the bumps in turn 17. Yikes! The car is loaded up and they find a massive bump and are completely caught unawares. Paul Miller Racing have gotten the #1 BMW M4 GT3 back on the road. Oh dear. The #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac is off the road and back on, Renger van der Zande at the wheel of it. Let's see, he is running 32 laps down. The #31 Whelen Cadillac ran a tad wide too but in so doing, distracted the #01 and he went right off the road. The #01 will be the guinea pig for the #02 at CGR. The #48 Action Express Ally Cadillac, Jose Maria Lopez, running third, he had that massive accident in World Endurance in the Toyota yesterday as we saw.
Teammates are good. #48 and #31 can share info and so can the #01 and #02. Renger van der Zande had niggling issues and team manager Peter Baron told him to be a wingman. Lopez almost packs it in through Bishop Bend again! Yikes! He is putting it all on the line with five hours left on the board. These enduros are run like a flat-out sprint. Lopez goes offline in the same spot where he wrecked the Toyota yesterday. Jeepers creepers! Send it, mate. But keep the big picture in mind. Only three retirements of the 53 starters. We still have 50 cars out on the track at this stage of the motor race. Bill Auberlen slides the front end of the #96 BMW M4 GT3 for Turner Motorsports.
The tires are starting to squirm and get ratty.
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