We have seen a lot of yellow so far and let's hope we can get more green running in the second half of the event. We are actually at 1/3rd distance. Big commitment and consequences around Watkins Glen and the same deal at CTMP next weekend. No real runoff and a lot of Armco barrier at these tracks. The Cadillac's have been strong and now Acura are shining. BoP has now become track specific. There is a 25 kilogram difference in favor of the Cadillac's. They are lighter while the Cadillac's are heavier. Expect track specific Balance of Performance from now on. They have a data book on it at IMSA, the tech stewards. Strategies continue to change with all these yellows.
The strategists are under a lot of stress trying to plan out the race for the rest of it. Be flexible. Think on your feet. Roll the dice. Be bold. Be daring. The second engineer is the person who has to tell the exact numbers on fuel to the team bosses and the strategists. The DPi cars are cleaning the tires but the Acura drivers are jumping the field as we go back to green. Albuquerque gapping Blomqvist big style. #02 has a run, Earl Bamber on #5 of Tristan Vautier. Ganassi vs. JDC-Miller Motorsports. There is a wooden plank under the car to protect the chassis. Tristan Vautier is defending from Earl Bamber. Look out! Bamber slithers by. No harm, no foul. The driver lineups in DPi are unreal this year.
Pipo Derani passes team mate Jimmie Johnson for sixth. #31 past #48 at Action Express. Albuquerque's lead has ballooned to almost a second over Blomqvist. In LMP2, Mikkel Jensen is chasing Dylan Murry. Racing Team Nederland vs. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. Mikkel Jensen is a Peugeot Hypercar driver who will be racing with them in World Endurance coming up soon at Monza in Italy in a few weekends time. Fabio Scherer leads LMP2 in the High Class Racing car. Juan Pablo Montoya is pushing in the #81 DragonSpeed car. He is pushing hard.
We wonder if it will be father or son finishing at DragonSpeed. Will it be Juan Pablo or Sebastian Montoya? Pipo Derani chasing Tristan Vautier. Are things coming back to the #31 team? They need clear track. That was a strange call about pitting under a closed pit lane, but the fuel was a concern. Can Pipo Derani catch and pass Tristan Vautier? Great camera shots and Pipo Derani has a clear road as we see the #10 Acura in the pit lane. They will have 46 minutes on full lean for full fuel tanks. Filipe "Albaquick" Albuquerque hands over to Ricky Taylor.
Fuel savings are possible coming to the halfway mark for the Michelin Endurance Cup points with 3 hours and 45 mnutes left on the board. Some guys are engineers fully while others go with their gut, fly by the seat of their pants. Filipe Albuquerque says the track is very demanding and you can feel the G forces and loads here. Going through traffic, you need luck. Albuquerque says the Acura's could be quicker here at Watkins Glen compared to the Cadillac's. But, then again, the Cadillac teams will tell you a totally different story.
Wayne Taylor Racing has their rivalry with Meyer Shank Racing as Blomqvist checks up through lapped traffic and here comes Sebastien Bourdais. Bourdais goes for it and gets chopped by Blomqvist! Wow. Bourdais knew he had one chance to move in for the lead but gets snookered. Bamber closing in on Bourdais and Derani not far behind. Blomqvist has traffic and Ricky Taylor has clean air so he is a second faster than Blomqvist. Lars Kern released from the infield medical center with no injuries. He is fine. The team will fix the car at AWA for Mosport in Canada next weekend.
The Lexus has corner speed, downforce, and stability, and has done well here at Watkins Glen. Richard Heistand keeping it clean sharing with Aaron Telitz and Frankie Montecalvo as we see Ben Barnicoat in the sister GTD Pro Lexus, car #14 sharing with Kyle Kirkwood. Can the two of them play strategy? It is hard to say, BMW #25 in the lane from the lead. Connor De Philippi handing the car over to Augusto Farfus, the rapid Brazilian. The #5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac to the lane. Driver change as Richard Westbrook takes over from Tristan Vautier. JDC-Miller will be a Porsche customer team with the new 963 GTP car.
Westbrook did a ton of karting and then went into Formula 3. His career hit the skids at 18 years old doing anything to make ends meet as a chef and bartender. Then he got back into racing. He was won three times at Watkins Glen, twice in the Ford GT and also in prototypes. Pit stop time for the #02 Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Earl Bamber pitting from third. Alex Lynn may take over. Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 car. Both Chip Ganassi Cadillac's are in. Renger van der Zande will take over the #01. These cars are completely clean at CGR. Lynn gets balked by a GTD car at the RFID tire readers. Pipo Derani pits and twitches on cold tires. He will have to be careful. Blomqvist, Lynn, van der Zande, Derani, the top four in DPi.
In GTD, the leader in the lane, Richard Heistand in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. Frankie Montecalvo takes over the car. They have been in it all day in class. Cadillac #48, Jimmie Johnson finishing his stint and handing over to Mike Rockenfeller who is racing Watkins Glen for the first time in 16 years at Watkins Glen. Rockenfeller won the Rolex 24 at Daytona with Action Express in their first race ever in 2010. Rockenfeller on his out lap, finding his way on the road. Three and a half hours to go. Cold tires. The LMP2 cars are just as quick as DPi.
Their power delivery throttled back with Balance of Performance, but they still have the downforce. Rockenfeller still trying to get the belts tightened down. Pit stop time for the #60 Meyer Shank Acura. Have to think Tom Blomqvist will be hopping out and handing over to Oliver Jarvis. Jarvis down and a way. Quick stop at Meyer Shank Racing. Augusto Farfus taking it around in the #25 BMW Team RLLL BMW M4 GT3. Connor De Philippi says there was understeer but now they are getting into the sweet spot, although the Lexus and Aston Martin were faster and might still be.
The middle part of the race will show where the BMW boys are according to John Edwards. De Philippi says the car is in good shape. #25, the team was warned for tire pressure minimums. Oh dear. The #32 Mercedes off and on and back into the race, but Dirk Mueller has a flat right front tire. In replay, he tags the #02 Ganassi Racing Cadillac and the whole wheel is broken on the right front. That tire and wheel are smoking. With a wounded car, he did not take the shortcut. It should be allowed to take the shortcut as long as you do not gain an advantage. It is a safety issue.
This car is surely three wheels on me wagon and it's a devastating blow for the #32 Korthoff Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. Marvin Dienst is in the GTD lead. Tom Blomqvist says that he was comfortable out front under a long stint and he is sapped. Boatloads of yellow with 48 cars on this track. The Cadillac's are still strong and the battle will continue and nobody is going to let up. Oliver Jarvis pushing. Risk in traffic is part of the deal. There are so many spots where if you do not get it right, you will be in trouble and at risk of a rival passing you.
Ricky Taylor has inherited the lead through the pit sequence. Yellow flag laps in the sun are tough because of the heat. You get heat soak. Mike Rockenfeller is pushing. Training in the heat in the summertime is so different compared to other times of the year. Jimmie Johnson had a huge crash in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and had a huge smash into the wall after brake failure but he took it in stride. Since then, he has become a racing legend. Jimmie says his stint has gone easy. He is being methodical.
With his eyeglasses, it is age. It helps eyesight. Lots of racing left. Issues in qualifying for the #48 that have been resolved. #48 thought they had a driveline issue but it was a braking deal in qualifying. Ricky Taylor in the lead by 3.8 seconds over Oliver Jarvis. He wants maximum bonus points. Jarvis is right on his tail with more fuel in the tank. Taylor has to be saving petrol while Jarvis can go Harry Flatters. Jarvis is being told to go get Taylor. Six cars have been called for track limits in GTD. Everyone on double secret probation. 3, 9, 32, 96, and a couple others. These old school tracks like The Glen, Mosport, Road America, the track limits are the grass. #3 Corvette C8.R of Jordan Taylor, penalized for track limits. Drive through penalty.
Marvin Dienst leading the GT Daytona class, the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 he shares with Russell Ward and Phillip Ellis. No pit entry for Jordan Taylor yet. Taylor can stay out a few more laps but must get to the lane so the stewards do not stop scoring you. Ricky Taylor, on fuel save, 5.1 seconds to the good over Oliver Jarvis. Jordan Taylor had all four tires off the road through the apex. The Ferrari behind took a different line. Davide Rigon at the controls of the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari. Ben Barnicoat pitting the #14 Vasser Sullivan GTD Pro Lexus handing the car to Kyle Kirkwood.
There was a slight delay in the lane for #14. He did so well at Detroit at Belle Isle, fastest in GTD and in IndyCar and had a huge issue in Friday practice under braking. Injured his hand and won the GTD race and then had a wonderful IndyCar race but then wrecked the IndyCar as we see Jordan Taylor in the pit lane serving a drive through penalty for track limits. Juan Pablo Montoya vs. Mikkel Jensen, that is the battle in LMP2 for second place while Anders Fjordbach leads but barely, only by 3/10ths of a second. Traffic comes up fast. The #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche in the lane. Matt Campbell now handing back to Matthieu Jaminet.
"Jam Jam" should have a good race car in the Porsche. Corvette #3 has a driver change over to Antonio Garcia known as "The King of Spain". Garcia knows how careful he will have to be. Keep it clean, mate. Keep it clean. Do you start at zero on track limits? Is that the scoop? It sounds like the drivers' only commentary is top notch and the espresso must be working well. Keep watching on Peacock if you have that or if you don't, swap over to USA Network. Wayne Taylor Racing short on their fuel stint. Routine stop. Ricky Taylor stays in the car and the balance seems to be good as we have a spun Porsche.
The #16 Wright Motorsports car spun and now is back after it as we see the #21 AF Corse Ferrari with a right rear tire that has been cut down. Contact between the two of them. Ugh. #16 could not stay off the whirligig. Then the #21 Ferrari went off in the dust. AF Corse not ready and had to scramble for the tires. So they are going to be on the back foot. The hub is broken. Toni Vilander at the wheel of it, "the flying Finn". They are only entered in the enduro races. They will miss the bonus points if they have a fowl up here. Vilander inside Zacharie Robichon and Robichon went sideways. The #59 Crucial Motorsports McLaren also spins in turn eight.
Inception Racing, car #70 spins off and more woe for the #21 after slamming the wall and he has big damage. To the garage he goes. Jordan Taylor says he cannot remember the last time he had a track limits penalty. Renger van der Zande now chasing down Oliver Jarvis for the lead of the motor race. Defensive driving in GTD and the GTD Pro Lexus passes the regular GTD Lexus. Frankie Montecalvo passed by Kyle Kirkwood. Make sure Auberlen knows he is racing the Pro class Lexus. We are now halfway home. The prototypes just flash by! Antonio Fuoco, incident responsibility drive through penalty with the #59 Crucial Motorsports McLaren.
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