We are back under Full Course Yellow so that means we are going to get back to racing with just under 14 hours to go. Five minutes to go before we restart this motor race. So, the points scoring system will be highlighted and in two hours at halfway, more points. Two stints to stay in the lead for the #98 and #50 BMW's.
1st place: 12 points
2nd place: 9 points
3rd place: 7 points
4th place: 6 points
5th place: 5 points
6th place: 4 points
7th place: 3 points
8th place: 2 points
9th place: 1 point
The top 12 score at the end of 24 hours.
1st place: 25 points
2nd place: 18 points
3rd place: 15 points
4th place: 12 points
5th place: 10 points
6th place: 8 points
7th place: 6 points
8th place: 4 points
9th place: 2 points
10th place: 1 point
Two of the three Herberth Motorsports Porsche's are out of the motor race. All heros don't wear capes. Some of them are the marshals who wear bright orange in Europe and white in the United States. Thank you for volunteering your time and keeping us safe. Without their volunteering there would be no motor racing at all. It is darker at Spa than it is at Daytona or Le Mans. The cars continue to be moved into position and these cars towards the tail end of the field, waving cars out of the pit lane to form up on the grid.
It is easier to nail jelly to the ceiling than getting a racing driver to do what you want them to do. We are close to 3AM at Spa Francorchamps. 45 minutes worth of red flag time. Someone is steaming. There is an overheating race car out there on the grid. Safety car procedure. Under yellow flag to restart, ready to put fire in the hole. A minimum of two laps behind the safety car to heat the tires up as the track temperature is still quite hot. 38.4 Celsius? Yikes! The tires have cooled considerably while in the safety car queue. Rowe Racing are trying not to be overly confident with a long, long way to go, but of course, so far the cream has risen to the top.
It is 3AM Central European Summer Time. We are getting set to go back to racing after a 45 minute red flag. Wind from the north at 2.2 meters per second. Nick Yelloly leading the motor race as the Rowe BMW has been on a different stint pattern to everybody else but it is all reset now. Two laps behind the safety car to get the tires up to temperature. A number of cars are pitting, seven or eight, but we don't quite know why. Doriane Pin stayed on track and we have the #32 Audi, the #107 Bentley which seems to be going back on track with Antonin Borga at the controls. Dries Vanthoor had a 1:58 pit stop time and Marco Mapelli and Leo Roussel stopped for two minutes for full fuel loads being taken.
Markus Winkelhock has taken over the #66 Audi Sport Team Attempto car. Winkelhock sharing with Ricardo Feller and Dennis Marschall. Jannes Fittje has done one stop more than everyone else ahead of him and did an earlier stop to leapfrog towards the top. They maybe replaced a punctured Pirelli P Zero tire. Three cars in the top 20, make that four, have made a dozen stops. We are going to be close to the next slice of the points pie. Don't eat it all at once. Save it and savor it. Tee hee. Lights remain on on the safety car. That's odd. Are we going to turn them loose?
Jannes Fittje now tumbling down the order. Two cars absolutely have to pit for fuel. A red flag should be an absolute stop, and parc ferme conditions. Felipe Nasr is now third. The safety car has been out for three laps, 12 minutes. The barrier repairs are being examined it seems. The tires are far more up to temperature than they were before. The cars are spreading out. Form up, ladies and gentlemen. Don't open the gaps too much. Markus Winkelhock back in the pit lane. Wondering about the #66. Richard Lietz has dropped from tenth down to 14th place. He has been on the road, not in the pit lane. That's a strange deal.
One car in the lane and has not exited is the #3 GetSpeed Mercedes of Valdemar Eriksen having spent an hour in the lane. Did that car go in on the red flag? But it must have been in the lane just before. That is strange. We also await the Bentley to come back. The Heart of Racing Team is now 54th as Antonin Borga in Bentley #107 has been in and out of the lane. Is he moving? The Bentley has it's distinctive front grille and a lozenge shaped set of taillamps. Maybe the Bentley is in the garage. 187 laps completed for that particular car. In the lane is the #33 Audi that has been stationary for over an hour. Nicolai Kjaergaard has handed the #159 Geage 59 McLaren to Ethan Simeone. The #33 has only been in the lane for a short while. Jeepers! I am losing it. But it is 8:30 P.M. Hang in there, I guess. Need coffee and adrenaline before I am as bright as a button.
Nick Yelloly and Dan Harper continue in the lead, the two Brits at the front of the queue for ROWE Racing. The #74 EMA Motorsports Porsche has Felipe Nasr, Matt Campbell, and Matthieu Jaminet, and they won the GTD Pro class at the Rolex 24 at Daytona at the beginning of the year. That of course was the opening round of the IMSA WeatherTech Championship. Gravel and rubber clag everywhere in the darkness. Hard to see it. Cars in and out of pit lane to be sure. Chris Froggatt still in the lane in the #93 Mercedes for Sky Tempesta Racing.
How deep are Nick Yelloly and Dan Harper into their stints? They need green flag racing so they don't get their strategy torpedoed and ruined. Everyone who was in the pit lane now exits and rejoins the track. This is of course, a seven kilometer circuit. 4.352 miles. The #32 WRT Audi is back in the lane and boy oh boy, that motorcar has been the problem child. That's for dead sure. Fuel only. Safety car in this lap. Green flag coming up. There's still more of this lap to do as they go through Eau Rouge and up the hill.
WRT could be topping off their tank. There is a minimum delta for a short stop and unlike GT World Challenge America, no jokers. #30 Audi from WRT is released. J.B. Simmenauer at the controls. Safety car procedure extended as Felipe Nasr is the top Porsche. Nicklas Nielsen top Ferrari in fourth. Dani Juncadella in the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes have dropped to seventh place in the queue. Rowe Racing were 30 minutes out of sync from everybody else. How long will it be until they need to stop. Rowe might get helped with this extended safety car scramble.
For how long can they continue? Oil on track at Pouhon, through the fast double left hander. So that is why we have kept the safety car out. Who is the car leaking oil from it's engine? Someone is losing oil at a major rate. These are thoroughbred race cars. Is somebody smoking? Do you mind if I smoke? If you insist. Lucas Legeret in the pit lane just leaving. Safety car in this lap. The #20 SPS Mercedes was also in the lane. Don't know who is driving that car. Someone is puking oil out the back of the car, somewhere, at Pouhon I believe, still. Valentino Rossi maybe picked up someone else's oil on his tires and spun through Fangnes and maybe he spun on his own oil. Pouhon followed by Fangnes. Someone has identified it in the dark of night.
Safety car due to enter the lane at the end of the lap and now, we are back to green flag racing as Nick Yelloly leads Dan Harper. Felipe Nasr in the Porsche is next up getting the drag through Eau Rouge. That was nearly an hour and a half since the red flag. Yelloly, Harper, Nasr, Nicklas Nielsen, Mikael Grenier, Marco Sorensen, Dani Juncadella, Antonio Fuoco, Laurens Vanthoor, and Maxi Gotz. Rob Bell in 11th and in Gold Cup in 12th is the Haupt Racing Mercedes. Right behind them, Doriane Pin leading the Gold Cup a lap down. Nicky Leutwiler is the sole remaining Herberth Motorsports Porsche in the field. What will the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes do? The #95 Aston Martin of Marco Sorensen is chasing Mikael Grenier.
Nick Yelloly leads with Dan Harper next up. The first dozen cars started in order with no separations and no lapped cars getting in the way. Richard Lietz has run really well. With the pil on the road, this came from the GPX Porsche, the Martini liveried car. It lost drive and the engine went bang. The car is parked. Game over for Richard Lietz, Michael Christensen, and Kevin Estre. The lapped cars don't get their lap back after the red flag. Whatever the race order, the field was frozen during the red flag intervention.
No changes in the top ten. Harper, Yelloly, Nasr, Nielsen, Grenier, Sorensen and so forth as Jannes Fittje has Marisu Zug all over him like a rash! That is a class battle for Silver and for the lead in class! Holy cow! Mercedes #4 vs. Audi #99 and Fredric Vervisch is in that lot as well. Pick the bones out of that shemozzle. Criminy! The colored lights on top of the roof help the teams and fans to spot the cars. The lead two cars get one more lap before they need to hit the lane as they are three minutes away from their stint maximum at 65 minutes. Leo Roussel passes Nicky Leutwiler for position. There are only four cars a lap down and everyone else is multiple laps down.
We check in with Jemma Scott and the sister Porsche for Earl Bamber Motorsports and ready for a double it is Earl Bamber. Now, this race won't end until 5PM local time. That is unbelievable! 4:45 P.M. Crazy stuff! Porsche #39 that Earl Bamber will take over has Tanart Sathienthirakul at the wheel of it. Ethan Simioni is having trouble in the #159 Garage 59 McLaren as well. Rob Bell is the only McLaren in the field running up to snuff. Nick Yelloly will be on his inlap before he finishes his stint and wants to enjoy it. Ugh. yours truly I think is running about 20 some odd minutes off of where the race actually is right now. Trying hard to play catch up!
Yours truly has eaten a pizza for dinner and is taking on energy cookies for the long hault here as it in sunset in the United States and still dark at Spa before we hit sunrise on Sunday morning in a few more hours. Yelloly is two seconds ahead of Dan Harper. Ethan Simioni, game over with a holed radiator in the #159 Garage 59 McLaren I believe. Yes. Game over. Game over as well for the #107 CMR Bentley and the #3 GetSpeed Mercedes.
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