#93 Ashton Harrison third in Pro-Am with Kenny Habul ahead but not eligible for points in the North American series. We are just at 50% of the race completed as Edwards wriggles through the chicane. He is keeping ahead of Caldarelli but only just. John Branam is the third driver for TR3 alongside Corey Lewis and Jeff Burton. Caldarelli tries filling the space and he dives to the isndie of Edwards, they bang wheels and Edwards keeps the place. The right-hand side of the Lambo is tattered but no worries. Jon Branam smartly backs out and gives the two pros racing room. No safety cars to this point. You cannot regroup and reassess on your strategy.
It is making a pig's breakfast out of the strategy. We are past halfway and there is no safety car yet. Pit stop time for the #77 Craft Bamboo Racing Mercedes and Daniel Juncadella will do a double stint. Winward in the lane and Philip Ellis will replace Jules Gounon. It sounds like Raffaele Marciello will be doing a triple for the final stint as we get closer to the end of the race. A tire rub on the K-PAX Lamborghini! Fourth on the road, plummeting down the order. In replay, he loses the tire and crosses over the curb! He tagged Edwards on the right but t is the left rear Pirelli P Zero that has lost pressure for Andrea Caldarelli.
Wow! Ferrari in the lane now. Pierre Ragues sixth in class and K-PAX finally hit the lane too. We have to see the damage, with a flailing tire. Thankfully that tire did not become a sawblade cutting the wheel speed sensor, the brake line or whatever. If you lose a wheel speed sensor, as we saw with Alessandro Balzan, the thing goes haywire. Not too much damage on the stealth black Lamborghini. He is back underway. One of the rigidity braces on the fender took a hit. Caldarelli drops down to eighth in the overall now with Marco Mapelli in the car. K-PAX have ground to make up and they need a yellow.
Cedric Sbirrazuoli is in the lane, the Monegasque, with less pace after the ABS issues for the Conquest Racing Ferrari. Anyone else in the lane? We'll see. Racer's Edge now leading in Pro-Am with their championship rivals waylaid already. Ashton Harrison to the pit lane and the #75 Mercedes will lead Pro-Am. Driver change at Racer's Edge Motorsports under the guidance of team boss Jon Mirachi. One of the PR reps for the team, Erin, is part of the pit crew. Ah. It is Christina Nielsen getting into the car, saving Mario Farnbacher for the end. "Super Mario" will be the closer. Ulysse De Pauw cycles back to the front.
But they are not the leaders overall after the drive through penalty. At K-PAX due to their tire blowout, well, they did not get a warning. It is different every time it happens, like a Las Vegas roulette wheel. K-PAX has now lost a lap and it will be difficult for them to get the lap back and we might just not see a safety car in this event. Is the car smoking? They are struggling with top speed compared to the BMW's and some other cars. The car seems to be running OK. There is smoke from the car. Edwardd in the BMW to the lane and had a double stint. Michael Dinan should be getting into the car. With the Lambo smoke, maybe it is overflow or it is tire smoke. Could it be fuel or oil overflow? We'll have to see. Hopefully they don't need to come back to pit lane.
Ulysse De Pauw should be due for a stop and Daniel Juncadella will resume in the lead. Harry Gottsacker shown second in the #38 Samantha Tan Racing BMW M4 GT3. This lap at Indianapolis is very short compared to other tracks like Bathurst and Spa. Conrad Grunewald passes Chandler Hull who also lost a place to Daniel Mancinelli and Grunewald is seventh in Pro-Am and 16th in the overall as John Edwards stays out for another lap while Marco Mapelli is doing all he knows to claw time back. It was a scheduled stop for BMW #96 but the wheel rim is completely busted. The Pirelli tire could have exploded.
Edwards still in the car and they are saving Dinan, their gun driver, to take it home before we finish and hit the darkness in the last few moments. No real changes at the top end of town. Davide Rigon and Marco Mapelli scrapping away for fifth place. Bimmerworld and Chandler Hull need to think big picture going for their first Pro-Am win. Oh my God! Mapelli crashes! He has hit the barrier and spun off the road! Full Course Yellow. Safety car. In replay, he ran wide and spins acrosss the track slamming the opposite wall! Ouch! Serra, Ellis, Edwards, and Tan, they are the four drivers on the lead lap who have been pointed by the safety car.
Marco Mapelli is upset but OK. K-PAX had trouble at Spa and a near perfect American season but both of their cars in trouble in IGTC. They ran in Europe, and it didn't work. Jim Huey, Darren Law, Thomas Blam and company would like to keep racing with Lamborghini and want to be a global partner with Lamborghini and did the same in 2020 with Bentley before they changed to Lamborghini. Three and a half hours to go. Jim Huey, Thomas Blam, and Darren Law, and the rest of K-PAX will want to erase this weekend from their memory bank with three and a half hours remaining. There has been a wave by, by the safety car. In replay, there was a puff of smoke and another puff of smoke before... boom! Mapelli hits the wall.
We may have seen sparks or flames off the back of the car. Something was rubbing the tire that made it lose pressure. The wheel tucked under and the rim broke. There was a wave by when we were told there wouldn't be. Someone at SRO please explain. Everyone has an equal number of pit stops as Turner Motorsports can cycle to the back of the crocodile. In Pro-Am, Martin Konrad leads running seventh in the overall and getting the wave by, putting him a lap up on Chandler Hull the top American competitor in the class. Triarsi third followed by Racer's Edge and others. Raffaele Marciello says the Mercedes might go quicker as the temperatures cool towards the end of the race.
The track cleanup continues. It is the Daniel and Daniel show. Juncadella vs. Serra on the restart. Here comes Serra as Juncadella defends. Juncadella defends. Serra has to crack the throttle and give it up. He has the draft down Hulman Boulevard. The battle resumes nose to tail. Craft Bamboo vs. AF Corse. Serra wants the lead and wants to cntrol the motor race with three hours and 20 minutes to go. Ellis and Edwards buried in traffic. 188 laps done. 458 and a half miles. Five cars on the lead lap with Davide Rigon a lap down. Two Mercedes, one Ferrari, two BMW's. Juncadella compromising his lap times playing defense against Serra while Philip Ellis and John Edwards smell blood in the water.
It is not about lap time and rather it is about track position. Thanks for that astute observation, Mr. Varsha. Ellis has the pace after the car set a track record in Jules Gounon's hands. Patrick Assenheimer has had trouble in the #63 DXDT Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. They are an all-pro team for the first time, Assenheimer sharing with Bryan Sellers and Dirk Muller. Serra and Juncadella are gapping the others and racing for sheep stations here. John Edwards is fourth and Phil Ellis passes Onofrio Triarsi as well, look. Jules Gounon has only done a single and should be the closer. Russell Ward did a double and now Philip Ellis is putting in his drive time. Contact between Jeff Burton and Davide Rigon under review by the stewards after wheel to wheel stuff in turn ten.
ST Racing have done very well. Nick Wittmer, Harry Gottsacker, and now Samantha Tan, running clean and having great pace. Juncadella was vulnerable on the restart but he is back in his rhythm now. He leads by half a second. Serra was feisty but is now settling back. He thought he'd strike while the iron is hot on cold tires. Ooh! That's good! But, Serra is just biding his time while everyone else seems to be picking up scraps. Howevere, the #33 Winward Mercedes will have Ellis and Gounon still driving so they are still in the game, Can Philip Ellis go for it? What does he have in the locker? David Askew in the #63 DXDT Mercedes dives for the pit lane. Edwards trying to clear traffic and now has Chandler Hull in the #94 Bimmerworld BMW M4 GT3 next up. They lead Pro-Am for the American series.
The car he passed, Onofrio Triarsi and Charlie Scardina, who clinched the Am championship at Sebring recently. Mark Shoman, one of their top engineers and Ryan Dalziel is a top driver also on the team in the sister car sharing with Justin Wetherill. Ellis has uncorked a 1:23.5 and 1:23.6, and so, Winward can still be a contender. Ellis has caught traffic passing the much delayed #3 K-PAX Lamborghini of Frank Perera. Not something we see out of the Frenchman. Triarsi and Hull scrapping for ninth and tenth scrapping for who wins the Pro-Am American championship. We will see Bill Auberlen and Richard Heistand back into the car. Onofrio Triarsi is really pushing and so is his brother-in-law and co-driver Charlie Scardina.
Three hours and eight minutes left. Antonio Fuoco says wait and see how the AF Corse Ferrari will do. Do not overstress the tires. Ulysse De Pauw knew getting around Daniel Juncadella would be an all day sucker. Fuel saving does not gain an advantage with the rules about minimum fuel stints. David Askew in the #08 DXDT Mercedes lets the leaders pass. Serra is right on top of Juncadella now. Balance of Performance is a bear in sports car racing but it seems to work. Ellis cuts a quicker lap at 1:23.2, moving in for a chance when it's time for the money hour. Fully loaded through the final corner you are either close to the grass or the wall through turn 14.
There are temporary lighting stands here at Indianapolis to provide some artificial light, but this place is not lit up like a Roman candle. Kyalami gets really dark. Bathurst in early morning. Spa, too. These headlights are great on modern GT3 cars. We shall see. Flashing lights are very distracting especially with the radar and the rearview camera. Just sixth tenths of a second in it between Juncadella and Serra. 6/10ths of a second between the two leaders. Juncadella leading the motor race. How wil;l they manage lapped traffic. Traffic giveth. Traffic taketh away.
Juncadella is controlling the pace and is not overdriving the car. I wonder who will have the edge at the end of this stint? Serra four hundredths quicker. They are a tenth or two quicker than Ellis who is 14 seconds down on the lead battle here. Daniel Mancinelli in the background, look, a handful of laps down.
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