Two hours and 28 minutes I think is the longest stint anyone has taken, just two minutes shy of the limit of two and a half hours. Simon Gachet is the leader of the motor race. Finlay Hutchison is next on track but is down the order. Antonio Fuoco though, will want to dispense of Finlay Hutchison ASAP. Phil Ellis leads Pro-Am and Jean Claude Saada leads Am. You can take a time penalty if you are given one, at any time you pit. OK. That's an interesting wrinkle in the regulations that I did not know being more familiar with other IGTC races or with SRO Europe or SRO America regs which are different. Mate, we are into the second half of this motor race. Can you believe it? Can you believe it! Time flies when you're having fun!
Abu Dhabi is a very well floodlit circuit. We go green and Simon Gachet punches it, trying to build an advantage over Antonio Fuoco. Fuoco has bedded in the brakes and made sure he has temperature and that he has a brake pedal. So, Antonio Fuoco has made his way by Finlay Hutchison. The Porsche Cup contenders being warned that the faster GT3 machines are playing through. Alessio Rovera makes a move on one of the 2 Seas Mercedes AMG's. The top eight cars are on the lead lap as we have passed the halfway mark. Jonathan Hui is being monstered by the Ferrari and now, Hunter Abbott is also pushing hard. Philip Ellis, Fabian Schiller, and others pit. Benjamin Goethe in the McLaren, Jean Claude Saada, Dominik Baumann, Aaron Walker, Nico Pronk, and more.
Pit stop time for fuel, tires, and driver changes. You have to find space in the lane and agree with your neighbor. All the GT3 cars in the lane with the fueling rigs, the tires, the air lines for the rattle guns, you need to be aware of what is going on. You have to been within the 1:40 range and you have a one second joker. Alessio Rovera was within that joker time. Jonathan Hui pits from tenth place. Lewis Williamson and his team have done their joker pit stop. The stewards have decided due to the number of track limit reports, the scale of penalties shall increase as track limit penalties have reset. However, the time will double from five seconds to ten seconds if you have multiple infractions giving the stewards flexibility through the rest of the race.
SRO steward Richard Norbury is a regular marshal with sporting director Jackie Groom. Racing teams are clever. But the stewards have eagle eyes. A brake change has been completed for the #92 Porsche Cup car. Antonio Fuoco is now back to the top of the shop, in the lead of the motor race. Patrick Kolb completes his pit stop in the Herberth Motorsport Porsche. Simon Gachet needs to make another pit stop while Fuoco and Marschall are equal on stops but of course, Fuoco did a stop under a safety car period which does not count and poor old Fuoco will have to duck to the lane an extra time under green. Good scrap here between Al Faisal Al Zubair now back at the wheel of the #77 Mercedes ahead of Alexander West and behind Philip Ellis.
Ellis is still the Pro-Am leader. Ellis has been a standout driver, and is quick, smooth, and consistent. e have seen Ellis racing for Winward Racing in the states. Antonio Fuoco has completed 168 laps, as Simon Gachet is now in the lane for service and Fuoco leads Dennis Marschall by 11 and a half seconds. 168 laps, 551 miles. Simon Gachet has to stay ahead of the Ferrari and unfortunately goes a lap down. Sainteloc have done only one extra pit stop compared to the Ferrari. Ferrari #11 is now in the garage. They've made it in but will they come back out? No wet weather tires were used during the rain shower, and we have never seen rain tires used in this race at all throughout it's history. Very interesting.
Antonio Fuoco building the gap and the sister Alessio Rovera driven AF Corse Ferrari is also still in the fight. The evening twilight hangs in the sky but in the Middle East, it goes to full darkness very quickly. Phil Ellis at 1:52.7 is faster than the leaders overall. The Pro-Am leader is in a sweet spot, a purple patch, right now. Ellis will have to do a lot of driving. We may see Martin Konrad into the car later. The #52 Ferrari is wobbling around and of course that car was crunched by Jan Magnussen earlier in the race. The marshals may have a word with the team about securing the diffuser so it does not fall off.
Philip Ellis is closing in on Simon Gachet. Pro-Am driver vs. Pro driver. Ellis is really going for it, turning it on, and applying the blowtorch. He had a class win at the Nurburgring 24 Hours a few years ago. Ellis the shark, Simon Gachet, the minnow. He can't quite make it this time into turn seven, the chicane. Gachet runs wide again. As for Ferrari #71, the team has been reminded that the stop does not count as a mandatory stop. What's your excuse? Sorry, chaps, you haven't got one. The gap is 13 and a half, now 14 seconds. The Ferrari's have come alive on race day here. That's something to see but something I don't think yours truly has thought about.
Alessio Rovera has the sister AF Corse entry in third place and both the cars are identical save for the number plates. Alexander West is being harried, look, by Klaus Bachler and it is a drag race there. Yikes! West is a quick Am, the Swedish driver, while Bachler, the German, is a true professional. More pit action. Ferrari #50 in the lane and so is one of the Porsche Cup entries it looks like. Yup. Alessio Rovera in the lane for scheduled service. Trouble for Manuela Gostner and her family team, with fuel pump trouble as well as a busted radiator that has to be replaced after clattering over a curb on the road.
She is driving the MP Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 and she loves racing with her family, with her sister, brother, and her dad I believe. There is a real family atmosphere here at the Abu Dhabi enduro. You've got to love it. It sounds like it will take 45 minutes to get the car totally serviced before they can get back out there. It is a long race, with teams who have had large delays. Team boss Stuart Hall says it is incredibly hard if a car has to take a long time to be serviced. You get up in the morning to go for the win and when that opportunity is taken away, the motivation just isn't there. You have to do a good job for yourself if you are not going to win the motor race. Had you been in the mix, you'd have a chance. Never give up. That is the motto in endurance sports car racing.
Patric Niederhauser is chasing a fellow Audi but has back markers to deal with. You never want to be compromised as Ian Loggie pits the Mercedes, car #8 in the classic D2 Privat DTM livery with Bernd Schneider in the touring car and GT1 days. Too cool! Klaus Bachler in the #44 Porsche is off the road and being a professional driver, he does not make mistakes. That's odd. Oh. There he goes, back into the fight. This place feels so narrow, a lot like a street course. Glad to see the modifications made to the circuit to make it more flowing. It is a cool track, and the depth of the field is amazing. I agree with Mr. Stuart Hall on this. A great way to end the season indeed.
Stuart Hall is a team boss and with his sons racing, and with the ROFGO team. He has done some racing in historics and is still a driver but has business interests and personal reward as well. His sons have really achieved a bunch as drivers. An oversteer moment over the bump through the turn for Audi #99. Benji and Ollie Goethe are becoming really good racing drivers with Stuart Hall as their coach. Stuart's dad Peter was a mainstay of UK racing in the 1970s and '80s. Finlay Hutchison is pushing, and he is taking lessons on keeping the competition behind from co-driver Alex Aka. Martin Kodric wants by Finaly Hutchison but cannot quite make the move stick.
Ferrari #71 is one regulation pit stop short compared to the two behind it, even though it leads by 20 seconds. Dennis Marschall is in the pound seats, the catbird seat, for the time being. That is insofar as the pit stops. Ferrari #50 noted for pit infringement. Speeding? Pit process? Number of personnel? We shall see. Finlay Hutchison to the pit lane and he steps out of the #99 Audi for Audi Sport Team Attempto. We have always had a Porsche Cup class. We used to see prototypes and GT4 cars as well as Lamborghini Super Trofeo and Ferrari Challenge cars in this event before. The Cup class is to look after amateur drivers because not every amateur driver wants to, is able to, or is comfortable with driving a GT3 car. Fuoco in the lane from the lead, regulation stop for tires anf fuel and a driver change. 185 laps completed, 607 miles.
Lewis Williamson has cut down a tire at 2 Seas Motorsports. Right front puncture and damage to the right front corner. But why? Lewis, slow down. There is debris on the road right on the racing line and so this ought to call for a Full Course Yellow. The front splitter has no damage which is a real surprise. These cars are so aerodynamically dependent. We are starting to need the headlamps on the cars. Full Course Yellow. Full Course Yellow. Debris removal imminent. Philip Ellis hits the pit lane. Dennis Marschall got to the lane from the lead of the motor race just as we went to Full Course Yellow.
Marschall does not take it as a full pit stop. We can use this as a very brief Full Course Yellow with deploying the safety car. SunEnergy1 in the lane performing a brake change, but only a pad change, not a full disc change. We are now back to full green flag racing as Mattia Drudi has taken over the #66 Audi. I see. That was a very quick driver change along with a fill up on the petrol tank. The #55 Ferrari is penalized for speeding in the lane. Patric Niederhauser now in the lead and a 14 second pit stop penalty for the Prette's as well as Jean Claude Saada and Conrad Grunewald. Louis Prette I believe is at the controls. Sainteloc now lead this motor race. We go from a Ferrari leading to an Audi 1-2.
Dennis Marschall is still at the wheel of the #66 Attempto Racing Audi. Holy cow. I was in a pickle trying to figure that all out. Mark Kvamme was not at the controls of the #43 car either and rather it was Kevin Magnussen. Patric Niederhauser is now one stop behind the Attempto Audi and the Al Manar Racing Mercedes, both. Both Niederhauser and Marschall have been driving in their stints for an hour and a half which will cycle the Ferrari back to the lead which was just taken over by James Calado. Al Faisal Al Zubair is really putting the pressure on Simon Gachet at the moment. Patric Niederhauser to the lane from the lead. He shall hand the car over to one of his co-drivers I believe, and someone has spattered polystyrene all over the road, hitting one of the trackside signs.
The #98 GruppeM Mercedes which was the first retirement of the race, is now back in the race! Say what? They are 175 laps down and the car has the lollipop in front of it and are on the air jacks in the pit lane. Maybe they are double checking for the next race also in the Middle East. Dennis Marschall is back into the motor race. Guessing games. Guessing games. Guessing games.
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