Use caution as we are still in the darkness. It is pitch everywhere even though the lighting here at Daytona is so good. Katherine Legge will be getting into the #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3, and it sounds like she will be back in, as Marc Miller may not want to do a double stint. Sheena Monk and Mario Farnbacher are the other drivers in that car, obviously. Paddle shifting does not affect the drivetrain with how the driver shifts like the old H pattern manual gearboxes did back in the old days. Daniel Juncadella is reeling in David Pittard hand over fist. Pt stop time at Porsche for the #6 Porsche 963 at Penske Motorsports. Ditto for Action Express Cadillac and Whelen Engineering. Pipo Derani in that car.
There is a driver change, too, in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura and the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Audi at Le Mans, they had everything prepared for problems. A lot of these teams have that same approach. Pagenaud is in the #60. Dixon in #01. Alex Lynn has not pitted and has the #02 leading for Ganassi Racing. Dane Cameron has handed the #6 Porsche to Nick Tandy and Philipp Eng is the new driver in the #24 BMW M LMDh. Sebastien Bourdais has taken over from Scott Dixon in the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac.
Action Express came in and I want to say that either Pipo Derani stayed in or perhaps Jack Aitken or Alexander Sims got in. Cadillac, the only naturally aspirated, forced induction motor in GTP as the other cars are doing things with turbocharging. Much like the legendary days of LMP1 in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Porsche, Audi, and Toyota. Michael Christensen and company are looking to claw back as much as they can after the battery change yesterday. Juncadella in the pit lane for service. Penske Porsche have just one car left. One bullet left in the gun at least as a contender as the WeatherTech Mercedes is undergoing full service.
Ollie Milroy has pitted from second in GTD, actually fourth. This is the McLaren 720S GT3, and he was 33 seconds in-arrears of Marco Sorensen in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. David Pittard and Marco Sorensen both pit on the same lap for Heart of Racing, likely by design. These cars have done synchronized pit stops all race long. Driver change, I think, for the #27 and now both are down and away. Great synchronicity. No driver change. Pittard in #23 and Sorensen still in #27. They raced at the Dubai 24 Hours a few weekends ago but with a Mercedes AMG GT3 not an Aston Martin in the Creventic championship which is out of Holland.
We covered that motor race in video here on the blog after it happened of course. Again, my gosh, next weekend, we have the Bathurst 12 Hours. I don't know if I will cover all of that one. I am not sure yet. You can at least expect highlights in a condensed race report. Usually with that event I just watch it live and enjoy it and I suggest you do the same. Last year at Heart of Racing, they were champions in GT Daytona. Extremely stunning for that team for Ian James, Roman De Angelis and more. Ian James was able to put together a great team.
Of the 61 starters, half a dozen have now retired leaving 55 on the circuit currently I believe. Most of the retirements have been GTD cars. #62 Risi Comeptizione Ferrari, #92 Kelly Moss Racing with Riley Motorsports Porsche, #11 TDS Racing Oreca, #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes AMG GT3, #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier LMP3, and the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. It used to be that the fields were far bigger, and half the cars would be now out of the motor race when 70-80 some odd cars started this race. Just about staying awake at 2:00 A.M. We are still wondering how the GTP cars are going to continue doing even with limited testing.
Some of the cars have done 24-hour tests. The approach has been right to go at a metered pace and not thrash the car like mad for the first hours but in the closing hours we should see things getting spicy. Job van Uitert leads LMP2 while Wayne Boyd leads LMP3. New leaders in both GTD Pro and GTD. Daniel Juncadella leading in Pro in the #79 WeatherTech Mercedes AMG GT3 and now, Phillip Ellis leading the GTD class in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3, the two pole sitting cars in those classes from qualifying a week ago.
Job van Uitert and Nicklas Nielsen are having a humdinger of a battle for the LMP2 lead in class. Nielsen does the undercut on Job van Uitert through speedway turn one. van Uitert is a tough cookie. Nielsen's presence has been amazing in World Endurance and in IMSA and now, he might have an opportunity to race the new Ferrari 499P Hypercar in World Endurance soon. Pit stop time for the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Oreca with Paul-Loup Chatin at the wheel. I think Alex Quinn was also in the car earlier.
Chatin and Quinn sharing with Ben Keating and with Nicolas Lapierre. Chatin is doing a double stint. We have a seventh retirement and it is game over in the #36 Andretti Autosport Ligier after 371 laps. Game over. Over and out for Jarett Andretti, Dakota Dickerson, Gabby Chaves, and Rasmus Lindh. The LMP3 Nissan V8 engines and drivetrains, they don't do these long races save for 4–6-hour events. They race on the support package at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but it is only a 55-minute event and the European Le Mans Series which are four-hour events. By the way, yours truly hopes to highlight more ELMS races from 2022 if there is time to do so, maybe in the next week. We'll see but we have a long, long way to go in this one.
Pipo Derani is now still in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac. Pipo Derani does go by Sebastien Bourdais. Julien Canal from Le Mans, France, has the lead in LMP2 in the #88 AF Corse Oreca. Canal sharing with Francois Perrodo, Matthieu Vaxiviere, and Nicklas Nielsen as we return you to your regularly scheduled programming right here on The Sarcasm Channel. It will be a while before we see the sunshine in the sunshine state of Florida and today's forecast, I checked me forecast on me weather app in Daytona Beach and it shall be a gorgeous, warm and sunny Sunday. Six GTP cars all on the lead lap.
You can change tires and fuel the car at the same time. But be careful on the cold tires on a cool night because it is like driving on ice. You don't want to be an embarrassment and spin and be a chump instead of a champ. But no racing driver is a chump. I am a chump, sitting here, yapping about the motor race. That's all. A touch of sarcasm there. Don't take that seriously, folks. Ah. It's 2:30 A.M. on a Sunday morning and I am wired in the middle of the night. Acura, Porsche, Cadillac, Cadillac, Cadillac, BMW, Acura, I think. We have just over ten hours to go.
Filipe Albuquerque, it sounds like he has the fastest lap in GTP to this point. Nick Tandy giving the #6 Porsche 963 a good drive, 22 seconds behind race leader Helio Castroneves. Alex Lynn and Pipo Derani should be chasing him down. They are indeed. It is quiet from a traffic perspective for Castroneves in the lead and we have had a good chunk of green flag motor racing in the last wee while. So, we have been racing now for 50+ laps under green. Don't tempt yellows. Hashtag blame Skip if it does happen. Be prepared with that cream pie to throw it in me face.
Porsche 963 #6 to the lane for tires and fuel. Fueling takes the longest putting this VP R80 biofuel in the tank. Again, the stuff is made from petrol as well as sugarcane, corn and a few other things. It is clean burning. Pipo Derani has made a move up to third place. Pipo Derani brings the #31 Cadillac to the lane from third spot. Fuel only. No fresh tires as we are seeing a double stint as required and a clean windscreen for "The Dynamo" as well. The #10 Acura is taking fuel and tires and we see one of the BMW M Hybrid GTP's in the lane as well. Tires done on the #10 car and fueling going on.
#60 is back to the lane and they will be adding more oil with a pressurized bottle. The #01 Cadillac is in for tires and fuel but no driver change. This is the second half of the mandatory double stints IMSA wants. Meyer Shank Racing has the first pit box at the end of the lane. Actually, the first box at the top of the lane. A wee bit of engine oil pumped into the car with a canister and a hose connecting it. Duty done there and a close shave as the #02 screeches into the box for service! Egad! That was wild!
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