Tandy wriggles through the Le Mans chicane. It is all action here at Daytona in the middle of the night and now, Pipo Derani is stopped on the road while Nick Tandy continues pulling out the fuel stint even more. Pipo Derani is in a world of hurt headed for the garage! This is not good for my mates at Action Express! In LMP2 we will check the order in a moment. Porsche #6 to the pit lane. Tandy is back on track. In GTD Pro, we see Daniel Juncadella leading the class, Jack Hawksworth in the Lexus, and Tommy Milner in the Corvette with Alex Riberas next up in the Aston Martin. So, with the #31 Whelen Cadillac, there is a gearbox problem. They are working on it.
We don't know if there is a problem with the driveshaft or the Xtrac gearbox itself. Action Express had a gearbox issue in 2020 and went through it to finish. Let's hope that there is nothing too serious. The Xtrac gearbox is a bespoke item for these cars. A brand-new complete gearbox is going to be installed. This is not what Action Express wanted at all, but it is to be expected with a brand-new race car that parts need to be changed. Less than nine hours remaining. Philip Ellis now at the wheel of the GT Daytona leading #57 Mercedes AMG GT3 at Winward Racing. Action Express have now lost four laps with this gearbox change, down to seventh in the overall and in GTP.
We shall have to dig and claw our way back to the front after holding the lead earlier in the going. Bourdais and Lynn in the other two Cadillac's run 1-2 for Ganassi Racing. With the GTP gearboxes I believe they are all bespoke units from Xtrac for the GTP cars. Seven speed semi-automatic gearboxes operated by paddle shifters. Tot the nalen, the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. So, Phil Ellis is back out on track. Or it could be on the other drivers.
For the #31, the gearbox studs have snapped off where they join the engine. They will remove the gearbox and replace the studs. The motor is a 5.5 liter naturally aspirated V8. It is quite the job to fix then. Nico Varrone has brought the #17 AWA LMP3 car into the pit lane and the #79 WeatherTech Mercedes is also in for routine service. Cooper MacNeil, Daniel Juncadella, Maro Engel, and Jules Gounon. We have also seen the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin in the pit lane for service, the Heart of Racing Aston Martin with Roman De Angelis, Marco Sorensen, Ian James, and Darren Turner.
There is a penalty for the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca which is for not using the minimum fuel fill time on the most recent pit stop. They will lose ten seconds on their next pit stop. Nico Lapierre is now behind the #51 Rick Ware Racing Oreca of Devlin DeFrancesco. Eng and Tandy are scrapping for position. With the gearbox woes, Action Express have now lost 15 laps and are just up on the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963. Helio Castroneves has pitted the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura and I think it is Colin Braun getting into the car.
The #31 is back on track now and maybe we can get back into it! We are now behind Matt Campbell and the #7 Porsche which has also had a litany of woe. Jack Aitken has now taken over the Cadillac for Action Express and Whelen Engineering. Pit stop time for both Alex Riberas and for Tommy Milner. Some very close racing in LMP2! Ben Hanley leads in class by 9.3 seconds over Giedo van der Garde and Matthieu Vaxiviere. Three abreast with prototypes into the Le Mans chicane! Bobby Rahal is out on the pit wall watching his cars. It is hard to sleep well when the cars are running around.
Jack Aitken is now at the controls of the #31 Whelen Cadillac as we are in the morning hours now and will be approaching sunrise in a couple hours yet. Over eight hours to go and so we will be 2/3rds through this race in a short time. Manage the problems and deal with them. That is the key. Philip Eng has gained a spot after Pipo Derani needed a gearbox change. Jack Aitken now, is 14th overall and eighth in GTP. 16 laps must be made up by the #31 in eight hours and 25 minutes. More GTP cars coming and the same is true with the FIA World Endurance Championship which has been dominated in recent years by Toyota.
Le Mans this year is going to be amazingly wild. Bourdais, Tandy, Westbrook, Blomqvist, the top four. Cadillac, Porsche, Cadillac, Acura. Film and TV producer Jerry Bruckheimer is here. Maybe we will see IMSA in a movie. Look at the movie of the book "The Art of Racing in the Rain". That is a great sports car related movie. Patrick Dempsey and Michael Fassbender, Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, Gene Hackman, James Garner. They all raced and were actors as well. Indy Dontje is closing on Jules Gounon and you have the GTD and GTD Pro Mercedes AMG GT3's battling each other.
Darren Turner is also back there in the #27 Aston Martin Vantage for The Heart of Racing. The #6 Porsche 963 has spun! That has just happened in the infield, and they have damage. Wow. Nick Tandy has had a problem! This is the better placed of the two Porsche 963's. What kind of damage does that car have? The rear decklid, the bonnet, may be damaged. Wow. The pit crew is working on it, removing the rear wing and they do have a spare one they are bolting onto the car. The bones of the rear decklid were busted up and this replacement is being carried out during refueling procedures as well.
The front nose section is also being changed. Tandy clouted the curbs, took out the polystyrene brake markers, tearing up the grass and stopping on the infield. He hit the curb and the car shot off into the weeds. Out into the never, never. The LMP3 was compromised, and Tandy clobbered the curb. We still have eight hours and 15 minutes left in the motor race. Sebastien Bourdais is motoring around Daytona in the 1:37 range and now the Porsche is back on track with Mathieu Jaminet now in the car. Bourdais leads the motor race by 20 seconds over Tom Blomqvist in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura.
In five minutes, you are going to lose a minimum of three laps. Ben Hanley continues in the LMP2 lead. Recall that Nick Tandy had a massive shunt in qualifying in the Porsche 963 through the Bus Stop chicane. You just never know when a car might get away from you and that was how it is with plenty of race cars over the course of the automobile's existence. Tandy is now four laps in-arrears of Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V LMDh. Giedo van der Garde has now taken the LMP2 lead from Ben Hanley. The Nico and Nico show continues in LMP3 with Nico Pino leading Nico Varrone in LMP3. Sean Creech Motorsports leading AWA. We are ten minutes away from 2/3rds distance at 4:30 A.M. and we will reach daylight in an hour and 45 minutes.
Damage to an LMP3 car and it is the #85 JDC-Miller LMP3 car with a rear wing that is askew. Luca Mars at the controls. He has run 25 laps of a 33-lap stint. Damage to the wing for the Mars/Bechtolsheimer/Van der Helm/Filippi car. One side of the swan neck is fractured and so is the right rear bullet, the cheese wedge carbon fiber piece on the right rear. Tom Blomqvist pitting for fuel and tires in the #60 MSR Acura and now, Porsche #7 will pit and the #79 WeatherTech Mercedes AMG GT3. Fuel and tires for Porsche #7. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 of Filipe Albuquerque is running off strategy.
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