In LMP3, currently, Sean Creech Motorsports leads with Joao Barbosa driving. Barbosa has prototype titles and wins at Daytona in the Rolex 24. Barbosa, Pino, Willsey, and Siegel, the quartet. Willsey is a cancer specialist and surgeon who is studying new drugs to cure cancer. He has degrees from Harvard Medical School and develops cancer medications and cures. Joao Barbosa has won Daytona four times in 29 starts and Nico Pino is in his second Rolex 24. The #70 Inception Racing McLaren is in GT Daytona running sixth. Marvin Kirchhofer driving and Ollie Milroy is ready to get back into the car. There is so much excitement. It is hard to switch off.
Save the car and do not do any damage. In the morning, crazy stuff starts happening and you just have to be very careful. Renger van der Zande leads now over Tom Blomqvist by 12.3 seconds. Blomqvist now leads van der Zande by just over a second, barely as now Indy Dontje pits from the GTD lead. If you don't slow down to the pit lane speed limit you will cop a penalty. Driver change, and you hear the rattle guns meaning a tire change to new or scrubbed Michelins. Daniel Morad is in the car, down off the air jacks and down and away. Morad has a seat insert molded to his body for comfort. Compromise, compromise, compromise. That is what you have to do in endurance sports car racing.
I keep harping on it but it is true. Richard Westbrook to the lane in the #02 Ganassi Racing Cadillac forcing oil into the V8 under pressure from a bottle. That motor has a 90-degree crankshaft on it. GM has a twin turbo V6 motor, but Cadillac are known for a big displacement V8 and that is what they went for instead of going to V6 power. Cadillac, Porsche, BMW, and Acura all have their own motors. The daytime is coming soon. We'll see the sunshine in a wee while. The sunrise, anyhow. Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning? We'll see. At 8AM, swap back to the harder compound tires but with a reduced number for sustainability and longevity on these tires.
Indy Dontje is done with his stint at Winward for now. The driver change is really intense searching for every second. The procedure for that team is totally in place. They brought their 2022 car to this motor race and the setup seems to work well for them, and this team won GT Daytona at the 2021 Rolex 24. On this Sunday morning as the sun rises, the battle for the overall rages still in GTP between MSR and CGR. Acura vs. Cadillac. It is 7AM Eastern Time, 6AM Central Time and we have Renger van der Zande, Job van Uitert, Joao Barbosa, Antonio Garcia, and Danny Formal leading in class. Chip Ganassi Racing, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, Sean Creech Motorsports, Corvette Racing, and Racer's Edge Motorsports.
Alexander Sims is now back in the #31 Whelen Cadillac and so, after the gearbox change, we are moving forward slightly. Will we crack the top five? We have a long road ahead. Trying to keep up hope. In GTD Pro, Garcia in the Corvette is well ahead right now of Gounon in the Mercedes. 55 cars of the 61 that started are still pounding around. Richard Westbrook at Ganassi Racing wants more out of his car and more seat time. The tire allocation and double stinting is the biggest deal with these Grand Touring Prototypes. Porsche #6 now in pit lane as the sun comes up, the glowing brake rotors and flames from the exhaust disappear from view.
They will still toss flames and have the glowing discs but you cannot see it in the daytime hours. Big lockup, look, on the #02 Cadillac. Three GTP cars now on the lead lap. Out of the western horseshoe, Bamber locks the brakes. The #3 GTD Pro leading Corvette C8.R pits. Antonio Garcia at the wheel of it. There are cutouts of the bodywork above the tires as the #38 John DeAngelis driven Performance Tech Motorsports LMP3 car spins off and continues in the chicane. The cutouts in the bodywork keep the car on the ground and not flipping over backwards like the Mercedes CLR did at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, Peter Dumbreck's infamous flip.
John DeAngelis is back in the motor race. This motor race is a carnival of entertainment and speed and we have seen the largest crowd ever at the Rolex 24 with great weather. The sun is rising and Renger van der Zande leads the motor race. He ran in Prototype Challenge with Peter Baron, who is now a new member of the team at Action Express. These new GTP cars have a seven-speed gearbox from Xtrac of course. An extra gear that I don't believe the Daytona Prototype International cars had. Lots of regeneration on the hybrid under deceleration. But you cannot hear it because with these cars it is seamless.
Less than six and a half hours to go. The brake by wire system may switch by the computer to manual braking but it depends entirely on the state of charge of the battery. It affects the entry, the mid-corner feel, the exit. CrowdStrike Racing continues to lead in the LMP2 division. Ben Hanley and company have gone through the night knowing they need to keep up their pace. Mikael Grenier went off the road in turn six, outbraking himself as Daniel Morad passes through the turn and onto the banking. Sun rising at Daytona but trouble in paradise for Mikael Grenier and the #32 Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3.
They are going behind the wall with very little urgency. What on earth happened? He locks up the brakes but there is a bigger issue. This could very well be a retirement. Game over? Drivetrain or engine? Oh boy. That is not good. Nolan Siegel has driven three cars this weekend. He raced Michelin Pilot Challenge and ran a test for Indy Lights and is now in the LMP3 car. He has been very adaptable and getting used to swapping over from an open wheel race car and into both a GT4 and a LMP3 sports car. Nolan Siegel will run with HMD in the Indy Next championship, the steppingstone to IndyCar.
As a young driver, you are a sponge, learning how to race. Renger van der Zande and Ganassi Racing continue to lead the motor race with Cadillac. It will be warm in Daytona Beach today. The heat may affect how the tires work for the GTP cars. Tire degradation will become more of a factor, but the rubber that has gone into the pavement, it will be grippier for the tires on the cars. The heat though is not a friend to these Michelin tires. The longest green flag stretch of the motor race has gone past three hours. Everything is peachy insofar as the weather. We had a tailwind that turned into a headwind yesterday. It is currently a calm breeze. The humidity will change both the aero and the engines.
The GTP cars are very sensitive to the wind and so are the LMP2 and LMP3 cars. It adds at least five miles an hour to the top speed. Job van Uitert is being harried for the lead by Esteban Guttierez. Guttierez gets squeezed by the #66 Gradient Racing Acura and van Uitert wanted to go for it but realizes discretion is the better part of valor indeed. "Super Mario" Mario Farnbacher tried to not be an issue but Guttierez got stymied for sure. You cannot move out of the way. The GT3 chaps and ladies cannot just press a disappear button and do the old spy car smokescreen trick.
The #01 Cadillac to the lane. The dive planes are under the headlamps on the Cadillac. The Porsche 963 does not have dive planes. Scott Dixon is into the car as the energy is replenished. That is the special fuel with the petrol, the beet root, and the cane sugar in it. A new era of GTP cars is awesome. Now, Acura are your overall leaders. Van Uitert continues in the LMP2 lead. Close quarters racing, look, between Van Uitert and Guttierez. Job Van Uitert is pushing the bye bye button or at least trying to press it down, turning the knob up with the throttle foot. Into full daylight at Daytona as they sweep and swap through the Le Mans chicane. Guttierez is bringing more power to try to get by Van Uitert, look.
The exit of the chicane, the Le Mans chicane, is key, just before the start/finish line. Guttierez seems to be better in the first half of the lap which is more beneficial for qualifying than in the motor race itself. Porsche have had some issues in GTP.
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