We are continuing into the night here at Daytona International Speedway. The hours are continuing to tick by but after this hour we will be just 1/4 of the way done. Romain Grosjean had that awful, fiery crash in the Formula 1 race and now, he is back. Grosjean is now in the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3. He has not raced a GT car in 13 years. He did so the last time in 2010. The antilock brakes are a very unique situation. The brake feel is very unique compared to a prototype, other production cars, open wheel cars, stock cars, you name it. Grosjean is a Lamborghini factory driver and they will be coming soon to the LMDh/GTP era. It is so much fun to see this with all this new machinery. Pipo Derani is now in third place having passed Dane Cameron in the Porsche. What would a GTP Lamborghini look like? We shall see.
Grosjean is also a pilot and not just a race car driver. In GTP, meanwhile, Michael Christensen is now in the #7 Porsche 963. The car was having shifting issues with the steering wheel. A spare steering wheel was installed and they did a Control, Alt, Delete on the electronics system. So, Michael Christensen is running in seventh place. There are no alternators on these GTP cars. The battery is handling all the electrical loads. The fuel stint is now an energy stint with the ICE, the battery, and the fueling systems with 920 megajoules of energy per stint. You may have petrol in the tank and a charge on the battery. You have to pit before you run out of energy or the marshals shall penalize you if you don't.
Trouble in paradise for Mason Filippi in the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports LMP3 car. Mason Filippi sharing with Till Bechtolsheimer, Tijmen van der Helm, and Luca Mars. Pit stop time for the #3 Corvette C8.R and he smokes the tires. Taylor is chasing the Lexus and the Ferrari. Mike Conway has the lead in GTD Pro in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. A battle of the Acura's for the lead of the motor race. Pagenaud vs. Albuquerque. Cadillac and Porsche follow with Derani and Cameron. At 7PM you can swap to the soft, low temperature Michelin tire. Fire the cannon!
Sara Bovy in the #83 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 goes off the road and back on. Bovy sharing the car with Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting, and Dorianne Pin, all lady drivers who have raced in divisions like the FIA World Endurance Championship, the European Le Mans Series, and the SRO GT World Challenge Europe GT3 championship. Again, it is going to be a long night as Filipe Albuquerque leads the motor race. The #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 we saw in trouble a couple hours ago, had a broken prop shaft and I believe they are now retired.
Ross Gunn is applying the blowtorch to Tommy Milner in GTD Pro. Here comes Gunn and he motors past the Corvette! Wow! Full darkness now here at Daytona and where I am at home in St. Paul, Minnesota. Ross Gunn to third in GTD Pro. Hoping to make it for a trip to Daytona again next year to support my friends at Action Express who are currently running in third. Everyone knows they have to double stint and Michael Shank says that they are on the opposite side of the spectrum on the tires compared to the fellow Acura for Wayne Taylor Racing, the #10. Cold tires on the out lap is difficult. Things are going to fall off with the softer compound quicker.
Energy and fuel and electricity all being conserved. These are learning experiences. The car is plugged in to reenergize on the pit stops. Everything is new. Now, the #7 Penske Porsche 963 is in the garage changing the battery. It will take 20 minutes to change the battery. The four horsemen of the repair apocalypse will be the tank tape, the iPhone torch, the tie wraps, and the lump hammer. But, the fifth horseman is definitely the battery on these cars. These are spec batteries developed by Williams Advanced Engineering. The same company that is related to the Williams Formula 1 team.
Filipe Albuquerque still leading. Somehow, it may be an intangible understanding of Daytona that makes the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport team have an edge. Everyone else is giving it all they have to try to catch them. Mikael Grenier says the Korthoff Mercedes team is keeping the car in one piece and saving fuel, ahead of Marco Sorensen in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3. In LMP2, the #8 Tower Motorsports car is being driven by IndyCar star Josef Newgarden. He is racing the Rolex 24 for the first time with Penske Motorsports IndyCar teammate Scott McLaughlin.
Colton Herta has the wheel of the #24 BMW Team RLL BMW M Hybrid. Complicated steering wheels on these cars. Colton Herta got a 30-page manual on the steering wheel and did a flashcard test to memorize each and every button on the steering wheel and did the same thing for testing a Formula 1 car. You have to study in order to win. At 200 miles an hour you are doing a football field a second doing the steering wheel functions by muscle memory. This way you operate the car and you drive at the same time. Just like the space shuttle.
Work continues on changing the battery into the #7 Porsche 963 LMDh. #7 has had a similar battery issue over the last few days and Dane Cameron in the sister #6 car is running fine. Maybe the battery is fine or the car isn't working or vice versa. Everything is so different on the cars this year and now that we are running at night, the low temperature Michelin tire is being used. Ricky Taylor says that the Acura is very similar to what their Daytona Prototype International car was. Andretti Autosport of course is now a partner with Wayne Taylor Racing.
Ricky Taylor will do an IndyCar test soon I think. Pietro Fittipaldi's dad Christian and uncle Emerson are both former racing drivers and he has a massive effort with the Rick Ware Racing Oreca LMP2 car. He is next to get into the car. Austin Cindric had to do a double stint as a door would not open on the car. Fittipaldi and Cindric sharing with Eric Lux and Devlin DeFrancesco. At night it is hard to tell who the cars are with all the lights on the windscreens and the sides of the car. Someone has hit a banner going into turn six and it is the #80 AO Racing Porsche of Harry Tincknell. The 911 GT3R washes out. He hit the Rolex banner. Boom!
Tincknell on the backstretch in that T Bird Swap Shop Preston Henn Porsche 935 retro livery from the winning Porsche 935 from 40 years ago in 1983. Tincknell now in the lane with Sebastian Priaulx, Gunnar Jeanette, and Sebastian Priaulx. The #7 Penske Porsche is now back on track after changing the battery and it took only 25 minutes. Michael Christensen still driving the car. It was predicted the battery changes would take an hour at least, however, it may not be that long, if they are needed. The .
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