Winkelhock and Aranges now in the lane. 34 laps in this opening stint. Okie dokie then. Will Dennis Marschall get into the #99 Audi? Yes. Mikael Pitamber wins the Super Cup class over Sun Moodly. Pitamber has a Daniel Ricciardo smile doesn't he. Dennis Marschall is now at the wheel of the #99 Attempto Racing Audi R8. Philipp Eng is next into the #33 BMW. New Pirelli slick tires are ready to go as well. Everyone at the top of the tree are going an extra lap it appears before they pit. I see. Attempto Racing have split the strategy. Mattia Drudi is giving Maro Engel all he can handle and for the second stint we are likely to see Mikael Grenier in the car. Kenny Habul getting out of the #75 Mercedes. Here come the BMW's. They are double stacking and hitting the nail on the head, Engel and Drudi. Where do we look?
Driver change, fuel, and possible tire changes? We'll see. Yannick Mettler is now in the #75 Mercedes. Tires and fuel. A slow stop from Reece Barr. The mandatory pit stop time is 68 seconds and I don't know if they have a one second joker they can use. As you were. The gap has shrunk though between BMW and Mercedes for the time being. Well, well, well. Ricardo Feller has taken over the #66 Audi. In replay, Mattia Drudi closed right up on the Mercedes and had to take evasive action into the lane. Charles Weerts and Philipp Eng now at the top of the shop. But GruppeM with Mikael Grenier had a quicker pit stop compared to the duo of WRT BMW's.
Maybe there is a transponder glitch on the #999 car. Grenier should be behind the wheel. BMW continue 1-2. Ricardo Feller is monstering Grenier at this point. Feller could very well be quicker than Grenier is at the present moment. The Audi is more competitive in the first half of the lap while the Mercedes gains time back in the second half of the lap. The race order has now reshuffled the deck. Dennis Marschall oversteers through Clubhouse! Yikes! He keeps it on the island. Ricardo Feller though, he should be in the clear.
#99 has not yet been able to do the undercut. They squeeze through Crocodile into Cheetah. New drivers as Clint Weston is in the #86 Mercedes and Mo Mia in the #80 MJR Audi. Sheldon van der Linde says the team prepared for the race more than qualifying after having issues ahoy at Bathurst last time out. Take care of the brakes so they don't overheat. The BMW has pace. Charles Weerts is going even faster, uncorking fastest lap fo the race so far, adapting to a new car and a new brand. In the Pro-Am class, Yannick Mettler is eating four seconds a lap out of Stephen Grove! He is closing in hand over fist!
Yannick Mettler is really going for it. He should be closing on the Porsche in about ten laps or so. Mettler has run in GT cars and won in class at the Nurburgring 24 Hours. Ricardo Feller is still pressing hard trying to catch Mikael Grenier. A puff of smoke from the Audi. Is that a one-time deal or something to have a Captain Cook at? Eng and Weerts ahead. 43 laps now in the bag, 121 miles. The National podium being celebrated. Congratulations to Mikael Pitamber on winning the race. The trophies are brake discs. That is cool.
Mikael Pitamber raced in Europe in DTM Trophy in a GT4 car. Mikael Pitamber wins the Kyalami Super Cup! Congratulations, mate! So, back to the racing, and the third-place scrap is well on between Grenier and Feller. Feller is really pushing hard. Feller slightly quicker into the final corners between Cheetah and Inge. Weerts leads Eng by 2.2 seconds and now, Dennis Marschall is losing time to Ricardo Feller. Marschall chasing down Feller. Stephen Grove is in Pro-Am and is in the pit lane for service. Marschall can just cruise behind Feller. Stephen Grove though has just gone through the lane twice. He is back on track but is now down the order and relinquishes the Pro-Am lead. Aye yaye yaye yaye yaye.
Yannic Mettler has now gone by Stephen Grove. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Does Grove have trouble? Weerts is faster. Brenton Grove might have had a puncture. Hard to say. If they changed one tire, there will be a momentary imbalance with three hot tires and one cold tire. So, Grove did have a puncture and now, is behind Yannick Mettler in Pro-Am. Ricardo Feller tries again to make a move on Mikael Grenier but no dice. Running over the curbs is a way to puncture a tire, but there may be debris on the road. The Audi is losing pace to the leading BMW's.
The BMW M4 GT3's are bish, bash, boshing it right now. You can't do much coming into Sunset or Clubhouse. Before that of course, Jukskei Sweep and Barbeque. 49 laps now on the board. 138 miles. Ricardo Feller gets pinged for track limits, very wide through turns 15 and 16 at Cheetah and Ingwe. Ingwe, not Inge. Maro Engel is fending off the challenge from Feller but cannot get to the tails of the two BMW M4 GT3's. Mo Mia moves out of the way as Stephen Grove has now lost 40 seconds to Yannick Mettler in Pro-Am. Brenton Grove says that even with the puncture, the Porsche is running well and they can make up the 40 seconds they are behind.
Earl Bamber will make up a bucketload of time. That's for dead sure. Grenier and Feller still going at it. Feller drops a wheel. You don't want to do that, dropping off to the edge of the curbs because then you can pick up a puncture. It is a balancing act into the Crocodiles and into Cheetah. Ricardo Feller absolutely hammering the Audi as we speak. Philipp Eng is a man on a mission. The two BMW's are working better at different segments of the stint. Eng is coming back at Weerts after Weerts had the advantage. Discuss. No! I can't. You just never know. The strategy is going to change whether you want it to or not.
Dennis Marschall is running very conservatively while Ricardo Feller is tossing the car around and restricting the pace of it. Joseph Ellerine, third place finisher from Super Cup. That is a cool looking trophy, a brake disc. Ellerine is 18 years old, and he wants to move up into the higher classes, and he is focused on local GT4 and GT3 races in South Africa. 53 laps now on the board. 149 miles as they drop through the Mineshaft. New fastest lap to Yannick Mettler! Holy cow! Mettler has uncorked fastest race lap so far. A monster lap for Mettler indeed. 1:43.701 for the Swiss driver. Hop Suisse. Mettler is catching Dennis Marschall ahead. He has run at the Nurbrgring and at the 24 Hours of Dubai in the Creventic 24 Hour Series.
We are not expecting any rain today, thank goodness. Mettler will need clear road. Traffic still a part of the race even with a modest entry as Mettler runs through Sunset and Clubhouse. 57 laps now in the bag, 160 miles. Dennis Marschall is taking a different approach to Ricardo Feller. Feller has his elbows out and Marschall is taking the slowly, slowly, catchy monkey approach. But not, catch the gorilla. A gorilla is too big. Mettler is getting a wriggle on indeed, turning up the heat. The Audi is much edgier on the handling. Get the nose into the turn, balance the throttle. You can chuck the Mercedes into the turn, stabilize the car, and crack the throttle.
Grenier is four seconds adrift from the BMW's. Back markers in the way and it's Mo Mia! Mo was in the way. Mo, mate, move over, please. Thank you, mate. As we were, Mikael Grenier looking for traffic as well trying to use it as a pick between he and the Audi. The Audi's are always spectacular, and Ricardo Feller is pushing hard. They are not falling away from the BMW boys. Mercedes AMG in third. The Pro-Am race is getting spicy as Stephen Grove is being harried by Miguel Ramos and Ramos, the Portuguese veteran is really turning it on. Ramos is a gentleman driver now and was a professional at an earlier phase in his career. He has been racing for a long, long time. Out of Crowthorne they come.
Mettler is making good his escape and now, the Pro-Am pendulum is swinging away from Porsche and towards Mercedes-AMG. We are not even two hours in but the track is going to get really greasy, and you will have odds and sods and all kinds of junk all over the road. Ramos flashing the lights to distract Stephen Grove into Crowthorne and Ramos is not having any of that. Ramos is being circumspect. It goes back to what I said earlier. Boys, this is an endurance race. Use your head. Don't do anything silly and throw the car off the road. Grove's line on the inside into the corner is an interesting line going between Sunset and Clubhouse and the second half of the lap as they go back for another lap.
61 laps completed, 171 miles. Ramos runs wide into Sunset and cuts in. But he is not close enough to try a move into the esses. Grove into the first apex and hugs the line. He can make a wider exit out of the corner. Back to the Grenier, Marschall, Feller story and Feller is driving the wheels off that Audi right now. You know he wants a bite of the cherry and Grenier is not taking the bait here. Feller is paying the price for scrapping because his tires are beginning to get ratty. Grenier is four and a half seconds down on Philipp Eng in the BMW as they scream through The Crocodiles and into Cheetah. We have been racing here since 2019 of course. This is the high belt of South Africa in Johannesburg, 5,000 feet above sea level. You try to run, and you are out of breath because of the high altitude.
We have a wee while before the pit stops come back into play. Grenier still being harried by Feller and Grenier is playing it smart because he knows the Audi just does not have the pace. Into Ingwe they come and Dennis Marschall catching Ricardo Feller hand over fist. For Marschall, driving conservatively is paying dividends, not ragging the car to the nth degree and beating the ever living crud out of it, even though they are bounding over the curbs and being on the limit. That is how strong these GT3 cars are.
What a gorgeous view of the Johannesburg metropolis which used to be all countryside. Such is evolution or progress or whatever you want to call it. Weerts leads Eng by 1.9 seconds. Eng is a tad quicker. Just a tad. The Austrian is gaining by tenths of a second. #80, the local Audi of Mo Mia, the team manager has to see the stewards about extending the stint time. Go to the stewards immediately, and no, we are not going to give you any tea and biscuits, mate. This is serious. Dennis Marschall might be becoming a fly in the ointment for his team-mate but the team is not going to make any decisions. Miguel Ramos is still stymied behind Stephen Grove.
Blue flags for Mo Mia, hold your line and let the quicker cars through, please. You need aerodynamic gain before pulling out to pass. The two Audi's are going to hold station before they come into the lane for service. They have more leeway with Dennis Marschall. Feller though is going to make his move. No more toying around. I am making my move. He tries between Leeukop and the Mineshaft. Eng gets balked in traffic. Marschall is oing for it and now, Feller wants by Grenier with 68 laps in the bag. 68 laps, 191 miles. We have run essentially a Formula 1 Grand Prix distance.
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