Earl Bamber does the gentlemanly thing and moves over. They had a tire puncture earlier on, did the #4 Grove Racing Porsche. So, we have surpassed the 1/3rd mark in the race and pit stops are coming. We say hello to Philipp Eng. He is happy to be in South Africa for the first time and the track is fantastic. There is still a long way to go. Just under six hours. The changes of grip levels will no doubt continue. BMW have the balance on the car but are taking a wait and see approach. The tarmac on the track here at Kyalami is smooth and so the degradation on the tires is low and the Pirelli P Zero tires are very durable. Apparently, Philipp Eng is wearing Sheldon van der Linde's racing overalls. What on earth? Eng has a baggier suit and I guess Sheldon's fits better.
Eng is now wearing his own overalls. Kyalami is a very technical circuit requiring smoothness, nailing apexes and braking points to be consistent with each stint. At night of course, it is very dark. Eng will drive into the night before darkness comes like flipping a light switch. No braking markers are illuminated here at Kyalami. On the setups, the #32 and #33 are pretty similar. All six drivers have similar driving styles. They also have similar ideas on balance and tire degradation. With the stints, they cannot say what their strategy is. Now, Vincent Vosse said that any question was on the table. Apparently not.
Alex Aka is still staying out. He must be persuaded to hit the pit lane. My math is screwed up or Aka is pressing on in an amazing stint. 106 laps now done and dusted with the BMW's at the top of the tree. Earl Bamber eighth overall and third in the Pro-Am class. Jules Gounon at 1:42.894 uncorks yet another fastest lap. #99 finally to the lane for Markus Winkelhock to take over the car. Alex Aka has finished his stint and now it is time for Markus Winkelhock to see what he can do. Winkelhock, a one-time Formula One race starter many years ago. Markus Winkelhock is stoic and focused on his stint. Good stop for Attempto Racing.
The cars come up by the support race pits. Kyalami is an international circuit and there are not many national or club races that go on anymore. One lap you pick up time and the next lap you lose it. As a driver, you do all you can and can only eke out so much pace, honestly. The 15-kilogram weight penalty for the Mercedes boys has not helped in trying to make inroads on Audi and/or BMW. Jules Gounon remains the fastest car on the road at 1:42.894, fastest race lap, again. Jules Gounon is becoming an incredible endurance driver and he has done this in different brands. He has run with Corvette's privately, Audi's, Bentley's, and now Mercedes. He also ran Porsche Carrera Cup. So he has experience in many types of cars.
Jules Gounon is now fifth in the overall. SunEnergy1 have had a golden opportunity with the troubles for the Porsche, the sole Porsche, and they are taking the bull by the horns here. Again, to the rules, a stint is 65 minutes as Jules Gounon comes up the other side of Mineshaft into the Crocodiles and Leopard, and into the lane. Gounon has run Intercontinental GT Challenge, SRO Europe, and British GT. All of these divisions are the same running GT3 cars. He understands the new layout of Oulton Park in England for instance and would have had a ball driving the original circuit. Mattia Drudi is now at the controls of the #66.
Winkelhock in #99 and now Niederhauser has gone by Grenier as we are joined by Alex Aka, and he thinks the team is going well and they have indeed been going further on fuel than we expected them to. We still have over five hours of racing still to go. Alex Aka says Kyalami is indeed a tough track. He has been ill for a couple of weeks but no, it is not the virus. Winkelhock is pushing, pushing, pushing right now. He is chasing down Mikael Grenier. Cheetah is a very tough turn and so is the final corner at Leopard. The Mercedes seems strong in sector two while the Audi has the legs in sector three.
There is a back marker up the road. Yikes! Winkelhock right on Grenier's six. Mikael Grenier is wrestling the Mercedes around. Through Leeukop they go as Mo Mia is up the road in the #80 Audi R8. It is hard to overtake through Cheetah and the Crocodiles. Good pass on the lapped traffic. Grenier on the inside. Side by side and Markus Winkelhock has made the pass and now Grenier gives him a nudge. Winkelhock makes the move back for fourth spot. Audi now 3-4 and the pole sitting Mercedes is now down to fifth place.
Grenier covers then inside, Winkelhock does the undercut, they are wheel to wheel, and he does the squeeze play. Charles Weerts now leads Augusto Farfus by 5+ seconds. 5.1 seconds exactly. This is Charles Weerts' second stint and Augusto Farfus, the Brazilian is now at the wheel of the #33, the sister car, with Mattia Drudi, Markus Winkelhock, and Mikael Grenier, the top five. The GT3 cars are all aggressive and quick. Is there more development for Audi? That is a good question. Hard to say. They might still have something in the locker. Thank you, Alex, for joining us.
The gap is growing between Weerts and Farfus with Mattia Drudi third. Drudi is a wee bit slower than Farfus but he is catching up steadily. Charles Weerts still leading, and now, look, BMW and Audi second and third. The pit time range for the top eight is anywhere between 3:26 and 3:45. The #33 BMW is not as fast as we had seen earlier on. The big loser in all of this is the pole sitting Mercedes which has been dropping like a stone and Grenier is now in fifth place. He was caught and absolutely got mugged.
Markus Winkelhock working his way through, trying to pass Brenton Groove and the #20 Mercedes AMG GT3 for SPS Automotive Performance of Reece Barr. Grenier seems to be fading during this stint. Raffaele Marciello did everything possible. I haven't the foggiest idea what the issue is and the team isn't going to tell us what's going on, let me assure you. Mikael Grenier is doing what he can to use traffic to his advantage, but he did get a bit stymied. Reece Barr, third in Pro-Am and he is looking for a GT3 program for the 2023 season. Grenier is giving him all he can handle. Kenny Habul leads the Pro-Am division right now.
123 laps completed, 346 miles. 20 minutes to go before we end another hour. Augusto Farfus now, he is losing some time. We talked to Philipp Eng earlier and we never noticed why the gap has opened up again. The Pro-Am fight is between Kenny Habul and Brenton Grove as it has been throughout the race so far. We are 2/3rds of the way through hour four here at Kyalami. Kenny Habul I think will be doing a double stint and then finish. He is the boss, paying the bills for the team. Yannick Mettler and Jules Gounon will be driving in the nighttime. Nighttime racing at Kyalami is a difficult proposition. The fans are having a good time at Kyalami and they will be lighting a bonfire before the end of the night.
Reece Barr is about to pass Mo Mia who is laps and laps down on everyone else in his Audi. The WRT BMW's look really good at the start of a stint and the end. It is a brand-new car and the only turbocharged car in the field. The Audi drivers at WRT have transferred over to BMW. Kenny Habul owns the 1987 winning Peter Brock Holden Commodore V8 Supercar that he washed the tires on as a 14 year old kid. He lives at Mount Panorama on Conrod Straight. He is not trying to match professional drivers. He is supporting the more experienced drivers and is a good amateur driver being tutored by the professional drivers.
If you can unlock more lap time out of an amateur driver, it pays massive dividends. There is also a quick Silver rated driver as well with Yannick Mettler. Kenny Habul was the 2022 Pro-Am IGTC champion. He is about to go a lap down to Charles Weerts. Weerts has not caught the lapped Mercedes yet but he will soon. On this lap, Farfus is a wee bit quicker in sector two. Just maybe, Mattia Drudi is also coming in a hurry. I was right. He is indeed, is the Brazilian ace. Hello to Earl Bamber. The Porsche did have a puncture earlier and Stephen Grove extended his stint.
They are doing all they can to stay clean and they can do a short fill on the last pit stop when it comes down to money time. They had a cut tire and instant failure at Bathurst of course. I don't think we will see any safety cars here at Kyalami. Grove Racing will be getting a new 992 GT3 shortly. Earl Bamber is not a factory Porsche driver any longer. He is of course getting set with Cadillac and the World Endurance Championship. The new GTP prototypes are incredible cars. Every single series is over subscribed. Sports car racing is on an upswing.
In 2019, towards the end of the race, in the dark, it rained cats and dogs with Nick Tandy and Dennis Olsen. Kyalami is very hard to drive in the dark. Of course, there will be night racing at the 24 Hours of Spa this summer as well. Earl Bamber Motorsports is a customer Porsche team. EBM is also running a team in Porsche Carrera Cup. In #999, the driver accidentally hit the turn signal switch. Why does New Zealand produce such great drivers? They have a dozen go kart tracks and a dozen national racing circuits as well as a great support network for young drivers.
Mo Mia goes off the road in the Audi but stays on the road. It is great to have the local teams on track, the local South African teams and I think he might have a radio failure, using the turn signals to communicate with the pit crew. Check that, it is the pit board for GruppeM for the Mercedes. Excuse me. Good to hear from Earl Bamber. Mercedes #999 must have a radio failure. It is indeed true, and we'll have to chase that down for the next little bit. The gap between the BMW's is now down to three and a half seconds. Charles Weerts must have found a pace to run at to save petrol. That is a smart idea. Only ten cars in the race of course, as intended.
Mattia Drudi, on pace, he cannot catch the BMW's. WRT, stick to the plan.
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