Feller eating away at Farfus taking more time out. Feller is closing on the BMW and Farfus is ahead. Farfus might start closing in on Charles Weerts. Ramos is catching the Porsche and they have Alex Aka in the fight too. Aka makes his move and Miguel Ramos concedes the spot. Ramos nose to tail behind Stephen Grove. Into Crowthorne they go and through Juskei Sweep, Barbeque Bend, and Sunset once more. Ramos has caught the Porsche and commits into Clubhouse, making the pass! Wowzers! That was a good, decisive pass! Grove will regroup. Earl Bamber ready to take over the Porsche and for the Mercedes it will be Luca Stolz, or it should be, for the #20. Maro Engel is going a lap down being overtaken by the BMW. Charles Weerts and Augusto Farfus will both be a lap up.
Maro Engel has no fight left and has to give it up. Engel is in damage limitation mode from here on out. Alex Aka should hit the lane in eight laps as Aka is negotiated by Ricardo Feller. Farfus and Feller now go by the stricken, lapped Mercedes Benz. Maro Engel in fifth, one lap down. We are past the halfway point in this race. The #999 GruppeM team is resigned to what they are dealing with and to earn points they must complete 70% of the distance of the winner. They have to calculate how many laps they need to go and we could see a distance record as we have been green the whole day. In 1970, the race ran 1,518 kilometers on the original layout.
Those were the days of prototype racing. They were 2-liter sports cars like Lola's, Osella's, Matra's, Mirage's, Ferrari's, and more. Sunset, on the modern track, is the quickest corner. The gap is closing to 1.4 seconds between Farfus and Feller. Weerts, Farfus, Feller, the top three. Feller, the Swiss driver, in third. The gap has elasticated, and Charles Weerts has the advantage over Augusto Farfus, currently. Will #33 be pulled towards the #32? Not presently it won't be. Feller's run towards the BMW has plateaued in the handling department as we continue to watch.
My iPad ran out of juice and I am using the computer to type the report and to watch and listen to the world feed. Still with you, everyone. Haven't left. Feller has six or seven laps remaining in this stint and there is just no way he is going to be able to reel in Augusto Farfus. The Brazilian has the exit speed out of Sunset. Yannick Mettler clear as a bell in Pro-Am and he will be catching Maro Engel with the nagging gearbox maladies. Will the #999 car make it to 70%? That is the big question, still. Nursing a car is a bear but they need points for Mercedes as a brand, while Alex Aka has uncorked a 1:42.662!
A wee while ago he was off the road at Mineshaft and is now back on the button having cleaned off the tires. Miguel Ramos has gone off and on at Crowthorne. Will Alex Aka be running a single stint, a double stint? He is into the pit lane. 180 laps completed. 506 miles. 68 seconds is the pit lane delta and the #99 is back on track. This race due to end in three and 3/4 hours. Feller drops the wheel off at Barbeque Bend. Ah. Augusto Farfus is smooth and controlled while Ricardo Feller might be hot and bothered about something trying to hang onto the second position.
Feller knows he has to push completing another lap. No worries. Farfus is seven and a half seconds down on Weerts, defending, and no change between he and Ricardo Feller. Alex Aka after going off the road twice is in no way happy with his stint but the performance of the car for the Audi is working very well. The mood is changing with a breeze, and we are going into the hours of darkness. Alex Aka is fond of driving at night. Feller off in the dust again. Pit stops imminent. 184 laps in the bag with three hours and 38 minutes on the board yet.
Charles Weerts' advantage has now ballooned to 7.3 seconds. Philipp Eng will be next into the #33 BMW. Feller chasing Farfus down as the #999 GruppeM Racing Mercedes in the lane with the gearbox issue and they are putting scrubbed tires on the car. Maro Engel will continue in the car with scrubbed tires as I said. #75 in as well, look. Mettler to Gounon? No. Kenny Habul? No. I tell you a lie, twice. Engel stays in the #999 as #32 is also in the pit lane. Tires being changed. Fuel added to the tank, and it is down and away off the air jacks.
Dries Vanthoor now in #32 and Philipp Eng in #33. Ricardo Feller now in the lane in Audi #66 who has just done a single stint and I think might do a double? Maybe not. Eng and Feller going at it as the track temperature drops just a shade. Ambient temps are the same but, in the darkness, the track temp will plummet. Mattia Drudi now at the controls of the #66. Dennis Marschall in fourth taking over from Alex Aka. Mattia Drudi has indeed taken over from Ricardo Feller as Stephen Grove heads for Barbeque Bend. WRT has had a successful pit stop. But the strategy is a massive question.
Augusto Farfus is done with his driving for today and as we get to the darkness in 20 minutes, the drivers are now going to start doing double stints in the darkness. The light fades as it cools. Matt Campbell holds the GT3 lap record here at Kyalami and Dries Vanthoor runs wide, seven and a half seconds to the good over Philipp Eng. It is darker for the drivers than what we see on the camera, but the plunge into full darkness will be a bear. Three and a half hours to go in this motor race. Maro Engel still fifth with Jules Gounon running behind him.
Dries Vanthoor uncorks a 1:42.574, his fastest lap, 8.7 seconds to the good in the lead of the motor race all by his lonesome. Clear track is what a race car driver wants. Strike while the iron is hot on fresh Pirelli P Zero tires and enjoy the drive. Philipp Eng is eight some odd seconds behind. If everything goes to plan we could see a victory for the #32 WRT BMW M4 GT3, and we'll see. Night signaling confirmed and so the headlights must now be on. Maro Engel just ahead of Jules Gounon. We have had no yellows today at all.
Gounon will be catching Engel but they are not in the same class, so the SunEnergy1 boys can run to a pace and don't try to throw caution to the wind. Gounon's target is to win his class and not futz with an additional overall position finish before we are done and dusted here tonight. Gounon through Leeukop and he is racing in America, Europe, and in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, thundering through the Mineshaft. Luca Stolz ahead on the road passing the stricken #999 Mercedes with the gearbox woes. Maro Engel working the 190th lap.
Vanthoor leads Eng by nine seconds. 193 laps, 542 miles. Everybody must now have headlights on as we will see total darkness in T minus 20 minutes. Dries Vanthoor through the esses and into Leeukop and now, a barbecue with the sausages on the bri. I am peckish now as I am writing the race report. Oh well. We'll see. Vanthoor building his lead over Eng. H needs Vanthoor to hit traffic as we head to the hours of darkness. Traffic is just not a concern. If we had 30 cars, you'd get clumps of traffic in every corner. But not with only ten cars on the road as they go through Jukskei and into Barbeque and back down into Sunset on the curbs.
Through Clubhouse and then into the esses. Jules Gounon's battle is with the #20 Mercedes of Luca Stolz and he is a lap behind. The BMW's are not the cars he has to worry about. Maro Engel ahead but Gounon is coming in a hurry. Softly, softly, catchy monkey. Or, softly, softly, catchy gorilla I guess. Sparks flying from the titanium skid blocks on the bottom of the car. No rain this evening but man oh man, we've seen some monsoons here at Kyalami in the past. #80 in the garage, 42 laps down on it's competitor and 54 laps down to the leader. Brake issue, master cylinder trouble, for Marius Jackson and company.
Marius Jackson, Mo Mia, and Kwanda Mokoena. Gounon is catching Engel. The only chasers are the two WRT BMW's, in that camp. Maro Engel is committed with a wounded race car, driving with purpose, double stinting. Still three hours and ten minutes of this race to go yet. Arnold Neveling is at the wheel of the #86. They have had woes today but are starting to hit the sweet spot. Charl Arangies said the car was horrid to drive in the heat of the day but is getting better. It is their first time in a GT3 Mercedes and they are having a fabulous time.
Clint Weston says you can follow the lines in the dark if you know the track well but keep your eyes open. The blinding of headlights from the top running cars is the hardest part to deal with. The modern day GT3 cars mean you do not have a rear window necessarily, save for the Mercedes. No one else has a rear window and have a rearview camera of course. Gounon chasing Engel. Earl Bamber is now only a tenth slower than Dries Vanthoor. "Happy Hour" cometh soon. Engel lets Gounon go. Smart move. Dries Vanthoor remains in the lead and Jules Gounon has to catch Dennis Marschall who is reeling in Mattia Drudi.
We are moving towards the end of hour six and then, it will be time to pull the pin and go for it. 70% of the number of laps from the winner, five laps of leeway. 138 laps in six hours. An average of 38-39 laps an hour. Phillipp Eng is 9.3 seconds down on Dries Vanthoor. We still could see a BMW 1-2 here in the next three hours depending on what happens in the darkness. Light is fading fast into darkness here at Kyalami. Hello to Sheldon van der Linde who is in the booth. He last raced at Kyalami at home in 2020. The BMW turbo is coming alive even though the tires have really been greasy all day.
The setups on the BMW's are pretty close. Sheldon van der Linde hopes for a podium.
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