25 minutes to sunset. Colin Braun is a three-time class winner at Sebring. Porsche into the pit lane, car #7. Felipe Nasr stays in the car. The car suffered a crash in qualifying and the durability continues to build up with these cars and the sister Penske Porsche 963 is also in the lane with Matthieu Jaminet. Sheldon van der Linde is faster than anyone else in GTP. Porsche and BMW becoming just as competitive as the Cadillac's and the Acura's. You sit low in the car and into the turn it is a long run to the apex of turn one. Move your hands and guess where you want to be. Sebring continues and the sun is setting. The night is coming. A great looking sunset with a bit of cloud which will help the drivers so they are not blinded going into turn 17 at Sunset Bend.
The headlamps are coming on. The GTP car's headlights are like lasers. They are unreal. The lights are incredibly bright. The GT Daytona cars are running amber headlight lenses. The rearview camera to show what is behind, it obliterates the monitor with those bright headlights. You can see the tell tale orange of the brake discs glowing and the flames from the exhausts. BMW working on a puctured tire and getting back into the action soon. The LMP3 leader is the JR III Motorsports #30 car driven currently by Dakota Dickerson. JR III competed in the VP Sports Car Challenge race here at Sebring last weekend. They have a big advantage for the strategy notebook. Dickerson sharing with Ari Balogh as well. Dakota Dickerson is running well.
Ben Hanley leading LMP2. The current LMP2 cars will be good until 2025 and there could be new cars in LMP2 coming in 2026. You want stability as a team owner for your investment in the equipment. Racing is never cheap but cost containment is a good deal. In the GTP class, lots of their drivers have come from the LMP2 ranks. Jack Aitken who runs with Action Express, for example. Car #04 has had many spins. The #55 car is not competing here at Daytona, the Proton Competition car. Proton Competition is going to field a Hypercar in World Endurance later in the year. In GTD Pro, Porsche has just taken the lead. Laurens Vanthoor has passed the Ferrari 296 GT3 with Davide Rigon.
The plaid Porsche is running well. They did a plaid Porsche in green for St. Patrick's Day but I like the red better. Pfaff Motorsports has won championship after championship. Would Pfaff Motorsports do a plaid Porsche 963? Could Pfaff Motorsports get into GTP in the future? We'll have to wait and see. The fans are enjoying a wonderful evening of sports car racing. The #92 Porsche 911 GT3R of Kelly Moss with Riley Motorsports leading in class with Alec Udell at the wheel of it along with David Brule and Julien Andlauer. Udell is the GTD class leader. Mike Skeen is half a second behind the #92 Porsche.
Louis Deletraz leads the race overall in the #10 Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06. Four minutes away from official sunset. We are getting to happy hour time. Deletraz, Nasr, Braun, Sims, Vanthoor, Tandy, the top six. Acura, Porsche, Acura, Cadillac, Porsche, Porsche. Action Express is the sole remaining Cadillac in the motor race this evening. We are going to see single stints for tires and if a driver triple stints, a driver can go through the transition from sunset to darkness. A double stint at the end is ideal. A double stint is ideal. Acclimate your eyes to the low light/darkness conditions. The Iron Lynx/Iron Dames program are running very well.
Rahel Frey and company drove a Porsche in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring and Lamborghini GT3. No ABS or traction control in the GTE Porsche but those systems are on the Lambo. They are going to keep pushing. Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting, and Sara Bovy. Romain Grosjean in their GTD Pro Lamborghini, he says he has had tough sledding and he had a fever last night. The Lamborghini's just do nt have the pace today. Swiss driver Grosjean has done all the driving he can do. He has finished it. He will fly 35 minutes back to Miami. If you are a pilot here at Sebring, you are good. Romain Grosjean is now an officially licensed pilot.
The Lamborghini's got a two milimeter larger air restrictor but they cannot get the power the way they want to. he Porsche's also have a bigger restrictor on the car. In GT Daytona, it is Mercedes, Aston Martin, McLaren, and BMW. Mike Skeen, Ollie Millroy, Bryan Sellers, Spencer Pumpelly, the top four. The Mercedes is a very settled, usable race car, not dancing on it's tiptoes. Alan Brynjolfsson is the 2022 Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport champion. Brynjolfsson is now in the WeatherTech Championship. He started training running and weightlifting for a year. In GT4 the longest races were four hours. Now, he is doing three hour stints.
Max Root is at the wheel of the #77 Volt Racing Porsche right now. Their team in the #77 Volt Racing with Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R IS Alan Brynjolfsson, Max Root, and Trent Hindman. Night falls and this place changes. The track is changing rapidly. The teams are backtiming the race to the end. A yellow will throw the balls up in the air for sure. Scott Dixon has not gotten on the podium here at Sebring in ten years of trying. The gold #01 Cadillac for Ganassi Racing, game over due to a fire.
There may have been a tech issue on the #01 Cadillac earlier. Colin Braun is third in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura and Tom Blomqvist will get into the car in about 20 minutes or so. Everything seems to be all to play for but the #60 car had to top off the water for the radiator. The car is fine for them. Deletraz, Nasr, Braun, Sims, the top four. Acura, Porsche, Acura, Cadillac. Both Acura's had mechanical woes in night practice. It is pitch dark already. Two hours and 22 minutes left on the board. At the Rolex 24, they had to top up oil for the gearbox and an oil flush. He is saying water. Full Course Yellow would help the #60 team.
A replenishment will take the #60 out of the game. Will they have to compromise their lap times? Louis Deletraz leads the motor race. Some of the light stansions are out there on the infield. Use your headlights. The traffic is still really in force. Alexander Sims made a pit stop in the #31 Action Express Cadillac. Maybe Action Express has an issue with refueling. There is a sensor that has to be blocked. Is there a sensor problem? Maybe the fuel hose was removed too quickly. That's odd. Sims and company can do it on two stops more if we see green flag racing or get a yellow flag. The penalty will cost more than just sitting there for an extra second. Nolan Siegel is second in LMP2. Two hours and 15 minutes remaining.
Ben Hanley says that everything is going well for them but they need to keep it clean in LMP2. Deletraz now leading Nasr by 19 seconds with Braun and Tandy next in line. There is so much more data now than there was even in the LMP900 days of 20 years ago with the Audi R8's. Engineering is looking at the data to see how the teams are doing. Execute, follow instructions, and don't make any mistakes. 28 laps on a fuel run looks like the distance on fuel for the GTP cars. #31 pitted and hopefully they don't have any tech issues. They might have to check the tires.
Ten minutes left in this racing hour. Will Filipe Albuquerque take the #10 Acura to the finish? We'll have to wait and see. Pit stop time at Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport. The Acura is in the lane. Filipe Albuquerque next into the car after Louis Deletraz has finished his stint. Filipe Albuquerque has not won the 12 Hours of Sebring. The Wayne Taylor Racing Acura are the points leaders currently. The trophy cup has oranges in it. Porsche in the fight and Felipe Nasr has pitted the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963. The outlap is tricky getting the tires up to temperature. The #74 LMP3 car was soeeding along and now the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Scura is in with Tom Blomqvist getting into the car.
Blomqvist in position for a possible victory. This will be a short fill, likely, on one of the final two pit stop[s. Lots of ways to slice the cake. A yellow flag could change everything and I mean everything. Blomqvist protecting his night vision before getting in and now he is treading carefully on cold tires with this heavier race car.
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