With no tire warmers, you gradually build tire temperature. Two hours to go. Porsche leading Mercedes and Lexus in GTD Pro. Full Course Yellow could burn the clock. Laurens Vanthoor being chased down by Jules Gounon. Vanthoor ran a Hypercar Porsche 963 in the FIA WEC race yesterday, the 1,000 miles. The driving and racing totally different in the darkness. The WEC race ended just barely into the darkness. The latest design of the headlights are not as good as they could be. Tough to see on the back part of the course here at Sebring. We bring Leigh Diffey and Townsend Bell back into the booth soon. Night time is alive here at Sebring. A flawless race for the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. Daniel Juncadella into the car just ahead of the Lexus. Scratch that. Just ahead of the Ferrari 296 GT3 of Davide Rigon.
Mike Skeen leads GTD over Marco Sorensen, Bryan Sellers, Spencer Pumpelly, and more. Pit stop time at Pfaff Motorsports Porsche as well in the #9 car. They are coming back from adversity and a crash in qualifying. Patrick Pilet takes the car to the end of the race. Pfaff Motorsports were jolly lucky they did not have to replace the chassis according to Competition Director for Pfaff Motorsports, Steve Bortolotti. The Heart of Racing Aston Martin #27 of Marco Sorenen is second in GT Daytona. Bryan Sellers and Spencer Pumpelly are next in line. Marco Sorensen said that the Heart of Racing Aston Martin team is a lot like a factory team. Ian James, team boss, who also drives, is very experienced as a driver as well.
Paul Miller Racing in the lane for the #1 BMW M4 GT3. A driver change underway. Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow, and Corey Lewis sharing the driving chores. Paul Miller Racing were 2018 champions and have won the Rolex 24 as well. Lars Gersing on engineering and Mitchell Simmons, team manager at Paul Miller Racing. Wayne Taylor Racing have an eye for talent as do the other top teams in GTP. Louis Deletraz is extremely fast and Deletraz, an LMP2 champion, says "the race car is good so far. In the heat, the double stint was difficult, but we set the car up to be fast at the end."
"Last year I went to LMP2 with Tower Motorsports, and now I am with Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti and things are going very well." Running to the finish will be Filipe Albuquerque. Louis Deletraz is the son of Jean Denis Deletraz, a Formula 1 and sports car driver himself. Filipe Albuquerque leads over Felipe Nasr and Sheldon van der Linde in GTP currently. Acura #60 has lost it's left rear wheel! Wow. Meyer Shank Racing cannot shake having the monkey on their back as we go to yellow momentarily. #10 in the lane for service. Standard operating procedure is one pass through pit in and now the #7 Penske Porsche 963 is in the pits for service as well.
If you are pitting now you need one more stop. #10 and #7 are in good shape. Woll #31 and #6 come in. #31 is in and they have been very quick and are still in the fight. Full Course Yellow. #60, game over. Filipe Albuquerque is going tomtry going for it as the left rear wheel left the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura. Ten and a half hours into the race. An hour and a half left to go. The spindle on the #60 Acura is in place but the wheel nut backed off somehow. The centering studs, the drive pins look OK. Nothing seems to have sheared off.
Rinaldo Cappello was on a stint at Le Mans for 14 laps and through Indianapolis and to Arnage, he had a wheel nut shear off the car. Marco Sorensen is leading in GT Daytona. Tom Kristensen's son Oliver Kristensen is a driver manager. Sheldon van der Linde is staying on the track. When will he pit the BMW M Hybrid V8? The #3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R factory car is back to the lead lap with Antonio Garcia at the controls. Corvette Racing are indeed back into the fight. The track temperature is now back down to 77 degrees.
In GTP land, what will happen on cold sticker tires with GTP cars on restarts? They are heavier with ahaeder tire than Daytona Prototype International cars. A late decision for a Porsche to pit, the #7. One of the BMWs in the lane. Felipe Nasr and Sheldon van der Linde. van der Linde finishes his stunt and Nick Yelloly should take the car to the end. Matthieu Jaminet pits and so does the #31 Whelen Cadillac. Scott McLaughlin will take the #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca to the finish. BMW still sorting out an issue for shocks.
They are actually trying to do a brake pad change. Twist the rotor to create leverage to get the pads out before replacing the rotors and the use the spreading pliers to push the pads back. The new brake pads are thicker and need space. It is critical to get the job done because the safety car is coming soon. No ambient light to assist in a brake change. Use an iPhone torch. Know where the safety car is and try hard not to lose a lap. They have 30 seconds to finish thus job. Bolt in the caliper but no, they are not going to make kt.
Fuel for the #32 Korthoff Mercedes. No tires. Fuel top offs for both Lexus RC F GT3's #12 and #14. Ditto for the #3 Corvette and they cannot get to the pit box properly to reach the fuel hose. No class split and the Corvette boys will be buried. The BMW is blocked and can be released, the M Hybrid and away goes Nick Yelloly along with Antonio Garcia. Action under yellow here at Sebring. Holy mackerel. Filipe Albuquerque leads Felipe Nasr, Jack Aitken, and Matthieu Jaminet. Acura, Porsche, Cadillac, Porsche.
Protect the car and make high percentage decisions. Throw caution to the wind. Green flag! Watch out for smoke on cold tires. Felipe Nasr locks it up in the Porsche 963. Here is the heaviest braking zone. More downforce under braking equals more grip. Jack Aitken under pressure from Matthieu Jaminet. Jack Aitken needs to find pace. Porsche second and third behind the Acura. Winning is what matters. Albuquerque is the rabbit with the hounds behind. A true shemozzle in GTD. Wright Motorsports, following Paul Miller Racing and Kelly Moss Racing as well as the Heart of Racing.
Whoa! All sideways between the Ferrari and the Lexus! Yikes. That's close! Garcia not a happy bunny. Pietro Fittipaldi has crashed the Rick Ware Racing LMP2 car and Garrett Grist has gone off the road. Full Course Yellow number ten for Garrett Grist and Pietro Fittipaldi. How did this pan out? The rear end snaps away and something maybe broke on Fittipaldi's car and Grist... crunch! He hits the tire bouncing off the car of Fittipaldi, the #51 Rick Ware Racing Oreca. Oh man! Poor old Garrett Grist an innocent bystander. Yikes!
The nighttime serpentine is what we are seeing here at Sebring still under yellow. Porsche has their first overall win opportunity at Sebring since 2008. Porsche has been massively successful with 18 wins overall and 100 class wins. One Acura is left in this race as we get down to it and will see the final hour unfolding very soon. Action Express has survived. The car is fine but the refueling sensor is slowing down their procedure. Hoping to get the car up from fourth place. Overtaking is hard at night but don't count out Action Express. The only issue is in refueling.
The Acura and Porsche have come alive. The Cadillac was strong in the heat of the day. Wait and see. What can Action Express do? Marco Sorensen and Aston Martin have a good chance in GT Daytona. It is pitch dark at Sebring that they have to mark the braking points based on campers and campgrounds.
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