Farano spins all by his lonesome. Carbon fiber everywhere! Holy mackerel! Nick Tandy in the pit lane for a flat left rear tire. Still under green flag conditions. That is a rear piece off of a car that just explodes on contact like a glass bottle shattering. Russell Ward runs third in GT Daytona in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes with Danny Formal behind in the #93 Racer's Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3. Ricky Taylor might be dropping off the pace and Felipe Nasr in the #7 Porsche passes. Jordan Taylor in the lane in Corvette #3 for fresh Michelin tires. Corvette have won 12 GT class races here at Sebring. The notes can be adapted from different classes and of course Corvette won GTE Am in the FIA WEC 1,000 Miles of Sebring here yesterday.
Into the pit lane comes the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. Daniel Juncadella. Jules Gounon, and Maro Engel. The Spaniard, the Andorran licensed Frenchman, and the German. GTP cars are going to come in as we have LMP2 cars in the lane as well. Scott Dixon leading the race coming into Sunset Bend. He stays out leading over Eng, Nasr, and Yelloly. Be smooth and smart. The whole carbon fiber assembly that shattered came from the #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3, Marc Miller at the wheel of it. Crunch! That was a part off the Acura I think. That's a bucketload of debris that costs a bucketload of money. The right front corner is damaged. They need a new nose.
You have lost a headlamp and lost downforce. The Acura's are the second lightest GT3 car. Call that J.G. Wentworth instant cash agency as you will need the bread to replace the nose. That is the sponsor of this automobile for Marc Miller, Sheena Monk, and Katherine Legge. Miller is a Trans Am champion. Katherine Legge has lots of experience and Sheena Monk developed in Lamborghini Super Trofeo and Michelin Pilot Challenge. Ricky Taylor in the lane and now, Louis Deletraz is into the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06. Refueling and fresh tires.
The #01 Cadillac now in pit lane as well, look. Scott Dixon in the car, still. He is in the lead of the motor race sharing with Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande. Adjusting something in the cockpit while the tires are changed and the fuel is added, replenishing the fuel energy and the battery I believe is also being replenished and recharged. The GTP cars had a great race at Daytona and the reliability was better than we expected. Another issue as Kyffin Simpson is off the road in the #8 Tower Motorsports LMP2 car.
The current GTP car is a lot like the first-generation cars from the 1980s and '90s. You have t be very careful on stone cold tires. BMW in the lane now too. This I cannot tell, but yes, it is the #25. Nick Yelloly at the wheel of it. Sheldon van der Linde and Connor De Philippi sharing the car. The hybrid units are optimized and continually optimized. Power, weight, energy/fuel is the Balance of Performance equation. The weights have changed. The Acura is the heaviest. Energy carried onboard and used is changed. More pit action and now, we have the sister BMW in the lane and one of the Porsche's as the LMP3 leader spins. Jarett Andretti off the road in the hairpin.
He uses the egress road. The AO Racing T Rex Porsche just took a bite out of the LMP3 car. Take it easy there, "Rexy". Simmer down. P.J. Hyett at the wheel of it. That dinosaur did not chip a tooth. P.J. Hyett is being coached by Gunnar Jeanette and he tried his best to slow down. Wrong place, wrong time. Understand who you are racing with. Gunnar Jeanette and Sebastian Priaulx are his co-drivers. It is either Jeanette or Priaulx taking over the car. In LMP2, Nolan Siegel leads over Alex Quinn. Crowdstrike APR vs. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports.
Ben Keating says on longer stints the car is handling better through double stinting tires. Safety cars making differences. Acura #60 and Meyer Shank Racing pitted with Helio Castroneves staying in the car. Ricky Taylor finished his stint and they are double stinting as much as they can. It is Wayne Taylor Racing and Action Express double stinting the tires. Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 Acura. Cadillac looks strong on the long runs. Single stints to come during the night. Dixon, Siegel, Nunez, Rigon, and van Berlo are your class leaders. Dixon dives into Sunset Bend with a lot of line opportunities because of the bumps.
You just never know where you are going to hit the bumps. Traffic ahead, the #38 off the pace and the #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 still has damage, with Marc Miller driving. Back in the GTO days, Jack Roush might have had exploding bolts on the old Ford Mustang's and they knew how to fix the bodywork. With the Acura damage, they need a headlamp for the nighttime running later on. There are more dribbles here at Sebring than you will see in the NCAA basketball tournament, the March Madness tournament. Marc Miller out of the car and now it will be Sheena Monk taking over. There are parts available after the tires are changed and fuel added.
More zip ties and bear bond handy. Right now the nose looks OK. Katherine Legge, not Sheena Monk got into the car. The splitter is exposed. You need working headlights and taillights. Race Control will study that when we get into the pitch darkness in the ending quarter of the race. A lot of these headlights are aimed to the side rather than fully straight ahead. The GTD cars have amber headlamps. Sunset at 7:36 P.M. Eastern Time. The last couple hours is pitch dark like driving down a country road. The campfires and barbecues will be burning as Felipe Nasr makes his move on Nick Yelloly. Felipe Nasr was picked up by Penske and Porsche and he ran a GT3 car last year.
He has been a champion in prototype racing before. He was formerly driving with Cadillac years ago. Nine and a half hours left. The 963 avoiding the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Philipp Eng has spun on exit at turn three! Yikes! The Austrian driver will have to get back in it. The grip is decreasing. Over the bump, onto the curb, and it sends him spinning like a top at a late turn in. Nasr was really close! Yikes! That was unbelievable! Marco Wittmann just saw that and he says when double stinting the tires, it is more difficult.
Eng did not make contact with the barriers. BMW are making progress with their M Hybrid GTP car as a team and as a brand. Wittman has yet to take his stint. Marc Miller says that it came down to one car turning and accelerating better than another and he says a prototype pushed him off the road. Typically he would double stint but knows driving an ill handling race car is a bear. He is very disappointed in the driving standards level so early into Sebring, just 1/3rd of the way. Maro Engel moves to the front in GTD Pro over Jordan Taylor in the Corvette C8.R.
Engel whistles right by in Sunset Bend, turn 17, the final turn on the track. The Mercedes is the heaviest of all the GT3 cars out here. The Aston Martin is lightest with 115 kilograms less in weight. David and Cooper MacNeil love this sport and they are car guys. We know WeatherTech is a huge brand name and they want to keep their roots in motor racing, especially sports car racing. At the top of the shop, the Penske Porsche 963's are pressing hard. Felipe Nasr vs. Nick Tandy. Marc Miller said he could not have given the GTP car any more room. The prototypes must respect the GT cars on the track. You cannot disappear. Race Director Beaux Barfield knows the prototype will be blamed before the GT car driver is. If you are a GTP driver, be professional because you are.
Louis Deletraz, meanwhile, is right on Nick Tandy's six. Nobody is leaving a darn thing on the table. But right now, you need a margin for error. Don't throw caution to the wind yet. 11 sets of Michelin tires for 12 hours. Double stint tires twice, maybe three times. Figure out when you have to pay the piper. Deletraz crunches Nick Tandy and now, Tandy and the #6 Porsche is slowing. Is he dealing with drive issues? They had electrical problems in Free Practice. The door is open with smoke in the cockpit. An electrical issue in the Porsche. He is in limp home mode.
It seems to be quicker and he is trying to one hand it around Sebring trying to eradicate the smoke from the cockpit. The marshals say "don't drive the car with the smoke, and make sure you close the door!" The team is saying "if he comes to the lane, we can fix it." The green light is on meaning it is safe from the hybrid electricity. The power went out and Deletraz biffs him. Louis Deletraz gives Tandy a nudge. So, he is now in the lane. Fuel going into the car. Some head scratching at Porsche Penske Motorsports. These new cars are so incredibly complex.
We saw battery and MGU issues and this could be a drive issue on the Porsche. Engine? Driveline? Hard to tell. The electrical issue was the smoke. Tandy is going back on track using the electric motor to get restarted with two different colors on the LED headlamps. Scott Dixon continues to lead the race. The six-time IndyCar Champion. The GTP order is Dixon, Nasr, Deletraz, Yelloly, Castroneves, Sim,s Eng, and Tandy. Nolan Siegel leads LMP2, while in LMP3 it is Jarett Andretti. In the two GTD classes it is Maro Engel and Mike Skeen I believe. Save energy. Lift and coast. Pick up the throttle on the apex of the corner. Dixon leads Felipe Nasr by 35 seconds. Porsche chasing Cadillac.
Indy Dontje is fourth in GT Daytona right now. Russell Ward says that Winward Racing has come a very long way. It is physical to drive but the car is running very well. We are closing in on another racing hour finishing up. Russell and Bryce Ward raced the 24 Hours of Lemons in a 1987 Nissan 300ZX. That is how they started with a flux capacitor and everything! Hardy har har. The #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, they are getting back into the fight. Marco Sorensen, the Dane, at the wheel. They don't like the heat and bumps at Sebring but in the cool of the night they could come together. BMW makes a scheduled pit stop. #27 being shared by Daytona winners Roman De Angelis, Marco Sorensen, and Ian James.
The sister #23 in GTD Pro has Alex Riberas, Ross Gunn, and David Pittard. Watch out in the hairpin with the pavement changes and a lip. The tires will lock up if the car is thrown in the air by the bump. Watch your braking in a car without antilock brakes and with antilock brakes you can still overcook turn seven. Jordan Taylor hounding Maro Engel. Next year, Corvette will have a GT3 spec car. The C8.R was built for a different faster class and grandfathered into the GT3 rules with homologated cars. The Porsche's did not perform well at Daytona and that was the 800 pound gorilla in the room. IMSA said their poker hand was too good.
With air restrictors, they are not just washers with holes in them. It is a venturi that deepens. It is very complex. Trouble in LMP2 as the #35 stops and starts or runs off the road with Giedo van der Garde at the wheel of it. He is fine now. Ah. A lockup, and he got biffed by the Porsche 963, one of them. You cannot trust that the bloke in the LMP2 car sees you if you are in a GTP spaceship. Jordan Taylor is hounding Maro Engel still and here come the GTP cars of Helio Castroneves and Alexander Sims. Jordan Taylor has his hands full as Maro Engel is pushing like crazy! Maro Engel is still pushing hard to pass Jordan Taylor back. Traffic giveth. Traffic taketh away.
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