The GTP cars have been sparking through the Inner Loop. Deletraz knew he had to give it up. The LMP2/LMP3 shemozzle continues and now, the #42 NTE Sport Lamborghini has crunched the barrier in the laces of The Boot. Rob Ferriol at the wheel of it. He got tagged by the #70 Inception Racing McLaren of Brendon Iribe. Iribe sharing with Fredrik Schandorff and Ollie Milroy while in the #42 NTE Sport Lamborghini being shared along with Ferriol by Luke Berkely and Jaden Conwright. Meanwhile, Bourdais is off the road in turn ten! He has tagged the Armco with the right front. The Cadillac is very stout. Bourdais loses it all by his lonesome. That is stranfgth and he almost gets clobbered by the sole remaining BMW! These GTP cars are a handful on the slip angle! When you get into a yaw situation, they handle like an open wheel car and just lose it off throttle.
I think Connor De Philippi tagged Bourdais! They are heavier, the GTP cars, and have less downforce than the Daytona Prototype International cars that raced from 2017-2022. Left front damage for BMW. These bodywork parts are very modular just like if you have played with Legos as kids. Connor De Philippi and Nick Yelloly need a new nose under Full Course Yellow. This is emergency service. The #01 in the lane as well. The nose parts of these cars cost $150,000 in total! Yikes! These are spaceships. Space age machines. Renger van der Zande will get into this car. Le Mans recently completed, and there are more parts that have to get back from Europe after Le Mans, plus the endless craziness with supply chain trouble and so on.
They rip off the rear cheese wedge, the fender on the left rear and now, he is going to lose downforce. Relatively, it is slightly less but the diffuser and the rear tail section are so aerodynamically optimized. The GTP car is not the horsepower of the old LMP900 open top cars or the original Daytona Prototypes. But these cars as awesome as they are, they are extremely hard to drive. These teams are running a much harder Michelin tire. Hydraulic mechanical brakes on the front and brake by wire on the rear of these GTP cars, all of them. The Cadillac's, the Porsche's, the Acura's, and the BMW's, plus all the Hyper Car entries in World Endurance as well, which are slightly different, but similar to the GTP cars.
IMSA drivers did well at Le Mans. 56 drivers. Braun, Kurtz, Keating, and Varrone, and others did so well and of course, we saw the Garage 56 NASCAR Cup Camaro which was awesome! The Cup car was handling a lot like a GT car at Le Mans. It was unbelievable of course. We talked a ton about it. So, now we are back to green. Maybe we can keep it clean for the next 45 minutes. Colin Braun wide through turn one being harried by Mike Rockenfeller in the #5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963. We could see more customer 963 cars this year and next year both.
No LMP3 cars next year. The #01 Cadillac back on pit lane with Renger van der Zande replacing Sebastien Bourdais and other than the diffuser I think they've escaped well. Pipo Derani continuing to chase Nick Tandy. LMP2 is not a part of the FIA WEC next year and we will see bucketloads more LMP2 cars for IMSA next year and we will still see LMP3 in the VP Sports Car Challenge. Apex speeds are not so different but it is the straight line speed for the GTP cars that is incredible! Just like in the 1980s and '90s with GTP 1.0. Connor De Philippi has to play catch up indeed.
So, the #01 Cadillac is now back on track. Ganassi and Michelin are looking at the tire that just came off the car. The Michelin technicians are having a good look and the telemetry for the tire status is now working. Corvette C8.R #3, with the left front tire left in the lane outside the box, Corvette Racing are going to cop a penalty. That is Jordan Taylor, and Antonio Garcia. Daniel Serra, meanwhile, the GTD Pro pole man, is eighth. After their pit stop, Davide Rigon said they got hit by the #70 Inception Racing McLaren we talked about before.
You've lost the plot an hour into the motor race if you are having argy bargy with other contenders. Everyone is still in the motor race. Well over 50 starters of course. We have dark, ominous, foreboding clouds up above that could release sprinkles in a couple of hours. Ferrari won the Nurburgring 24 Hours and they won the 24 Hours of Le Mans 50 years after they won before. In Maranello, they celebrated with the two 499P Hyper Cars. How fun! The Tifosi loved it! Will we see an American Cadillac win Le Mans in the future? Perhaps an Action Express Cadillac? We'll see.
The golden era of sports car racing is right here right now. The '50s-'90s were fabulous. But now we really are seeing it too. #31 and #10 have three driver lineups and Pipo Derani is stymied in traffic a wee bit. Deletraz right on Derani's six. Acura are behind since they did not run Le Mans like Porsche and Cadillac did. Derani patient on the throttle and then commits. Different drivers drive the same car and a different driver will behave entirely differently. Luis Perez Companc leads LMP2 now at AF Corse in car #88. Perez Companc sharing with Lilou Wadoux and Nicklas Nielsen.
Mikkel Jensen said that in an LMP2 car they can brake later and hold up a GTP car. Orey Fidani in the #13 LMP3 car leads the #36 of Jarett Andretti and Dylan Murry is coming. AWA vs. Andretti Autosport vs. JR III. Lexus #14 and #12 are in the lead in both GTD Pro and GTD. Lexus, Lambo, Porsche, BMW in GTD Pro. Lexus, Lambo, Lambo, BMW in GTD. Hawksworth followed by Jordan Pepper, Patrick Pilet, and Chandler Hull, and then, Frankie Montecalvo, Doriane Pin, Misha Goikhberg, and Michael Dinan. We are an hour and a half into the race now. The rain could be coming. We have gorgeous weather now, but keep an eye on ye olde radar after the monsoon in quali yesterday.
So, Matt Campbell leads Nick Tandy. The six hour race here at The Glen is exhausing but not super strenuous like Daytona, Sebring, Le Mans, or Petit Le Mans. Deletraz reeling in Derani now. Traffic all over the shop. Andretti, Dylan Murry, Orey Fidani, and Tonis Kasemets top four in LMP3. Colin Braun passes and the McLaren squeezes the two LMP3 cars! Holy cow! The GTD cars of course have antilock brakes. Dylan Murry sees the #60 Acura opening the door and into the apex he nearly gets it slammed in his face and Brendon Iribe gets clattered and has to back out of it.
The #36 car has been missing the cheese wedge. The fender and the cheese wedge. Fender? No. Sidepod. Flapper slapper? Uh... I don't understand that one. Tipping it into The Boot again. Jarett Andretti still under pressure into the toe of The Boot. Porsche still dominating in first and second. No Le Mans hangover for them after having a dud Le Mans and not the race they wanted. This traffic is a real ice cream headache for the GTP drivers. You have to be so patient waiting to go back to power rolling through the corners. Tandy will get a run on Campbell who gets balked by the GT Daytona BMW M4! That's one of the Turner Motorsports cars.
Keep in mind, high percentage moves through traffic. This is mentally exhausting but these drivers are made of strong stuff. Porsche's remain at the top of the shop. Tandy squirming around on his tires. Roger Penske looking on. I don't think Tandy trusts the Porsche 963 at this moment and the handling could be slighly going away. The throttle input and brake input with these GTP cars is so important to save fuel and save tire as well. Roll the minimum apex speed and blend back to the power. This traffic is bonkers. The #8 Tower Motorsports LMP2 car has no radio communication, so use the old school pit board, or the smoke signals. Salih Yoluc sharing with Kyffin Simpson and Will Stevens. Turkey, Barbados, and England, the nations of those drivers.
Lexus #14 will pit soon, and Ben Barnicoat will be in it. The #20 High Class Racing entry in the lane working on brakes and fueling the car as well I think and a nose change. High Class Racing spun and whacked the wall with Mark Kvamme and then lost it again and then nearly tangled with my pals at Action Express and got tangled up with a couple LMP3 cars. The pit crew kicking the diffuser and the rear wing into place. Cadillac #01 in the pit lane again. This is a mechanical black flag for tire pressures. The marshals were looking at that and the driver is saying, "give us a break! The car is fine!"
Nick Tandy now in the lane. Under green flag racing they will stagger their strategy or so I would think. For the safety of the teams there is a minimum pressure to maintain rigidity in the sidewalls so they don't compress and degrade before the tire goes pop. Four fresh Michelin's, fuel, and now, Matthieu Jaminet into the car. So, "jam jam" will be into the fight. Colin Braun in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura is fighting the car. Tom Blomqvist is suited and booted getting ready for his stint. This Acura ARX-06 just has a two driver lineup. Should three drivers be a requirement in GTP? Not necessarily for six hours.
The sister #7 Penske Porsche 963 is in the lane as well. That is Felipe Nasr taking over from Matt Campbell. The #31 and the #10 in the lane as well. This was close! #6 rockets past both the Acura and the Cadillac? Back to the lead? Hang on a minute. Ah. #6 at the top of the shop. No. Never mind. Braun, Nasr, Jaminet, Albuquerque. This is the top four. The driver has to keep his helmet radio plugged in on the pit tower so his co-driver can tell him, "OK, mate, here's what the car is doing and how it is handling." There are fuel settings and other systems that need to be discussed. The #14 GTD Pro Lexus RC F GT3 in the lane with a data stick swap.
Ben Barnicoat replacing Jack Hawksworth and now the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R is in with Patrick Pilet finishing his stint. The messages on the radio are very long. Push this button, turn this knob, reset your energy meter, mate. Jaminet going for it on Nasr in traffic! Traffic giveth. Traffic taketh away. Something evolving through the inner loop with the GTP cars bottoming out through that section of the course. In a GTD car, you think you have to go. Alexander Sims now in the #31 Whelen Cadillac moving up to fourth. The GTP cars are hard to control but the GT Daytona cars are tricky racing each other and against the prototypes.
Doriane Pin has a head of steam against Frankie Montecalvo. They were really quick at Le Mans in the GTE Am Porsche 911 RSR-19. Doriane Pin is the one woman driver who is really going places. She is special and fast and keeps her head down. Pin sharing the Lambirghini at Iron Dames with Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting. Pin needs a banker lap while the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus is in the lane. Seven female drivers in the race this weekend. Doriane Pin, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey, Lilou Wadoux, Ashton Harrison, and Sheena Monk.
Timing your opportunities in traffic is a big deal. Many of these GTP drivers have run GT cars before so they know darn well what is going on and you just have to be smart.
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