Rockenfeller along with Joey Hand, Dirk Mueller, and Harry Tincknell, all of them will be with Ford again next year for the new Ford Mustang GT3. Jenson Button loves Road Atlanta, the first time he has been here. Tom Blomqvist fresh from an IndyCar rookie orientation test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Louis Deletraz is drafting Sebastien Bourdais. Blomqvist has more energy on board and the top two may pit in the next few moments. More traffic ahead. Be decisive about it. Deletrazis going to push. You as a GTD driver lose sight of the prototypes as you are wrestling your own car. Blomqvist catching Deletraz through the give and take of traffic. Be patient and hope favors are returned equally.
Blomqvist unsure of where David Brule will place his Porsche 911 GT3R, the #92 entry. The traffic is mad. Mike Rockenfeller, three wide with the BMW and with the GT Daytona cars. Rockenfeller eight and the McLaren finds the grass down the frontstretch! Watch it if you send it. Doriane Pin navigating all this traffic trying to lap the McLaren. Bourdais, Deletraz, Blomqvist. Louis Deletraz slipstreams past Bourdais. Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport take over the lead. Acura had a 1-2 finish at Mosport in Canada and Road Atlanta is similar. Blomqvist second and now, Sebastien Bourdais does the crossover on Blomqvist! Holy cow!
Deletraz has run off from everyone else. Because the #01 Cadillac did not get pole yesterday, it was taken out of championship contention. The #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura is still in the fight and so are others. Here are the points as they run, currently.
1. #10 Albuquerque/Taylor WTR/Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06 2,842 points
2. #31 Alexander Sims & Pipo Derani Whelen Engineering Action Express Cadillac V Series R 2,743 points -99
3. #6 Nick Tandy & Mathieu Jaminet Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 2,731 points -111
4. #25 Connor De Philippi & Nick Yelloly BMW Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 2,687 points -155
5. #60 Colin Braun & Tom Blomqvist Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 2,711 points -131
There might be a glitch on that math. Corey Lewis making a move on Ian James. BMW vs. Aston Martin. Bourdais finding the pace again. Acura NSX GT3 #93, at Racer's Edge, they were in the garage for 20 minutes with a power steering problem. Ashton Harrison sharing with Kyle Marcelli and Danny Formal. Ashton Harrison lives outside of Atlanta. In GTD Pro, it is still Antonio Garcia leading Jack Hawksworth and Daniel Serra. Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, Lexus RC F GT3, and Ferrari 296 GT3.
Antonio Garcia has never won this race. He and Jan Magnussen won the title a few years ago without a victory. GM's future and Pratt & Miller, with customer Z06 cars, factory supported, still looks great. They will not be a full factory team as they've been for 25 years. AWA will race two Corvette C8R Z06 GT3's next year. The Corvette C-5-R will be inducted into the IMSA Hall of Fame. What a great car that was. Into the pit lane the #10 Acura of Louis Deletraz. Fuel only. The tires are still hot. They want to do the hybrid launch only.
Great to see the sun out at Road Atlanta. It has been cloudy and rainy. Traffic ahead big time for the prototypes going through the GTD Pro and GTD cars. Drivers use more curbing in dry conditions than in the wet. Blomqvist harrying Bourdais through the traffic. You'd think the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac will be headed for the pit lane soon. Pipo Derani has moved up to third place past Felipe Nasr in the Porsche. Cadillac vs. Porsche. Corvette #3 of Antonio Garcia in the lane handing off to Jordan Taylor in his last race for Corvette before Taylor moves to his father's team and a second Acura GTP car sharing with Louis Deletraz full-time for next year.
Huge accident! Two GT cars, and the #6 Penske Porsche! Nick Tandy along with the #70 Inception Racing McLaren, and another prototype sowhere. The #20 High Class Racing Oreca of Dennis Andersen. Doriane Pin in the lane for emergency service. Brendon Iribe, clobbered. Tandy wants a push out of the gravel. I think the #023 Triarsi Ferrari was hit by Dennis Andersen which ping ponged into the other two cars. Full Course Yellow.
Dennis Anderson is being rescued as we have seen GTD and GTD Pro pitting and Action Express came in with Pipo Derani handing the car to Alexander Sims. We have at least two GTP cars now eliminated from championship contention, the #01 Cadillac and the #6 Porsche. Alexander Sims now fifth. Watch for the treacherous out lap on cold tires in the final hour of this race. The order in GTP currently is Deletraz, Blomqvist, Nasr, van der Linde, Sims, Bourdais, Rockenfeller, Wittmann, and Bruni. Collaboration and competition are a part of this GTP class.
Rivals from rival brands will go out to dinner to update their progress on the betterment of the sport. But believe me, individual teams still want to win. What we are seeing is collaboration between electronics systems and hybrid controls for the race cars as well as road cars. It is system optimization. Traction Control and other ideas, what happens on the race track, we see it on the road. Porsche #6 in the garage, get the car off the rollback, and get it in the garage to start working on it. All hands on deck. The car is broken, and he needed a pull onto the pit lane and they've lost ten laps with a damaged race car. Penske Motorsports will do all they can.
reen flag! We are back to racing. Deletraz, Blomqvist, Nasr, van der Linde, the top four. Nick Tandy knows how much this meant for Penske and Porsche. It was not Tandy's fault. Manwhile, the lead battle is on between the two Acura's of Deletraz and Blomqvist. Jules Gounon trying to make a move on Antionio Garcia and got too deep, shortcutting the chicane. The GT3 cars do have ABS but it isn't a failsafe system. The #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Russell Ward is going for it, partnering with the Susan G. Komen breast cancer awareness society. Ward sharing with Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje.
The Acura's are faster now than the Porsche #7 of Nasr and the #25 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde. Deletraz takes the inside line and the two Acura's need to play nice. No love lost between WTR and MSR. A big GTD battle, with 27 cars total between the two classes. Frankie Montecalvo for Lexus vs. Alex Riberas for Aston Martin and the defending race champions, the #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 of Sheena Monk, Katherine Legge, and Marc Miller. Kevin Estre driving the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche was at Mount Panorama in New South Wales, Australia, for the Aussie Supercars Bathurst 1,000 last weekend.
Alexander Sims chasing down Sheldon van der Linde and Felipe Nasr. Jack Hawksworth has no idea why the driving standards are so poor in the GT Daytona class. The traffic among the GTP cars is unreal and Tom Blomqvist gets balked by the Turner Motorsports BMW. Big twitch by Felipe Nasr. Sheldon van der Linde flashing the lights. Great onboard with Action Express Cadillac. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura has not seen a victory this year and now, Sebastien Bourdais is beginning to move up in the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac. More GTD cars are in the way. Getting close to another racing hour completed.
Outside, as we see Nasr trying to make a move on Blomqvist. Josef Newgarden is part of Penske's lineup and has never raced a GTP car nor at Petit ALe Mans as we see the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 in the lane. Alexander Sims is having a great run in the #31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac. So many decisions every single lap. We'll see 400 some odd laps of this intense racing before the end of the day. In the darkness, things will go nuts. No track lighting at Road Atlanta, just like Sebring. You have only your headlights to guide you. Flip the crazy switch and through caution to the wind over the blind crests.
Let's look at the top three in LMP2.
1. #52 Keating/Chatin PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports 2,045 points
2. #11 Jensen/Thomas TDS Racing 2,012 points -33
3. #04 Hanley/Kurtz Crowdstrike Racing with APR 1,928 points -117
The nighttime will be absolutely bananas as we have talked about. Corey Lewis and Russell Ward scrapping for GTD with Mike Skeen next in the Korthoff Mercedes as the Paul Miller BMW dives to pit lane. They want to break their own record and win on their home turf. #1 serving a penalty. Failure to adhere to minimum refueling time. Fuel flow is being regulated, monitoring the telemetry. The #52 Wynns liveried Oreca in LMP2. We have talked about the points scenarios there with just over eight hours remaining.
Keating loves to drive and is a GTE Am FIA World Endurance champion and this weekend he ran in the Mazda MX-5 Cup which are insane races to watch! I highly suggest them, as they are available on YouTube. A big piece of bodywork has been put off one of the cars as we have the #60 Acura in pit lane and the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW is off the road! Oh dear! Race leader Louis Deletraz has been unflappable. There was bodywork off the #18 Era Motorsports LMP2 entry. Cage the rage. We are actually under caution now Inbelieve. Boom. Out of turn ten, that s the BMW slamming the wall. The GTP cars are using the blue and yellow curbing which makes it tempting to maximize the corner radius.
Traffic all over. We are indeed under Full Course Yellow as I said. Corey Lewis cut down a tire and he knew it was not worth going around another lap. I think the commentary with Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell, and Calvin Fish, is slightly behind where our pictures are. Trouble for Acura in the engine department. Is the car damaged? They are actually taking a full-service opportunity. It seems OK but they are taking the rear bodywork off. We are under yellow now. Wow. Let's see if we've got a replay on this one or not. Our pictures are kind of all over the map here.
The steering arm broke with the right front flopping around and Corey Lewis cannot steer the car and has a big clonk into the wall. The #60 Meyer Shank Acura back out of the pit lane and Corey Lewis' BMW is stuck in neutral and they are loading the car onto the rollback. It was a bent rear suspension piece on the Acura #60. Pretty significant contact with the #1 BMW. Still a little behind on the coverage on Peacock, trying to catch up here as we get towards the end of hour two of ten. This is the chaos we said we'd see the whole day. I think I might be getting to the right place in the coverage but still behind where I ought to be as I cover this race for you.
Again, I think the steering arm broke on the #1 BMW M4 GT3. He can't steer it and spears into the wall. Blomqvist also got tagged. Jeepers creepers! No ability for Lewis to get into reverse and there is no drive. The car is stuck in neutral. Rear suspension being changed on the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura. Five minutes before hour two is complete. It is a toe link at the back of the Acura and a steering arm at the front of the BMW. It is mild damage but is there steering control. This is the fourth Full Course Yellow of the day.
Bryan Sellers cannot believe it. The left front on the BMW has sustained heavy damage. My gosh. A great aerial view of Petit Le Mans and there was a partial eclipse of the moon and sun when that massive accident we saw with the Porsche #6 and others. Meyer Shank have repaired the car and are back on track now with Helio Castroneves at the wheel of the #60 Acura. He will want to feel everything out and a shame for Paul Miller Racing BMW in their home race with eight hours still to go. Helio Castroneves is done as a full-time IndyCar driver but he will be back for a shot at five wins at Indianapolis.
He is part of the ownership team at Meyer Shank Racing as well. He is a global superstar and wants to be involved with the sport as the GTP cars pit. Everyone will do a top up. We are looking for the points for Michelin Endurance Cup. BMW #25 in the lane. Sheldon van der Linde will stay in the car, do an energy replenishment and a tire change. Busy for the #10 Acura putting Ricky Taylor into the car and the #7 Penske Porsche and chaos at the tail end of the pit lane as the #31 Whelen Cadillac stops and stcks up and there's contact. Alexander Sims ran the red light. AXR manager Peter Baron cannot believe it!
No comments:
Post a Comment