Michelin Endurance Cup championship points have been distributed and there's more in four hours' time. Cold tires for Filipe Albuquerque on his first stint of the day. The front Michelin tires being bedded in. Conditions far trickier in cold conditions. Alexander Sims has now moved up to fourth in the #31 Whelen Cadillac running behind Matt Campbell, Renger van der Zande, and Philipp Eng. The GTP cars are now comfortable old shoes for the drivers. For drivers like Josef Newgarden who is getting ready to try on a new shoe that is not broken in for him yet as the #31 Whelen Cadillac is in the lane now. Fuel and tires, and they had to recover the wheel nut. Pull the tearoff off the windscreen, and Action Express have been scrappers, never giving up. They came into the weekend ahead. They qualified eighth in class and are now 28 points back. But they are going for it.
Matt Campbell will be into the lane in the #7 Porsche 963 soon and Campbell should hand the car to Josef Newgarden. The DPi cars were lighter and had different tires. The GTP and Hypercars they are much edgier like a GT car is. Josef Newgarden is suited and booted ready for his stint. Newgarden, Dixon, Castroneves, Button, some top drivers going at it. It is not his first IMSA race. He did the Rolex 24 in an LMP2 car but now he is racing overall in GTP. Newgarden being assisted into the car. New Michelin tires and fuel in the tank for energy replenishment.
Porsche wants the manufacturers' championship and the drivers' championship. So do the others in GTP. Shuffling and reshuffling in the top ranks in GTP. The GTP cars brake in a straight line and it is hard to brake and turn at the same time especially on cold tires. Renger van der Zande more accustomed to this new Michelin tire than Josef Newgarden is. Newgarden under pressure thrown into the fire fighting with van der Zande in the Cadillac as Newgarden is the overall leader. Traffic ahead. Josef Newgarden trying to manage side by side stuff with LMP3 and GTD and van der Zande passes and now the #14 GT Daytona Pro championship winner is totally destroyed in the front end! Ben Barnicoat at the wheel of it.
He is thankfully OK! Ben seems to be OK, but the front end of the car is gone, and we are under Full Course Yellow. This is in turn seven. They just pitted a couple minutes ago. Was he caught in the shemozzle with Newgarden and van der Zande? He hopped the curbs and hit the berm in the middle of the track pulling the nose right off the car with the motor cooking itself. The front splitter dug into the wet grass, and it was arriva derci. The incident in turn three with the alarm bells ringing inside his head. Holy smokes! The Georgia red clay just grabbed that car and sucked it in.
Engineers on the box planning strategy for the rest of the race. We have quite a few top drivers either in some of the top cars, or, about to get into them as the race continues. GTP cars in the pit lane now. JDC-Miller, WTR, MSR, Action Express, and others. The top four have stayed out. We have four or five GTP cars topped and now they get started again. It is like traffic in downtown Atlanta. I-285 feels like Road Atlanta or vice versa. This is the sixth yellow of the race.
Josef Newgarden can reset and get comfortable and have clean track ahead. Pfaff Motorsports making repairs to the bodywork on the front of the Porsche 911 GT3R. Make sure the headlights are plugged in and all the connections are right. They can use all their Porsche spares now before changing next year to McLaren. More debris being picked up as we have the #93 Racer's Edge Acura having a slight issue with Danny Formal and the #24 BMW M Hybrid had some trouble as well. Alan Brynjolfsson at the wheel of the #77 Volt Racing Porsche 911 GT3R. Brynjolfsson will step away from racing for the next year or so.
But they will be back. Brynjolfsson sharing with Trent Hindman and Max Root. Trent Hindman should have a program locked in for next year. There's no guarantee you'll come back to racing, or you decide that you need to go racing again. Max Root is driving the #77 as we speak. We are getting reset for another restart closing in on the halfway mark soon. Tommy Milner is now leading GTD Pro. The new GT3 car will not look much different but there will be privateer cars and they don't have to carry GM as mich as they once did. But it will still be Corvette Racing along with new teams. Jordan Taylor ending his relationship with GM but Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg, and Antonio Garcia are going to be a part of it and Alexander Sims is coming back to Corvette after being with Action Express Cadillac this year.
IMSA President John Doonan joins us. Wow. Can you believe the jam-packed crowd here at Road Atlanta? Absolutely stunning. Maybe the crowd has to match the field. We have the team entry lists out for next year and we'll have driver pairings for the Rolex 24 before you know it. Open the entry portal early so space does not run out. 48 full-season cars for next year and 57 cars for Petit Le Mans and Watkins Glen. This is the final race for LMP3 but there are more GTD Pro cars coming with more Corvette's and the new GT3 Ford Mustang. We'll have 25 prototypes and 35 GT cars. We have a ten or 11 car reserve list yet. Sports car racing is in great shape currently.
We will restart the race in a moment. Green flag. Away we go again! Josef Newgarden second harrying Renger van der Zande and here comes Harry Tincknell in the #59 WeatherTech Porsche 963. The BMW boys are pushing hard as well. Filipe Albuquerque in sixth place in the #10 Acura. Next up is the #31 Whelen Cadillac from Action Express. JDC-Miller Porsche as well as the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura serves a drive through penalty for working outside of the small pit box. They will stay on the lead lap it appears. A penalty too for the #97 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 for failure to adhere to minimum fuel refill time, Chandler Hull at the wheel of it.
Turner Motorsports have clinched GSX in VP Sports Car Challenge and in Grand Sport in Michelin Pilot Challenge. It took 35 minutes after the race to determine who the champions were. A whole bunch of GTP cars right together. Ben Barnicoat and Russell Ward are both happy about where they are in their respective classes in GTD Pro and GTD. Winward Racing are expanding their shop. They are building a new shop in Houston, Texas, expanding their program for 2024. They run on the global stage acquiring the HTP team in Germany running GT3 in IMSA, SRO, and DTM, all with GT3 cars.
An off-course excursion for the #59 Porsche 963 of Harry Tincknell landing in the grass! Yikes! That was a wild ride. Nick Yelloly has moved up t third place. The #25 BMW is now the leader on 2,747 points with only five points over the #10 Acura at 2,742 and 16 up (at 2,731) on the #7 Penske Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr and Matt Campbell. Yelloly has passed Josef Newgarden and now, this means they are gaining points. Don't panic. Focus forward.
The #01 Cadillac is dealing with traffic. An easy two and a half second or three seconds, you can lose through traffic. Matt Bell leads LMP3 currently teamed with Orey Fidani and Lars Kern ahead of Garrett Grist in the #30 JR III car. Jeff Braun engineering the CrowdStrike LMP2 car, will engineer the AWA Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GT3's coming next year. Renger van der Zande has gone to the lead ahead of Nick Yelloly, Josef Newgarden, and Harry Tincknell. Newgarden has to use his head and be careful working the GT Daytona traffic. Newgarden is applying what he has learned. He will plod his way through this and get his drive time in for a double stint.
Tincknell tries Newgarden and makes a pass. Do not let your ego get in the way. Keep it clean and stay on the lead lap. 52 cars are the most cars entered at Petit Le Mans in a long time. Watch the marching ant's telemetry. This is amazing stuff. I wish I had this on the iPad. For GTP cars it is like a Pac Man game. The BMW and the Porsche are now a second faster than the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac. At Pfaff Motorsports, everyone wonders if there will be plaid, on their new McLaren or not. It will not be the Porsche plaid for sure. They are looking for a new idea with McLaren. There will be orange for McLaren, but we might see plaid on the car. We'll find out.
Pfaff Motorsports are still in the GTD Pro fight. The #52 PR1/Mathiasen LMP2 car has just hit the pit lane. We are closing in on halfway through this motor race on this Saturday afternoon. We will hear again from Leigh Diffey and Townsend Bell along with Calvin Fish again, soon, as we have heard a lot from Kevin Lee and Brian Till, currently. The sun will soon begin to set and the rearoff for the windscreens are very pitted and caked with debris. As the sun sets that will become more and more challenging to deal with.
2,767 points for BMW #25 in GTP and it is very close yet. At BMW RLL Connor De Philippi says they have recovered and have done fuel saving. De Philippi is next into the car. It could be a two-car battle for the title, maybe three. The #31 Cadillac is still in this and so is the #01, #6, #60, and more. 50 cars still on the road of the 52 that started. This is the chill phase of the race, right? It is hilarious because the start is bonkers. The middle is just running laps and the end is, rip off the roof and don't use your parachute! Renger van der Zande leading the motor race in the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac with a gap of two and a half seconds to Nick Yelloly in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 and two Porsche's third and fourth, the #59 Proton Competition Porsche 963 of Hary Tincknell with the #7 factory Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 of Josef Newgarden next up.
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