We are 20 minutes away from sprint race mode. Picariello pits the #5 Proton Competition Mustang Sampling Porsche. Action Express in the pit lane for energy replenishment and new tires. Jack Aitken has just pitted, and he will be on cold tires. Be careful. Tom Blomqvist now in the #31 Whelen Cadillac. Watch out for the tires that are still cold. Nick Tandy now at the wheel of the #6 Porsche 963. 5.5-liter atmospheric V8 in the Cadillac. 4.6-liter turbo V8 in the Porsche. 2.4-liter twin turbo V6 in the Acura. The Motor Generation Unit is standardized for all the GTP cars. Louis Deletraz and his team are 17 seconds off the lead behind #7 and #31. Lots of rubber debris offline. Be very careful in turn five and don't lock the brakes through there.
Louis Deletraz will finish the race in the #40 Acura. This is the first time for him trying to make that happen. In the meantime, Colton Herta is doing all he can to catch Matt Campbell. Same with Tom Blomqvist. Under three hours to go. In GTD Pro and GTD, it is beginning to heat up. Ten brands of these GT3 spec cars. Alex Riberas has the #23 Aston Martin Vantage with a 4-liter turbocharged V8. The Aston Martin is smooth in the engine department and the suspension is far more compliant. Here is the all new Ford Mustang GT3 with the Coyote V8, Fred Vervisch at the wheel. Chevrolet, the Corvette has a flat plane crankshaft on the 5.5 liter V8. Maybe the Corvette has a high RPM miss or high frequency aerodynamic movement.
Less aggressive traction control being used on the Corvette which means it has good mechanical grip. Chevrolet and Ford knew they had to sell cars to customers, to amateurs. 2 hours and 40 minutes to go as the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 pits. The lead in GT Daytona now goes to Vasser Sullivan Racing. Tires for the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3. Same car in GTD Pro and GTD. Giuseppe Risi wants to win this race. The 296 is a turbo V6 as the Lexus is in the lane now, the #12. The Lexus got no BoP adjustments whatsoever.
One sprint race to go. Campbell and Porsche still leading. Phil Hanson now has the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 in the top five. Hanson sharing with Tijmen van der Helm, Richard Westbrook, and Ben Keating. Motor racing takes a ton of effort. The teams have been here in Daytona Beach, for weeks. Cadillac have flexed their muscle. Action Express and Ganassi have done well but AXR are the lone rangers, with Tom Blomqvist taking it to the end, possibly. Pipo Derani did two quad stints. Incredible! Philip Ellis and Winward Racing will single stint tires for the rest of the two and a half hours of racing remaining.
Be in fuel conservation mode. The strategies are coming into focus. Alessandro Pier Guidi leading GT Daytona Pro. Risi Competizione have not won Daytona with a Ferrari yet. Giuseppe Risi has a big heart, watching from a set of tires to watch the race and not on the pit box. Trouble for the #65 Ford Mustang GT3. They are going back to the garage, the #65 with the rear wing sloping down at an angle like it was falling off. They have pulled the car back into the garage. Mother nature has given a gift to the Porsche's possibly.
The Porsche has a smaller temperature window, and they are in it. Will Action Express increase their risk? Will they manage and try finding a space in a possible yellow flag scenario? Matt Campbell is beginning to get aggressive. He knows Tom Blomqvist is faster. With homologation, we can wish that GTP was required to have three drivers like Le Mans. 59 cars started the race and a record crpowd is about to see a great finish. The #99 AO Racing LMP2 car, "Spike", the team is jumping on the car because the air jack does not want to release. It is like when the Porsche 911 had a hood mounted fuel tank and the crewman jumped onto the hood to fuel the car.
Rexy and Spike are together on track and the team has inflatable costumes worn by actors resembling both Rexy the dinosaur and Spike the dragon. Colton Herta in the pit lane for the #40 Acura. Tom Blomqvist is now 9.3 seconds down on Matt Campbell with two hours and ten minutes to go. We are closing in on the final hours before the race concludes and we find out who will win. Next, Leigh Diffey and the boys will bring us home. Excited for a thrilling conclusion to this motor race. Action Express in the pit lane. Two more stops if things stay on schedule. It is go time, now.
Porsche #6 pitted a lap ago and #7 is in now. Felipe Nasr will close out the Rolex 24 for #7. Tim Cindric, Team Penske President, and strategist on the #7. Felipe Nasr back in, possibly doing a triple stint. He has to watch out on cold tires after Kevin Estre's incident. Nasr is much wiser through the International Horseshoe. Very toasty at Daytona Beach compared to the Roar test last weekend. Blomqvist is now 7.8 seconds behind Nasr with two hours to go. Connor Zilisch leads Colin Braun by eight seconds. Trackhouse has signed Connor Zilisch to a development program in NASCAR trucks and Xfinity Series competition. He is a phenom.
Justin Marks and Trackhouse launched their MotoGP bikes a couple days back. Alessandro Pier Guidi leading in GTD Pro, winning for Ferrari a decade ago in 2014 at the start of what is now the WeatherTech Championship. Ferrari leads GTD Pro by 15 seconds. Bryan Sellers is 15 seconds down. Just 16 seconds covering GTD Pro and the top two. A developing story at Paul Miller Racing after Bryan Sellers got in, he has a long brake pedal. This is also a safety problem for them. My goodness. See if that can be taken care of, a brake change late in the race.
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