Pit stop time again. Ganassi, Penske Porsche, Action Express. Proton Competition. So, pitting strategies under this yellow. Steven Thomas, wide and offline, and spinning out of the Bus Stop and into the wall. The car is on the flatbed. I think it is game over for this team as now, the #2 United Autosports car led by team manager Richard Dean and McLaren F1 team boss Zak Brown. No LMP2 cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship this year save for the 24 Hours of Le Mans we will see in June. We are ready to go back to green flag racing. So, the pit stops have been for Cadillac and Porsche just now. Now, we have seen the GTD and GTD Pro pit stops just completed as we have Doug Boles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Cutting wood, he dropped it and had to have surgery. We are looking forward to the Indianapolis 500 with a 36 car entry list which will involve bumping in the 108th Indianapolis 500. Check it out, fans.
We will see the IMSA race at Indianapolis for six hours in the fall and the NASCAR Cup cars back on the oval, on the speedway itself. We are ready to go back to green. Louis Deletraz from Switzerland, he leads, and is a full-time driver in IMSA this year. OK. Deletraz takes off from Dixon, Aitken, and the others. Dixon is going after Deletraz. Patricio O'Ward scrapping with Jakub Smiechowski in LMP2. Dane Cameron and Matthieu Jaminet, the two Penske Porsche 963's fighting. Lots of room inside the Porsche 963 it seems. Oh boy! That's a wild moment as Ben Keating has Gianmaria Bruni right on his six.
Two Porsche 963's going for it. Pato O'Ward has passed Jakub Smiechowski. Lilou Wadoux next followed by Toby Sowery and Matt Brabham. The #45 Lamborghini Huracan runs wide and loses laces. Graham Doyle at the controls, a 17-year-old rookie, on a rapid learning curve of racing and sports car racing. He is on the ascent, and his dad, Dan Doyle, worked with Wayne Taylor in the World Sports Car days with Danka business solutions many moons ago. A GT Daytona battle the Lone Star Racing Mercedes vs. the Conquest Racing Ferrari. Cedric Sbirrazuoli and the Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Paul Miller Racing's #1 BMW M4 GT3 is going for it and the SunEnergy1 Mercedes of Maro Engel wants it as well. This is a real scrap! Jordan Pepper is pressing it right now. You have Parker Thompson, Indy Dontje, and the rest. We'll have Dave Burns and the rest of the NBC Sports team joining us here in a moment. At Paul Miller Racing the lineup in the BMW M5 GT3 includes Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow, Neil Verhagen, and Sheldon van der Linde. Maro Engel shares the #75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with Kenny Habul, Jules Gounon, and Luca Stolz.
OK. Dave Burns, Brian Till and Steve Letarte are our new booth team with Matt Yocum and Hannah Newhouse reporting from the pit lane. LMP2 is being turned up on the next level. Pato O'Ward, Jakub Smiechowski, Toby Sowery, Lilou Wadoux, and Sebastian Alvarez. Every car in LMP2 is an Oreca save for one Ligier with Sean Creech Motorsports. These cars are evenly matched and every engine is the same, the 4.2 liter normally aspirated Gibson Technologies V8 from England and they stay evenly matched all over the speedway, on the high banks and the road course.
Pato O'Ward is leading LMP2 currently taking over from the Chilean racer, Nico Pino. United Autosports are teamed now with JR III Motorsports, a team from the now defunct LMP3 class from last year. LMP3 not defunct but not in WeatherTech. Of course, we saw LMP3 in VP Challenge last weekend for those sprint events you have read about on the blog. The field needs a pep talk to settle in and the weather changes have been massive. Hello to Matty Yocum in the pit lane. It feels like we have been racing for a lot longer than we have. Poor Vasser Sullivan. They are still working on the car. They are back in the race now, but it took 58 minutes to fix the car.
They are 37 laps down and can still get back in the fight. Almost halfway through the third hour. You want every point you can get. This is going to be a long night for some. Adrenaline is the biggest factor and unfortunately, Vasser Sullivan will find the zombie land hour of 3AM as the toughest to go through when everyone else is just making laps before the dawn. Louis Deletraz, the Swiss driver, currently leads for WTR Andretti in their #40 Acura, the Dex Imaging car. Deletraz, O'Ward, Kirchhoefer, and Thompson, the class leaders.
So, Acura WTR Andretti, United, Pfaff Motorsports, and Vasser Sullivan. You steer the car with your eyes. Your hands follow your eyes. That is how you drive a race car or drive a road car. Race car drivers don't blink. Focus forward and stay relaxed. No wasted movements either. The GTP cars are not easy to drive but these drivers can drive them with precision. One of the Mustang's, Christopher Mies, is fourth in class right now.
Joey Hand tells us about this new program. He is very excited with tons of Ford folks here and the Multimatic team. They have been working on the car for a whole year. Ford is racing globally with their GT3 and GT4 cars and a single make series, the Mustang Challenge. Drifting, rallying, endurance racing, NASCAR, and more. They can run the GT3 Mustang at every track. Daytona, Sebring, Le Mans, Spa, Bathurst, and more. #64 and #65 are the old Jack Roush Mustang numbers from the 1980s in IMSA. So, it is deja vu.
Currently, there is a good scrap here between the Mustang GT3 and the BMW M4 GT3. The weather is totally different than it was a week ago in qualifying. It is much hotter. What will the balance be? The rear wing flexes a lot on the Mustang. My goodness. There is a lot of shake to the wing. They will want to improve and fix that, perhaps. Ahead of the factory Mustang is the Proton Competition car. But I digress, because in GT3, it is technically a situation where there are no factory squads in GT3. Ford is an exception, but they will and do have privateer cars. Again, the Proton #55 is an example of that.
This is a marquee race anywhere. Scott Dixon is now aboard the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac V Series R. We have 69 drivers in this race with a class win at the Rolex 24. There are some amazing atats. All classes in one shot. The GT Daytona Pro and regular cars are the same. Jack Aitken with the sun in his eyes with GT Daytona traffic ahead. Offline it will be dirtier as the hours go by. With the Mustang GT3, the trunk lid has come loose on the #65. Oh dear! A broken boot lid will be bothering the aerodynamics. They need a spare boot lid. They might have to tape the boot lid down, but the fuel filler is also there.
It has been less than a year in development. This car still has a long way to go. They have not done 24 hour testing. This is the 24 hour test. IMSA may black flag the car, one of the two factory cars. Try putting a new decklid on the car. Keep making pit stops to check and see. The new Corvette Z06 GT3 is the same. They don't have an endurance run on the car yet at all. Alexander Sims in the #3 and Nicky Catsburg in the #4. The C pillar of the Mustang GT3 is starting to tear away. The #64 has had this exact issue.
The #64 seems secure with no bear bond with that big tape bandage. Now, the #65 is in and we saw the rear wing doing the Watusi and the shing a ling at the same time. Joey Hand, Dirk Mueller, and Frederic Vervisch driving the car with Vervisch at the wheel of it. No bracket damage. It is just a part failure. No worries. This is a decklid for aerodynamics and for the fuel cell to fit. The trunk lid has collapsed in on itself. That 5.4-liter Coyote V8 sounds good. Scott Dixon leads aboard the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac.
Marvin Kirchofer knows the McLaren like the back of his hand, as Pfaff Motorsports are in their first race with McLaren. The McLaren is going to be a hot car. Hydration is the key for all the drivers. Humidity is a massive situation for drivers, physically, and mentally. Kirchofer is going to do a double stint. Tires and fuel at McLaren. 115-120 degrees in the car! Oh, my heavens! This is a test of the preparation of the drivers. Well, well. We're nearly to the end of another racing hour. Another incident off turn two on the road course and that is the Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier LMP2 of Lance Willsey, car #33/
He is off the road and has to get back to turn two. He is sitting there and has to move. Find reverse. This is a new car for him. The mechanics and procedures are different. Some business on pit lane and one of the Mustang's is off the road as well. He was avoiding the spinning Ligier I think. Now, Willsey should be OK. A couple GT Daytona cars have come to the pit lane to try and do the magical leapfrog. Willsey is back on the track now. A few hours from now we will be in total darkness. Jack Aitken back into the lead with the #31 Whelen Cadillac.
Dr. Lance Willsey is now running in the right direction. Action Express and Cadillac now lead.
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