26,000 gear changes in 24 hours of racing. Holy mackerel! Back in the day with H pattern gearboxes, you use second, third, fourth, and fifth gear, and then, third, fourth, and fifth gear to take wear and tear off the drivetrain during a Rolex 24. Now you pull the paddle shift trigger and just go for it. Kevin Estre being harried by Filipe Albuquerque. Stop and hold penalty for the #6 Penske Porsche for being outside of horsepower parameters of the engine and the hybrid, with the electronics settings. The team at Porsche Penske Motorsports is well aware, and I think you get four laps to serve the penalty. My rulebook in my brain must be working but I have not read the entire IMSA rulebook. The torque measurement between internal combustion engines and electric power, is too high on the #6 Porsche 963. Ten seconds of penalty time, served.
Porsche has the second highest power rating in kilowatts compared to the other brands in the Balance of Performance tables, power, mass, and aero. They are bespoke motors in a way but each brand has their own engine. Vasser Sullivan scored the GTD Pro title last year and had trouble earlier but their sister car #12 now with Aaron Telitz at the wheel of it, he is running extremely well. Sheldon van der Linde is leading GTD Pro in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3. Philip Ellis is chasing down Aaron Telitz in GTD Pro. Mercedes vs. Lexus. The battle of the V8 engine coupes. Wow! The #10 Acura has no power in the International Horseshoe! No lights. No one is home for the #10. #10 is smoking on the side. It seems the car is overheating. Jordan Taylor in the sister car seems solid. But the #10 is in trouble.
Bourdais in the lead. #10 had a hybrid issue, and while I was eating pizza for dinner during the yellow, things are now starting to get heavy. Bourdais is catching Derani hand over fist and now, the BMWs are in it and so is Nasr in the #7 Porsche and Bourdais slams the door in Nasr's face! Nasr had a massive head of steam out of the Le Mans chicane! Connor De Philippi in the #25 BMW sees it all. Jenson Burton in the #40 Acura ARX-06 is finding his feet. Hybrid failure for the #10 Wayne Taylor Andretti Global Konica Minolta Acura. Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor, Brendon Hartley, and Marcus Ericsson are out.
Marcus Ericsson did not even get to drive. Pato O'Ward has a good lead by three seconds over Josh Burdon and Nick Boulle in LMP2. United Autosports followed by Riley Motorsports and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. With the Pro-Am categories, all drivers must do four and a half hours of drive time. So, another hour is flying by. Ben Keating as a Bronze, he could still really be a fighter here but others might not be able to push too hard. But this class has had some fabulous motor racing all day and into the night. Josh Burdon, the Australian, is now second in class. That is the Riley Motorsports #74 Oreca.
John Farano is fifth in the #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca. Farano in his first race back since Laguna Seca last spring. The #01 Cadillac goes off the road and into the grass and has a flat tire. The tire is cut down too. He got into tire debris. Or some other kind of offline debris. Wow. It is a puncture, sparking. Bourdais took the lead and Pipo Derani leads by five seconds. We have had eight yellows in nine hours. Official retirements are four. 55 cars of the 59 starters. Pipo Derani continues to lead the motor race here as we are almost finished with the ninth hour of racing. The new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R is of course a full on GT3 car and not a detuned GTE car.
At WTR Andretti the situation is they are down to one car and they are getting to the bottom of their troubles. That is of course with the #10 car, losing power with something burning, but no indication of what is going on. Jenson Button still has a shot in the #40 entry. Anything is possible. Jenson Button now being harried by Nick Tandy in the #6 Porsche 963 after their warning on power from the torque sensors. Nick Tandy in fifth and a touch between Button and the Pfaff MotorsportsMcLaren! Tandy moves past Button and Alexander Rossi in the McLaren was also in that shemozzle. Yikes! That was close!
Coming to the end of the ninth hour very soon. The #01 Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing car is a lap down and Pipo Derani in the #31 Whelen Engineering Action Express Cadillac is still dominant. Philip Ellis is leading, continuing to lead in the GT Daytona class. Winward came out of Michelin Pilot Challenge, they won on debut at the Rolex 24 in 2021. They have a new facility, a new race shop, under team boss Ed Hall. Fifteen hours to go. Front brakes, brake pads, will be being looked at. Brake changes may be in the future for some of these teams. They have a window of eight hours on a front brake change from hours eight to 16. The McLaren chasing is the #70 Inception Racing car with Tom Gamble at the controls.
He is putting them in a good place. The McLaren is the darkhorse in GT Daytona and GT Daytona Pro. The #01 Cadillac, things are getting worse. They had a puncture from debris. They did a full power cycle. Scott Dixon is now at the wheel.
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