Trouble for Ben Barnicoat with his drink bottle hose falling down somewhere inside the car. Now, the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 is in the pit lane. Dane Cameron has made a stop. Trouble at BMW on the left rear undoing the bonnet latches on the back? Oh. Maybe that was just a quick adjustment. We see LMP2 cars and GT Daytona cars that have pitted. That is a very tall antenna on the roof of the BMW for the radio comms between the driver and the team and there are other transponder wires and the like also on the roof. Every car has them. That's like short wave radio or HAM radio back in the day. Russell Ward says mistakes are unfortunate, but they happen. They have capitalized on a yellow flag and we now see Indy Dontje in the lead of the class in GT Daytona.
After last year's race when they had a tough day, Russell Ward helps take down the pit box. There is no I in team. It is a group of people who improve in every single way on and off track. Russell Ward, sweating bullets after his stint, still signing autographs for the fans. Sometimes heads of racing programs head to air-conditioned places to go to get their minds off of everything, but others stay in the pit lane and the crew members are appreciative of everyone, drivers, team ownership and so forth. This is the third Full Course Yellow of the race so far. It is very warm and there are fluffy clouds in the sky.
This is the largest crowd at Sebring in the last five to eight years even before the cursed pandemic took place. Oh dear. The #4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R is stopped on course in a runoff zone. Nicky Catsburg is now back underway in turn seven. That is the hairpin turn. Electrical troubles don't often disappear. Control, Alt, Delete, just like a computer. Talking of confidence, Penske Porsche has been very confident as of late winning the Rolex 24 and the FIA World Endurance Championship season opener in Qatar. Will that confidence shine through in this race?
Dane Cameron is out front in the #6 Porsche 963 just ahead of both Cadillac's, the #31 Whelen Action Express V Series.R of Jack Aitken and the gold Ganassi Racing V Series.R of Scott Dixon as we come back to green flag racing here at Sebring! Aitken is going to lunge to the inside of Cameron! Oh, my heavens! Discretion the better part of valor. Cameron and Aitken make contact! Yikes! This allows Dixon to close up, and fast. Dane Cameron slams the door in Jack Aitken's face. Scott Dixon is grinning like a cheshire cat thinking, "just under nine hours to go? You blokes are nuts for trying to scrap so early!"
I wonder how long things will stay cool. Dane Cameron is not putting up with any hijinks. Aitken isn't either. I wonder if Cameron will be warned by the stewards. The Penske Porsche's have struggled mid stint and the Cadillac's have had the measure of the field thus far. To some extent, from the entry to turn 17 to the start/finish line, you can go. Camerin waited and Aitken pulled the pin under the bridge. Dane Cameron is really going for it and so is Richard Westbrook at the wheel of the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports, bright yellow, "Banana Boat" Porsche 963 who is the second driver in the rotation for that team after Phil Hanson started the race. They also have Dutchman Tijmen van der Helm on the driver's strength.
Just behind them, the sister #6 Porsche 963 for Porsche Penske Motorsports of Fred Makowiecki, the Frenchman. We have talked this over, once. It is worth reiterating. Here is the table of GTP Balance of Performance changes between Daytona and here at Sebring.
Car: Weight: Power:
Acura -38 lbs. -11 horsepower
BMW -2 lbs. -11 horsepower
Cadillac +66 lbs. +13 horsepower
Porsche -4 lbs. +15 horsepower
This is what the technical staff is looking at. Subtract both weight and horsepower at the same time. At the tail end of the stint, a lighter car will abuse the tires less. The #10 Acura of Brendon Hartley is competitive today. That car had the fastest lap in qualifying, but they were disqualified after working on the car under parc ferme conditions which is forbidden. I could stand some weight loss though I will need to go for a couple of walks. Less weight and more power for me? Hmmm. Sounds like a dangerous combination if I were to bring more power.
The only power I have, ladies and gentlemen, is the power of the printed word to tell you about how these sports car races turn out, honestly. Blimey! There is a long, long way to go yet! Eight and 3/4 hours left on the board. The pace is really hot even at the start. Jack Aitken chasing Dane Cameron for the lead. Dane Cameron is the hub of the Penske Porsche driver lineup much the same way that Pipo Derani is at Action Express. Cameron has been a champion way back when with BMW. The temperamentG wins these motor races.
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Get to the last hour of the race. Cameron also ran with Penske in DPi with Acura. He comes from a racing family. His uncle Stephen Cameron is a great racing driver, and his dad, Ricky Cameron, engineers "The Banana Boat", the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963. His eyes are focused. He is not darting his eyes around worried about the rearview mirror. Racing drivers don't blink. They are calm and just take a slow glance into the rearview camera. Cameron is comfortable in the race car. Jack Aitken is right behind him. There is a gap forming now between Aitken and Dixon.
In a handful of laps though the two Cadillac's are coming to the fore. The Dallara chassis, which is the underpinnings of the Cadillac, that chassis is far better over the bumps than the other GTP cars. That even extends back into the DPi era between 2017 and 2022. Everyone has chosen the chassis depending on what they wanted from their car. The GT Daytona Pro battle is getting intense. Michael Christensen in the green dinosaur "Rexy" Porsche is being pursued hotly by Neil Verhagen in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3. But, Verhagen has the #3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Antonio "The King of Spain" Garcia, right on his back door.
Following in the wheel tracks of the GTD Pro top three are the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 in the hands of Ben Barnicoat and the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of Daniel Serra. Driving right now, it is 1PM, in the hottest window in March here at Sebring. 82 degrees track temperature. Respect the tires and hopefully you are single stinting your tires. The GTD Pro and GTD cars know what they have and know what their competition has. Dial in your tire strategy for the nighttime. It is no different than how strategy works for a football game in each quarter. I must say though, comparing strategy in football vs. endurance sports car racing is an apples to oranges comparison.
Jack Aitken is now crawling all over Dane Cameron because Cameron's tires are getting slimier, grubbier, and they are losing traction. Aitken dives to the inside and Cameron tags the left rear corner of the Cadillac! Sheesh! That was not as respectful as I thought it would be. Blimey! It looks like Dane Cameron sent it too deep into turn 17. The Porsche 963 wears the rear tires much quicker than the Cadillac V Series.R does. The Cadillac has the horsepower compared to the Porsche and now, Jack Aitken is in control in this situation.
The fly by wire braking system on the GTP cars, turn 17 is the most treacherous spot under braking. It is hard to feel what the back end is doing. There is no mechanical linkage between the brake pedal and the rear axle on a GTP car. On the front end the brakes are mechanical. It is so hard to feel out where the tail end of the race car is. Turn 17 at Sebring is a massive trail braking corner and of course the bumps on these concrete runways and taxiways, it is bonkers. The brake by wire system is still something where drivers are getting used to it. It is part of the regeneration system for the hybrid power, a lot like driving a remote control car.
In GT Daytona, Robby Foley is currently third in class in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3. Team boss Will Turner is scrapping with a GTD Pro entry. Foley is scrapping with one of the factory GTD Pro Ford Mustang GT3's. He shares the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW with Patrick Gallagher and Jake Walker. Everyone is starting to settle down. But after a while, in the darkness, people will throw caution to the wind. When Will Turner called Jake Walker when he was 17, telling him "I have the ride of a lifetime for you", it was supposed to be a surprise.
However, he was totally blown away and had no idea. He was completely shocked. He was speechless and asked, "are you serious?" Being 17, Will Turner's daughter and her friends, the same age, noticed him on Instagram. Well, well, well. Dad gets the picture, doesn't he. While we were hearing from Will Turner in that interview, second place in the overall has changed hands as Scott Dixon has passed and pulled a gap on Dane Cameron and now, Dixon is 2.2 seconds behind Jack Aitken. There was traffic all over the shop.
There is a whole clump of four, five GT Daytona cars trying to go for the same piece of real estate through turn 17. My goodness! Protecting the race car is all you can do at this stage. Dixon has the grip down on the inside line. Oh no! More trouble, misery, woe, for the #9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3! The rear end of that automobile is crabbing which tells me he has broken rear suspension. Someone just hits and vaporizes a piece of carbon fiber. That will do their tires no good at all. I think James Hinchcliffe is driving the McLaren, currently. His right hand is pointed downward on the steering wheel and the reason is that the suspension is not square. The toe in and toe out on the alignment, is not square.
I wonder if more contact happened. The car is surging. The driveline is all out of whack. The motor is surging, and the transmission is laboring. Let's see if we can find out what happened to James Hinchcliffe. There is a big stack up out of the esses onto the Ulmann straightaway. There were two cars that spun, when we look at the replay. It wasn't just the McLaren. The #86 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R was also in that mess. That car being shared by Kerong Li of China, Anders Fjordbach of Denmark, and Austrian Klaus Bachler. Here's the onboard camera replay, through turn 15, and... crunch! That was a heavy hit up the back!
He was offline to the left and went to tuck in behind the Corvette. Everyone stacked up ahead of the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8. Bent suspension of course on the McLaren. James Hinchcliffe is just circulating, putting laps in, treating the rest of the race like an extended test session. Hinchcliffe now trundling back through pit lane. The mid-engine GT3 cars such as the Corvette, the McLaren, the Ferrari, the Lamborghini, The Porsche was going for an opening that just was not there. That area of the track, even with a spotter, cannot see you. It used to be spotters went up in cherry pickers to see. But the cherry pickers have been obviously banned for taking up room and for being incredibly dangerous that high up off the ground and I don't know if the spotters had safety tether lines or not.
75 feet up in the air. That's scary! I am afraid of heights and so, when the wind blows... yikes! No Full Course Yellow issued with the troubles with the McLaren or the debris. The battles are continuing. Jack Aitken leads overall and in GTP. Mikkel Jensen leads in LMP2. Michael Christensen leading GTD Pro and Indy Dontje leading GTD. Eight and a half hours to go. I don't think the McLaren will come back. How many spare parts do you have? Toe link, half shaft, A arms. Jack Aitken has now opened a lead buffer ahead of Scott Dixon to the tune of almost four seconds.
Dixon made the pass on Dane Cameron of course. Even when Cameron was in the lead, the Porsche was losing traction. This is a familiar sight of the Whelen Cadillac leading at Sebring, the defending champions of this race from last year. They are looking for two in a row. So, the four class leaders here at Sebring include in the overall and GTP, Jack Aitken in the #31 Whelen Engineering Action Express Racing Cadillac. In LMP2, Mikkel Jensen in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07. In GTD Pro, the #77 AO Racing "Rexy the dinosaur" Porsche 911 GT3R, and in GTD, the #57Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in the hands of Dutchman Indy Dontje.
AO Racing finished second in class after scoring pole at the Rolex 24. Gunnar Jeanette, the longtime driver now team manager, they are thrilled to have Porsche factory driver in the FIA WEC, Michael Christensen, on the driver's strength for this event. Christensen is the mature uncle with a couple of rookies. Oh dear. A car is off the road, the #18 Era Motorsports LMP2 entry. Christensen is the Platinum driver at AO Racing. Dwight Merriman at the wheel of the Oreca currently. They are a little bit in the hole, and they will get back in the fight.
Across the board, get the Bronze drivers in now, and get their drive time out of the way and then, put the hot shoes, the big guns, in for the end of the event. Their young gun, Connor Zilisch, is quite the driver. He ran incredibly well in Mazda MX5 Cup competition earlier in the weekend. Connor Zilisch is in NASCAR too in both the truck series and the Xfinity series. He could be a sailor or an Olympian, too, if he wanted to! Tee hee! OK. That was a joke. He is wise beyond his years as a racer. Let's take a look at the running order in GTD Pro and GTD.
Leading GTD Pro is the aforementioned Michael Christensen, two and a half seconds to the good ovr Neil Verhagen at the wheel of the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3. Antonio Garcia is third in the #3 Corvette Racing by Pratt & Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R followed by the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Ben Barnicoat. Rounding out the top five is the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 with Brazilian Daniel Serra at the wheel of it. Positions six through ten include the #64 factory Ford Mustang GT3 of Christopher Mies, Franck Perera in the #19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan, the sister #65 Mustang GT3 of Fred Vervisch, Matteo Cressoni in the #60 Iron Lynx Lambo, and Alex Riberas in the #23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Indy Dontje leads GT Daytona in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 being pursued by the sister #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Aaron Telitz. Robby Foley runs third in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3. In fourth place, the #34 Ferrari 296 GT3 from Conquest Racing in the hands of Monegasque racer Cedric Sbirrazzuoli. Alessio Rovera in another Ferrari completes the top five, the #023 Triarsi Competizione machine. In sixth place, it is another Ferrari, the #21 AF Corse entry with Spaniard Miguel Molina, a regular Ferrari 499P Hypercar driver in FIA WEC.
Tatiana Calderon runs seventh in the #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3. Sixth is the sister #27 GTD graded Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 with team boss Ian James in the drivers' seat. Danny Formal is ninth in the #45 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Rounding out the top ten it is Matt Bell at the wheel of the #13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette GT3's, the first of their two cars entered in this race. The #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin sees John Potter running well and Potter is finishing his drive time. They had a power issue with the engine cutting out, running 16th in class. He had to do a power cycle, a reset.
Spencer Pumpelly was at the wheel and was in conflict with the #40 Acura ARX-06 the second Andretti and Wayne Taylor Racing Acura GTP car. There's a mega scrap, a boxing match right now between the #86 MDK Motorsports Porsche in the hands of Klaus Bachler, the Austrian, vs. the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Italian Roberto Lacorte. Bachler has been putting the high beams on trying to get Lacorte's attention. Yo! Klaus! Knock it off! Lacorte is the team boss at Cetilar and, oh! They make contact! Lacorte hangs on! The Ferrari already has a spare door installed.
Bachler is a good driver. But at this moment, he is being too aggressive. He is taking way too many risks and actually putting his competition in danger. Someone give him a warning on the radio, to cool it. Now, maybe, Lacorte was trying to slam the door in Bachler's face. That is another very real possibility. It is not a scorching hot day but, in the heat, the cars overheat, and the fuel system dumps more petrol into the motor to cool it off. John Potter is looking to be holding his own with the rest of the GT Daytona field. Magnus Racing are becoming more competitive at the wheel and if you enjoy "Saturday Night Fever" that is the team poster theme this weekend, with the team wearing disco outfits of unbuttoned shirts and bell bottoms! Well, well, well.
Roberto Lacorte is an older driver at age 55 compared to Bachler being in his 30s. Lacorte won in class here at Sebring in 2022. We should also have a quick look at the running order for the prototype classes. In GTP, Jack Aitken leads overall in the #31 Whelen Engineering Action Express Cadillac V Series.R with the Ganassi Racing #01 Cadillac in second place with IndyCar legend Scott Dixon of New Zealand behind the wheel. Third spot belongs to the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 of Dane Cameron. Behind Cameron is the #85 "Banana Boat" Porsche 963 for JDC-Miller Motorsports with Richard Westbrook driving.
Completing the top five it is the first of the two BMW Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8's, the #25 car of Belgian Maxime Martin. LMP2 using all identical Oreca 07's, save for the sole Ligier with the Sean Creech Motorsports car, looks like this. In first place inclass is the #11 TDS Racing entry of Mikkel Jensen, the Danish racer. Second belongs to Sweden's Rasmus Lindh at the wheel of the #81 DragonSpeed car. Third place is the #2 United Autosports Oreca of Ben Keating. In fourth place is indeed the Ligier, the #33 Sean Creech Motorsports entry in the hands of Dr. Lance Willsey. Fifth is the #52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 of Frenchman Tom Dillmann.
Some of the businessmen in this race who are also racing drivers on a Pro-Am level, it is like giving a CEO an F-16 fighter jet and sending them to compete in the Reno Air Races. Keating passing by the scrap in GTD Pro between Neil Verhagen and Antonio Garcia. This track is so different from Daytona. In the twisting curves on the back end of the circuit, the mass of the cars comes into play and so does traffic management. Selective and critical decision making is a huge deal. George Kurtz, who is also a businessman with his CrowdStrike web security situation.
They finish their driving stint, get cleaned up and back into street clothes, and they are running their businesses from the racetrack. The Mobil 1 anniversary livery in the gold with the Corvette's, the Ganassi Cadillac GTP car, and the gold Lexus RC F GT3 car, all of them are notable on the track. Watching the Mustang and the Corvette racing each other, a higher mast on a sailboat will make it move more or on a plane, you get pitch and yaw, and it is the same with a race car on the ground. Porsche 963 #7 did a short fill on fuel last time and so both Porsche 963's from Team Penske might hit the lane early. Nick Tandy and Matt Campbell are both suited and booted and ready for their stints.
Oh my! We have a big-time scrap between the factory Porsche and the JDC-Miller Porsche! Richard Westbrook side by side with Dane Cameron entering turn 17 at Sunset Bend. Westbrook goes by Cameron because #7's tires have fallen off a cliff. Now, Cameron is in the pit lane. This is the car that won the Rolex 24 in January. They are doing well in many facets of motorsports as we have talked about. Matt Campbell is getting into the car for his first stint of the day. Full fuel and energy fill plus a change of all four tires, and he is down and away with smoke billowing from the left front brake. I don't think that is a worrisome thing althought we have seen the front brakes of the Porsche 963 light on fire before.
It is simply heat soak. Porsche won with Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, and Laurens Vanthoor in Qatar a while ago. Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen, and Fred Makowiecki earned a podium with the other factory 963 and the customer Team Jota entry #12 of Norman Nato, Will Stevens, and Callum Ilott. Find me another team in professional sports that has been winning consistently over seven decades like Team Penske? It just does not exist. Not even baseball dynasties like the New York Yankees. Sorry, baseball fans. Meanwhile, another team with a great pedigree, Action Express Racing and Cadillac, with Jack Aitken, continue leading, the defending 12 Hours of Sebring champions.
We talked about the dedication of the Hendrick's Field Officer's Club, the last original building, IMSA and the France family restored the building. As I said, kudos to them for dedicating it as a landmark at the circuit. You can buy a ticket, sit on the patio, and watch the race. It was dedicated the Wednesday before the race by Jan Davis, a two-time astronaut on the space shuttle, and her dad went to Europe in WW. II. Her dad gave her mom a necklace and Jan Davis was wearing it at the dedication. That is such great history. Reflect on the great history. That's fabulous!
Scott Dixon is almost six seconds down on Jack Aitken. There is a patio at the Officers' Club where concerts take place. We are closing in on 1/3rd of the race being completed. Meanwhile, it looks like the #9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 is back on track. The Cadillac has such great power delivery on a bumpy circuit like Sebring with the power delivery from the thunderous V8 engine. Torque on throttle tip in, is instant. It is very smooth. You can set the throttle up because of the electronics. With the turbo cars you must Band-Aid lag issues in the turbo. That is where the Porsche's, Acura's, BMWs, and the Lamborghini, drive and perform differently than the Cadillac's do.
James Hinchcliffe is glad the Pfaff Motorsports McLaren is back on track after the shunt. In these races with Pro-Am drivers, it is hard to deal with. Hinchcliffe is embarrassed by some of the amateur drivers in some of the GT Daytona cars. The vision out the back of the McLaren is not the best. The McLaren does have the radar system and they lost one of the rearview mirrors on the car. He acknowledges he should have left the door open. It is hot and the track temperatures are going up. Drivers' tempers are frayed at this time of the day. It gets very warm and every driver must hydrate and have a plan put in place two days before the race.
Marvin Kirchhofer is driving the #9 McLaren before Hinchcliffe has another stint. In order for the Pfaff boys and girls to win, this is actually a test session. They must just keep putting data together for fuel save and tire management, running long stints and hoping to get lucky with a yellow and get a lap back. Pfaff Motorsports new to McLaren in 2024. Whoops! Another GT Daytona car, has spun. This is the #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. Salih Yoluc, the Turkish driver, at the wheel of it, in 12th in class.
Yoluc is trying to point the race car in the right direction. But... yikes! One of the prototypes comes whistling right by and he almost collected it! Was that the second place Cadillac? Oh, my heavens! That was a close shave! That is a blind corner where he is, at the Tower Turn. Poor old Yoluc has to back it up but cannot find reverse. More trouble out on the circuit as the #33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier LMP2 car has come to rest, someplace. Dr. Lance Willsey at the wheel of it, I wonder where he is on the course. Ah yes. That is turn 16 just before the Ulmann straight.
I agree with Brian Till at NBC Sports who says this is a mechanical issue and not a spin. You see that Willsey has pulled the car over to drivers' left through the apex of the corner. He is on the runoff. I don't see skid marks. Criminy. Let's see what happened here. Ah. He lost it all by himself and spun off. That was I want to say a mismatched downshift and he just lost the rear end. Pit stop time in GTP. A driver change, underway for the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global Acura. We see the leading #31 Whelen Cadillac in as well. Filipe Albuquerque should be getting into the Acura. Now, the BMW is also in but I am not sure which one.
It is hot today but not as bad as it has been over the past couple days. The BMW has the right of way on pit exit. Jack Aitken now continues to lead in the #31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac. Blimey! We are being told that all the top contenders in GTP were at the minimum with only 5% energy left in the tank. Wowzers! Full Course Yellow. We are under Full Course Yellow. The #80 Mercedes has moved six feet right to where the tire barriers are, and the Ligier of Lance Willsey is still stranded. Oy yoy yoy. Two cars stranded in two different sections of the track.
Filipe Albuquerque needs the seat insert to move him forward. The seats are not adjustable and the GTP cars have such tight quarters in the cockpit. They are fighter jets on wheels. The seat inserts for each driver make it simpler and there's less mechanical worry than with an adjustable seat. Plus, it is safer. An adjustable seat could move in a wreck. It is the "kiss" philosophy. Keep it simple, stupid. The #31 Whelen Cadillac and Jack Aitken were trying to get to pit lane but did not beat the light. Aitken rolled through the pit lane and the light turned red. It was on but now he might run out of gas. Save as much as you can and AXR will lose track position.
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