Four minutes into the ninth of 12 hours here at Sebring. We are into the final quarter of the race, ladies and gentlemen, and we are set to go back to green. I had not noticed that the hour mark had changed on the clock, with all the twists and turns we have seen during the course of this motor race and there will be more. Trust me. Put Sebring on your bucket list. We are back to green! Maxime Martin at the top of the shop and he is now being harried by Matthieu Jaminet! BMW Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW M Hybrid V8 #25 vs. Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 #6 in the hands of the Frenchman, Mathieu Jaminet. "Jam Jam" ducks inside and wants to pass but cannot. Ricky Taylor now third in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti #10 Acura ARX-06 with the sister car #40 right behind, in the hands of the Swiss driver, Louis Deletraz.
Jaminet wriggles into the turn. The Porsche's might come back to the fore as the track cools down. The sun is now trailing off on the horizon. Now, we watch another Porsche vs. BMW battle. This one is in GTD Pro. Michael Christensen leading in class in the #77 AO Racing "Rexy" the dinosaur Porsche 911 GT3R ahead of Madison Snow in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3. Trailing these two is the #3 Corvette Racing by Pratt & Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in the hands of Alexander Sims. In the regular GT Daytona class, McLaren are leading with the #70 Inception Racing 720S GT3 with Fredrik Schandorff at the wheel of it.
Schandorff's team has rebounded after getting tangled up early doors with the other McLaren in the race, the #9 Pfaff Motorsports entry that is now out. There are six different manufacturers in the top six places in GT Daytona as the standings read, currently. Fredrik Schandorff leads the motor race in class in the #70 McLaren followed by Zacharie Robichon in the #27 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage, Onofrio Triarsi in the #023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, Elliott Skeer in the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R, and Patrick Gallagher in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3.
Wait. Hold the phone! Ladies and gentlemen, someone has lost control and began coasting before swerving out of the way. That looks to be an LMP2 entry. The #20 High Class Racing Oreca 07 which I think has had a litany of woe in this race to this point. He is not running in the top five in class in the LMP2 division. Seth Lucas, the young American driver, who has shown much promise as of late, is behind the wheel. This whole shemozzle does not faze Seth Lucas. He gathers the car up and sends it right back past the GTD field. Okie dokie then. As a racing driver, have a short memory. Focus forward. The AO Porsche has been quick for a good chunk of the race weekend, and they were in testing, too. You cannot forget the aforementioned BMW of Paul Miller Racing. It is well documented that they have stepped up this season to the Pro division of GT Daytona.
Paul Miller Racing won the GTD class here at Sebring last year. Don't forget the new Lamborghini SC63 GTP car. This is Romain Grosjean at the wheel of it, and it is one of one at least in this event. We have seen Lamborghini run what I believe is a single car, in the FIA World Endurance Championship already and we will see this car, along with it's WEC counterpart, take part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans later this summer. This is massive for Lamborghini to be in the premier prototype racing division in IMSA and in the world right now whether it is IMSA's GTP division or the Hypercar division in WEC.
Romain Grosjean is sharing the driving chores with Italian's Matteo Cairoli and Andrea Caldarelli. They are still racing, still on the lead lap, on debut at Sebring, which is a car breaker. The bodywork is clean as a whistle. Not a scratch on it. Try hard to learn and get as many laps in as you can to catch up with the established GTP brands such as Cadillac, Acura, BMW, and Porsche. They crashed a car in testing last year at the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France which precluded their efforts to race at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and in more testing.
Now, just as we are singing the praises of the Lambo, it looks like the passenger side door, or the driver's side door as I believe this car is left hand drive, is ajar. Well, well, well. Now maybe, Romain Grosjean is trying to cool off, or, he is frantically trying to grab the door and shut it while driving the car with one hand. The door latch must be broken. It is aggravating and you cannot tape it down because the tape would not hold. It is not safe. Into turn 17, Sunset Bend, the door aperture opens again. This is a distraction, an annoyance, at 180+ miles an hour.
The lateral G force is flexing the door open, and the team is debriefing now about how to fix it on the next pit stop. The engine is running beautifully, the 3.8-liter twin turbo V8 in the back of the Lamborghini. A year ago, every team and brand in GTP, everyone had to cut some slack and get into a mode. Porsche, BMW, Cadillac, and Acura, last year, were in the same boat as Lamborghini is in here. At Iron Lynx, there are two different teams. This group in IMSA at Sebring is entirely different compared to the group of folks who worked on it in Qatar in the WEC race at the beginning of the month in March.
This new group and team are learning the processes and philosophies. There are also three GT Daytona cars at Lamborghini and Iron Lynx. Maxime Martin is the overall race leader for BMW in GTP. Tom Dillmann, the Frenchman, is ahead of LMP2 for Inter Europol/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports. GTD Pro is being led by AO Racing and their Porsche in the dinosaur livery with Michael Christensen driving, and in GTD it is Fredrik Schandorff in the #70 Inception Racing McLaren as we have three-, and three-quarter hours to go. Current weather shows 86 degrees Fahrenheit on the thermometer with a five mile an hour breeze out of the northeast and 46% humidity. Relatively comfortable now, and not sweltering.
Starting half an hour earlier, it might get cooler for certain cars to hit their sweet spot at night. The cooler temperatures will help the tires, the drivers, and the cars. Grab your espresso for the final stints and it is go time. In this stint, Maxime Martin's gap over Matthieu Jaminet has now ballooned to 2.3 seconds. The Belgian racer has run with BMW and then with Aston Martin before coming back to BMW. Maxime Martin has raced with Valentino Rossi who has made his transition to car racing from his legendary motorcycle career. We saw, and you read all about them, racing together at the Bathurst 12 Hours in Australia, back in February.
This is Maxime Msrtin's first time racing at Sebring. Connor De Philippi, after his previous stint, the idea is that BMW are racing against the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac because of the crash that happened to the #31 Whelen Engineering Action Express Cadillac earlier. BMW are bullish that they can beat the Porsche and the Acura and what they believe is that they will be scrapping with the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac when this race is drawing to a close. We'll just have to see what happens. There is a long, long way to go yet. On the left corner of the #25 BMW, there is a loose piece of tape on the fender.
Will the bodywork hang in there? I think it is OK. Avoid the body blows, though. That is what you must do. However, it is easier said than done. Yikes! Maxime Martin does have a slight nudge with the #13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Orey Fidani of Canada, Matt Bell of England, and Lars Kern, the German racer, a former Porsche test driver, are racing that entry. BMW Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing finished seventh and eighth in GTP at the Rolex 24. Oh! Oh! Oh! Massive commitment as Martin dives past the #60 Iron Lynx GT Daytona Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2! #60 is sent spinning in the process!
That is Matteo Cressoni, the Italian, at the wheel of the Lambo. Now, we wonder where Mathieu Jaminet is. Jaminet is still stymied in traffic. Contact with a GT Daytona car is what put poor Pipo Derani upside down and out of the motor race. So, each side of the coin, the drivers must mind their P's and Q's here. That was a close shave! Big commitment, no hesitation. There's still almost four hours on the board. That is a racing incident but minimize potential for trouble. Aye yaye yaye! Just as I said that Connor Zilisch, the sensational teenage racer, has just looped the #18 Era Motorsports LMP2 car! Holy cow!
Colin Braun in the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca LMP2, just barely missed him! Yikes! Zilisch was just chasing down the #11 LMP2 leading car, of Mikkel Jensen. Let's have a Captain Cook at the replay and see what happened. Whoa! The front end washes away and sends poor old Connor spinning like a top! Colin Braun very nearly plowed right into him! That could have been disaster! Good grief! That is the exact same issue Jaminet had in qualifying in the Porche, a massive tank slapper. That's the same thing as a high side on a racing motorcycle if you watch MotoGP or World Superbike or MotoAmerica or any of those motorcycle road racing championships.
In a car or on a bike, it is equally scary. Jaminet's qualifying accident yesterday was a 36G hit! 36 times the force of gravity, and these GTP cars are so strong that the driver can walk away without a scratch! Unbelievable! Meanwhile, back to real time, and Jaminet is now right on Martin's six. Closing in on sunset, it is time for another commentary shift change as Dave Burns and Brian Till will step into the booth and give our mates Leigh, Calvin, and Townsend, a chance for a short rest and perhaps a bite to eat as it is getting close to dinnertime.
Sunset is also approaching, quickly. Of the 58 cars that started the race, 51 remain on track, with seven official retirements. The racing has been intense in the spring Florida heat. Ricky Taylor has now passed by Matthieu Jaminet for second and is chasing down Maxime Martin for the lead. BMW vs. Porsche has now become BMW vs. Acura vs. Porsche. Taylor just dove down past Jaminet on full afterburners! The Acura is performing flawlessly currently. The top five are right together as the shadows are growing long. BMW, Acura, Porsche, Acura, Cadillac. Martin, Taylor, Jaminet, Deletraz, Dixon.
The Acura has strength, and it is clear Ricky Taylor has pushed the bye bye button. Taylor has a lot of experience here at Sebring and has won it before. Now, he is laser focused on Maxime Martin ahead in the BMW. We saw these two blokes scrapping it out furiously earlier on in the day and now that battle has resumed in earnest. The Acura, on corner entry to the apex, it has the speed. Taylor picks up another car length and there is a sheet of paper between the two. But there's smoke or steam billowing out of the Acura. Is that steam, or some kind of fluid leaking out of the overflow pipe on the Acura? That looks a wee bit suspect to me, from this angle.
This is the first we are seeing of this, and Ricky Taylor should have eyes glued to the dashboard while also watching the road. He was fastest in qualifying but had his time disallowed for an infraction. This is the first crack in the armor from the blue Acura. There could have been some kind of a mist trail emanating from the Acura. But it also appears as wisps of smoke. If I am on the WTR team I am uncomfortable. I am also uncomfortable, if I am Matthieu Jaminet in the #6 Porsche 963 having viscous fluid like oil smearing and covering my windscreen.
Fluid on the road is also a concern, and the drivers will be howling on the radio, "black flag this clown in front of me who is puking fluid all over the road!" Ricky Taylor continues in hot pursuit of Maxime Martin in the BMW. In the meantime, the scrap for the GTD Pro lead is simmering nicely, thank you. This is Madison Snow in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 with Alexander Sims in the #3 Corvette Racing by Pratt & Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R right on his back door. The top five GTD Pro positions are covered by five different brands. BMW, Corvette, Lexus, Lamborghini, and Ford Mustang.
Snow, Sims, Ben Barnicoat, Jordan Pepper, and Mike Rockenfeller, the top five in class. Alexander Sims has a new lease on life stepping back into the GT cars. It sounds like Alexander Sims is back in his comfort level with a production-based race car. He could not find the magic with the GTP car last year when he raced and scored a single victory (right here at the 12 Hours of Sebring), with my mates at Action Express in the Cadillac program. He did have stellar runs in GTP but is so much more comfortable in a GT3 car. Colin Braun in LMP2 sweeps past these two chaps and now, Madison Snow, who is a BMW factory driver, is doing all he can to fend off the challenge of Alexander Sims in the Corvette.
Three and a half hours of racing remaining. PMR BMW made the move to GTD Pro before Madison Snow's driver rating was raised to Gold. Blimey! The #10 Acura continues spewing smoke out the back as Ricky Taylor is half a second behind Maxime Martin. The team has an idea on telemetry as to what is going on with the car. What could this be? Someone might have to break out the Acura operators manual. The only way troubles with smoking fix themselves is running out of fluid. Then, the engine goes bang shortly after making the dreadful noises that resemble silverware in a blender. Maybe an oil catch tank is overflowing.
Wayne Taylor is now in the Sebring Hall of Fame and earned the honor a decade ago. Nobody seems to be saying anything to the team about the smoke. Taylor is worried, obviously. Ricky Taylor has no choice but to get out of the car because he has already accumulated too much drive time. Their strategy is going to be putting Brendon Hartley in the car for a stint or two and then, letting Filipe Albuquerque take over for the last double stint to the checkered flag tonight. Taylor is proud of his team, and both of the cars. They wonder if the #01 Cadillac team are holding their cards until the evening hours. Daytona was a difficult race for the Acura team.
Is there trouble for the #10 Acura? We'll continue to follow this development. Ricky Taylor twitches through turn 17 at Sunset Bend and now has just taken the lead away from Maxime Martin in the BMW, the #25 BMW. Martin was caught up in lapped traffic. No performance disadvantage with the tell-tale smoke spewing from the back of the Acura. Whoops! The #40 sister Acura goes off and on as well. Three hours and 20 minutes of motor racing left on the board. Louis Deletraz went off the road at the hairpin and his windscreen too, is totally smeared with oil, rubber, and dirt.
Was he close behind the sister #10 car? Until the sun is set behind the horizon, it will be right in your face. You will want the pit crew to remove a tear off from the windscreen which is just a clear plastic sheet that can be removed to clean the windscreen. Deletraz heads for the pit lane to top up on energy and he needs the new windscreen tear off and four fresh tires. There will be a driver change. Louis Deletraz was caught on the seatbelts and Colton Herta will take over the car. I was correct in that the tear off on the screen is absolutely littered in fluid. Flip the windscreen wiper back, tear the sheet of plastic off that is dirty, and the driver has a clean screen while you, the mechanic, chuck the old tearoff in the trash.
Colton Herta cinches down his seatbelts and makes sure they are up on the HANS device. Meanwhile, there is a coming together between two LMP2 cars in turn seven, the Hairpin. The #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca has gone through a litany of woe for the entire event and also tangled up in the mess is the #74 Riley Motorsports Oreca. Josh Burdon, the Australian, at the controls of the #74. #8 is backing up. The car is 18 laps behind with Michael Dinan at the wheel. Josh Burdon is still on the lead lap although Dinan and company have had nothing, but woe and Burdon just tags Dinan. When you are racing with people, there is sometimes just not enough room/
You want to be close to make a pass, but you closed in on the bloke because he is quicker. Blimey! I'm telling you; the #8 boys have been in the wars all day long. Whoops! Manners. That was Dinan being biffed off the road again, look, by the #4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. That is the sister car to Alexander Sims and company, the Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg, Earl Bamber entry. If I'm the bloke in the race control room having a Captain Cook at the monitors, I am saying that the Corvette had the right of way and poor old Dinan in the LMP2 racer, did not. Michael Dinan was still thinking he had made a mistake at turn seven and his mind had not caught up to the next corner, and he nudged the Corvette off the road in the process.
Colton Herta, in the meantime, has a view as clear as a bell out the windscreen of the #40 Acura. He seems to be in pursuit of one of the other BMW's or so I would think. Hard to tell exactly where he is now. We are headed into the hairpin directly into the setting sun. Compare and contrast the good view and the bad view. Now, we look at the bad windscreen view with the oil, bugs, and clag all over it and I am motoring along in my hire car along Interstate 4 in central Florida going, "please! Please get me to a petrol station so I can clean the screen! The setting Florida sun is insane!" You try cleaning that thing with a bare hand, and it might make it worse before it gets better. Oy yoy yoy!
Triple digit speeds with oil and grit all over. There's fluid all over the screen there. Taylor continues to lead the motor race aboard the sister Acura, the #10. Ricky Taylor just pitted and handed the car to Brendon Hartley, from New Zealand. No feverish action at the back of the #10 Acura while the driver change was going on. I have to wonder if it is still venting fluid out the back. I think it happens in left hand corners and I bet dollars to donuts that the #40 sister car is not the only one with a smudged windscreen out there because of the oiliness from the #10.
The team looked at it. If I am the technical steward for IMSA in Race Control I need more information about what in the blazes is going on with the #10 car. Keep the track in good condition for everyone. Brendon Hartley leads Renger van der Zande by 1.8 seconds with a tad over three hours of racing to go. Now we move to hear from the head cheese, from the boss man himself, the President of IMSA, John Doonan. In motor racing, everyone plans. IMSA released the 2025 schedule the Friday before the Sebring 12 Hours to give everyone a head start for next year, a longer planning runway and window.
It was a real surprise for everyone. 18 OEM's in IMSA. The Balance of Performance levels the playing field for the mechanical variety we get in sports car racing. A sports car race has really become the new auto show. 11 brands in the GT classes alone, and seven in the prototype ranks it seems. Fans can root for their favorite brand for the win. But it is not an easy science to figure out, for the manufacturers, for the IMSA technical committee. You want stability and continuity, and you don't get it very often, but IMSA has it.
Renger van der Zande is second, 1.2 seconds behind the Acura. We have now just seen a massive accident out of turn 17 for the Acura NSX GT3! This is the #66 car, the Gradient Racing GT Daytona class Acura for the all-female driving trio of American Sheena Monk, Katherine Legge from England, and Tatiana Calderon from Colombia. They have had a fraught weekend and it is Katherine Legge who has found the barrier on corner exit at Sunset Bend, up and over the bumps. I have no idea if anyone was around here. Full Course Yellow and game over.
Katherine Legge opens the door as the safety team come to her rescue. The, she can check in with the safety workers and see if she feels OK before she can loosen her belts. Just sit there, take a breath and see if you feel OK. A hard impact can take the wind right out of you. She does step out of the automobile and walk away from it under her own steam. In this replay, she was running fourth and she was assisted, launched into the barrier with contact from another car at a high rate of speed! Wow! Another LMP2 car spins in sympathy after having their vision blocked. Egad!
We thought there was a Penske Porsche 963 involved. But no. It was the red and white High Class Racing Oreca 07 LMP2, the #20 car. No. No. I take that back. There was a Penske Porsche in that shemozzle but I don't know if it was the #6 or the #7. What will Race Control say about this mishap? It is game over for the #66 Gradient Racing Acura as we are under the ninth Full Course Yellow of this motor race here at Sebring.
We are an hour away from sunset, officially. But, with the cloud cover, we could have an early sunset here at Sebring in 2024. The light haze is a good thing for the drivers to improve visibility. Something else the haze will do is cool the track surface. The cars begin feeling better and we are closing, in 20 minutes, to the duration of a sprint race. We have also crossed the threshold of another racing hour. Whose cars will come to life as we enter the nighttime here at the 12 Hours of Sebring? Stay tuned to find out.
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