Brendon Hartley back in the race lead. I was just eating my dinner and while doing so I was checking in on radio transmissions from teams such as Porsche and Lamborghini. We continue to have the long safety car. Do not waste the speed and skill of the good drivers. Now, we have been hearing rumblings on the radio at Porsche and Lamborghini about concerns about motor generator unit performance and state of charge in the batteries on the cars. We are at halfway and it has been a crazy race at the halfway point. Visibility has been getting worse and so it was wise to get the safety car on the road. Rahel Frey at Iron Dames think it is the same deal. The Lamborghini is fast, and they are missing a slight bit of pace.
The Lamborghini Huracan is a fast car in the wet. The rain has not let up nor has the wet track. Everyone here has one thing in common. We are slightly nuts about endurance racing. "Spike", the AO by TF dragon LMP2 is in. Alex Quinn bails out and P.J. Hyett will take over the automobile being roused from his slumbers. P.J. Wake up and let's go out of another stint. Each Bronze rated driver must do six hours of driving in the race. We saw more work at Cadillac Racing with Chip Ganassi and the contact point between the rattle gun and the wheel nut throwing sparks.
Brendon Hartley is worried about an alarm on the dashboard worrying about fuel. He should be doing fuel management. Hartley wonders if his engineer is in the loo. Are you using the restroom? Jeepers creepers! That was bananas! In the lane now, the #44 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 of John Hartshorne, Ben Tuck, and Christopher Mies, and now, Hartshorne is getting back into the car. Olivier Panis at Panis Racing, still the last Frenchman to win the Monaco Grand Prix from way back in 1996. His son Aurelien Panis has raced GT3 cars and in ice racing.
11 and a half hours to go. Ian James, living in America, and has built a racing career and business in the United States. Heart of Racing taking over the Northwest AMR entry for Paul Dalla Lana, who retired from racing and went back into his business. Heart of Racing is the new team and next year they bring Aston Martin to the Hypercar class and to GTP in IMSA with the Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar. The Valkyrie had to wait for a few years. The 1,000-horsepower limit was reduced, and the Valkyrie will be amended, and the power will be reduced. The program will come to fruition. That car will have a 6.5-liter V12 mountain motor.
Another driver change as Francois Perrodo will take over from Nico Varrone. Perrodo is in LMP2 in the European Le Mans Series. We'll talk more about ELMS later in the fall, hopefully. We could have more rain before 6AM French time. I cannot tell in time certainty if I am ahead or behind the schedule of the race here and I hope I have not missed anything. Alex Palou at the wheel in the #2 Ganassi Racing Cadillac saying the driving is awful, and there are people aquaplaning everywhere. It is incredibly treacherous at speed.
Minimize the risk. It is so difficult. Look at the puddle in Indianapolis. It is huge! We could be in for another hour and a half under Full Course Yellow, a long, long slog. This race reminds me of the 2001 24 Hours of Le Mans where it rained, and rained, and rained some more. Good thing we are not camping. In the #19 Lamborghini I think the roof is leaking. It is cold, even in June. Kuba Smiechowski is in to the #34 Inter Europol Competition car, a massively large bakery from Warsaw, Poland. This is the LMP2 winning Le Mans entry from last year with new wet Goodyear tires going onto the car.
They were resetting the tail section of the car. He had a tap from someone and there is some sludging of black goop, probably tire clag, that is between the fenders at the rear. Three safety cars trying to maintain the same following distance apart. We thought it was less wet, but now it has started again I think. Nicolas Minassian is an ex-endurance racer and open wheel racer who is the boss at IDEC Sport. Minassian and co-team manager, is Nico Lapierre who runs Cool Racing and was driving for Alpine before their retirements. First clas service fror a can of Red Bull at Manthey EMA.
We remain under the safety car. Checing tire pressures. Marino Sato, the rookie from Japan, having all of it thrown at him. He has started the car. He got in during a stint in the rain and is getting used to it. Sato knows how it works for an LMP2 car from driving them in the European Le Mans Series. No radio, oh drat! for one of the drivers on his driver change, and that is the Lamborghini now driven by either Andrea Caldarelli or Edoardo Mortara.
Miguel Molina is wondering where his teammate is or wondering more about who is actually running in front of him in the spray. We are not done with the safety cars yet by any stretch. The drivers are bored rigid just trundling around behind the safety car. The #37 Cool Racing Oreca LMP2 is having the door windows cleaned of condensation as the car becomes a giant sauna in this rain. The photographers are getting some great camera work as the #63 Lamborghini SC63 is getting set for another pit stop. It is anew, lightweight cool seat. A normal foam seat is heavier.
Toyota, Porsche, Toyota, the top three as we are close to 5:00 A.M. the morning in Le Mans on Sunday morning. This safety car period has gone on for an hour and ten minutes with a lot of rain. Daylight will be coming soon but the rain is not ending anytime soon, truly. Jean Eric Vergne in the #93 Peugeot 9X8 is in the lane for a driver change and now, Daniil Kvyat in the Lamborghini is in for a driver change, tire change, and fuel. Lamborghini are definitely in testing mode with the new SC63. You improve via increments and 24 hours at Le Mans will really improve. These cars are complicated, and the setup sheet is a blank sheet of A4 paper with nothing on it, the more you keep the car to its potential operating window.
We have two Italian brands in the Hypercar class with Ferrari and Lamborghini. Lancia of course ran Group C from 1982 to early 1986. The pit lane opens, and the cars are released as we look towards 5:00 A.M. with 13 hours almost on the board. So, we are coming to the end of another racing hour. Thankfully we don't have fog like the Nurburgring two weekends ago. We're still clicking off the laps putting the miles in the book.
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