Jordan Pepper says it is very dark and the spray of the rain makes it even worse. The flashing rain light is very tiring and distracting. We will continue under yellow until the track conditions improve. I wonder how long we are monitoring the track conditions here. As the cars go down into the dip of Eau Rouge, it is still pouring with rain. Even if it stops raining, the spray will be monumental. The safety car has increased the speed. It is raining less now with drivers still though, on stone cold tires. The #159 Garage 59 McLaren says no track limits which means they are now in a position where they have been penalized so often, or reported, they will incur a penalty if they do it again. Dean MacDonald, Benji Goethe, and Tom Gamble will have to be very cautious. Safety Car in at the end of this lap to go back to green.
Safety Car in after an hour and 45 minutes. We are at 1:45 A.M. on Sunday morning, June 30th, 2024. 14 hours and 45 minutes to go as we spent over two hours behind the safety car happened. Joel Eriksen leads the motor race in the #23 Phantom Global Racing Porsche 911 GT3R. Jaxon Evans, Joel Eriksson, and Thomas Preining. We have a long, long, long way to go. Jonathan Hui leads in the Bronze Cup class. Many cars have come to the pit lane for service, and everything is resetting itself. Dan Harper second. Klaus Bachler third. Alessandro Pier Guidi fourth. Drive through penalty for the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 for an incident we saw in the daylight. The Phantom Global Porsche is being run by Timo Bernhard and Team 75.
We still have not found out if there is an official winner for the Nurburgring 24 Hours. We will know in a few days, I think. I don't know which driver is in the #72 Barwell Motorsports Lamborghini as the leaders are catching more cars including the #78 Barwell Motorsports Lamborghini and the drive through penalty for causing a collision is between the Ferrari and the BMW which was last night at 9PM and now we are at about 2AM on Sunday morning, Belgium time, Central European Summer Time. Klaus Bachler in the #911 Porsche is 1.6 seconds behind Joel Erikssen.
Dan Harper is now leading ahead of Joel Eriksson. Klaus Bachler is right on Erikssen's six. There is a maximum preset time the lights can strobe to not burn another driver's retinas out. Xavier Maassen in the #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin is about to lose the lead lap. Maassen and his other Silver-graded co-drivers. Maassen along with Sam Dejonghe, Charles Clark, and Matisse Lismont. Bachler tries a pass on Xavier Maassen. More rain is coming down as Charles Weerts and Nikki Thiim both hit the pit lane. Dan Harper leads for Rowe Racing ahead of the Porsche's of Klaus Bachler and Joel Eriksson. Anyone who chooses a slick will need a rest in a darkened room because you know they are tired from their driving stint.
We expect more rain for the following nine hours until 11:00 A.M. local time in Belgium, so that will be ending about 4:00 A.M. Central Time in the U.S. 14 and a half hours to go. Some of the drivers are running faster simply because they can see where they are going. Muscle memory begins coming back. In the late 1980s we saw fog and rain. Manfred Winkelhock in a BMW being chased by James Weaver. A couple of legends, racing in the touring car days. Winkelhock overran the corner onto the grass and popped out the other side tucking Winkelhock up like a kipper. It is all about staying on the island as Klaus Bachler is doing all he knows to try chasing down Dan Harper, the Northern Irishman.
Paul Evrard, Thomas Neubauer, and Ralf Aron are following each other. Ralf Aron raced for years in the Creventic 24 Hour Series. Dubai, Portimao, Barcelona, and others. The visibility is pretty poor at this moment. Can Thomas Neubauer make good his escape? He is chasing down the Hong Kong driver Jonathan Hui as Alex Aka pits the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi shared with Ricardo Feller and Christopher Haase. Ross Gunn radios his team that he can do another stint on his tires in the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsports Aston Martin as Matt Campbell has moved to eighth in the #92 SSR Herberth Motorsports Porsche with Matty Jaminet and Fred Makowiecki, their full fat Porsche entry with the factory Hypercar/LMDh drivers.
All the GT3 cars are slightly different but the total lap time and top speeds are very close. Pit stop time as Max Hesse takes over from Dan Harper in the #998 Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3. Neil Verhagen has been with this team before, but he is racing SRO GT World Challenge America for ST Racing also in a BMW M4 GT3 with Samantha Tan. The classic cars like the BMW 3.0 CSL, the Jaguar XJ-S, the Rover Vitesse, the Volvo 240 and so on were pure production cars modified for racing but the GT3 cars are pure racing cars, developed totally for competition. The #60 Gold Cup 2 Seas Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 is leading overall and in Gold with Jonathan Hui leading Bronze and the top Pro entry is the Porsche of Fred Makowiecki.
Dan Harper interviewed by our mate Ryan Myrehn and for his first time driving in the wet, well, his co-driver Max Hesse, was worried, but is now getting into the groove. It tookvery little time for the standing water to disappear when racing resumed. Harper is amazed by the handling of the car. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It is hard to know where they stack up to everyone else. There have been many, many Full Course Yellows. Just keep circulating and keep the car in one piece. Oh my! Glenn van Berlo is off the road in the #88 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi going into the Piff Paff. Boom! He hits the fence. Glenn van Belo, the brother of Porsche Carrera Cup champion and sports car racer Kay van Berlo.
How quickly can the car be removed. This is at turn 12 entering the Piff Paff, Fangnes corner. Most of the rain has stopped and it will be clear for the next two hours. Full Course Yellow? I think so. Drudi is fastest on track. In two hours, we will hit the halfway mark. How will we engineer our way to the top of the greasy pole and getting the next slice of the points pie? More wet weather Pirelli's for the #55 Dinamic Motorsports Porsche. We are looking at a wave by under the Full Course Yellow. Glenn van Berlo is now cleared out of the gravel trap but he needed a flat tow out of the gravel trap. van Berlo is back on his merry way and hopefully won't spread gravel all over the place through Piff Paff. It is Fangnes of course, Malmedy I think.
Campbell, Schiller, Marciello, Engel, Weerts, the top five are in the pit lane under Full Course Yellow. I just stepped out for a wee while and we have seen wholesale pit stops under the Full Course Yellow as we will soon end another hour of the motor race as everyone has just been chuntering into the lane for service. Raffaele Marciello and Charles Weerts at Team WRT BMW are third and fifth. The ones in the pound seats could be these guys because Dan Harper and Klaus Bachler are going to go ahead. #998 lost more time stopping for the pit service.
So, Matthieu Jaminet is the new leader over Stolz, Bachler, Hesse, Marciello, and Morad.
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