Nick Boulle leading LMP2. Right now, the battle for the lead seems to be between Phillip Eng in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 and Jack Aitken in the #31 Whelen Engineering Action Express Cadillac. Thrtr id s huge elevation drop through The Boot and back up. The compression gives you grip in the Michelin tires. BMW have not had a podium with the #24. Jesse Krohn is the full-time co-driver for Philipp Eng. The Austrian and the Finlander. Action Express did not have the race they wanted at Le Mans last weekend. But they are going for it and they want to get into the picture this time as the second half of the season for IMSA 2024 gets underway here at Watkins Glen.
Seven total winning Le Mans drivers are here at Watkins Glen. It is a real feather in the drivers', teams, and manufacturers' hats. Jack Aitken in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac has passed Philipp Eng in the BMW. Aitken sends it and it sticks. We are just into hour two. No need to push it. Be patient. But it is hard to do. Action Express are only 91 points out of the points lead. After many championships and six years together, Pipo Derani will not return to Action Express, and the team will be in the process of finding new drivers for next year. Chip Ganassi Racing are splitting with GM. We could see Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti return to Cadillac, and Meyer Shank Racing could perhaps come back to IMSA perhaps with Acura.
Could Meyer Shank pick up the Acura deal? We'd have to wait and find out. Who has the contracts? Do Ricky and Jordan Taylor have Acura contracts? I mean, it is so hard to know. Meanwhile, the #62 Ferrari has lost places due to a hangup on the right front tire. They lost four places, Daniel Serra did. In GTD Pro, Corvette Racing #3 have had a solid setup and balance on the car. This is their brand new GT3 spec race car of course. Find out what works and what doesn't. They changed the alternator at Le Mans last weekend.
We could be seeing a brake problem on the #3 car with Alexander Sims at the wheel of it. Jack Hawksworth leapfrogs everyone to get out front in GTD Pro. It's hot. Hydrate, everyone. Take care of your dog. No, not a hot dog hat, a real dog. There's your comedy for the day, folks. We might have more, but only if there is a yellow. Working through the last part of the first third of this race. Tijmen van der Helm does the squeeze play as Andrea Caldarelli gets stymied behind the Lexus GT3 car and now, Alexander Sims is having brake trouble in the #3 Corvette. They are doing a brake change.
This is one thing with a new car, working the bugs out of it. This will be a costly long stop on the #3 car. A brake change on a sports car is quicker than your brake shop, your Midas brake shop. Alexander Sims stays at the wheel. Pretty incredible, and the brakes are really hot. Wear special gloves so your skin doesn't get burned off by those hot brakes. Ouch! Frankie Montecalvo continues to lead in GT Daytona in the Lexus RC F GT3 with its 5-liter V8 motor. That is the beauty of sports car racing. Each car looks and sounds different.
These uphill sections on the first part of the course to the Inner Loop are amazing. The GT3 cars are more compliant over the bumps. Second is the #78 GT Daytona Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. Forte Racing with Misha Goikhberg sharing with Loris Spinelli and Devlin DeFrancesco. Now, Russell Ward is third in GT Daytona in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 with team boss Ed Hall. Ward sharing with Mercedes factory driver Philip Ellis of Germany, and Dutchman Indy Dontje. The Mercedes is another front engine GT3 car with the 6.2-liter V8. Sail the car into the braking zone. Mostly cloudy conditions, no rain yet. We are keeping an eye on that.
Sometimes on a track like this it can rain in one place and not in another even though the track is less than half the size of Le Mans at eight and a half miles. Nick Boulle leading LMP2 in the #52 Inter Europol Oreca. Steven Thomas in the #11 car has dropped away through traffic in the TDS Racing car he shares with Mikkel Jensen and Hunter McElrea. P.J. Hyett, reading the traffic situation. Boulle is one of 27 drivers racing at Watkins Glen for the first time ever. A big scrap between Ross Gunn in the Aston Martin and Mike Rockenfeller in the Mustang. Heart of Racing vs. Ford Performance Multimatic.
Ross Gunn sharing the Aston with Spaniard Alex Riberas. Gunn, from England. The #64 Mustang has Mike Rockenfeller from Germany and British racer Harry Tincknell. The #25 BMW is in the pit lane. At IMSA, President John Doonan tells us about the new NBC and Peacock coverage deal with the network and Peacock coverage going up and up and up. There is a huge contingent of fans, the largest Watkins Glen IMSA crowd in history. The car homologation continues, and we could have more brands coming. We'll need to see. We have some other surprises coming up soon.
Michelin tires will continue as well, and we might just need the rain tires in a wee while. We could see rain. Pit stop time in LMP2 with the #20 MDK by High Class Racing, double stacking the LMP2 and GTD car. #20 is Dennis Andersen, Seth Lucas, and Scott Huffaker, the #86 Porsche 911 GT3R is Kerong Li, Anders Fjordbach, and Klaus Bachler. Nick Yelloly in the sister #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 tries unlapping himself from Jack Aitken. He ants to stay on the lead lap. Yelloly sharing with Connor De Philippi. The #11 TDS Racing Oreca is in the lane. Aiktne flashing the light to the traffic.
Jack Aitken in full send mode trying to make it through the traffic. He made the move on Manny Franco in the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. Franco sharing with Albert Costa Balboa and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli. The rain has stopped for now, but everyone is complaining about the traffic as the #22 United Autosport car has pitted. You can whinge and gripe about traffic but it is unavoidable. It is like rush hour around any city in the U.S. Ross Gunn is still going for it, as the #2 United Autosport Oreca is in the car as Ben Keating finishing his stint and now, Chilean Nico Pino is in the car before the third driver, Englishman Ben Hanley takes a stint.
GTP pit stops underway. The #01 Ganassi Cadillac has pitted and Sebastien Bourdais is now in the car. Jack Aitken slid through the Inner Loop and thankfully got away with it. I think he took a too big of a bite of the curb. Nothing was hit. We will see a driver change to Pipo Derani. Aitken came on the radio and said everything is fine. The dtat seems fine. No issues with the car that we can see. Louis Deletraz has now taken the lead in the #40 WTR Andretti Acura and he is now in the pit lane too. Louis Deletraz finishes his stint and hands over to Jordan Taylor. The #40 had no grip during the previous run. Ricky Taylor in the sister #10 car ended up being stymied in traffic.
Taylor being harried by the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 of Tijmen van der Helm. Ricky Taylor and Tijmen van der Helm now pit. Acura leading over Porsche. The weather is changing and the wind is picking up. It feels damp but no rain yet. Ricky Taylor out and Filipe Albuquerque into the #10, the team that won last time on the streets of Detroit, Michigan. Tijmen van der Helm has new boots on the car but is doing a double stint as Sebastien Bourdais screams past Filipe Albuquerque. Taylor, Yelloly, and more, still pressing hard. Bent Viscaal is now into the #5 Proton Competition Mustang Sampling Porsche 963 sharing with Gianmaria Bruni.
Multimatic ran the Mazda DPi program and had success here at Watkins Glen but now have the Ford Mustang GT3 program. The #31 Whelen Cadillac and the #7 Porsche 963 both in for unscheduled pit work. Maybe the #31 had a tire going down on the left rear and they are checking the cockpit? Maybe there was a spin and a flat spotted tire, and a new nose. Felipe Nasr now in ad out of the Penske Porsche pit and the #31 is also down and away. Derani spun and had contact, separating the nose. So, both Action Express Cadillac and Penske Porsche have seemingly been put on the back foot here presently.
Watkins Glen was designed by engineering professors from Cornell University. At the southern tip of Seneca Lake is where the course is with 3.45 miles and 11 turns. F1, NASCAR, IndyCar, Can Am, and Trans Am first raced here. They had a 1973 music festival here with The Allman Brothers Band, The Band, and The Grateful Dead. Iron Dames in the pit lane, Sarah Bovy changed over to either Michelle Gatting or Rahel Frey. Rahel Frey is one of the program managers racing here in the states and Europe both.
We are closing in on the end of another racing hour and coming to the halfway point, at the end of the next hour. The order is reshuffling in the GT classes. Trouble in paradise for the #31 Whelen Cadillac. They were pushing hard on cold tires and maybe they were touched into a wall and had no aerodynamic downforce with high speeds and high loads. Changed the tires and the nose. They went down a lap but no worries. Just stay with the lead group and see how things work out. Ben Keating started fifth drove to second and now, Nico Pino is third. Ben Keating was having a great time in the car today so far.
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