At night, the crazy comes out. This is the buzz at 11:30 P.M. at the night club when your favorite song is being played by the D.J. To dance, or not to dance? That is the question. Alright. Dane Cameron has something amiss with the #7 Porsche 963. They have a power issue according to Team Penske President Tim Cindric. Nick Tandy in the sister car had contact and was forced into the pit lane for a drive through penalty. Tandy is staying in the car as #6 pits. Now, the GTD Pro points battle, we have been yammering about it all day long. Risi Competizione are in the class lead now with the #62 Ferrari 296 GT3. This team won in class at the beginning of the year at the Rolex 24 back in January. They have also won here at Petit Le Mans before.
Davide Rigon is at the wheel of the car right now. Risi Competizione took the 2019 GT Le Mans class victory here at Petit Le Mans as well. The Ferrari is a car to watch as the temperatures cool off both ambient and on track. The #32 Korthoff Preston Mercedes-AMG GT3 leads in the GT Daytona class finishing first and third at VIR and Indianapolis. Brendon Hartley has brought the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global Acura to the pit lane. Dane Cameron moves back to the lead as Hartley is back out. Is there a problem with the #01 Cadillac? It seems Scott Dixon might be slowing a wee bit or is he just getting back up to speed?
Excuse me. It is an out lap and now, Sebastien Bourdais is in the car and he went off in the grass in turn three on low tire pressure, sailing across the grass verge. Ah yes. That's with one lap of tire pressure and temperature and took a big clonk on the car. Oh dear. The #22 United Autosport Oreca LMP2 car is off the road. The first several laps on stone cold Michelin tires for the GTP cars will be diabolical. Absolutely treacherous. Scott Dixon is stunned, and he knows he needs to be careful whenever he gets in for his next stint, after he has just driven his tail off. Is there damage to the floor of the race car? Has the car lost it's performance edge?
Bourdais will do a double stint and Renger van der Zande should finish the race tonight. He is a monster behind the wheel. Then again, so are Dixon and Bourdais. Ganassi has a stacked deck with their driver lineup. We race Petit Le Mans as the IMSA finale here at Road Atlanta year in and year out because it is exhilarating. That's why. This is the magic time of the evening with 3 hours and 45 minutes to go as Mike Skeen brings the GT Daytona leading #32 Mercedes to pit lane for scheduled service. A driver change was made at the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari team.
Side by side in GTD Pro down the backstretch! "Rexy", the green #77 dinosaur liveried Porsche 911 GT3R (992) vs. the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3! They bang wheels. Alessandro Pier Guidi at the wheel of the Ferrari. AO Racing needs yellows and wave bys to get their laps back. Right now, Roman De Angelis leads in GTD Pro for The Heart of Racing Aston Martin team. So, here are the points in GTD Pro as they run right now.
1. #23 Ross Gunn Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo 3,168 points
2. #77 Laurin Heinrich AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3R (992) 3,122 points -46
3. #3 Garcia/Sims Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 2,954 points -214
AO Racing are still climbing a mountain because we have not had many yellows in this race. Last year's race in 2023 saw 13 Full Course Yellows. In 2022, there were there were nine yellows. 2021 saw ten yellows and six Full Course Yellows in 2020. We have equaled the number of yellows in this race from five years ago in 2019, with only four, and you need yellows to have opportunities to get laps back and they just haven't come today. You cannot do it with speed alone. Once again, we look at the GTD Pro championship scenario which we have been chuntering on about all day long.
Laurin Heinrich and "Rexy", the #77 AO Racing Porsche team must finish sixth or better to claim the crown while at Heart of Racing Aston Martin and car #23, Ross Gunn must win the race in class and see the #77 Porsche finish seventh in class or lower to be champions in GTD Pro in the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. With the #77 running 11th, this means #23 must finish first or second to claim the title. Third would not do the job and they would lose the title to AO Racing and Porsche.
The #027 sister Heart of Racing Aston Martin must pit to adjust tire pressures running afoul of the rules of tire standards as the temperatures cool down as the nighttime hours approach. Roman De Angelis, a former GTD champion has moved this year to GTD Pro. OK. The #7 Porsche 963 for Penske is in. There will be a driver change, and the tank was down to 5% energy with new Michelin tires going on for Dane Cameron who finishes his stint and now as the energy is replenished in the Porsche, the smoke billows off the brake rotors. A fresh tear off on the windscreen will give the next driver optimum vision.
The team is changing a component on the left side of the car. The car is down off the air jacks and away. This is Dane Cameron, and he has to be very careful on stone cold, sticker Michelin's out of the pit lane. The car is wriggling all over the shop. He takes a narrower line and is driving slowly here, now picking up speed. Watch out for the LMP2 car and now he will need to brake early to try and get ahead of the LMP2 car. Be patient. Be disciplined. A top prototype driver knows what to do, racing for factory teams. He is proactively defending so he isn't stuffed wide at the corner apex.
He is going much deeper on the brakes, but the tires are bedding in quickly. You just don't know as we are 1/3rd of the way through the hour. The GTP cars were so temperamental in their first year in 2023 and are far better with the handling and what the cars can use now. It was so easy to make a mistake. 90% of the field had accidents out of the pit lane or on the road and the drivers have learned to feel what the car is going to do with the braking dynamics with the brake by wire system even on cold tires. So, Filipe Albuquerque now is ahead aboard the #10 Acura for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global.
Wayne Taylor Racing knows the heartbreak and the elation of Petit Le Mans. It is an anomaly that the WTR team are not in title contention this year having finished runner-up the last four seasons within this GTP era and dating back to the tail end of the DPi era. Parker Thompson leading the GT Daytona category aboard the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. Here are the overall biggest movers in the race. Tied, moving up 16 spots from their original grid positions, both Parker Thompson aboard the Lexus from 17th to first in class.
Alessio Rovera has moved up 16 places as well also in GTD aboard the #023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 he is sharing with Onofrio Triarsi, the team owner, and with Charlie Scardina. Sebastian Alvarez of Mexico at the wheel of the #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca 07 LMP2 car, he has moved up seven spots as has the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 in the hands of Alessandro Pier Guidi, while making up six places from their initial starting spot, Mirko Bortolotti at the wheel of the #19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 in GTD Pro.
Thompson wants by the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 in GT Daytona. That is the Manny Franco, Albert Costa Balboa, Cedric Sbirrazzuoli machine. Now, the #34 car throws a block into turn one passing the #45 Wayne Taylor Racing Dex Imaging Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, the Kyle Marcelli, Danny Formal, and Graham Doyle driven automobile. Think about finishing the race because there will be major ebb and flow for the next three and a half hours between now and the end of the motor race tonight. This motor race is far from over.
The teams are already back timing the race expecting yellows, doing fuel save if they can with so much time left on the board yet. Dane Cameron says that he is not sure what caused their power interval issue and there were power spikes that went bonkers. Keep pulling power to stay legal. They need a yellow to turn that power situation around. It is tough, losing five to eight seconds on stone cold tires and they need scrubbed tires. It is hard at the transition point between daylight and darkness here at Road Atlanta. Sebastien Bourdais is only four seconds behind Matt Campbell. Roman De Angelis just finished his stint aboard the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin GTD Pro car. It is stressful as he is the third cog in the wheel for the championship possibilities Ross Gunn has.
The intensity is ramping up and it has been hectic all race long with people taking many risks early doors. You want to fight and be aggressive but need to give a car to your co-driver in a good spot. Roman De Angelis has finished his driving for the day. The track will continue to change as the sun drops behind the Georgia hills just outside of Atlanta. Now, Tom Dillmann slithers down through the esses and they are going for the LMP2 championship but their rivals in the #74 Riley Oreca LMP2 car are leading in class, and they are only a single point behind! This is getting spicy in LMP2!
1. #52 Boulle/Dillmann Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 2,197 points
2. #74 Robinson/Fraga Riley Oreca 07 2,196 points -1
3. #18 Ryan Dalziel Era Motorsports Oreca 07 2,078 points -119
If the #74 wins, the #52 must finish in the top six. Josh Burdon in the #74 with Tom Dillmann ahead, the Frenchman, making his first ever start at Road Atlanta. Dusk turning to dark. Dillmann has very much responded. Six LMP2 cars are on the lead lap. Josh Burdon currently leads Hunter McElrea aboard the #11 TDS Oreca by a wide 39 and a half second margin. We should see car #74 taken to the checkers by the Brazilian, Felipe Fraga. He is the bullet for their team but Burdon too, is the real deal, the Australian, who has raced in Japan, and he won Petit Le Mans in 2022 with Andretti Autosport in LMP3 I believe. Bill Riley, the team leader, and master strategist.
The key deal for the #74 is everything is clean from the splitter to the sidepods to the diffuser. #74 in the pit lane and they are winless in LMP2 in 2024. It would be special to win for the first time at Petit Le Mans and even more so to claim the championship. Gar Robinson remarked that he was not learning at all how to be a better driver in an LMP3 car so the team wanted to accept the challenge of stepping up to the LMP2 class and they have relished that opportunity throughout 2024. Josh Burdon stays in the car, doing a double stint, focusing on a race win as opposed to the championship.
Parker Thompson had a fabulous drive in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 in GT Daytona. The Lexus RC F loves the nighttime running. For Parker Thompson, winning Petit Le Mans would be a great victory. #12 wants it, their sister car #14 in GTD Pro has won before. Right now, Aaron Telitz is at the wheel of the Lexus and he is being harried by the #55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 with Giammarco Levorato, the Italian, at the wheel of it. The weather is gorgeous. 74 degrees ambient, low humidity at 37% and only 1 mile an hour of wind, a light, westerly breeze.
The magic is getting ready to start. Many drivers are driving for their professional futures. A big silly season in GTP. There will be a major shuffle at Porsche with many options between the FIA WEC and IMSA driver pools moving around for next year. The #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac will not return in 2025. Where do Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais end up? There is talk Renger van der Zande could move to the returning Meyer Shank Acura GTP team for next year. Bourdais could either go to Europe to run for Cadillac in the FIA World Endurance Championship, or he could swap over and race in the LMP2 class.
The Lambrorghini SC63 is hanging in there with Andrea Caldarelli, the Italian, behind the wheel, and Romain Grosjean taking part in his first Petit Le Mans. He says the team is four laps down, but the car has been running well. They need cautions to come back into the fight. Matteo Cairoli is about to take over the car and Romain Grosjean will do a double stint at the end. Five GTP cars on the lead lap and only three on the lead lap in LMP2. Lamborghini only doing the endurance races, lots of positives, lots of work. The American tracks have lots of elevation changes whereas the European tracks are smooth and relatively flat.
Romain Grosjean ran in night practice and will do so later. You can push the tires more in the darkness. It is easier for the GT cars to understand where the prototypes are going but the GT cars understand where the prototypes are headed, but references are lost for the drivers at night. Having two cars gives teams options. We could perhaps see a second Lamborghini SC63 on the grid next year. We'll have to wait and find out. Adding depth can add confusion and chaos sometimes.
Ricky Taylor says it is odd for the #10 car not being in the championship fight as Brendon Hartley shadowed the #6 Porsche. Filipe Albuquerque has the #10 Acura in the lead right now. Oh dear! Oh dear! The #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 is off in the grass going up the hill! Damage to the splitter on the left side. Grass in the radiator and now the #80 car jinks right in front of the #31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac with Tom Blomqvist at the wheel of it. He got distracted by seeing a car to the inside and went off the course.
Maybe the splitter peeled back or there was something he picked up, the cover on the splitter has been pulled back up. Will cool heads prevail as this race gets into the final stages? Stay tuned to find out. Team Penske has had an amazing year in motorsports in 2024. IMSA Radio's John Hindhaugh narrates a piece on Penske, and I quote. "Only a few sports franchises elevate to legendary status. Fewer still lay claim to dynasty. No operation in the history of auto racing has been able to capture the long-term success of Team Penske. When Porsche returned to prototype racing in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car and FIA World Endurance Championships, it looked no further than Penske as it's partner.
Housing all three North American motorsport operations, this monument to winning is immediately recognizable as 'Penske Perfect'. In all, 456 make up the membership of the most elite team in the sport, across IMSA, IndyCar, and NASCAR. Regardless of assignment, as the black, red, and chrome transporters travel to races across the continent, all of Team Penske remains focused on a single task. Winning." It has been an unbelievable year for Team Penske in 2024 as the sun is now going down. We have Kevin Lee and Brian Till now in the booth discussing Penske's success. We have seen the team win in IndyCar and at the Indianapolis 500, and their NASCAR Cup Series successes with Joey Logano. They have won and led in the FIA World Endurance Championship and are looking for their 13th sports car title, dating back to their first with, you guessed it, Mark Donohue, in 1967.
13 is an unlucky number, so you know they will go for more. They are going for the race win. But, right now almost just within three hours to go, Wayne Taylor Racing with Acura and Filipe Albuquerque in the lead five seconds to the good over Matthieu Jaminet and then Matt Campbell. This is sunset, a magical, awesome time, with campfires in the campground, the sunset, the brake rotors glowing cherry red as the drivers hit the brakes into the corners, flames shooting from the exhaust. The speed will ramp up, too. We heard about the power problems for the #7 Porsche 963, and they changed some magical part of the car. Is Porsche running a flux capacitor? Their lap times are even with the sister #6 car. The power issues might be fixed now.
It is true that Matthieu Jaminet is now closing down on Filipe Albuquerque who leads this motor race. Maybe the Porsche has a Fetzer Valve, or is it all about ball bearings? These are movie and superhero references. Hunter McElrea leads LMP2 in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca along with co-drivers Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen. They are up by 43 seconds and a bit before they need to pit. At this time of night the visibility is becoming an issue especially from behind. The GTD cars have amber headlights and everyone else has white headlights and the production cars rely upon rearview cameras instead of rearview mirrors.
If you get these bright, white lights behind you in the camera lens or the mirror, you don't know if it is a GTP, LMP2, or GTD Pro car. A driver told their spotter that they needed to be told when and if someone was on their six. No one was there in night practice. Well, it turns out it was simply a floodlight that he thought was a car. as one of the Pratt & Miller Corvette's is slow in the downhill portion of the esses! Yikes! One of the LMP2 cars almost runs right up the back! Is that the #18 Era Motorsports car? That is what it looks like.
That is the sister #4 Corvette not even in the top ten in GTD Pro. Antonio Garcia in the sister #3 car runs fifth in class in GTD Pro right now. The #4 is many, many laps down having suffered a litany of woes all race long for the team of Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg, and Earl Bamber after being collected in a shunt earlier. The sister #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 is in the pit lane and they too, like we saw with the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac a wee while ago, have a left rear taillight that is out. Colton Herta steps out of the car being replaced by Louis Deletraz.
They had a flat left rear tire that forced them to pit and this is the team that won the 12 Hours of Sebring earlier in the year. Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz, and Colton Herta. They have pitted from fifth place. The marshals are down in the pit lane talking about the burned out taillamp and you need operational headlights and taillights, but it can become a judgment issue for Race Control for the sake of safety. We'll need to see what happens. They have indeed won one of the big ones as we said, victorious at the 12 Hours of Sebring back in March. Just over three hours to go in one of the crown jewels of sports car racing in North America.
The sun sets over Georgia and there is a record crowd here at Petit Le Mans.
No comments:
Post a Comment