It’s becoming like Ground Hogs Day here, everytime you turn around, it’s yet another yellow. 5.5 hours into the race and the yellow count is 11 and counting…
Race halftime observations:
Impressive drive thus far for Jeannette/Montecalvo, doing it with only 2 drivers. It seems like anytime you look, they’re top 2 in the class. Really impressive to be top 5 over half way through this long race.
No. 56 BMW. even with additional pit time and not being the fastest car on track, is right there with the leaders in the class. A clean race, good strategy and consistent pace can pay off in a race like this.
At this point, it looks like, unless Ganassi is holding something back, this will likely turn into a two horse race to the end, Action Express against WTR. Based upon fast laps, the Ganassi Ford Riley is roughly .3 seconds off the pace of the others. The Ford has gotten better economy in the past, will that pay off here?
This has been a horribly rough race for the Flying Lizards. Cut tires, loose doors and 14th and 15th in class. This is not a typical Lizard like performance – the team is still the same team that they’ve always been. Could it be the regulations for the Audi? May we just see a group of Lizards just march off into the sunset when this is over?
Back to the race – thankfully the typical endurance lull hit during this time. It also coincided with the longest continuous green running time we’ve had all race long. It has the feeling that it is setting up to be a typical hard fought Petit Le Mans finish. As we near 3-hours left to go, the classes themselves are settling into consistent groups.
In PC, Sean Rayhall was starting to pull away, but stops and driver changes tightened things right up again, with Kimber-Smith leading Jeannette by just over a second.
In GTLM, Olly Gavin fought the Corvette back into the lead, but Marco Holzer continued to apply the pressure, typically having his Porsche planted on the back bumper of the Corvette. With 3:05 to go, Gavin drops into the pits, giving Holzer the lead. This dropped Gavin to 5th in class, but the rest of the class will be stopping soon to reset the class. The team had hoped at the 4 hour mark to keep the 4 out to gain the Patron Endurance Cup points, but the reserve light came on, forcing the car to the pits.
Quote from Mags, concerning the pit incident involving his No. 3 Corvette – Leaving the pits, a bunch of us came out at the exact time so we were going down to the exit at the same time. Kyle (Millay, No. 3 engineer) was telling me over the radio that the pit lane was red so I knew I had to start to slow down. I couldn’t see the Ferrari in front of me because the Porsche was covering him. And then I was going to slow at the same rate as him, and he seemed to be slowing down a little and I just followed him. Apparently he was still doing his belts so he just rammed the Ferrari and stopped right in front of me and kind of jumped sideways. If he had stopped there, it would have been fine and I would have slipped by. But he bounced out to the side in front of me and I collected him in his rear corner and did a lot of damage to the front of our car. It’s so tough.”
Also, pointedly, comment from Giuseppe Risi, his car the entirely innocent victim
“It’s impossible to accurately assess here the extent of the chassis damage and I’m not prepared to take any risks with our car or our drivers in a race as intense as this,” said Risi. “We were the completely innocent victim of an accident through no fault of our own and I hope that it will be closely reviewed by IMSA. I have to say I’m shocked it hasn’t already been done so because it was apparent from the TV replays that the Porsche driver wasn’t looking what he was doing.
“We’ve had no response to our request to Race Control for review or action although, in the past, any misdeeds by our team or drivers have been punished severely and immediately. This leads me to question whether the series even cares if there is a full-season GTLM Ferrari in the race or not, and it must also color my opinion going forward as to whether I want to continue in this championship or not.
“It goes without saying that I am desperately disappointed for the whole team who have worked tirelessly not just this week but through the whole season. I am enormously proud of the way they bounced back from adversity at the start of the year and of the two victories and podiums we have claimed since then.”
In GTD, Mario Farnbacher for Team Seattle/AJR is stretching things out, holding a 30+ second lead over the Turner BMW.
With 3 hours to go, visibility is getting tough. Let the count down really get going…
GH
