Just when things were looking good for the 56 BMW, the pits beckoned. The LR damper was not damping any longer and the team was forced to replace the unit. This cost them 3 laps and effectively put them out of the running in this race. That dropped it down to 4 cars on the lead lap in class.
As we entered the 8th hour, it was yellow once more yellow, this time thanks to the race sponsor, Mazda.
On the re-start lap, Markus Palttala in the Turner BMW tagged and spun the Ganassi Ford in the RR just outside of the turn 10 complex. That dropped them two laps back and down to 3rd, leaving Action Express on the lead lap all by themselves.
Unfortunately yellow hit once again – this time Spencer Pumpelly was the unfortunate passenger in his Lizard Audi. Something let go at the apex of the last turn, sending the Audi into the tire wall at the base of the hill, scattering tires all over. Thankfully Spencer was able get out of the car on his own and did not appear to be injured. The team had indicated that Spencer was due to stop next time by to have the car checked out.
That yellow did allow the WTR Corvette to get back on the lead lap, 10 seconds back. Actually the Ganassi car too was on the lead lap also – just barely being 1:10 back.
Lost in the shuffle, Christopher Haase took the lead in GTD for Paul Miller Racing, but it wasn’t by much as the Turner BMW was right there, pressuring.
With two hours to go, unofficially Action Express gained the last of the championships they were looking for – the Patron Endurance Cup. And, unless there were any massive screw ups in calculating drive time, it is likely that CORE gained the Patron Drivers’ title, as did AIM.
On the 300th lap of the race, it was Wolf Henzler setting the fastest race lap in class for Falken Porsche. Not too long after that, he stopped and handed the car over to Bryan Sellers, likely for the drive to the finish.
The No. 4 Corvette continues to be slightly out of sequence compared to the others in class – whether that plays into the finish remains to be seen. 1:24 to go is when the 4 pitted. That’s a 20 minute difference of fuel. It was Gavin out – Milner in.
With 90 minutes to go, all of a sudden things started to heat up at the front. Jordan Taylor closed right up on Fittipaldi and then got by. Is it strategy by Action Express to slow the pace and conserve fuel? The gap continued to stretch once Taylor got by, reaching 15 seconds with 75 minutes to go.
Sean Rayhall was stretching things out in PC for 8Star, over Starworks, but van der Vande responded doing what he could to stay in touch.
Like GTLM, GTD may come down to some fuel strategy, as not everybody is on the same cycle, but as we enter into the final hour, none of the battles for overalls in class are what you would call tight.
