Team BRMs #17 Audi leads after three hours at The Mountain, off the back of cracking early stints from Joey Mawson and Nick Percat. After starting 17th, the car has made the best of safety cars and weather, moving through the field to take the lead.
Mawson in particular was stellar, climbing from 5th into the lead in an action-packed restart just after the hour mark.
Mawson and Grove swallow Talbot up into The Chase!
📺 https://t.co/tCHu0tPx8H#IGTC | #B12Hr 🦘 pic.twitter.com/zvY62HdOug
— Intercontinental GT Challenge (@IntercontGTC) May 14, 2022
Just as the circuit started to see daylight, rain started at the bottom of the circuit. Brenton Grove in the #4 Grove Racing Porsche was the first to get caught out, going off track at Hell Corner and getting beached in the gravel, bringing out a safety car. This brought much of the field into the pit lane, with the rain heavy on the bottom of the mountain but lighter on the top, forcing a decision between slicks and wet tyres.
Wet tyres proved to be the required choice, with the rain increasing in intensity, catching out Jack Perkins in the #19 Nineteen Corp Mercedes AMG. Perkins was cruising back onto the safety car train on his first lap in the car, and hit a puddle on the entry to The Chase, pitching the car into the wall driver’s right, damaging the suspension, and forcing that car from the race.
The race restarted with just over 10 hours left under heavy rain; cars spraying big rooster tails which hung in the air with no wind to disperse the trails. Only 4 minutes of running were possible, before the #50 M Motorsport KTM X-Bow, with Dale Wood at the wheel, pulled off at the top of the mountain with damage to the front left, and out of the race. Incidents for both the #52 Wheels/FX Racing MARC II V8 and the #50 M Motorsport KTM X-Bow GT2, it leaves the #95 MARC Cars Australia MARC II V8 as the only Invitational class car on track.
This brought out the safety car again, which lasted for 25 minutes, as the rain finally eased off to a manageable level.
The #17 Team BRM Audi leads from the #9 Hallmarc Audi, then the pair of Audisport Team Valvoline cars run third and fourth. They are currently the only cars on the lead lap, due to the long Compulsory Pit Stop time of 120 seconds putting cars a lap down when they take their stops. At the moment, the Craft Bamboo #91 has taken every opportunity to make a CPS, with 7 of the 9 120s stops completed already.
The #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes has received two drive-through penalties for passing cars on safety car restarts on two separate occasions. Kenny Habul was the culprit on both occasions, being caught out by lower-class cars ahead of him on the restarts.
The #45 RAM Motorsport Mercedes has been in the pit lane for half an hour, after Marcel Zaloua tagged the wall on the mountain. A punctured radiator has been diagnosed, with the team working to get that car back out on track. The #47 Supabarn Audi leads the Am class, after starting from the rear of the field.
While the rain has stopped, the conditions are still very misty, with cloud cover below the level of the circuit and no wind to speak of. The track is a long way away from dry running, although a racing line is beginning to become visible.
