GTP – Porsche Continue Domination, BMW Challenge With Both Cars, #31 Falls Off Lead Lap

Once racing resumed after six and a half hours Porsche remained at the front, #7 still ahead of #6 with Kevin Magnussen’s #25 BMW in third and the top five completed by Louis Deletraz’s #40 Caddillac and the #60 of Colin Braun.

Earlier on though Cadillac took another hit to their chances, as the #31 that had been looking strong was penalized with a drive through for breaching FCY procudures, causing the team to fall off the lead lap.

The #6 had suffered maladies throughout the race so far, and the latest was a loose wiper on the front of the chassis, with the team attempting to fix the issue with tape, staying in the lead despite the repairs.

When the FCY cleared it was Marco Wittman, who’d looked the strongest of BMW’s drivers so far who took an early lead in the #25 ahead of the #40 and #10 Caddillacs, with Porsche running fourth with the #7.

Running on an alternate strategy, Wittmann brought the #25 in earlier than the Porsche duo, who were carrying 15 percent more virtual energy, while the sister car also ran shorter on its stint.

Heading into the final three hours, the running order is: #6, #7, #25, #24, #31.

LMP2 – AO Racing Falter as Crowdstrike Lead After First Corner Carnage, Inter Europol Posing A Threat as Pratt-Miller Go Behind Wall and Era Hit Trouble.

The #99 had fallen back to fifth by the time green flag running returned, with Inter Europol eventually establishing a 1-2 lead, the #343 of Nick Cassidy ahead of Tom Dillmann’s #43. Former race leaders Crowdstrike APR were fourth before the next round of pit stops and completing the top five was tee Bryan Herta #52 of Harry Tincknell.

At those pit stops a penalty came for the much delayed #18 of Era Motorsport, running tenth in class and some 7 laps off the leaders. It would then receive another penalty, this time a harsher 60 second stop and go for failing to serve the original penalty within the four lap window. Later on, Logan Seargeant spun at turn one and remained there, bringing out the FCY once again an

A drive through penalty for Paul Di Resta in the #22 of United Autosports left it 7th in class and having dropped off the lead lap.

Tower Motorsports’ #8 would struggle off the restart, coming to a monetary stop on the banking and now running in 7th in class, bringing it in and attempting to fix what transpired to be gearbox issues and would drop it to 9th in class.

Pratt-Miller’s #73 had been having a trying time in class, and they also momentarily stopped in almost the same spot as the #8 and would end up going behind the wall.

With three hours to go, the order is as follows: #04, #43, #343, #52, #22.

GTD PRO – Corvette still lead as Suspension Failure Hits #3, Rexy, GetSpeed, VSR Hit With Penalties.

Corvette were still in control, with the #4 of Tommy Milner holding a narrow lead over Antonio Garcia’s #3 with Joules Gounon surging forward in his #60 Getspeed Mercedes to third, with Manthey’s #911 Porsche now fourth in the hands of Ricardo Feller. The best of the Fords was now a lowly sixth – the #64 of Ben Barker – behind another Mercedes, the #75 of 75 Express Racing with Maro Engel behind the wheel.

The sister #3 would fall back through the pack and a right rear suspension failure having sheared a wishbone late in the 19th hour would see it limp back almost the entire lap to the pits from third place. It would eventually re-emerge back into the race but with five hours remaining its chances of victory were essentially over. It would eventually return almost an hour later, down in 55th overall and 14th in class, some 23 laps down on the class leader. The upshot was that Manthey EMA’s #911 was now up to second and hunting down Milner’s Corvette and eventually took the lead for the first time.

On the restart it was a Porsche 1-2 with AO Racing’s #77 ‘Rexy’ ahead of the Manthey #911, with Paul Miller Racing’s #1 BMW in third.

The #75 had been experiencing a roller-coaster Rolex 24, and now received another drive through penalty for failing to centre the car in the designated area at its most recent pit stop, now running 10th in class.

The race leading Rexy also had a penalty, awarded a 60 second stop and go for jumping the restart. They’d spent the entire race slowly climbing the field to reach the lead of the race and now it would put them on the precipice of falling off the lead lap. A drive through penalty also went to the delayed #64 Ford Mustang, they too deemed to have jumped the start.

The Bartone brother’s #69 Getspeed Mercedes went behind the wall after threatening for the overall lead earlier, and emerged just over 10 minutes later in 47th overall and 12th in class

The Vasser Sullivan Lexus #14 had struggled to make an impact thus far, and would also pick up a drive through penalty that would relegated them to 11th in class.

GTD Pro is by far the closest class with three hours to go, with Corvette leading the way in their #4, Nico Varrone at the helm. The top five is completed by #1, #911, #033, #48.

GTD – Drama for DXDT, Gradient Confirm DNF as Turner Looking Strong Going and Manthey Also Reach Top Three

Turner Motorsport were enjoying a much better race in GTD, with Robby Foley leading the class in the #96 machine ahead of Russel Ward’s #57 with Charlie Eastwood’s #36 of DXDT in third and the top five being completed by Vasser Sullivan’s #12 Lexus and the Van Der Stuer Racing #19 Aston Martin of Valentin Hasse-Clot. Magnus Racing’s #44 meanwhile received a warning for breaching powertrain paramaters.

Turner Motorsport held their lead on the FCY restart, with Jens Klingman bringing the field back to green ahead of the #21 AF Corse Ferrari and the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche of Richard Leitz.

Gradient Racing’s #66 Ford was also confirmed as another retirement.

DXDT’s #36 Corvette had been a strong runner all throughout, but the former race leading would go behind the wall with less than four hours remaining with leaking transmission fluid.

GTD looks like this going into the final hours of the race: #96, #27, #912, #13, #57.

image credit: Osajus Photography from Asheville, NC, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons