RACE 1 - COTA - Blancpain GT World Challenge America - LIVE

[Music] welcome to the opening round of a new era of World Challenge competition the blog pond GT World Challenge now a truly global championship it is comprised of 18 races across three continental championships from Europe Asia and North America hi all I'm Greg creamer joined by Calvin fish and Ryan Marine and this weekend at Circuit of the Americas as the global series begins with the opening rounds at the Blanc pond GT world challenge America it's a great new evolution but it's time for us to give you an introduction as to some of the cars rough season can be great answer coming off a rough season can be great inspiration the 2016 champion Alvaro parens will be greatly motivated and armed with the very latest Bentley Continental GT three last year was a hard one actually even the races we were doing really well and starting on a great position many things went wrong and some things that don't normally go just all went wrong so we're hoping for the total opposite this year and we're really looking forward to getting some good results and putting some good performances in if scotland's Ryan D all's name is on the entry list he must be taken seriously and in pro-am he will be co driving in the dx/dt racing Mercedes AMG gt3 it's a great time machine we can do a cool venues that are under us so you know gt3 cars I think they've kind of changed the scope of racing over the past few years and it's made affordable fun endurance racing you know I think it's gonna be pretty hot sometimes also in the pro-am classes Canada's Martin barky a former GT 4 Pro winner returning to the series and stepping up to gt3 in a potent Acura NSX a brand new to gt3 so I'm really learning the platform quickly with this group in this level there's gonna be some great racing there's gonna be some great bumper to bumper door-to-door I know a lot of the Ann's and I'm racing against there's still some guys I need to meet and greet but I think it's gonna be a lot of fun it's very very competitive so it's gonna be a pretty exciting to see who brings the best game on on which track and which day finally returning to the series is 2017 over champ in America's only Porsche factory driver Patrick long and the brand new gt3 are returning to the championship has a new look a lot of new faces defending champions that we haven't raced against so lots of things to get up to speed with but I'm excited to be back with this organization I've been within the last four years here at stateside and that trust the continuity and the relationships that we have between the engineering staff and the drivers that always means a lot in motorsport speaking of Pat it's time for the Porsche track guy you're in for a treat it takes you around Highway Circuit of the Americas welcome to Austin Texas and Circuit of the Americas I'm Patrick long driver of the 58 right Motorsports gt3-r and this is your Porsche track preview 133 feet of elevation here into turn one this is a 3.4 miles circuit there's tight technical twisty bits hairpins like turn one here clicking up to second gear and flat out sections like this turn to right-hander top of fourth gear up into fifth gear well over 130 miles an hour turning in flat out these orange apex turtles here will end your day so you're kissing them with the front tire but if you run over them you're gonna bend your toe your mechanics won't be happy with you and your performance will be lacking all tight and twisty in here third gear is it turns nine and ten you're climbing your right side tires are up on the apron again we're using all the road and then some here in these FIA great tracks the officials have said that all the racetrack is ours it's painted black red and white chevron curbs are fair game but past the white lines are gonna start out track rivet calls this is turn 11 first year onto the back straightaway along this straightaway of the race track up over 150 miles an hour top gear take a breath grab six here there's a lot of slipstreaming and dive-bombing that will happen down into turn 12 as you see it's very tightening it's a late apex it's a wide-open invitation for your competition to try an outbreak you you'll see three and four wide into this corner but you're not going to get through the exit with more than one and a half cars someone always loses out turns 13 double apex whoa first year patients add throttle pick your eyes up leaving all the road on the exit you're almost there into the third sector you're still down in some first-year corner it's very technical you can wear your rear tires out if the see aggressive on the throttle final high speed complex turns 16 17 and 18 triple right little bit of steering adjustment trying to find that balance in practice and qualifying so that your tires are there at the end of the race penultimate corner turn 19 all the road on the apex all the road on the exit early throttle you're almost there turn 20 final corner late apex good overtaking opportunity second gear hard on the throttle through the finish line one lap at Circuit of the Americas coda in Austin Texas there you have it that is an awesome lap around a truly world-class facility here and now we take a look at a world-class field at a truly awesome facility urinates front row sweep of qualifying by the capex Bentley yeah they were super impressive and there wasn't much in it half a 10th essentially between sucuk and Rodrigo Baptista coming off that dominating final round of the championship in 2018 yeah just fantastic and of course the tracks that this series both in the plunk on GT World Challenge Americas Championship as well as the global of one fine GT world challenge are just top tier facilities and you would expect that when you've got this level of vehicle in terms of the manufacturers and the stunning gt3 cars but also the teams and the drivers they are the best in the world and it's fun to see them get out on tracks that they could really show their stuff oh absolutely when you look at the lineup of the venues for this year Greg we start here at the state-of-the-art facility a Formula One circuit circuit the americas but then the heart of the season is really classic venues like Road America like the Glen and then we finish off with spectacular finish at Las Vegas I'll be a great grand finale yeah in the next round is Virginia International Raceway and it much better than Paul Newman put it great when he said if there truly is a heaven on earth vir and the season just goes better and better from a track perspective even from that standpoint but just take a look at this field and that we have you know champions returning to defend we've got former champions coming back into the championship whether it's team or driver and it got new teams coming in the 111 competition team a two car Ferrari program it's just strength the strength isn't six different manufacturers great to see BMW back on the grid we've got two anchors gonna be joined by third with real-time racing returning to competition of the next round of the championship vir would thank Cameron and Bret Curtis I'll be fun to watch those two guys go at us so just all of the news in the offseason has been great just kept coming every week there was a new announcement that seemed in that Manso grid just keep getting bigger and bigger and great to see James surf Ronis and Bret holding back in gt3 level competition James of course having a tremendous season last year at GT for but making that change as well and you pointed out I think one of the great stories here is what we've seen from racers edge and their and they're stepping up the gt3 bringing the new Ebola accurate insects Martin barky and then Cowell Marcel II in the second qualifying session I had that car up with the sharp end of things so I mean the competition at the front of this field is just stellar it really is there's gonna be some big surprises and I think you know when you look at that grid of mean no disrespect to the young Daniel Mourad but I didn't expect to see him be the fastest Porsche on the grid here today well ahead of his Porsche stable Mesa Hensler and halt sir so some great performances in qualifying here today and a good look there Danny sucuk just great caliber drivers here joining the regulars from k-pax that we've come to know over the last few years and Alvaro printed my drink with a piece of but suit check and sway may have experienced this is a different Bentley to the one that the key facts team performed with the last year they scoop these up at the end of the eighth hour at the end of the season brought them over but Sewell a and sucuk they have experience with this particular car but Baptista as we were looking his eyes right now what a young man he is going places in this sport and he was only half a tenth off his more experienced team may align up alongside on the outside of the front row well I basically said when everybody says do you think our is Baptiste of the real deal does he have a future in the sport I looked at and I go to words walkins planning from last year when he dominated the best some of the best et drivers in the field speaking of which here's Miguel Molina of course teams with Toni Vilander the defending overall in sprint X champions and they are back to defend that is great news but you talked about the new Bentley the new porsche gt3 r is exactly that brand new I asked John Wright I said I said what from the old car is similar to the new card he goes well the rear wing profile is kind of similar otherwise he said it's brand new and then the Evo on that on that Acura NSX that car is just spectacular and these manufacturers just keep stepping up they do and they keep tweaking it and I think Porsche is one model of car in general as amazing how they just keep making it better and better with slight adjustments well and one thing they did with the car that was you know fairly significant is for the first time in the 911 platform I think he's John Wright said since the 1998 Lalaji t1 Carson is that double wishbone at the front as opposed to McPherson strut and he said it has it has given us so much more adjustability at the front end of the car and he said we still have the engine in the back he said but having a little more adjustability with that front suspension allows us to neutralize that even more he said this car just went so yeah I think they just just on the tweak on I think they better get quicker and quicker and the intensity is gonna ramp up as we go from round to round there's lots of them here this year just got the signal to start up with the motors so we are getting ready to go let's talk about a couple of the changes this year it's all sprintax there's no sprint championship in the gt3 the platform this year there's a big change to the Sprint X format itself Kotori driving change that has to occur and they'll need fuel at the same time so there's a pitstop minimum Delta they need to meet of 70 seconds which is it's going to be tight you've got to be really on the ball to get a four-tire change done which will is mandatory as well so there's a lot of work that will be done during that window that happens between minute 40 and 50 of the race of the 90 minute race so basically right bang in the middle and some of these teams have a lot more experience with a full service pit stop than some of the others so that could be a factor in the early going of this championship season oh it's interesting you know a few of the teams as you said so it's gonna be tough for us to get this done in 70 seconds I don't like the concept of you set that minimum window below what you could achieve is then it puts it into vid the crews hands and the crews visitor what put a little bit of a moment there by one of the 111 machines the 99 entry having a just I think that's Alfred kala and the 111 competition machine and hey it's cold really called and these guys haven't been out on this track for a while it's about 50 degree ambient but it seems a lot colorful get when you're out there really certain let those who probably please arrows are feeling that the effect over as well I'll certainly have open up that driver with that quick spin then no harm no foul looks like he's continued and any damage to the race car but that will have woken him up very quickly it gets the blood pumping and so working at this is one of these yes you were talking about Daniel Moran right there with that of another great qualifying effort but having white Motorsports back with 2017 overall and sprint champion Patrick long is just a great addition returned to this championship and chatting with miguel molina he was saying that he said we know this ferrari he said you know other cars are newer some have an evil on it we had our are evil last year but it said he said this car especially as the race unfolds just seems to get stronger it does and they'll be looking for a strong start to the season because they would anticipate for example the capex e will get stronger as they start to get used to that bentley and now it's nuances and where it's strong and where it's weak and start to work on that so I think for Molina and Wilander team together for the very first time last year immediately went on a rampage winning races together they need to get bleep bought points on the good early I feel because the k-pax thing could come back at them but they got get around them first well I can see menacing up fun sweep in the front row well and that's the story I think is that last year in the previous years the Bentley the older generation building one of the things are great at this dragon what the front row here in qualifying and the main change is there's some arrow changes but they've moved a lot of the components including the engine down back the drivers positions up basically a lower center of gravity which gives the car just a much more stable platform and they've made some changes with the weight distribution of the car taking it through a full 50/50 and any sucuk said it's not as lazy at the front well which was a weak point in the past and this you know the S is here that's what that is on both there momentarily or Pat long just really burst of acceleration just trying to get everything up to temp working the brake pedal trying to get that brake temperature to work up through the upright enter these probably be zeros so he's got some bite on these opening corners of this first lap pace car has moved off at the outside of turn 19 field now under the control of a nice ooh check in the number nine Bentley as we are getting ready to get the blunt punch et World Championship underway with the opening round of the blog pond GT World Challenge America the field on to the front straight the start lands even further out from the timing head watching for the green I can advise we are racing at Circuit of the Americas holding station and moving over to defend and dissuade certainly daniel moran looks to the inside he's gonna get it done still a great study gets ahead of the Ferrari the Ferrari now has to defend it looks like Pat long may have got to the inside of the Ferrari Molina not a great stop for ferry absolutely slaps back into fourth long long couldn't quite sneak through but still yeah Daniel Marad has just been on top of it here this weekend and doing an absolutely superb job and one of the great stories of trends for this season thus far is this field is twice the size as it was here [Music] this is gonna be some absolutely ferocious racing brilliant opening few corners here for a nice ooh check big lead here takes the pressure off he doesn't have to defend from his younger teammate he just now hit his mark to try and get into the rhythm of this race or at a brilliant start up to third position for the Allegra Motorsports team and this is one of the great developments throughout the course of this season both on the web stream and on some of the shows here in the US that will be carried live on television here in the US as live on boards delighted to have that as they feel now at the down at the end in 12 and now into the stadium now Molina stood on the show his face was hunting looking probing or I'd look equally strong down it and that breaks over turn 12 Pat long looking to the inside of the Ferrari there in the number 58 right motor sports machine fortune we are on board with here altering the second of the Allegra cars looking to the inside a Molina j-stop bullcrap he's got more pace to work with working the leaner over right on the tail ended up Ferraris they enter turn 19 he's all over him while he dived to the inside he takes a look Molina in defense this is costing these guys times over all right up ahead over B stretches away in that third position I'm able to stay right with him he still has an opportunity here up into turn one and see if he decides to do something head straight to the apex and Molina knew that was coming tried to cover it not long oh maybe even a little tap there yeah they may trade it a little bit of paint there wants the patch right now he wants that position badly he doesn't want the Ferrari to get into the rhythm and as you said all of that defense by Molina has allowed the two penalties in the Porsche Brad a little bit of room up at the front there's way Lou in the black livery tr3 League Porsche RCB Ferrari right now leading so impressive first off the scene here with Jeff Segal last year amazing job and on a pig fitness campaign his lost 15 kilos his last year so watch for that young man leading the pro-am category right now fourth fifth and sixth we turn 11 and on to this long run here what Pat long can do it's an opportunity here in the toe of that to Ferrari rate to jump on board here and be inside the cockpit with that long you can see how violent the action is afford one of these gt3 machines this is why these boys have to be super fit nice and cool in this weekend so that he is not a big factor but physically these truck driving the driving these cars absolutely flat out wringing their neck we're going to point every thousandth of a second here on the racetrack thighs are at their very best right now just hittin their sweet spot plenty of grip left as we even SEMA leader they're slipping a little bit the balance isn't quite there on the Ferrari right now great triple a picture right hander now into turn nineteen in the number 24 Holt sir seems like it's laying back just a little bit see what's gonna unfold on the front have a good qualifying fundamentally at NAB conditions because many seconds off Baptista just laying down fast lap with the race in the early going at 206 eight in the second place Bentley he's not letting his teammate get away that always have to make a statement [Music] settling in these high-speed s is a lot of downforce on the front end of these cars that is her a little bit when you're running in close proximity like this it's giving a quick update in the amp category by the way Lou Anthony Imperato has jumped up into second that's the number 91 right more moisture in the white finish Porsche that is a great opening couple laps by Imperato displacing edges 71 machine and Martin barky in the number 80 racers edge mbrp Performance Exhaust Acura Daniel Moore and he's not letting these Bentley's get too far down the road he's running lap times equal to the leader right now the nice things here we almost get a double encore defector because we can look at the rearview mirror of the Ferrari and see what's going on behind him and watch that Porsche and come after it went in accordions here when they get down to the end of the straight into turn 12 you can barely see logs Porsche then you'll see the compression here it comes there he is Cetina effect in the breaking silence this is an intense battle that long he doesn't like to get be and he doesn't like to see another Porsche rough ahead of him on the road he will not be happy that Daniel Moore and they qualified him as a white voters post they will not like that they want to fight back quickly who was that Ferrari sharp-looking going oh it takes you back to a different era it does it's evocative I love it that they maintained that how that evocative historical look and then across the top they knew became there's wait Lou black tr3 we seen a few different liveries on the TR three cars in the last couple years this one I think is by far the sharpest does she mean get up close and look at it some of the graphics inside that team is just the one off away learned Jeff Segal this stage of the game they got off to Europe to campaign in the European Lamar series but the Gregory Romanelli earlier in the day said the tr3 team this is the machine for further outings this year since we have a lot of interest in that car to be campaign further this season which is great news absolutely it is it here are those two Acura NSX is that are running in lock stuff right now with Martin bar key and the new brainy the razor's edge car then the gradient racing under neutral Becnel shine until take a look at mark there oh that's a substantial off and that is it's one of the Mercedes AMG GT 4 machines I think it might be David asked you I don't want to speculate here let's watch it just gets in a little bit right there and loses the back end of the car [Music] Garza being dispatched [Music] leave well again don't want to speculate he sure as the 63 that's unfortunate he was right in that battle with barky and Boekel Shimer and having a good run a little bit late and maybe the tires and pressures aren't exactly into the sweet spot he just started lose the rear end and a critical moment in the essence got away from him take another look at it just watch it's a little bit wide there and just watch as he turns in just starts to lose the rear end just gets loose on him don't quite get it back together really did a nice job last year as he did in the end category had some wins and avid sailor and has put together a great group here with Richard rate of basically leading the group and bringing Ryan Dalziel on as a coach and co-driver for this year not the way they wanted to start the campaign no not at all you know one of the interesting things was he said I fought I've been working so hard to build the team and he said dad he said I I would like to get to the point where he said I might own the team but I want to get to the point where they just tell me what to do as a driver and he said we think we're at that point right now and he said he said but our primary deal is he wants to make sure that Colin Braun and and George Kurt said the CrowdStrike car half the have the right tool to get the job done as well and he said so what we're doing here he said needs to support that and as he said this isn't what they want to have happen take a look here while we're under caution at the run order right now the two Bentley's from k-pax up with the sharp end of things then the very impressive performance in the number 22 Allegra Porsche for Daniel Marad and Michael dick asada will be taking over than the Ferrari of Molina the Porsches of long and Holt's are long from ripe motorsports holds her from Allegra and then you're leading in the am category Whalen the tr3 Ferrari you see that car sitting there it's in the seventh overall with Anthony Imperato in the 91 and new rifles Porsche behind him JC Perez and the p1 Mercedes Martin barky and Bechtel Shimer and the two Acuras from racers edge and gradient respectively and minute neat development here for the next car in the line number six of Stephen AG Akane and the driver that he'll be turning it over to Richard into nukes he put in a great practice topping one of the charts here they've made the switch from a different manufacturer this year into the Mercedes camp and they have been quick from the off they really have Anthony she has a lot of experience even ran in IndyCar briefly and over in Europe and at the con a young man 15 years old and learning a lot very quickly ran in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series did the a tower with that same car and made a big move here but to lead one of the practice edges is a big statement for that team and their potential certainly u.s. Tronics nice job and then impressively leading in the am category great to see it from auto metrics on the Porsche Allen met knee will be running with Jojo song and those two having a great run Joel putting the car on the amp pole here for this race then Cesar ba karela of course he along with our team Fuentes winning in dominating the amp championship last year in the squad record garage Italia Ferrari then Henry Schmidt as you talked about Cal a great having BMW back in the gt3 ranks greg schmidt with Henry Smith with Greg Lea foes will be taking over in that 87 BMW a San Francisco entry then the Kurt's and Colin Braun CrowdStrike 0-4 entry from dx/dt and then those are am cars pro-am cars then third and AM is Brent Holden running with James tough Ronis in the global Motorsports group number 14 Porsche [Music] sooo check prior to this caution and lay down the fastest lap of the race kind of responded to his teammates pressure all right and of course co-driver for David askew is Ryan Dalziel and Ryan Marine has tracked him down to pit lane what's up let's check in with Ryan Dalziel co-driver with David asked you first of all have you heard from David and if so what has he told you yeah obviously the most important thing is David's ok that's probably the hardest place you could hit here we'll evaluate the damage I think but now really sucks names done a great job all weekend you know he's a true amateur racer here and we've been plugging away and getting better the car was pretty great so well we'll see what the damage is it looks pretty but it not Swami we're fifth year entering that section so most important thing is he's ok we talked to on the radio and hopefully they get a fix for tomorrow challenging start for sure to the season I know everyone wants to start with a little bit of momentum and this is a hole to dig out yeah but you know until this point so many positives for for dhdt and you know we proved every practice and qualifying we can be fast so yeah not great for points but at the end of the day we we know we're competitive we got a great bunch of guys here in this team and support from AMG so I'm sure we if we can fix it we'll get a bike out there and hopefully star have a good run tomorrow I know you were a little under the weather earlier this week you feeling better I'm feeling better yeah yeah I was a little struggle and everybody seems to be pretty sick in the team so not being the best of weeks but hopefully we get a fake story tomorrow thanks Ryan appreciate it that's a struggle to deal with your and they're bringing the entire field down through the pit lane here in this stage I think the reason is a red flag down yeah I believe there's some barrier damage with that there kid that David just had so they wanted to make sure that the track is safety wise in great shape before you have cause full-speed once again and the easiest way to do that just to bring everyone down pit lane pocket for a short while and get a bit of a reset here so it working on on that repair and you can see there the absorption barriers that you know take a lot of that energy away but you hit them hard enough you eventually can get into the barriers and just confirmed from Race Control that that is exactly why we're under red flag and it's nice because you just pull them down in order park them in pit lane there under what's called Parc Ferme eight conditions you can do no work on the car drivers can open the doors get some air etc but that is about hit at this stage tough way to start the season obviously with a red flag in the early going and certainly tough for that dx/dt program but as Ryan said and I think it's absolutely true they have speed there's no question that we've we've seen that you know we saw David askew really starting to come together as as a driver last year with as you said a couple of wins and in the practice sessions here that car was very very fast really quick and Ryan's a great mentor and you know a guy who can bounce ideas off and look at the data roll point David in the right direction I think for someone like David I mean thinking ahead here a little bit I mean you hope that a big hit like this doesn't shake his confidence to the point that's gonna take him a little while to get back and find his feet and be back on the same sort form we've seen him display towards the end of last season and certainly in the early practice sessions here you know one of the nice developments as well as the fact that we have had a number of teams that run in Ferrari Challenge competition that have decided to make the step up and run in the Blount pond GT World Challenge America's championship one we saw dip their toe in the water at Portland last year the vital speed a beautiful yellow Ferrari of rich and Trevor both of them driving in Ferrari challenge but the 111 program which is active in the fire challenge championship coming over now and fielding at two carts even Ricci bringing therefore our challenge car over here with Pierre mullet Chuck and Anthony Lazzaro it's just great to see I think the change in format I mean I think everyone liked the Supreme X idea last year they felt they're really you had a caution and you're splitting up a drive time some of the drivers just said we're not getting enough seat time but when we moved to this 90-minute format now there's a lot more meat on the bone I think that's really embraced being embraced by some of these new teams that we're seeing campaign this season well I the numbers just bear that out certainly with what we've seen in terms of entry there is a look at the number 80 is racers edge what a great story for them I mean we've been following razor's edge for a long time in a variety of different Championships and they've been a absolute strong effort in the GT 4 category but now with the cars stopped tell you what the way Bentley's are running we got to hear from capex and Darren law rider Darren laughts he manager / k-pax racing a picture-perfect start to the season in a lot of respects for you guys with the new Bentley's coming into the season pole position both races looking really strong up front as well before the red flag how has the the start of the season gone I know you put a lot of effort into the build up for this season we have we have we put a lot of effort into it we've done a lot of testing there's been quite a bit of development work with Bentley Motorsports and M Sport and sharing of information and and we're really really happy with the new cars they're fast the drivers love them the engineers like them so we're really proud of that whole program and and to lock out the front row for the first race of the year is really nice you look around and not a whole lot of teams are as consistent in their driver lineups as you guys two cars same for drivers for the Sprint X races how much of an advantage do you think that is with obviously the greater emphasis of Sprint X to drivers in all the races this year yeah you know what I mean that's really important that wasn't that was an important factor for us and talking to Bentley about bringing Andy sucuk and Max who lay back they get along well with the co-drivers they understand each other they understand engineers the feedback between everybody's good so it really makes sense to have try and keep it consistent your young driver Roderigo Baptista maybe not as well-known as his three co drivers but obviously Bentley has taken notice because he's gonna be part of their lineup it's spa that's gonna be a nice feather in your cap you know we're really proud of him he's done a great job he started with us in a GT four car moved into the GT 3 last year and he's done a phenomenal job he's very quick you know I I mean to get an opportunity to drive with the factories every drivers dream I mean that's it's a really great opportunity and and he's showing what do you what he can do it's great last thing for you we've got pit stops coming up in this race that's something that's very new to this series but this team has some experience going back to the California eight hours last year how much do you think your endurance racing experience as a team is going to help you especially early in this season relative to your competitors 100% it's helpful for us you know obviously the eight hour was good because we ran an actual Blancpain event endurance event but what's also really important is is the experience of our guys and we've all been this group has been together for a long time we've done a lot of endurance events we've got Thomas Blum who calls strategy who is the best in the business and and we've been running through pit stops like you wouldn't believe like daily so we're ready we're excited for it always a pleasure Darren thank you Thanks right yeah actually one of the nice guys in the big time and he doesn't like to give up any chance he gets he loves to jump behind the wheel so he's still in that transition phase between them pro driver and team manager but it's a great group so much experience on that pit warm they should have the advantage but there's a lot of top-notch teams out there they're gonna learn quickly yeah and Ryan was asking him you know about you know the pit stops and the experience I think one of the developments here that's an important one to note with that new Porsche gt3 r if you remember if you remember in in a lot of pit stops we'd see that the refuel or have to jump on the hood of the car well they've moved those those refueling things to the side now am I gonna make that a lot easier for the teams to be able to to do the refueling that's going to help obviously going back to the start of this race we've been waiting for this for a long offseason to get things going here let's go back and take another look at the start you see there Malina post the nose at that Ferrari but it's a Daniel Moret on the outside of the second row he gets the jump on him immediately pulls in front of and takes his path away and look for a moment like Pat long was also going to make a move is the Bentley's give each other enough room with all right tuck to the inside you can see Holt's are getting pushed everybody got through there fairly cleanly but it didn't take long as a suit check started to build that margin go yeag on the gas early has a lot of confidence he knows the car well so that certainly factors in on this opening clapping something the pressure on the grip is there's a great battle that went on between Pat long and Molina fighting out for that fourth position on the road at that point in time as a good look there as Martin barky given the the victory sign I think he's liking it here and he is gonna be really really strong another team you know they are always going to be strong is the right Motorsports team and of course you want to talk to their leader Pat long the guys up in the booth Pat we're just talking about the battle that you had with Miguel early stages of this race and already it looked pretty intense what was it like from your perspective yeah obviously it's early in this season the Pat long a couple years ago might have given him the bumper there a couple of those times when he's just chopping the nose but it's all good it's gonna be a long year trying to race respectfully and it's a new fresh fresh season so we want to be there at the end of the year for the championship evidently there was a warning given out for blocking do you think that was justified for the Ferrari team I don't know I mean the start was a little bit blatant but other than that it's a good hard racing we want to put on a show for the fans and this is what it's all about so you want the they do vt4 NZT treatment looking really strong how proud are you having been a part of this Porsche program for so long about the the piece that they've been able to put under you specifically yeah every single time we put a new car on the road we're proud of what we've done and worked in the offseason the organization has grown a lot in by Sox so getting to know everybody and working on a much bigger system as far as communication but we started at Daytona and obviously ramping up here for SRO all year to full season so it's gonna be interesting jumping between and you come from the old school of this series sixty minutes sprint race we might have about 60 minutes when this thing gets restarted does that suit your style yeah it does gonna try to turn over a clean car to Scott and let him finish the race up tomorrow I'll get to race a little harder toward the end of the day but so far the car has good balance and good pace so that's the positive we need a little bit of track position here but it's still a long way to go thank you very much Patrick thanks they definitely have both elements covered in that car don't they with that long the 17 overall champion Scott Hargrove last year's Sprint champ so they need speed you got it yeah it's it's pretty stacked I mean everyone came to play this I love just lying about the old Pat long over a couple years ago might have given him the chrome Warren you know you can't afford to dig a big hole in this championship remember three years ago when he got into a start line crash I think he's already got turned right here into the fence and I pretty much turned their championship season upside down so we are getting a word here that because of the red flag and we do have an open time window here a little bit the good news is we expect this to be restarted within 12 15 minutes or so and it will be the full 117 left so that's great it is yes so much of these cars so it's a little reset see how the cars they react to going back to green Ceasar back arelibeth he's an interesting character what is it pairing they have my team for in taste and season the more I get to know him he's got big personality just like his teammate competes part time in the Xfinity NASCAR championship had a run at Daytona was qualified 12th he's very pleased with that and ran up five-thirty said but got turned around with a couple laps to go but he loves his racing and big Ferrari Challenge guy over the last few seasons and I think these two this team is very much a favorite for their class honors this year well and obviously if he's running in the Xfinity series that means he's got some shirt you know some oval experience and his early racing career was on short track various Florida late-model Championships tons of races and wins in that so he comes from a little bit different background but adapting nicely his teammate Martinez had so much success over the years in will challenge competition and I think qualifying for race too I think marty was within three or four tenths of 20 in terms of his pace yeah Martine has just been fast there's no question about that from the get-go so well the guy that put the car on pole for this race and has led it from the office with Ryan Marine Andy soo check from Bentley well Andy it looked like a pretty wild race but most of that was happening behind you what was your vantage point like for the start of this one I don't know what was going on behind me I just saw that Eagle was behind me so I had a good body guard there and so that more it overtook Molina but that's all I saw the Mercedes that crashed in the SS looked like a big one but I asked and the driver is okay which is what matters and yeah I mean only thirty minutes into the race quite a lot of action is the first race of the year so you expect a little bit of more action than usual hopefully we can keep our places and Pete didn't give the car p1 and p2 to our teammates now how tough is this you get all hyped up you're ready to go you start the race but just a couple of laps and now you got to get out and wait around and talk to people like me that's not a problem but it's not the nicest thing just to get in and out in and out I mean it's a part of our job we know that red flag can happen you can go to the loo very quickly and empty yourself a little bit so it's not that bad and now we just need to get out and do the same that we were doing so it's a reset our mind to the next restart and trying to make a try to make the most out of it what did you learn about the track conditions and how do they compare with what you qualified in earlier today to be honest it's quite greasy out there for sure it's dry this morning when I did my quality session it was damp in some areas so it's more comfortable to dry because it's equal but the grip is very low so you're sliding around quite a lot and it's a long race so we need to look after the tires and that's what I'm doing so let's see thank you very much thank you Thanks yeah when they came over for the the original when this was created as a sprint X and Andy and Maxime came over was quickly evident they were gonna be 2 fabulous additions to this championship and the chemistry has gotten stronger between them and the team and particularly the teammates so like Ryan alluded to in his interview with Darren law the project manager there the the continuity is a big factor and they need to leverage that early certainly the fact they're using the new new generation Bentley Maxime and Andy have that experience and I think it's just gonna rub off on one another they're going to be a really tough group to beat this year it'll be track dependent I mean it's horses for courses sure the Ferrari will be strong a certain track certainly the Bentley is very good here Porsches even be in the mix as well so is anybody's game for the title well it was one of these that Alvaro was talking about he's you know he said we're gonna be much better on this type of track and on the on the tight twisty ER track he said but with the massive downforce that car used to make the long superfast corners were great not so sure we're gonna be as good there so there's always that little bit of give-and-take isn't it so it's it's alright what looks like we're seeing some drivers that are sprinting towards their cars which is always a good sign that means we might be getting back to it here in short order yeah just got to get refocused here for guys like Andy Tsui Chik I'm sure he's been through this many times before in terms a bit of a reset but for some of the others have made more of an effect and it's good you got a few laps under your belt you'll know what the car feels like on relatively cold tires were low grip watch here in this replay here is there a little bump there he come across there's a big bump there with Daniel Moore a dismal ride had got the power down early in that first of the Porsches coming off the exit of turn one so Baptiste as Bentley took a little bit of a hit in the left side that's one of those things where it's all about where they hit the angle of the hit you know sometimes you get something that looks pretty innocuous but it's at the exact angle that it'll do damage other times you see something that looks pretty uh pretty harsh and it'll just be the right angle where everybody gets away with it I didn't see any fall-off in the performance of that now I didn't either so this would be the side where we got clip I don't see anything dramatic yeah sometimes it can damage the exhaust that blows out of the side there on the cell or if it hits the wheel of course till was a big problem and can affect the balance of the racecar but look like go away with it and good news for Rodrigo I expect big things from this man this year based upon that finished off last year's you said that walk and Glen performance was like outrageous just pole positions and fastest laps and leading it ease it seemed like he just found the sweet spot that day and even his teammate Rob Ryan had nothing for him yeah it was impressive there's no question and I think that's gonna be a very special memory for the Google for a long time that that was the breakout here pretty chill and great to see him finally and he's been jumping around a little bit trying to find his feet find a home but I think Carlos takis a toe really loves this young man they were going to Co drive together in a pro-am category and then Carlos made the decision to promote his young son Michael up alongside and he put in a great qualifying performance so they shaken up the establish establishment the young guys beating up on the older guys in the in the portions well the nice thing is too is that you know Daniel Moran has kind of become in a sense of go to additional driver for no less a team than mum lost as well so that tells you that he's fairly well rated by by teams in the paddock that says everything you get noticed I win in Daytona a couple of years ago and performances with the CRP team which we don't see on the grid here this year's not it's not great to see Nick short not around this year so far he'll be back with another program but certainly allowed Daniel to showcase his talents when the car is there and he's with a good team he always seems to run at the front we go back to two years ago at vir and at the start of the second race he ended up in front of general malika Mullen in identical cars and held them off for the entirety of his stent is coming out I think so when you hold oblique oh I think I everyone expect the plate moment just to get him and take off and he couldn't get by him exactly all right let's get down again with Ryan Marine and check in with what's going on at Ferrari in Rico Tiano is the team manager for our ferry motorsport first thing I wanted to ask you about we understand there was a warning issued for blocking on Miguel earlier in the race with his battle with Patrick long what did you guys think of a better season we passed the message of the warning on to the driver to be honest we had had time to discuss it he said okay just that's what it was for we told them and then then he carried on all right fair enough well how about to start to the race for Miguel it looked like he had a bit of a slow start and then had his hands full from there what was he telling you about the race car race car as we're used to suffers a bit in cold weather and it just takes longer to warm up that's it's it's obviously even longer in colder weather more so compared to other cars so we expected that at the start it seemed like there was a minor chord in effect where he started to go then at the back off they went again and and that was enough for Patrick to get a bit of a meaning they wanted the the the two rows of starting cars to be running over the formula 1 starting boxes but that didn't seem to be the case although that's what Miguel expected that's what he was trying to do but wasn't able to achieve it because the cars in front weren't following so he had to follow them now pit stops have been a big storyline of course coming into this weekend here this team our ferry you were telling me has it done pit stops in something like 2013 and you're the only crew member left from that team when you were the lollipop man and what are you doing here today in addition to being the team manager lollipop baby looking forward to that yeah I don't want to take anything away the crew guys have a lot of experience between them you know individually they've worked for a lot of teams it's just as a group you know taking some gelling time we had add we had had minimal testing opportunity before the season started but I think we're looking good and yeah I expected things just wanted to say I to my little girl Maya a little girl lad I miss them very much last thing do you have anything for these Bentley's I think so that's what we like to hear thank you very much I could have done a good exactly well and he makes a good point when you have a car that generally relative to the others as the race goes on gets better that generally means that the past avatars burst alive with energy and down also last longer than anyone else so so that's one of those those scenarios where obviously you want to have long green runs for that Ferrari that's when it really comes into its own and it's great to see the the obviously that team did plenty of pit stops last year but it was just the driver changes and tires that the new element for everybody this year certainly the refueling refueling and yes so that'll be critical and talking to even the capex team I spoke to Thomas Blum this morning about the window to get it done he said it's tight he said we can get done but you can't fumble at all so he said I expect this the several teams potentially lose time with that minimum time of 70 seconds behind safety console of the sir five minutes five minutes we're getting an update from race control that the restart will be in five minutes five minutes for the restart so that's great news and again at this point the last update we had it will be the full remaining time of an hour seventeen and a half minutes so that is the good news there's a good look at the Anthony Imperato in the second of the right motor sports cars the 91 Henry repeating arms and repeating rifles entry and again he dipped his toe in the water at a couple of events last year and he impressed I mean he's certainly been with the right team in in right motor sports I figured I'd better run with that and has done an absolutely great job in Porsche gt3 Cup racing and it's nice to see him now to be able to come out and and really show us form for a full season here and now we've been talking about how good the Alegre Porsches have been early in this race and in qualifying let's find out more from Ryan Michael dick asada late addition to the Allegra lineup for this year we thought it was going to be your father behind the wheel but somehow or another you ended up in the car tell us how that happened first and foremost a bit of an interesting story you know my father he hasn't driven for two years because he had to get back surgery so he's been out of it for a while and we went to test that co2 and I was there just to tag along and drive wasn't I did a good job so he just put me in I guess and now we're here and I'm so happy about it early returns have been very positive and I know it's always exciting to be racing with your buddy Daniel he was really mixing it up there at the beginning showing the speed of this Porsche how much confidence does that give you seeing how fast that car is out on track yeah I mean I trust more than anything with the car and yeah I mean I'm really confident we had a really good run this morning qualifying we got p3 and p4 unfortunately the p3 was taken away because I I cross the checkered flag twice but yeah I mean it's no question that the Porsche gt3 r has some speed but we've just got to keep it consistent throughout the race and bring it to the finish how big of a role did Daniel play in convincing you to drive this year you know Daniel since I was 15 has been one of my best friends he's been my mentor he's taught me so much on and off the track when he first came back to racing we were racing together in the gt3 Cup and you know there's nothing more comfortable than racing with your best friends so yeah I mean he's just taught me so much and you know I couldn't say no to this opportunity with him we're happy to have you back racing stateside thanks so much thank you for those of you when we go back to shots of pit lane you may see crews now over and actually in contact with the cars and such the announcement came from race control during that interview that Park for May is now open which means that crews can help drivers in and actually work on the cars just a little bit we stopped will be at 16:30 so looking forward to this when we get our backs underway here about three minutes we're anticipating you can see the lights are now on on the safety vehicle the pace car in pit lane which is always a good sign officials are taking up their position and we look forward to getting this one going again and the interesting thing is this has just been a long sit in very cold weather Cal certainly for here in Texas and it's gonna be this this pace laps gonna be really really crucial to get some of those tires yeah for sure so get a bit of a read there I would check the tire pressures there and if there was one end of the car one axle of a car that came up a little bit stronger than the other they may be able to bleed those tires down and make a slight adjustment if one didn't come to life so those adjustments were possible after those Park firme conditions were lifted but we don't see too much action there part of the doors being closed and getting ready for the off so I think everyone's pretty much set just deal with it I mean there's never gonna be perfect and it's where the drivers earned the money now is just go out there and race it yep you got a race with the gave you at this level they generally gave you a pretty good so that's not a huge issue how you doing to say you know one of the things when you think about rule books isn't like when they really get in and think about things a lot of this comes from feedback there's a rule in place that says if you're a chasing driver and you're trying to get the attention of the guy in front again you'd think if you cheat you know certainly if you're passing somebody from this technically slower class but even if they use it flashing those other lights regulus only do we've got to get off it and then later you can do three more you used to see those lights just going absolutely crazy I mean be they really think about that stuff at this level and we just got word you expect pace car to roll within 30 seconds fall 3-1 safety cop procedure safety god dispatch there you hear hopes it is time to get this one back another way as soon as that pace car rolled clock started pounding as well so we're officially racing again and I think you have to give some some serious shoutouts to the track crew here doing a barrier repair fairly proud [Music] yeah sure everything is a plus once again in terms of the safety conditions of the racetrack so you may have just heard from crazy control there's going to be actually two formation laps here we're taking is a good idea to give them plenty of opportunity to get those tires and pressures up just a little bit and one of the nice things is is they have a set speed for the safety car but they also you know give it allows in certain scenarios with it they they have they say the safety car can pick that speed up trying to get those cars a little bit more speed to try to get those pressures and temperatures up and under control great section of the track here clearing the very tricky section of essence and this is this is where you start as I I love the way you refer to in the dyno part of this track did you come out of this turn go through that kink and it's just flat-out heartbreaking into 11 and then another heart out blast one fact I think looking at the time remaining in this race with the clock stopping is that yeah is gonna be rapidly diminishing hits was the checkered flag time so gonna be a major factor but certainly yeah anyone have any dark tinted visors anyway we haven't seen much sunshine here this week on board we have these opportunities here they check out these onboard cameras here and I love the faculties where we're facing camera he was here double up on the onboard scenario here [Music] this is something you've talked about before galas a lot of people think that that scrubbing is to get deep desires you can see here there's not a lot of scrubbing but there's a lot of accelerating then break hard on the braids you can even run you know both pedals at the same time run against the brakes with the gas pedal just to try and generate massive temperatures not something you want to do excessively being good to a certain point in all of the drivers will to find the sweet spot in terms of how much you do that when we're talking about is getting the brake super hot and then that way that he is then transferred through the upright into the wheel and then consequently at the time the whole corner of the car so tire warming in this championship is not allowed in terms of tire blankets and warmers etc so you use what means you have at your disposal to be able to get this set up and going once again that black Ferrari I just want to remind everybody the black Ferrari that will come into view here in just a moment is leading in the am category as the tr3 racing for Orion lately then the 991 Porsche a little bit farther back from auto metrics in the hands of Allen met knee is leading in the am category keep track of those three categories within the class [Music] it's gonna be able to you know as you just mentioned that that's somewhat light it's still hazy and foggy in spots the race we're gonna be coming up here you've still got a well over an hour so it is gonna get a little bit dark it won't be dark but it'll be a little bit darker so there's all kinds of things that these teams are going to be dealing with here the key Frannie sue check I don't think down the chief steward is gonna allow for any advantage to be taken on these restarts and I think when you've got the the track position and you've got a really good car under you I think for handy sue turkey needs to be talked to on the radio I would say make sure you've in your crew chief is reminding you don't take any risk here in terms of trying to get a jump because they're probably going to be all over that so just make sure you do it by the book do exactly what was told to you in the driver's meeting there's no need to try and get the jump on your teammate and risk getting a penalty well they were very specific about that in the driver as you age at that last turn we said like that many times to make a point [Music] you can gradually increase the pace then when the green fly through golf and a new development this year Israel even though the green flag flies up at start/finish previous years went on a restart when the green flag flew you can race and pass and I left not anymore green flag flies you cannot improve your position to the cross that that timing that's right it's a basically a standardization of rules trying to have a global rules package for this now global championship the black box rules challenge as early days you don't know what the Chiefs toe is gonna do how he's gonna police it so why be the guinea pig yeah you know there's someone else sir roll the dice a little bit in terms of trying to gain an advantage and getting dinged for it all right lights out on the safety vehicle so we are getting ready to go here fellas the yellow trim [Music] - Allegra Portia's you have to see what Mourad thinks about here is you trying to get the jump on Baptiste drop into turn one bright yellow spoiler borscht is sitting in the third position can he do anything green flag green flag all right you heard the call we are racing here at it look at the run that Molina got look like Murad went to protecting Molina just had a tremendous Drive but he's on the outside here infrared make sure there's no gap man yeah that long is into the tail of the Ferrari talk about a couple years ago man I think I don't think Pat may be expected Miguel too slow quite that quickly but nonetheless yeah so he knows there I don't think there was any real intent there is just a little bit difference rolling speed there through apex initial stop good balance underneath the Bentley and taking off a little bit take a turn ten oh and down in the inside I wonder boy baptise I thought maybe in a moment and a turn in but now he was a reactant alright plowing down the inside now Baptista comes back at him all the way on the left hand side in the dirt and debris there he clears him now Marauders back in his slipstream the feeling that more I was going to get feisty I thought it beyond the initial start up in the term 1 per year to protect from Molina this is great for su check guys fighting Oh big flick that means I wanna move that was stellar now then peas are gonna try and return the favor it does some great counter punch racing this is fantastic stuff and once again long is all over the back end of that very Ferrari trying to find a way through sensational stuff there by Dannemora good point make it stick but putting it all on the line thinking about it there realize tough place to make that pass [Music] or he was fat long looking at that Delta to the Ferrari and he pick up the draft climbing the hill towards turn one got altered another portion right behind him can't just be so focused difficult decision [Music] well if you just straight line it to the apex you may get in front but then you've got to get it won't and turn as you see Brad made that kind of slip right back through again so [Music] clean air and open space and chance to breathe right now see more I'd just weaving around a little bit I'll be to clean up the ties when he was offline a little bit potentially zeros once again without battle between more added baptise turns lifesuit excellent number 2 plus secondly [Music] here good stuff then the second of the Allegra cars that 24 it's the orange glitter white Lou at the tail end of this set lead battle between all the pro pro machines Pro Amba hanging over the tail of Olson great performance by the tr3 team they were certain the [Music] Jeff's evil ended up with an overall pool right here with that as a pro-am car and then when way Lou got in in his first job of stable weight index a few so it's nice to see when Lou proving that was [Music] too bad quick spin therefore the 901 of met knee he's leading in am so fat gorillas got around him I'm not sure if that was from the pressure from backer ala that created this situation or not [Music] Nina continues to hang on and front lawn this is that crew chief alluded to the father should get better longer rock [Music] Baptista responding new fossil at my Baptista half a second quicker than sucuk 206 flap that's the quickest lap was seen all weekend long bye-bye d step up a second right there is the 91 that's the rate Motorsports Henry rifles entry of Anthony in Toronto then the number five a nice opportunity here till Bechtel Shimer in the gradient Acura NSX slipping around mark bar key in this similar car the number 80 razor's edge mbrp Performance Exhaust machine that's third fourth fifth in the class the number six for us race tronics nice job as well there's the number five ingredient entry Bechtel Shimer is where at Marquee this is about irrelevant there is the number six Connie looked like you had a little moment there the breaks over 12 maybe trying to make a move on by karela to sort the background briefly on a previous shot he's keeping the pressure right there the Sadie's color scheme is beautiful yes there's paw Carell oh that's the squadron run racing Ferrari and I just have loved that graphics package on that car since day one because you look at it from one angle as the next right now buck gorilla doing a nice job second now in the category with the problems for the 99 one of many spots however but the second in that category is Brent Holden in the number 14 Global Motorsports group Porsche so ISTEP Brett back in the championship he is I think there'll be a factor James would a couple years he's had numerous championships very few drivers James World Challenge competition 26 this is 26 years yeah look a Baptista he is closing India's dog that gap down now to 1.6 seconds stood million so far made now a little bit more break Nina looks to be finding some speed and coming up tomorrow yeah I wonder about more ad because his car was slipping a little bit coming off of turn 11 there under acceleration so I wonder if they started really aggressive on the time president good knew Gregor's stop fire tire pressures that I mean you'll get speed early in the run but then they can over pressure we seem really wide they're struggling for grip they're down into the brake zone so seems to me like more I'd look really impressive in the early film but now he's starting to back up a little bit you think the team is maybe thinking look we need you to get and leapfrog around hold on which is good because then when you do your pitstop you're going to get fresh rubber for your teammate so get the track position early [Music] get a fresh set of probably P zeros off your teammate and see where you can do to the finish now they got the track position he got in front of but he just couldn't hang on yeah that was the issue yeah on board with Polina those two Bentley's now are up the road there almost four and a half seconds clear right now the rest of the field yeah they've suddenly got tremendous pace this will allow the strategist to relax a little bit won't be so critical [Music] they get Itachi he's done if this sitting still how tight they want to cut it to that 72nd Deltron pit lane and there was the role of the things that you drivers can help you with by building that nice comfortable it's kind of an interesting I don't know if dichotomies quite the right word here but you know when it's this cold it takes the tire but when it's this cold the air is so much more dense the arrow is hugely effective and of course the engines make a little more power but it really does affect the arrow track is that probably not got great grip though so it balances out that's a big picture pointing in that you know chasing the Ferrari that's experienced [Music] this is like that long 16mm with culture and has always been says since he became the only North American for our that our proportion factory drivers the fact that he has made that for so long gives an idea of just how much they expected and you know part of it certainly a huge part of it is his outright speed but his developmental skills and also the fact that he add I think he thoroughly enjoys coaching and drivers coming up he does an awful lot of work it has a historic program that he does with Porsches and such he he bleeds the breed that's he does he recognized that and he was chased I mean I know for a fact went forward on their GT love our program together they went after him but you know you got to think about the big picture when you've established yourself as being crazy to walk away from that and he'll be talking Porsches till then [Music] yeah and I think yeah that's a good point there are a lot of manufacturers that get in racing and you know we'll have a good five-year eight-year program that's really solid and then second car was built linning they've been in racing they're never going anywhere so I love the story when he was telling me about it I asked him about it he said he said got the offer and he said I asked a number of people well what if I get to person they said do you want a career in racing I want to make sure you have a career in racing anyone and it's been a marvelous one business it's hard to believe that you spend a quarter of that time being a Porsche driver with this team yeah for years now with right motorsports there are a lot of success on the title it will challenge a couple of years ago Swiss championship last year but great to see John and his team back from this [Music] that will always be those two years [Music] cap seems to be pretty constant around 1.6 seconds between the two Bentley's running lap times in the tenth or so of each other to lap dependent they've certainly seemed like they got a good second in pace over the rest of the field right now so this is just increasing that cushion that they'll have when they get ever closer to that well and I just hark it back to at the end of the qualifying session when Ryan interviewed Andy sucuk and he made the Cummings yeah a little bit of traffic on my best laughing I think I'm left a little something on the table it's like it's got to be a little bit of concern for the rest of the field there k-pax his biggest concern was looking at the skies this morning I saw them when I was there wasn't he looked at your weather app on your phone and said it wasn't raining wet enough like it was doing something they said this is not good news for the Bentley so they were concerned all their hard work and preparation to have cars that are very quick here and these sort of conditions were going to be thrown out the window and they struggled in fact in in the in the second qualifying session here today so they're looking good today but it got a lot more work to do tomorrow even though they're running fastest laps that doesn't care for anything regarding grid position those positions are already set tomorrow's race there are a lot further down the order for tomorrow in 6:00 and 12th position exactly this is the front row today exactly that's that's an issue and that's one of the things that I was asking him about when they were telling me about this new Bentley one of the things they said they said it doesn't because of the balance of the car they said they they traded in the design some of the downforce running less gray [Music] Amar's I am gong to to this respecting truck limits three times Maran is getting worn for track limit abuse so too many more freebies before he's going to get dinged so you've got to keep it together I think he's pushing hard and trying to maintain that track position but Molina is getting ever closer and he's not be able to maintain pace so that car start to slip about three laps ago Gregg and there's no showing up on the lap times as well well in the drivers meetings they made it very clear that they'll give you for your soul warnings after that it'll be a drive-through and that is you don't want to have that happen especially when you're so close to the stops you get that new set of tires on the car etc you're still up in the front one thing I need to clarify is that so many warnings Porcaro per driver here's a roll on yes it's like someone else gets it up no Treves it's a very good point well the way that I kind of understood it was you know for this if the driver who did the track limit violations get to the point I'm gonna drive through but then there's a change of driver before they can have it new driver but it doesn't that doesn't mean he now has absolutely no mulligans either so ambrette just needs to smooth it out here and get to 40 minute mark [Music] just under five minutes away from our first pit stop potential and with the pro pros I mean all of these guys have got snow driver lineups there's really no advantage I wouldn't say in terms of you might get to a certain track where someone's more comfortable you want to maximize their seat time so if that's the second driver you want to get him in as soon as possible but certainly in the pro-am categories you had to rather you lower great to drive always that's really tight they're more out of struggling I mean almost into the quarter panel of him there this is going to allow Pat long to close in on this gap and that will make Molina's tasks even tougher he's got a defend from Pat long at the same time so he's probably anxious to get buy more ad and minimize that gap to the Bentley's right now before the pit stop and in a scenario here you've got a car that clearly isn't very happy at this point even though as you were saying the drivers are you know fairly similar you might bring that car in as soon as possible to get a set of tires and a pressure differently and that that's all part of the strategy that love to watch the teams play out and you don't forget you know the drivers obviously get a lot of attention but those crews that's what I love about making these pit stops times tough to achieve is that it really puts it the crews hands and it's a team sport the other problem you're gonna have Greg I think that the problem was stopping early really slow compared to even someone on well-worn rubber running hot laps do you know how to me and say I think the the over cut is possible in yes absolutely so you wonder here at least up at the front visiting flank 24 disrespecting track teammates for the third time is listen to that report so that was the 24 not the 22 so what I was gonna ask was do you think it's gonna be a dominoes thing is that you know everybody will will follow suit checks leave essentially and when he comes they'll all come then there's little equalize things on tires up at the front end you know I think we wouldn't want to stay I'm more than two laps do you know to me because otherwise that new set of rubber is now we see Molina making the move can he make it stick no more it doesn't want to unions MRG party there they touch Molina still gonna force her can he make it stick now he's down to the inside he's cleared him I believe no more ads still there oh oh what an exchange that long just sitting there I'm worried about where these guys are going to end up he doesn't want to get into if they suddenly turn each other around but he also wants to be in position to take advantage do you point in terms of whether you follow someone in Greg Rio for two laps and yet the track position if there's nobility to leapfrog that driver stay out on hot tires have the new driver trying to hang on on coal tires but have the position in that way you can say hey I brought it in up front yeah that's that would make sense all right certainly if you're back in the order a little bit right now these Bentley's are just throttling this field they still run the laps in the sevens and these guys fixing the number one laps in the nine so this is Jarrett just allowing the Bentley store increase their margin now to a 12 plus second lead to singing a lap faster [Music] during third fourth and fifth position train the ability to come in the clock has to be under that 50 minute long as it ticks down too think the Bentley's will be not a pit lane when that clock ticks down and that big run here by Molina pulling the draft Mourad defending Molina's gonna get him now he just needs to slow him down Park him at the apex which he does does that blow he belongs open for 10 minutes a good morning show he's open for 10 minutes welcome pit right now if they choose to including the leaders who are admittedly 12 seconds down the road but [Music] the minimum pitstop time is 70 seconds [Music] [Music] and it's Holt's are ducking in [Music] so again that might just be well you're rolling the dice you gotta try something you're doing I have the track position I think for the Bentley's they're going to keep them out there a little bit longer because again I think o is in disadvantage but I know if you have the leader is if someone else Doug's in and then there's a yellow that can start in your progress because you're supposed to bring it down or 80 kilometres an hour to cool specific last warning for track limits specific regulations on how this under equipment over the wall and the other big thing actually they have said there is no rolling sort of certainly throwing of tires but you can't take the tire and just kind of feed it over to somebody it's got to be under control the entire time seventy two point four second stop for the lead car the number nine car the had the lead at least to wait for everything is cycling through to see where they end up [Applause] like four current on those cold tires compared to his teammate Baptista i would suspect that easily they said there's the ability to pursue later leapfrog around Alvaro paren I think Baptista's in lap should be quicker than prints out laps that would make sense halter turns it over to Hensler 73 seconds so they lost second to the Bentley see if they could one or two laps if I was calling strategy I'd go to but if you're playing a little bit safety you'd come in now here he comes so this in lab for Baptista should be a lot faster than Alvaro prints out lap on fresh cold tires so it should allow Sewell a to maybe leapfrog to the front and then he's just got to hang on yeah I'm trying to hit those probably piece arrows up to temp again just to repeat sue check prints pinch start time seventy two point four seconds is the sister car can be matched that or maybe a little bit better it should allow Sewell a to get the track position on the other Bentley will easier to go to Jeff Segal that's a great stop seventy one point eight second here we go Baptiste is in one gun now that's okay you can lay the tire down on the side but you have to carry the tire no rolling it no throwing it and my own gun has to get that job done nice job in the exchange but he's too out he's pumped you did a great job you can close enough to sue Jack and look at this now we see poor any traffic as well this is far from ideal for alvaro paren and he recognized he'll know important these laps are in terms of the track position here he comes Metsu lane if out of the pit lane impede him yes he does you know just hang on there you see the difference but through the esses print will be way way quicker you watch this gap here just out of the esses would it'll be in the end just evaporated yeah Sewell ale just be tiptoeing through the yeses right now Brendan's got some time temperature and eat into that gap this is what we're talking about by the overcut here to staying out and those in laps give you the advantage to give you the track position which I like the core for the three team [Music] a little bit of risk a lot of reward if you can make it work you can see that Brenda's cure a lot more speed about how long would you think it would be before [Music] maybe and Frank knows that this is go time for Al for a prank you could see him pushing his way through traffic he had to get going he couldn't afford to lose in the additional time but what are you suffering by night under the gripping of the race car immediately but now he's got the advantage now it's su lace time to really dig deep load the tire take a little bit of risk to get the tight mu gotta load it before it likes it and you've got a very quick final speed Ferrari right in the mix [Music] that is the grouping here he's gonna cut up the closest who's gonna execute the best yeah this is what a company like this this flow see you literally leapfrog again the over car under cars all about execution and hotel you cut it to that 72nd Delta Ferrari of Molina Moran bringing the Porsche in the number 22 the balance had such a gap though Greg whatever these guys do and have a close they cut it and even though they had a number of hot laps on me but admittedly worn tires I don't think they will be in a position to take any track position away from the Bentley's there they are they're on pit lane here come the Bentley's you can see paren is ever closer remember the gap when they get them at the pit lane just a couple of minutes ago it's gone away but the problem now for Brent is sue lays now got the grip underneath him interesting dynamic because from a team perspective they couldn't get too risky because if other teams pitted and they stayed out and there's a yellow they could have in fact lost the lead of this race but they played first as in terms of the nine car has allowed the sister car to take advantage of that situation by doing that over cut interesting to see here as the paste continued to fend off perentie not none of things have equalized just a little bit taking a look here stops see what unfolds terms of those times okay Brent how hard is he gonna push on his teammate right now he's in the draft he's got a good run could be now on ever time see ladies car is only going to get better yeah Alvaro can't afford to take any risks on his teammate difficult difficult scenario this is where the experience counts that's why they got these four guys driving these Bentley's this year they know and they hope that they should make the right decision Alvaro looks to the inside he's pushing he goes to the inside has to give it up Sulake gives him room Alvaro in turn gives him room and so they came back across and right there soon place said just went right back in front I'd have to give hats off to Sula they gave enough room there right at the critical phase have turned 15 otherwise they could have been contact one of them at least could have been going around protecting himself to some point but certainly a stopping a nasty team dynamic right there in the sweet spot he's just gonna get better Frank could have been thinking that was now on ever time in terms of the win that's what these guys were paid to do and again yeah I would agree with you that gave just enough room and threat to his credit when C lee ki-woo frank go up on that curb and to give it out was gonna be a big moment and a straight in his hands and just shortcut the circuit shows how much he's pushing it's a ceiling with the arrow wash from that Bentley right in front of him as well a big moment there look at it oh he got that big Orient you got that curb that Pat long described on the poster track yeah preview you couldn't afford to touch he's picked him straight out wide penslar having it off [Applause] it will be gathered back up again but Causton track time and it does level losing three car legs four car lengths of track position silly right Motorsports had a great pit stop they got Hargrove with that we didn't see that little concert a get-together not sure if I have it on pit lane or after that pit stop exchange but the two lane Wow we oh that's what [Music] [Applause] our group behind the wheel as a second and a half gap of A to D V lambda [Music] [Applause] between though is now closed people window is now closed and the mandatory ten-minute pit window has closed we're not getting the data to indicate who had the slower pit stop on those last pit stops but either way big move for right motorsports to get up into that third position absolutely in the out lap you look at at least Hargrove turned in three 13:8 and feel and ER a318 we saw up in a turn with the 82 Ferrari again I looked at health labs murder was five could have been traffic could have easily been exactly so Hargrove now Rob horses select driver that's how he got this opportunity but I think also showcases how much these manufactures wanted to be far involved in this block map GT will challenge American category in fact they were willing to support not just a leg grow but right yeah they want this championship in the biggest way that says an awful lot of motive during the the problem for hard road is he's just to get to for rent he's got to make five twenty seconds yeah I don't think they're gonna touch the Bentley's today myself that really goes awry I think I'll be almost a mini win best of the rest now you take a look at the pro-am after that exchange it stops look at that the number thirty one dr3 entry the way Lou started in the hands of Jeff Segal fifth overall right now Jeff is fast so be interesting to see what he can do relative to V Lander and second in the pro-am category is the ninety one right Motorsports Henry rifles car now in the hands of the extremely quick Norwegian driver Dennis Olson up in the seventh overall spot third in the Pro Am categories at number five Grady and Acura NSX enhance now of Ryan averagely fourth the number 80 and not Marcel me into the pits after that rough ride there's damage on that number 24 tribe troop and I think to to track limits violation more than four times Wow we say it's not just per driver then it's obviously not the best couple of minutes here for Allegra motorsports very much in the thick of the battle wolf he had that big moment there climbing over the curbs nearly took out his teammate Michael de casada as they had been laying for the track to limit violations turn because for the first hour of this racer 50 minutes of this races the Lego cars were phenomenal and then something like that happens a couple of track limit violations a ride over the curbs and suddenly interesting entry point for that turn 11 they UCS who lay braking in the middle of the road I'm not sure he's escaping maybe a bump or something he doesn't like by running the normal traditional wide turn in point different to his teammate right behind him he certainly wasn't protecting anything cause Brent's not close enough to Devon there and they get down to turn 12 and they're both pretty much identical in the line that they take uber Ferrari car their twenties now behind the wheel they have the lead in the am division and second in the am class about five cars back anything those are now is taking over from Pierre mullet check in the resealed Ferrari he's got that up in the second you saw that past and called it when he snuck around from the back - streetcar which sits third in the amp class fourth in the am class is the 14th global motorsports group Thermal club worship James Safra us now and then fifth is Chris did not see in the number nineteen 111 Ferrari [Music] I said Matt plum in our championship as well running the 99 111 entry and he shares with Paola that's a pro-am entry a lot of those combinations are going to just get stronger as the season progresses and they get more events under their belt right big jump up from Ferrari challenge to gt3 competition the lead is once again he's really approaching their lap times right now is that tomorrow's car myself as the poll for tomorrow he's late too had some really quick laps in the 206 range as well the 22 Allegra Porsche has got a 206 Marcel E as you mentioned to balance running in lockstep right here margrove 58 he's eaten away from Tony Leal and then we talked about the pit stop exchange in the 58 car living that track position by the last lap he was more tense quicker than me Landis in that gap is extending our to two and a half seconds over the Ferrari and Segal in the Tier three Ferrari behind me Lander marginally quicker about a tenth quicker than be lender at this stage but he's got a significant gap for him to come back is to find some four seconds all right so let's get back down to Ryan Marine we've been talking about the strength of these Bentley's right catching up with Daren all once again let's talk about those pit stops we talked about him earlier you felt like that could be an area of advantage for the team did that played out in that first round of pit stops well obviously I mean the team did a phenomenal job on the pit stops and they they executed everything as they should it's really good you know it's unfortunate that the positions have switched on track but I believe alvaro got traffic on his out lap which is what got them out so but still one two we're really proud of it so everything's good so far and right now the car continuing to show the strong case it seems like it doesn't matter what the conditions are this weekend it's been really stout yeah the cars really saw it and they've worked we worked really hard to have a consistent car from throughout the whole run so you know that's one of the important things a lot of these cars have tire degradation and fall-off and the key here is that we have a good car so far so good I hesitate to ask you this but after last year how nerve-wracking is it in this moment I know you have those memories for how things wid a couple of times a year ago yeah you know I mean it's it is tough and those guys I mean obviously you saw when they were fighting it out and they're instructed to race as hard as possible but in no way shape or form they touched or caused an incident between each other and they drove clean so you know so far and however they finished were happy with that fingers crossed thanks thanks yeah that was some really close racing that they put on for that sequence of corners I think Alvaro will recognized he had a window of opportunity it was right then right now and hats off to both of them he didn't over force the issue I think su lay nicely recognized the situation and just opened up his hands so there wasn't contact in turn 15 Darren in the nail on the head to some degree in terms of Alber opt-ins and traffic but I think the real key factor was a halt in laughs a Baptist a competitor called Brent yeah absolutely it looks like the 24 may be done that's unfortunate sometimes you can be right but so you say I'm holding my position and you get clouded and you break so it's a lot better even if you ended up dropping back to second to get second points and have an opportunity to come back at and then and that's you know the race crap that's the understand little battle there between the Ferraris we're looking at that first red Ferrari there's an Anthony Lazzaro you don't need to pass there on back going up into the term one brake zone but this is a driver who's really on the move Carl marsala aboard the number 80 Acura NSX the race is a gentry yes Paul for tomorrow and Lane has some really fast lap times [Music] and Michael dick is Sadiq did the drive-thru that's dropped him well back so that's why he's behind right now ever seen Marcel II that number 22 Porsche here position on this lab definitely had the position the lap before so celli is really hooked up he's a great driver he's managed by stefan johansson he manages guys like Scott Dixon and Felix Rosen quest and this has some great opportunities which is performed with last couple of years at a couple of gt3 wins last year for Lexus yeah he has been impressive he met mountain baki back in 2012 he approved him on a sponsorship proposal for his racing and mom said thanks but no thanks I went back to the door a year later and marks but he come back for a little less we said yeah the same number but convinced Martin was a good way to go to create a platform for marketing with his business and he came in there with a really good business proposition that monster leverages in terms of entertaining and bring the people to the racetrack and showcasing a business incentive that way and they've stayed in touch and now they found themselves driving together well somebody drivers this is just the networking you need people to like you and you're not always gonna have the best car and the best day was in the down times where people would be supporting Sully does a great job at that absolutely and Martin barky is just a classic guy on top of it and it's proven to be a very very fast race driver in GT for competition in the past he has been somebody that pulls and winds and very quick it's great to see him make the step to the gt3 platform and to do it [Music] racing for so long such a great program I see them get the opportunity to make that big step and do it together that's what Prince College lies maintaining his balance a little bit better in this run in Sewell a so took three tenths out of the first sector on this lap let's see what sector two looks like when they get down was that brakes on to turn 12 was worse sector two finishes [Music] went into that zone right now zulay responds with a slightly faster sector so he's not just laying down on him but looks like a good little battle ensue here just under 30 minutes to go so we need that balance to stay with you if you've got any tire degradation going on in terms of losing one into the car versus the other that could be a factor here Prentiss wants to stay close enough to be able to put the P on at Sewell a does back up a little bit he always wondered don't you when you've got these these these two car programs now they say race hard just don't touch each other what happens if one of the cars ends up being significantly clearly quicker than the other one and he's behind them yeah it's difficult it's a tough decision I mean there can't be instruction from the pit wall but again they've employed the best in the business if we take a little look at the replay here of paren start to put the pressure on sue lay here immediately after the round of pit stops exchanged this is where starts the bill brent has got a bit more grip underneath him sue ladies just trying to find his feet with ties that aren't quite up to snuff up to the temperature zone that they need and this is where it got tricky right there stuff sit down the inside you can see there sue lay just opens up the radius to Givens himself and prevent a little bit of racing room and he gave him the room alvaro responded when sue they came back off of that curve but but then to me sue they delivered a little message there because he just came straight back across right in front of him abruptly and it was the traffic up ahead I'll want to try and stay right on his heels increase that creates opportunity as well any in the arsenal [Music] some traffic that's gonna be dealing with as well here shortly Hargrove continues to run in third continues to stay in front and build a little bit of a margin back to Wilander but they just cannot get within half a second and tracking his last laps nobody can get within a half second right now as we said it's horses for courses right now today they look unbeatable you get to another track and they may be struggling and it may be Ferrari or Porsche State or Acura for that matter the actors day tomorrow good based on what was shot from that qualifying session warning morning 6:00 Antonucci us race Tronics Mercedes six in the pro-am class right now simply getting around the 991 now the answer he was held up at also that's good news for him if Brent doesn't look any closer [Music] thanks around Trevor [Music] these are spooky moments when you're staring in traffic coming engine nice job kepta nice and calm is easy to panic yeah exactly he just want to get going in the worst possible way at that point you start to make really bad decisions so he's a young driver that does not have a lot of racing experience and his dad rich when he did some Ferrari Challenge stuff when of course Trevor kind of watched it and finally on a track day and stuff they put Trevor in and he did a little driving and they said hey he's got some some skills in the last season he ran a full season and for a challenge in the 458 Challenge class and I think he ended up third number points and was one of the guys that was constantly in the hunt it's a nice transition I mean the Ferrari Challenge series is super competitive there's various levels and tears within that I think if you do the right groundwork the teams and God is making a move over to this a former competition no it's not a nice gradual step yeah and the interesting thing is is when you move up to the copa shell or travail Pirelli glasses you're running a 488 it's just not the gt3 variant of it so it doesn't have quite the downforce but it ends up because it doesn't have a downforce it hasn't even a little bit better straight-line speed so as you said it's not a as massive stuff as you might think on board here with my celly what a great camera angle here off the side of the Acura NSX yeah that's really called and down into the brake zone for turn 11 [Music] Roselli sitting seventh overall right now third in the pro-am category and he's running pretty darn quick laughs he's got the problem is he's got to make up some 5 seconds but his last lap was a over a second quicker than Olsen's they'll be big indeed there's still a lot of time on the court so if he keeps running the lap times years it's not inconceivable that he could catch the 91 Porsche and maybe in a pair be in the position to make a move towards the checkered flag good-looking cars good-looking car and what a performance of me in half but those guys to lead the opening session here this weekend grab the second pole of the weekend we only had the car 35 days exact and it's just a testimony to a young team making the move from GT for competition up to the big leagues here and really really impressive Jeff Segal overall he's about as solid as you get yeah it's a really impressive simulator business down in Miami that a lot of people that leverage and utilize to fine tune their skills is a great coach and he's won a lot of big races over the years well in his simulators thing he does it where you could do remember which is really cool where if you get the same level of equipment you Lincoln you could be wherever you live in Hawaii and he'll work with you on on the Sims and it's very successful absolutely flat out twenty twelve hour days I said that's tough the driver doing the driving just being there and analyzing the data for that long that's a long long day of work right now seagulls margin over Olson is about 11 seconds listening the 91 Henry rifles right motorsport Porsche [Music] Marcella continues to run laps that are at least a half two second quicker oftentimes and Siegel and ol senses can be interesting as you said there's time yeah I'll keep the pressure on he's only got a couple of second leave there so I can't afford or lags too much with the 20 minutes to offer we mentioned they're going to be off to Europe full European Lamar series same engineer that's here this weekend is going to be working with them in Europe they didn't originally intend to do this race and then there was some problems getting all their testing schedule and they said what better way to get to WC to come here and run there said that I said they could cap off the icing on the cake would be a big fortunate to have them here there's a look [Music] anyone having taken over from Anthony Imperato originally it was expected that room I do my to Tong Amal winner and Porsche factory ride would be campaigning here but there's a little bit of a kind of a clarification of the rules in the dryer earrings for pro-am you can have a platinum as Roma's graded with a bronze but the parado has a Bronze Star a little bit more so they said no you can't have a platinum you can have any gold she doesn't Ostman a shuffle in the championship this year yeah that bronze gold I mean the I think the FIA rated him has a silver the series said now he's really more of a bronze but since he's got that silver rating that's where that issue happened here it's a good little scrap that's starting to unfold here's James and Ronis blue portion in the middle of the sandwich here is trying to chase down Anthony Lazzaro and the 82 Ricci Ferrari and right behind them it's the 99 a matte plum yes it's been on a bit of a charge here and has brought himself up in her another podium position [Music] now he's wide someone who miss their happened suddenly way wide cut down a left frontal zone looks like it yep fronts down just suddenly took off there on the turning to turn 16 luckily he wasn't trying to make a move when that happened he could have taken someone out he's just kind of out there by himself and with the runoff that you have here at Circuit of the Americas could have been a different story a different racetrack and luckily it happened three corners from could in ice unfortunate that took the sting out of that little battle that was looking he was as he has been as a plate very very quick [Music] [Applause] 22 of the casada underneath Eversley [Music] overall position [Music] straight to the a pesticide yeah that was easy yep what might have been for the Alegre Motorsports team today certainly a stunning start by Daniel more ads fighting out with the Bentley's keeping them in check you start to lose the balance on the race car little bit and the penalties near collision with the 24 car keep in mind that green Mercedes the p1 Mercedes behind these guys that's Maxie buck who is a Mercedes factory driver essentially that they loaned to these teams and has had a lot of Championships in European racing he is starting to claw his way forward just a little bit his last lap by the way was I think he's been in that little battle with casada which has cost him time and he's not battling they're not in the same class so I think Ryan is either had to give it up or as wisely chosen not to battle they could solder any harder and he's gotta focus more in the guy right behind him which is a battle for position within the class obviously fourth right now in pro-am boot in the fifth spot p1 team has been dramatically revamped in the off season a lot of change of personnel if Gary Cummings leading the charge at the beginning of this calendar year he is now left the team and new guys have been brought in Kent Stacy is now part of the engineering squad a lot of respect for him over the years this really knows his stuff really sharp and I expect this team to go from strength to strength with him now on board now 61 final warning before drive true for track limits you heard that for V Lander and he's used that apparently to go to pack because he's found himself back now within two and a half seconds of Hargrove he's closed that up and has run a few laps here that are a half second quicker than Hargrove in succession but no more track limit violations otherwise he's gonna be doing a drive-thru he's got to be very very careful with that one doesn't want to give it up absolutely constant change of direction SS section of the track see the actor is racy though yeah clearly that evil and and in particular what they've done at the back of the car with the diffuser which it had been so pitch sensitive they just couldn't get that to work that that's one of the things that they said this is the back of the car now I said we now I was talking with Marcela Neeson we find out about sticking really really solidly yes only it took taking the edging the side of the car I think the NSX had pace but it was a bit of a beast to really hang on to and I think it's got a lot bigger comfort zone and that just you get confidence you just keep pushing further and further that results in the lap time so I think the anchor in a second will have no factor in the championship this year which is great to see here is the margin you're watching Wilander here there is hard girl that's the margin third to fourth try to open a deep to cop to to another drive through the 22 Allegra Porsche on a day then I know it's not this is the 991 of Tucson running in the M category as the 91 of Olson goes through [Music] who's gonna have to hit pit lane and then hype the late 71 car a little bit taking the heat off of Eversley momentarily at least CY another opportunity with the Acura brand here with the customer racing team gradient helped them out when they ran last year for the CJ listen to a man initially will they transition over the gradient branding and Ron was just very open with them gave him a lot of advice they've been running the car and they came back and said we respected what you did for us when we were learning and with an opportunity this weekend with Mark Miller having a Trans Am conflict and he got the seat so [Music] clear evidence that nice guys don't always finish last let's measure them Ryan coming off the brilliant TCR driver's championship lies in real time and our name excuse me and the interesting thing was you know for all the success Ryan's had over the years all the wins he's been a part of in helping other drivers get it was his first ever championship and it's a moment that I will will will not forget when he crawled out of the car and he teaches all my lost realizing that finally a major championship that's come easy that yeah absolutely it was one of those he was just always consistent and they didn't have any significant car issue Noby lenders now got that margin down to under a second and a half to Hargrove I'll keep it clean now I'll tell you what Scott Walker it was probably yeah even though we haven't seen a lot of him in this form of competition I think last year I certainly recognize that he is a tough competitor he's not gonna give up this position easy should be land to get to him well and he certainly has the ability to to focus I mean you remember at st. Pete in the opening sprint race last year in the qualifying session when he clocked that wall and they had to do a full rebuild on the car and he repaid the crew with two wins I mean not too shabby we used to visiting a victory circle over the years that's for sure had a really good single-seater career going and just mister slipped through the net there but it found his feet once again in GT competition I've true penalty to car eight seven and eight for speeding in the pit lane at pit entry [Music] liber8 that's the vital speed car in the 87 is the Stephen Cameron racing BMW of laya food that's unfortunate look at this Luke is really close to Eversley now this will be a fun little battle to the checkered flag this one and Wilander very close down a hard Grove as well picking up the draft as best he can doesn't want to pop out too early there he goes just slips it down to the inside laid on the brakes takes it away to go with him does the Ferrari see the second car that's always the concern yeah he has a spotter look like Trevor recognized what was happening it's a smart young man [Music] what book rolls some speed here they had to check out that little moment there to release all the touch hip check the ability to get pretty feisty here I think before the finish books got the inside now that was nice that was a Aussie nice job that was cool you know it takes I raced him hard but he was fair and that's good stuff because I'm sure they haven't really had that sort of around the outside of a triple apex falling away off camber high speed corner takes some big big bravado and it takes racing respect from the guy on the inside so you know Ryan obviously desperately didn't want to give up that position open easily just to wash out and take them out taken to the cleaners but you didn't do it take another look at it this was pretty this is really tricky part of the racetrack when you have the track position what do you do at this very vital corner turn 15 you see little bobble there is to give it up just slipped a little bit that allowed boot to get through the outside Rika's and gives him little rough to trying to tell him but you just plants it on the outside and right now Ryan could have driven him off the road but he gives him a lane yep which was nice and yeah you're you're right he easily could have just drifted wide forced him off there had him lift or whatever didn't do it and the nice thing is is that but that stuff comes back to you you get down the road and race where you might be running with without maxi and hopefully you'll remember that here's the 87 doing its drive-through that's a shame it is but it's great to see Steve Cameron open up to gt3 competition longtime driver of his Andrew Schmidt food it's a good program they've made some changes another camera there's no back on top of the box with that team which is pretty cool getting them reunited Ricky can help a now on the engineering to that car and big news this week that his son thanked camera we'll be at the next roundabout championship with real-time in an Acura NSX alongside Brett Curtis Dana's work with Brett from the coaching capacity a few years and it's good chemistry and Brett Curtis we've seen him win gt3 three races before so they have all of the ability and ingredients looking at the pace of the Acura here this weekend to maybe make a splash in that cat or even in the pro-am category starting at Virginia it's starting in Virginia it's full season all right coming up on five minutes remaining in this opening round at the Blanca and GT World Challenge America's championship thus also the opening round of the bump on GT world challenge a global championship manufacturers are the drivers in a sense getting behind it the three Continental Series America Asia and Europe to make it all happen great concept great new era and he Lander got to within one point two seconds here we'll see [Music] Burgie is this time as they come by our trophy one of our ovens [Music] [Applause] pretty much untouchable here today or maybe they didn't know until the race started but yeah it was evident pretty early on suea has controlled this very nicely at the pressure from Brent initially and it looked like his balance went away friend for the pressure on a game but now he's maintained a nice comfortable margin and probably a little bit easier margin for the k-pax team to watch from the pit boxes walks it was getting a little bit racier yeah a couple of times in the late going [Music] it was really our good-looking [Music] and one thing with all the changes that happen to that car they moved the engine but it's the same engine it just there's a unique sound out of that turbo v8 that they've had from the get-go yeah throaty yeah beast right [Music] white flag next time bye baby it's looking here so let's go he's two laps for hargrove to try and hang on and not let VLAN to get any closer term in that third position seagull there's a fair amount of room in the pro-am category lead back to the 90 100 Marcella has fought his way up stated back a little bit just a little bit yeah and for wentest has a good little margin in the am category in the who blow squadra course a car now the way team potentially yes he's just racking them up that when he won the GTA championship in 16 he had a students last year in Cesare and a bunch of nerds plus he won a number of the sprint races as well so look at this feeling there's pretty much there he is right there okay see how I'm Scott deals with this pressure from the veteran right behind him what you gonna see Tony VLAN during competition here this year he made a commitment to another Sports Car Championship early in the going he's got finish f1 TV commitments got two kids now in the family he said I just don't have enough time in the year but probably Ferrari lent on him a little bit to commit a little bit a few more days to his program and here we see him again with our ferry defending their titles you can see the graphic on the Left showing the standings in the pro-am category but all eyes right now on this battle Zealander is there in terms of battling with Hargrove at this stage meanwhile watching for the white flag to come out here there it is one to go Maxime Sewell a and Perez through last strap a sizable margin over everybody else a comfortable margin now for Sewell a to print Darren law fighting look at it still crossing the fingers but can't fight the grin down just texted me information he said if we win I'll be the first win globally for the new Bentley and he said we did the same thing with the McLaren 650s gt3 machine so a lot of pride in that camp if they could just bring on they've got to cause lead in the race so you'd have to think at least one off your death absolutely zulay now five seconds over moran so he can be patient as he is here trying to work around the 22 doesn't have to force it meanwhile feel enduring Hargrove at the line he could see how close it was but under half a second at this stage in that battle for the final podium spot and crucial points in this championship and you'd have to think that that Ferrari will be a little bit stronger at this end of the stint than the Porsche potentially so Hargrove is gonna have to hang on he's gonna see that first podium for right Motorsports this year again I think that that one lap difference in the first stint is really the difference between these two Bentley's in terms of the track position Gregg yes me too calm may be in trouble yeah that or he's just you know recognized them there's nobody around me that I'm battling let's just let these guys through as well possibly so last time through the stadium section last time the fast triple apex right-handers turn 16 17 and 18 giving himself plenty of room and turn in through 19 one more turn to go and onto the front straight Bentley and the brand-new Continental GT 3r we'll take a win here at Circuit of the Americas and there is the second place car and there's the Winningham car Martine Fontes and sees our backer Ella doing it one more time in the who blow Ferrari just adding that wins tally as they do just phenomenal here's that battle final podium position overall ha gross still has a VLAN to pushing hard right to the end two corners to go Hargrove really wide there through 19 feet land agos with him remember those track limits he's cutting no more freebies just pushing digging deep onto the front straight short run to the checkers and there it is Hargrove in the 58 right Porsche brings it home in third feel and ER in fourth and there's your pro-am winner the black tr3 Ferrari of Jeff Segal and way Lou as they cross the stripe as well great run is the number 91 second intro am of Olsen the team fired from Wright Motorsports and there now those two Bentley's Cal and I think they've earned to do a lap of Honor in formation here yeah dominant win dominant win want to finish this without God globally great stuff they'll celebrate tonight but they got their work cut out tomorrow Greg starting from the third and six rows of the grid yeah they absolutely do but I'll tell you and then the strategy for the number three car in that two team program to do was you said the over cut and they executed it beautifully didn't they did a tough position of being you you don't want to give it away by waiting and gambling and if there's a yellow after some of the others have pitted you'd hate for a yellow to create a situation but you've got to create a safety net against there so I think that's why the 9 car pitted and then with the three cars staying out it just gave that hot lap to Baptista compared to albums out laughing got the track position and soon I was able to hang on even though we had immense pressure there for a couple of corners and then those two guys I mean they defined the team owner about orders of racing together race heart don't touch they did that was great stuff it was a fun watching me lenders charge at the end it half a second apart robe no Antonio will not be happy with that I would think you are absolutely right and then looking our chops to see what marsilii and Berkeley can do tomorrow of the razor's edge Acura yeah that's gonna be fun stuff big win for Sebastien there the engineer of the three car three in a row remember Baptista took the final two rounds so these guys went together at vir Kiron takes competitions to lay in Baptista so they've been here before Victory Lane overall win there exactly they've done it they did it dominance here along with the team car in this one as they both make their way down into the podium area here at Circuit of the Americas podium just up and to the right crawl yeah that guy look at that Maxime Sewell a Mad Max maybe huh just a great job it is a little bit yeah we just mentioned that's not helmets got a James nun kind of feel to it doesn't it dive back in the alvaro could respect their guy can tether some racing room yeah but both guys going for a pram wasn't gonna hand it to him he made him work for it two pros racing hard for the victory yeah great stuff great stuff again Hargrove third completing the podium Wilander forth and seagull and whale ooh that was the completing the top five in the top of the box for the pro-am category then look at that great moment most you guys drove a brilliant race and I think we are ready to get down to Ryan Marine with our winning duo Maxime Sewell a victorious here in race one at Circuit of the Americas but you had to fight your teammate very hard to get this win take us through the mindset of not just fighting for a race lead in a race win but doing so with your teammates no but I knew it was gonna be like that because he went out one lap earlier so his tires were already hot I had to keep him I didn't know I was in front and then I saw the big Bentley light over and then I had to keep him behind and then I managed the pace at the end you know it's but we had two motors okay to take the first win globally for the second generation Bentley Continental GT 3 how special of it achievement is that first it proved that the car is good I think we were waiting for the winner of the Gentoo car for almost a year now and I mean more than happy you know congratulations let's bring in rodrigo Baptista as well a fantastic opening stint for you but you were kind of in the wars as well had a little bit of contact early you didn't let that faze you at all what was your drive like today just think the team did a great job in the car and you know on the first lap when they started really honest I said tomorrow they didn't see him on the outside so I pushed a little bit to the right to the outside but then I wen was just a small contact so didn't hurt the car oh and and then the car was good - no it was perfect we did a great job on the pit stop so yeah congratulations a great win for you Rodrigo let's continue to move down is earlier today we had to the first win of the first poll of the new Bentley Continental GT 3 we also had the first win a few moments ago and now our winners in pro-am way Lu Jeff Segal guys I understand this was not supposed to happen you weren't supposed to be here until kind of the last-minute way was it the right choice I miss you guys I want to be back I have to do this had a great team engineer gave us a really good car to drive the team did the best pitstop ever and my coach is holding my hands trying to make me a better driver this is the best weekend ever hope for what is it about you and this place you were stellar on debut last year here at Circuit of the Americas and very fast once again today because this place was the only track I've been to last year all the others were new so I'm back again more experienced more seat time I guess who worked I guess so let's talk to the coach Jeff I know you've been helping him along but I know at a certain point you can let go of his hand right yeah I think I have to be careful not to help him too much I just can't say enough about these tr3 racing guys everything came together very late but we know what we have with them the Romanelli family they do a great job their heart is in this and it shows so the car was just fantastic but I have to say start of the days his way I mean last year he impressed last year he raised some eyebrows but the transformation over the winter we were in the Pro Race it's unbelievable I can't ask for a better co-driver well great job welcome back to the series glad to have you here enjoy the win yeah I mean just watching that transformation of way Lou from what we saw a number of years ago and turn car B and many as to what he's he's doing now you certainly have to give Jeff Segal a fair amount of credit for that but clearly it was in way to be able to do this at all all right and you want a little enthusiasm let's get down and hear from our amp winners with Ryan the dynamic duo of Martine Fuente since Cesar Becker Ella are back and in fine form congratulations on a season opening win thank you thank you we love Austin we love this track we always come here to test and so I mean I couldn't expect less from Cesar he drove amazing he drove well he drove aggressive and then he just gave me the car in p1 so I just kept it kept in like that and main seating drive from CC I'm racing drive from everyone Cesar you had to tune up to this on the high banks at Daytona running the oval does that help at all to get you prepared no totally different like ice skating and riding a bike so I wasn't totally different but we love this track this is one of our favorites track and to come back here and the Strongs we're super excited about it well done - you're both in best of luck tomorrow thank you thank you looking forward for another story Thanks yeah Cal you said earlier that Caesar Baca rellies yeah you said there's a big personality you have to be if you're gonna race alongside Martinez he's mr. effervescence and yeah just great to see them being able to continue that run of success as we take a look at the provisional results here from race one and it's easy to tell if the a number panel there on the right is white that is a pro class if it says black it's a pro-am and if it's red it's the M so you can see where everybody finished but tell you that fifth overall 4-way Lou and Jeff Segal that's pretty remarkable very very good I mean you can see only nine seconds back of the lead Pro pack and Jeff said it all I mean we were in the pro race and they literally were and we would expect the same here and again when we get ready for the second round of the championship tomorrow the grid has already the qualifying has already been established for that one and you've alluded to it just a little bit but that number 80 the Acura NSX racers edge the lap by Cal Marcel E they started a front maxi boot put the p1 cutter up into second there's a lot that's gonna cycle and flip and change at least in the early going yeah and the Bentley's line up six and 12 so expect some fireworks absolutely and Daniel Marad and Michael dick asada doing a nice job in that second qualifying Michael bringing that Allegra car up into the third spot again having a solid run so yeah it's gonna be a lot of fun to watch a lot of fun to call I think and the question will be the weather and it seems to be changing rapidly and as I often say it you know the weather forecast seems to be dependent whatever app you're using but it's it's going to be a little sketchy certainly so and we'll have to watch for that and see how that all plays out and unfolds right now of course now all the teams making their way over to the podium for those celebrations and you can see some of the car parades you got a car Corrales etc here that you don't get a chance to do a lap let's go back take a look at some highlights from this one and at the start Bentley is on the front row but it was Daniel Brad with an aggressive move early he's looking really racy that Allegra Porsche came alive start to put the pressure on the Bentley's Molina didn't have the best stuff but like Pamela who's gonna take advantage this side by side eventually Molina gets it and a big moment in this race David a scoot gets a little bit wrong through the esses heavy impact and that caused a red flag stoppage of some 15 minutes then we got back to racing we had a very close quarters battle unfold between the Alegre Motorsports for sure of Daniel Morada miguel molina then the two alegre cars almost got together here wolf hands slapping over the curbing flips his teammate gets away with it but it wasn't the best of finishes on the day for the two Alegre of the horses that had shown tremendous speed on the left front corner of that car and eventually ended up retiring then this battle after the pitstop sequence when as you've said Kalpa rent sensed his loan perhaps opportunity yeah you had to put the pressure on zulay was a little bit vulnerable at this stage of the game trying to get tight em perjure in to his race car brent has a lap more temperature in them he looks to the inside into turn 15 Sewell a just opens it up enough so there's no contact I've eventually took the victory that little last minute Joop to the left I think was domestics like all right you had your chance I was able to defend let's get after it here and boy did they is they just took off and ended up with a dominant win some 30-plus seconds clear of the rest of the field late in the going though this wonderful battle unfolded and Maxie Buch able to get inside everything yeah really impressive there little hip check as they accelerate off the turn 15 that goes to the outside and Evans Lee gives him just enough racing room for Maxie they pull off a brilliant move and take that position away from the Acura yeah outside for the three apex right-hander that was spectacular stuff you fixed that spot up but at the end here we go it seems Sewell a getting the first win for the new Bentley Continental GT 3 as ye and Pepys to bring it across absolutely superb after a great qualifying effort by this team a one-two finish and as I said a dominant one at that and some 30 plus seconds clear the field Hargrove completing the podium in the overall order here at this stage see one of the pylons here giving that information as well coming up on dark here I was a big dad Racing mate whole lots of fun a great way to start the championship season absolutely we've got two qualifying sessions for races and you do red flag a little bit more time on the table that's right thank you to Ryan marine for staying real busy during that right absolutely so let's take a look at the results from the individual categories here in the Pro category the Bentley one two with long and Hargrove in the right motorsport Porsche completing the podium he landed Molina fourth in the our ferry Ferrari the Porsche from Allegra Motorsports the 22 bringing it home fifth Brad and Michael Vick asada and then the team Cara Poulter and Hendler ending up in the sixth spot and as you could see a number of laps down doing due to an early retirement big in the championship very big very big take a look at the am category results and again way Liu and Jeff Segal in the pro battle throughout in the TR three Ferrari the second of the right Motorsports Porsches the Henry rifle entry of Emperor Otto and Olsen finished second Martin barky and Cal Marcel II where celli was throwing some laps down at the end end up third in the Acura NSX from racers edge fourth the p1 Mercedes Maxie Buch with that beautiful pass jumping up into the forest pot with team owner and driver in Jay Z J see Perez and then in the fifth spot till Beckel Shimer and ryan Eversley in the new gradient motorsport Acura I think doing a very nice job yeah I was a great great performance by that team and till bechtolsheim it was really impressive Ryan obviously had a great race there at the end with Buick for position but till did an awesome job in the opening stint as well in the am class Ellen Fuentes doing what they do it seems and bringing home the win second spot was the receipt the Brady to Ferrari Lazaro and I'll check and third the 111 Ferrari of cake Nazi doing a great job as well so look at this here we go the celebrations begin this is the am category and there is the 111 do oh here comes the residue of Lazaro and mullet check as they finish in the second spot and with the win here we go the presentation is going to be presented to Martinez and since our backer Ella from squadra course at garage Italia in the who blow Ferrari as they come to the top step of the podium and add another wind to the group that they are quickly building here what a run they put in here and Bryan Kaminski of course did not cease starting driver that one levee competition Ferrari very very special moment here and this is a podium that has seen some pretty Augusto as well so I think it's a very special in this moment happens here and then there's the bubbly ladies to escape I would think run away run away nice job always great see Anthony Lazzaro he always performs doesn t he does he is he's become also really renowned as a coach for Ferrari Challenge competition but relishes any opportunity to get back behind the wheel co-drivers love him and teams love him today he knows that he's going to bring the best out of his teammates and all of the drivers that he coaches and mentors [Music] there so now we will move to the next category enter trophy presenters make their way up and of course it is the pro-am category and here we go Martin barky and Cowell Marcel II in the mbrp Performance Exhaust racers edge Acura NSX come up for their pictures they have to be really really pleased with our performance as a group mom did a great opening stint Kyle really impressive with these lap times they'll stop from the pole tomorrow overall and just races age that they've got to be ecstatic that's just a tremendous performance a great story maybe that one of the best stories of the day I think so I think absolutely correct here comes the second place and again Anthony Imperato in that right Motorsports drivers suit and then the Porsche Motorsport it's Dennis Olsen the Norwegian driver somebody do ma he did did a pretty solid job of it and here come your winners and again what a story it is way Lew and Jeff Segal for tr3 racing and the Farrar get those pictures flashing that it's not taking instruction well that yeah absolutely all right and there's the spray congratulations and I've often wondered about this they must have either they have a second driver suit or they must have washing machines inside those those rigs because she sweat and champagne yes an ugly mix it is fortunately it's not too hot yeah that hold temperature too as well good point nicely done and now to the overall in pro podium fun back celebrate too much tonight you gotta reset and get ready for tomorrow certainly enjoying the moment as you would expect here so let's bring them out now finishing third in the overall the number 58 rate Motorsports Porsche consulting Porsche drivers Scot Hargrove and Pat lawn and podium result of the day for the right Motor Sports Group they've got to be happy with that absolutely the Porsche and to say let's think class the way those Bentley's are running yeah they're gonna be tough to beat by anyone now speaking of Bentley's let's bring up the second-place finishing card from capex racing in the new Bentley Continental GT three alvaro print and andy suit check teammates before they come the winners water performance what an execution yeah Baptista the international flavor here Brazilian and a Belgian and throws all no question and there they go trophies aloft I've done a number of these podiums there's always the one driver I'm sorry what let's be that position it's the same right alright and now the moment that they really wait for they love the trophies but this is a special one here Darren law comes up for that team getting that first victory for the second-generation Bentley Continental GT 3 yeah blunt pun title sponsor of the championship great job of course now you have to acknowledge some of the sponsors of the championship so if a hat change to take a few more pictures all those trophies up a little bit more get a little thirstier the bubbly taste better that's right [Music] do you miss these moments absolutely they were specially there's nothing like driving into a racetrack I think in the beginning of the day and have enough feeling that you if you execute you can potentially win and then put it all together there's a special moment for you and your teammate certainly when you're Co driving and the team yeah it's very much a team sport you know the drive is this spraying the champagne well that's one of the nice things as you often see the drivers will save a little bit of that champagne and take it over to their crews and say enjoy it here so as you can see we have come right up against darkness here at the first day of racing activity here at Circuit of the Americas for the block punt GT World Challenge Americas but we will be back with you tomorrow with another set of races for every category here we look forward to bringing it to you for Cal and for Ryan Marine I'm Greg Kramer have a great night [Music]

Channel: GTWorld

Views: 428,476

Keywords: BlancpainGT, Blancpain, GT, GT3, Endurance, Sprint, Series, Cup, Motorsports, watch, FIA, driver, sportscar, racecar, car, events, Spa, 24h, team, europe, pro-am, pro, racetrack

Id: ROznN5cxNAo

Length: 156min 13sec (9373 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 02 2019