RACE 1 - ROAD AMERICA - Fanatec GT World Challenge Powered by AWS AMERICA 2021

so [Music] road america in elkhart lake wisconsin has earned its reputation as one of the most revered road courses on the continent and one of the most fan favorite as well the venerable circuit plays host to the seventh race of the panatec gt world challenge america powered by aws season today and it does so under resplendent sunny skies hello everyone my name is ryan marine calvin fish is alongside in the booth and amanda busick is down in the pit lane and before we dive into the story lines of today's race let's take a tour around this 14 turn facility with our porsche track preview hi this is jan helen with the porsche track preview here at road america coming onto the front straightaway getting ready to start a lap here at road america long straight away and a long ways from the start finish line into turn one always makes for a lot of good action at the at the start of the race sixth gear 162 mile an hour down the fourth gear really fast turn one using all of that exit curve really fun corner and then into turn three laid on the brakes down the second gear and then getting ready to uh set up for a really good exit onto that long back straightaway into turn five getting ready to go under the bridge here and this straightaway is all about setting up for a late deep breaking into five lots of um good overtaking opportunities here hard on the brakes at the 200 sign sixth gear all the way down the first sharp left-hander and then up the hill into turn six very short tap on the brake here car gets really light on the uh on the exit of the corner and then into turn seven just a short lift back to power and then flat out down the hill into turn eight breaking right at the 200 down the second gear using a little bit of that curve at the apex and then ready to enter the carousel long sweeper right fourth gear really fast really fun here in this uh porsche gt3 r with all that down force and then exiting the carousel setting up to uh to enter the kink kink is uh one of those famous corners here in america really fast fifth gear 137 miles an hour at the apex and then down into canada corner braking's going to be right at the 300 again a good place to uh to make some moves hitting that apex curve and then again using all of that curve on the exit and then setting up for billy mitchell super front corner blind on the entry and then using all that curve on the exit laid on the brakes for turn 14 making sure we set up for a good exit and then on to the front straightaway and that was a lap here at road america it's always a thrill ride around road america there with our porsche track preview this is of course the panatec gt world challenge america powered by aws part of a three-continent global championship for manufacturers the banatek gt world challenge powered by aws on the screen you see the manufacturers involved in this global championship with points scored across multiple classes in the north american european and australian series and there's a look at the standings at this point in the year what a year it has been for mercedes amg lamborghini also very much in the mix and both will be well well represented today here at road america of course audi bmw and others also involved in the globe trotting championship well calvin it has been a long time since we've seen these cars on track in anger it's been since vir several months ago nearly three months ago and i think everyone is just chopping at the bit to go racing and no better place to do it it's such a special place ryan great to be here on site this four mile track 14 turns delivers a little bit of everything lots of elevation change about 20 stories of elevation change from its lowest point as you climb the hill up into turn one but uh big challenge here for these teams i mean the sun is out right now weather is still threatening here this afternoon we saw some big thunderstorms here yesterday afternoon which could tail a lot of the practice and sessions and preparation for these teams so a little bit of an unknown but even so they'll work on the notebooks from previous seasons but it should be a great battle you talk about the lamborghini mercedes amg in terms of those global points will they'll be starting from the front row here today unfortunately the field is down to 15 cars today we had hopes to see 17 gt3 cars take the grid but for a variety of reasons we're not seeing inception racing here nor the zero four dxdt racing car driven by george kurtz and colin brown the latter of which involved in a crash in practice yesterday that has sent george home for the weekend and our wishes for a speedy recovery once again go out to george meanwhile inception racing part of a very busy schedule and ultimately electing to scale back somewhat we will see them later on in the season however but unfortunately no mclaren 720s gt3 on site this weekend nevertheless plenty of story lines across the 15 cars and down amongst them is amanda busick well one of the story lines we've been chasing all week guys is the weather and if there is any threat of that at the race we just had ahead of there there is not a cloud in the sky above us right now but you talk about the different classes that are in the fanatec gt world challenge powered by aws one of those is the pro am class the car behind me this porsche that one is is currently leading uh the program class of jan halen and fred bordad they'll look to extend that lead again here today as we move up i want to point out this number six k-packs lamborghini there is going to be a battle for the number two position in points and this car is right in it but when you think of the break that we've had since vir one team that seems to seamlessly go right back together is that number three lambeau and joined by jordan pepper jordan back in the car here you see uh you see um right here this racetrack rode america for the first time compare this to tracks you get to see in europe and all over yeah obviously it's again like a good way to start the the summer break obviously we we had a big period off since vir and it didn't end quite smoothly there we had the the abs issue and uh luckily we picked up where we were before that uh andrei did an amazing job putting a p1 in in q1 um it was a bit tricky for me in q2 we didn't quite have the pace of the pros and the other cards we're struggling to find the balance here it's it's not for lack of trying and we're really motivated in getting it right and we're almost there we're almost in the window so i think we we should show a good race now and hopefully we can use the advantage of starting on pole today to to get the win and then tomorrow we're gonna have to fight hard from p6 best of luck thank you very much now you heard jordan pepper make reference to some of the qualifying issues for k-packs and calvin that's one of the story lines while they do have the three-car on pole for race one today the sister car had some issues they start back in fourth for this race and the story as jordan alluded to is a bit more dire when you look ahead to tomorrow's race yeah they're deeper in the pack there there's some braking issues we understand on the sister car jordan related to the number three carving issues of vir where he went off the road there with an abs misfunction but uh the sister car is reporting brake issues in the qualifying session this morning as well so they've got the work to do and uh coming into this season we looked at that lineup with the drivers the lamborghini factory pilots joining capex and the team and the machine and they looked like they were going to be unbeatable well guess what they're not unbeatable the windward racing team put in a tremendous performance at vir grabbed that first win could have been two on the on the trot there bar a little miscue on pit lane so they're vulnerable they come here to the racetrack that has a lot of straight away and uh seems like the lamborghini's maybe been struggling a little bit in that area this year so this is going to be a tough weekend for them but they're a very experienced crew great driver lineup they just got to execute and try and uh get into damage limitation but they're starting from the front but i think with calderelli he's not gonna have an easy time of it this afternoon always quick in the pits as well capex racing and that's a big part of the story infanatech gt world challenge america powered by aws with the full service pit stop coming right around the halfway mark this is a car to keep an eye on here taylor hagler qualified the racer's edge acura in the seventh overall position second in pro-am but we know the car has a ton of pace because our co-driver dakota dickerson scored the overall pull in qualifying earlier today for tomorrow's race number two yeah and the acura's always been very strong here it showed well here a couple of years ago when real time scored their 100th team victory with mike hedland and dane cameron and they scored a victory with race's age last last year as well so uh they're very good here and uh certainly that poor position that dickenson put together this morning was spectacular very much on the limit a lot of confidence behind the wheel and taylor's coming off another podium run at vir three for the season for her including two with her teammate here today at the opening rounds of the championship so expect them to be at the sharp end by the checkered flag here this afternoon it is a team as well with a great deal of experience great diversity and manufacturers up and down the grid great drivers great race track and wonderful weather we're about to start here at road america let's go back down to the pits well gentlemen there are four words that will make it official here to kick off this race and for guests of crowdstrike sam and max annelle are here to make it happen drivers start your engines and with that 15 race cars set to roll to life here at beautiful road america america's national park of speed and a great place to go racing in any car but these gt3 cars calvin are wicked fast along some of these high speed sections at this race track yeah they'll tap out about 160 here three different times though up into term one down into turn five and down in the canada corner as well but the most impressive thing is the downforce of these machines as we look at that number 61a of course at ferrari really impressive qualifying run by conrad gruenwald who qualified fifth overall in the m-class poll here today i think he's spurred on a bit by the fact we've got another car in the air field here this afternoon with tr3 racing showing up with the lamborghini huracan for bill sweedler and john mcgrew and for those new to sro racing yes we are talking about multiple classes here in phanotek gt world challenge america powered by aws but the machinery is the same between the different classes it just comes down to driver experience so in the case of conrad gruenwald who is in what you would expect to be the lowest class the am class he puts in a great qualifying effort and he is rewarded they'll start fifth yeah and only nine tenths off the pole position of andrea calderelli so that's super super impressive and uh looking down the field uh michael dimeo has the pro ampoule for compass racing they're coming off a nice win the vir as well could have been a little bit more other than a little slip in the race one but they bounced back nicely that weekend matt mcmurray has so much experience behind the wheel of the acura nsx number 77 compass racing looking for another strong run here today now up and down this field no shortage of teams and drivers that feel like today might be their day let's talk some about turner motorsport good effort in qualifying for this race by michael dinan he'll start in third in the bmw and this is a track that they've been waiting for all season long they feel the m6 should be right at home here in wisconsin well it's always strong in the straightaway stakes in terms of the horsepower that it has and getting scooting along these long stretches as we look at this one coming down the marine sweep down into turn five but uh also a long wheelbase cars when the long duration corners like the carousel like the king is going to be strong there as well they've also had a fresh engine put in that car since the last round of the championship so they're feeling good here he put in a great run he's third i think uh robbie foley is teammate qualified third to tomorrow's race as well so they're looking pretty racy here this afternoon they're looking for a little bit more than just a podium i think they're looking for their first runner-up finish at vir and don't sleep on the grey car that will start on the outside of the front row windward racing and their mercedes-amg gt3 evo the only team not named k-packs racing to sn to snare an overall win so far this season and they did so the last time out they did different teammate here for uh russell ward this afternoon phillip ellis is back he had a gt masters conflict at the last round of the championships at the ir but mikhail grenier put in a superb run he and russell ward very much uh the team to beat i think in terms of the pace and execution that weekend so win could have been a bit more with a sweep of the weekend but certainly that team is on a tear they're doing a lot of races right now they'll be on different ties globally and i think that team has gone from strength to strength and russell ward has got a lot of confidence going as he starts from the outside of the front row here this afternoon and calvin made mention to an additional am-class entry for this weekend it comes from tr3 racing bill sweedler and john mcgrew former class winners a year ago at vir and ferrari machinery for the same team and their sister car how about a welcome back to the championship to martin fuentes former class champion in gt world challenge america competition he is slotted into the car alongside giacomo altoy that ziad gondor had been driving previously and our understanding is he set for the duration of the season and i think that car instantly becomes a contender in pro-am well martine is uh just such a great character great personality to have back in our championship i think he's won a handful of titles over the years he normally wins races in bunches so him and alto a should be a real formidable combination running the rest of the season great mix of manufacturers at the front of this field as the lamborghini euros safety car pulls away the pole sitter andrea calderelli now has control of the 15 car field he'll have the mercedes of russell ward alongside then the bmw of michael dinan a second lamborghini of giovanni venturini starts in fourth the next row consists of the am class ferrari from af corsa conrad grunwald with michael dimeo and the acura nsx alongside and then further back you go you've got mercedes you've got aston martin in the field and it looks like we'll do one more trip around behind the safety car here before we go green uh and we'll turn these 15 cars loose yeah i believe there was just one formation lap prescribed here so i'm assuming the clock will start here when that was my understanding as well but we will see indeed a yellow flag is shown on timing and scoring that usually does mean that that's the case and the word we're receiving is that the cars were not in the correct order and so race control we'll take a look at that make sure everyone is aligned properly and we'll try it again the next time around unfortunately it is a long lap around this place under safety car conditions and that will take a little bit of a chunk out of this 90 minute race but let's talk race format here calvin 90 minutes two drivers full service pit stop in the middle and it has to occur inside a prescribed window it does uh between the 40 and 50 minute mark of this 90 minute race is when that pit stop has to occur you have to be on pit lane no later than 15 minutes into the race no earlier than 40 minutes in the minimum pit stop time from pit in to pit out including all of the service and the driver change for this class is 86 seconds so pit lane delta by itself if you just drive down the pit lane at the speed is about 40 seconds so you got about 45 seconds or so to do that service and get the driver change done it should be pretty comfortable but as we know when the pressure's on anything can go wrong we've seen races won and lost to the pit lane just go back to vir windward looked set for a breakthrough win in race one of the weekend and a little miscue on the pit lane cost them dearly but they came back and executed perfectly the next day and frankly that's what it's going to take to win overall look at the professional level of team we see represented in the top five from a of course which won its classes both of them at the 24 hours of le mans just one week ago and k-pax racing and windward which won the 24 hours of daytona earlier this year turner motorsport which has plenty of experience in big time racing as well just like this series so you're going to have to be picture perfect in the pits if you want to have a chance yeah and that can make the subtle difference i mean track position is obviously king and even though there's good overtaking opportunities here at road america with this gt3 machinery you do get that aero wash effect that takes away some of the downfall force from the following car so sometimes it's hard even though you've got a slightly quicker car to be close enough to make that move but you know execution on that pissed off there should be plenty of time to get the service done it's then about executing using the software that they have in place as to when to release that car not be underneath that minimum there's a one second joker that you can use so if you beat that time by less than a second you're allowed to use that just once per weekend so if you don't do it today you know the teams will suddenly adjust that minimum threshold for tomorrow and trying to eat that second up so every tenth of a second counts and it can jump you ahead of some of the competition i think the big key today is we saw in qualifying ryan i know people were pretty aggressive with their starting pressures because of the short 15-minute session as to how the tires will hang on here slightly warmer now this afternoon looks like we should have a dry race weather has moved across the zamanda related to blue skies right now but that will mean managing these tyres could be the key to victory here this afternoon it is a busy weekend of gt world challenge action across the globe the fanatic gt world challenge europe powered by aws is in action as well over at brands hatch with the sprint cup round and of course the american series here at road america australian series in action two all of them paying points towards the global manufacturers championship for gt3 manufacturers part of the global nature of sro racing and gt3 racing well let's try it again coming through turn 14 once again with the capex racing lamborghini of andrea caldarelli in charge of this field coming up the giant hill on the front straightaway at road america 4 400 feet in length from turn 14 to turn one and now the patient climb up the hill waiting for the green flag from tom hansing up in the starters stand caldorelli to the left of the screen russell ward of the mercedes to the right of the screen coming at what looks like a snail's pace but it won't be for long as calderelli accelerates away grabs the lead and the fight is on for third and fourth behind yeah i think call the rally there was really suspected that bmw and the power that it has if he led them to a fast start here comes michael dinan down to the inside on russell ward that's a battle for second calder only leads from the pole dinan puts that bmw horsepower to work slots in third after challenging russell ward momentarily here comes vintorini to the inside of dine and he's going to slip past to get his spot there in turn three yeah ty is coming alive very quickly there on the lamborghini here comes michael dinan now using that bmw powder good effect here looks like he's got back by venturini for that third position but great strategy by calderolio pulsar and bringing them up really slowly look at this battle between michael dimeo and conroy gunroll going down into turn five that compass racing acura is very much on the march right now the race winner the last time out along with matt mcmurray and vir slots in the line behind the am class leader with conrad bruno behind the wheel that was side by side a bit further back with the field able to sort itself out here on the first lap of a 90-minute contest first lap at speed as the first lap was run behind the safety card settling in here it doesn't take much time and loading these tires to get these probably p-zeros up to pressure up to temperature and start to give the drivers the grip they're looking for here this afternoon so i'm gonna twitch from demo in the compass car as he made his way through the center of the carousel long duration corner really puts a toll on those pirelli piece zeros this is tomato right here what a revelation he was his first gt3 race weekend at vir ended with a class victory and he is back with the team and they expect him to be for the bulk of the remainder of the championship and he's got great young teammate and matt mcmurray who's gonna hand over the reigns to a little bit later in this race mcmurray coming off the gt3 championship win here in north america last season he knows this anchor extremely well also works for honda performance development as an engineer in his spare time so he's very plugged in on the engineering side with acura and honda specifically and rapid behind the wheel as well we'll see him in the second stint this is the other nsx in the field racers edge motorsports dominated this championship a year ago it's a much different driver lineup though this year calvin and the emphasis emphasis is on driver development as they plug in a couple graduates from the hpd gt3 academy into their race program yeah boy have they done a great job taylor hagler behind the wheel now [Music] pair of podium runs at the opening round of the championship at sonoma along with the teammate here today to dakota dickerson carl's been shared with jason jacob abel in other rounds of this championship so great to see dickerson back here this weekend here's a move with that power down to the inside robbie excuse me michael dynam very late on the break side by side gives ward a little bit of elbow room as they climb the hill up towards turn six late on the break he's holding the inside in the bmw the fight for second and it's not done yet very clean between the two and ward will have the inside lane but backs out of it because sweeping across the bound to claim second spot was michael dinan that was really nicely done right there just gave each other enough racing room didn't trade any pain michael dinan on the charge right now they tested here about 10 days ago really felt they found something with this car put a fresh engine in it they were really hopeful coming in here with a strong weekend so far so good giovanni venturini the next one to take a crack at russell ward let's take a look at this again calvin picked up the draft there down the rain sweep got it down to the inside gives him enough room with that little bit of runoff area there and then russell tries to hang tough around the outside to turn six but eventually you're just going to lose a little bit of grip can't get the power down there and michael just sweeps around the outside by the time they got to the apex for turn six very impressed with what conrad grudenwald has done backing up that qualifying pace that saw him start in the fifth overall position that's where he's running even still and he's still there hanging around with lamborghini factory driver giovanni venturini in this green number six capex car yeah that's really super impressive it looks like the ferrari's really dialed in here this weekend let's see how they stack up up this straight away the calderelli leads handy gap right now as they cross the stripe the second and a half is the gap to the leaders right now michael dinan up to that second position this is where the car should be really good through this first sector a couple of big straightaways involved here plus a really fast turn one with that bmw long wheelbase will really work well also looks like something went wrong for jeff burton in the rear did racing lamborghini he's dropped back to 15th dropping four positions since we started this race so something not quite right and he's up something like eight seconds back behind the next car in line this is a look at jeff coming down the front straightaway here the car he shares with vesco kozurov looks alright to my eye at least on this side of the car i don't see anything i miss right now and uh jeff coming off a really nice weekend at nashville but you couldn't have poorer opposites in terms of track than the tight confines of the nashville street circuit and here are the four mile wide expansive stretches of road america that was in the gt america powered by aws championship and you're right jeff looked right at home on the street circuit he had eyes wide open when i talked to him the first time there about oh the narrow confines of the big walls staring at him behind each bin but by the end of the weekend he was loving every bit of it and seemed to really come into his own hoping to carry some of that momentum forward here in savannah tech gt world challenge america powered by aws and we'll also see him in gt america a bit later on and i think the extra seat time really helps out he's made that transition over to the lamborghini this year racing working really hard new shops here this year as well in terms of their workshop so been a lot of work going on behind the scenes to dial in that lamborghini a lot of logistical changes as well continuing to impress right behind is the pro am class leader michael demaio going through the shot now it's the second place runner in that class taylor hagler going from strength to strength it seems like calvin you talked about the run of podiums that they've had looking for a win and i think this could be the weekend where it happens because the car looks strong she has looked right at home and dakota dickerson pull sitter for tomorrow's race is very very fast around here yeah i think matt mcmurray may have his hands full when dickerson gets behind the wheel of 93 races edge machine because they're they're pretty equal obviously the same cars so it's going to come down to who's going to stand on the pedal the loudest here this afternoon so it should be a fascinating duel for that class victory since making the pass for second michael dinan has put a gap of six tenths of a second over russell ward he's 1.8 seconds behind the leader andrea calderelli will keep an eye on that gap as it develops to see if dinan and that powerful bmw m6 might be able to make some headway here's fred poor dad his co-driver john halen gave us the tour of the track with our porsche track preview and jan will be taking over at the pit stop but fred has emerged as one of the better ams in these pro-am pairings they've had a great season to date and he's doing very well so far nice solid start for fred fourth in class came out the box strong won the opening race at sonoma raceway and then have uh tagged on five consecutive runner-up finishes to give them the points championship lead right now the right motorsports team had a gt3 podium here about a month ago so they got the setup dialed in you would feel for this porsche here this weekend and uh fred pordad what i love about him he's not intimidated he doesn't have the experience a lot of the drivers that he's around but he's willing to get his elbows out and uh just give it a million percent no question about that aaron vogel is driving the mercedes purple red and silver machine right there at the front of the picture she made history at vir in race one of that weekend she became the first female race class winner in sro america gt3 competition and she and michael cooper they've been working together a couple of years now calvin seemed to be finding something hitting their stride as she comes up to grips with running gt3 cars for the first time yeah and it seems like she's taken to the higher horsepower more downforce machine very very well so i think it's been a good fit for her she again is not intimidated she's been so close to other podiums that runs this year but keeps learning and i think when michael cooper is a teammate is a great combination a lot of experience there great team doing a ton of testing so her learning curve is a steep one but she is climbing up rapidly she's got her hands full right now though with the second place running car in the am class bill sweedler driving that tr3 racing lamborghini a new addition to the lineup here this weekend as tr3 expands to two cars bill teaming up with john mcgrew those two together ran for tr3 at vir last year and swept the weekend in the am class it was basically their only appearance in the championship but the two plugged right back in and even though it's a different car going from the ferrari to the lamborghini looking pretty stout in their first weekend as a tandem this season yeah and great to see bill back with john and bill's history and racing is pretty spectacular he's won a a bunch of races over the years won a gt3 championship he's won at le mans he's one of daytona the 24-hour race there so a lot of endurance competition but i think he loves this uh somewhat sprint format and uh great to see him have the passion to get back behind the wheel and having a really impressive run here when you're not running full time any longer and when you're an am driver essentially a business man during the week to get back into it and run at this sort of level is pretty impressive it has been indeed while we watch aaron vogel fending off the challenge from bill sweedler let's hear from her co-driver who stands by with amanda well you guys talked about the win they had at vir and just to point out that was the first time a female has won in the gt3 for g2 world challenge america but michael it seems like you guys are hitting your stride right now at this part of the season what do you attribute to that yeah it's just getting time in the car getting used to it getting aaron used to it and then getting a setup underneath us that feels good and comfortable every single weekend and we struggle with some inconsistencies early on in the year but we are hitting our stride right now and things are just getting better and better for us from your experience as you go track to track how do you relate relay that information over to aaron to get her up to speed um you know she's been to a lot of these tracks now just not in a gt3 car watkins glenn will be new for her and we're going there next week to uh to do a test so you know just sharing little tidbits to her um and then just giving her the general overview of what's the theory of the track and like what what works there what works for a race what do you have to do all that kind of stuff thank you michael cooper looking on i think one of the more underrated gt drivers on the continent i think you feel the same way calvin yeah michael cooper is just uh top drawer i mean he's really really good i mean has opportunity passed it but i don't think so i think whenever he's behind the wheel of a with an operation like dxdt and the opportunity he shines as he showcased the villa so he's won four uh sro slash world challenge championships over the year you can do it any level and i think what they're getting into is aaron's confidence grows with the gt3 car and the engineering expertise of jim bell that allows them to make the car a little bit edgier a little bit faster and i think that's the real challenge for a pro like michael is to have a car set up that maybe he has to compromise a little bit in terms of its outright pace to make sure that aaron's comfortable driving it and the more and more they get into that window where they can drive the same car quickly that will really bring the results they're looking for back to the battle with the front of the field and you saw it on the screen a few moments ago andrea calderelli setting the crown strike fastest lap of the race at 210 159 but critically these two aren't too much off of that pace just a couple of attempts one way or the other and after making the pass dinan had initially put a gap on russell ward but that gap has dissipated these two running very competitive lap times even in reference to calderelli but that might go by the wayside if they start to start uh battling one another for position well i think the good thing to enable michael dinan to uh keep running his lines and hitting his marks is that the bmw typically will stretch the mercedes a little bit down the straightaway so that's where you're very vulnerable at the end of the straightaways into those big brake zones so the fact he gains a car length or a bit more each time takes the pressure off because if they can maintain that pace it's going to put a lot of pressure on the k-packs team and certainly calderelli's teammate jordan pepper when he gets behind the wheel so are they beatable today capex certainly they are but is going to need to keep the pressure on throughout the stint i think the other thing is time management how much of the probably p0 is calderella using right now in comparison to michael dinan and russell porter checking back in on that battle we were looking at a moment ago for 10th overall aaron vogel and bill sweedler and zwiedler has a problem it would appear he's dropped off the back of vogel clearly off the pace and that's allowed david asked you to sweep by just a moment ago i'm curious if we'll see this car headed to the pit lane and indication indications are well i thought we were going to but he stays on the racetrack instead let's take a look here he got aaron's not quite sure what's going on she finally uh zips on by i'm not sure if he's trying to do some sort of reset without coming down pit lane again coming down pit lane cost you about 40 seconds so even a brief stop there sometimes you almost better find a safe spot on the side of the racetrack if you're doing a quick electronic reset than burning that time down pit lane and we'll see what becomes of that but unfortunately it looks like a bit of a setback for bill sweedler after a nice start to this race here's russell ward taking a peek to the inside calvin was that legitimate or was that just trying to get into the head of young michael dinan just getting his head he wasn't really close enough to slide it down at the inside but he elected to take that uh left-hand lane coming down the hill dropping down the hill with the brake zone for turn eight and i think michael now has got so much more experience uh he's always been quick but now he's got that race experience coming off a brilliant run last year where he won like 16 races combined in gt4 competition but he recognized he's moving up to this gt3 class is a big step up and uh but he's finding his feet the team is finding their feet with this m6 they've got jay o'connell legendary engineer from the ray hall let him lanigan team and uh he knows to get the m6 very well and i think that grassley getting it dialed in uh had a fresh motor installed uh recently and felt that was giving them a little bit more straightaway speed than they'd been seeing so far this season so all things are looking very positive right now this is just fascinating as calderelli continues to build his gap it's 2.4 seconds now over dine in the sister car with giovanni vintorini struggling to keep the pace and right there in his tire tracks the am class leader conrad goodwill running fifth overall he's not going anywhere challenging weekend for the number six car seems to have carried over into the race here count yeah i texted with thomas blum who's one of the engineers and strategists on the team they said we're having some kind of breaking issue with the six machine remember the three car had abs issues at vir so i'm not sure if it's a similar nature but certainly venturini is a lamborghini factory pilot you'd expect him to be a little bit closer to his teammate calderelli but he's now seven and a half seconds behind his teammate here in the early going all right has an experience racing doing some drifting he's racing some big races over the years but mostly serves as a driver coach don't see a lot of full seasons on his cv but he and jc sada got paired up and they've been running the full season so far pretty much unopposed until this weekend as far as the m class is concerned but they just keep plugging away and the car is getting better and better it seems like each and every weekend and we're starting to see some of that persistence bearing fruit with this great run inside the top five overall yeah super impressive his pace is uh right there he's running uh lap times within a tenth of a second aventurini and uh certainly equal to uh demayo was right behind her but hagler's had a lot slightly faster lap than all four of those drivers i just mentioned so uh she's got some pace there this afternoon in the race's edge acura as well a second ago jeff burton making his way back through the field on a recovery drive this is russell ward just pushing a little bit too hard there using up all the racetrack and then some well we talk about track limits but what i love about what i call an old-school racetrack like this it pretty much demands that you respect it you know what i mean there are certainly some corners like term one turn five turn 12 a little bit but if you go beyond that edge then that's what you're going to run to and it kind of self places you're going to lose a bunch of time by having to crack out the throttle a little bit and just giving it up so just love the ability to explore all those limits find that little bit of pavement even if it's not completely between the white lines andrea calderelli continues to lead and the gap is starting to grow somewhat as dinan and ward start to battle somewhat at least amongst themselves the gap from first to second has grown to 3.1 seconds it's eight tenths of a second between these two second and third and then you've got to go back about five seconds to find giovanni venturini right here leading this gaggle of three and he's pushing hard you can see him using all of the roads and before coming out of turn one there as he looked at that drop down the hill so uh he's pushing hard but if there's any kind of braking issue i mean there's nothing worse than that you're thinking about obviously the safety if you have brake failure but if it's not quite feeling right that really sets up the whole corner right as you know you're coming down and breaks out how you release the brakes if it's consistent if the abs is kicking in or isn't that really will uh mess with your head a little bit also upsets the balance of the handling of the race car at the same time this is not a track i mean you never want to have brake problems but if you don't have full confidence in your brakes here of all places it's got to be very unnerving it certainly is uh it's a high speed circuit and here we see sweeter again i think still uh running a moderate pace right now i'm not sure exactly what's going on with that lamborghini technically right now he's continuing to sort things [Music] [Applause] [Music] clearly something amiss with that machine which is a real shame because as you said we've been waiting for the bulk of the season to see the second am class entry materialized we've been hearing that something was in the works and it was awesome news to receive that bill and john mcgrew his co-driver had come to terms and they were going to be racing here this weekend and for the rest of the season yeah don't quite understand why he's not hit pit lane i understand if you think we'll just do a reset uh bill let's see if you can get the car back to full power but if it's not happening get it to pit lane you really got to use this rest of this race as a test session to get the car healthy and 100 for the race tomorrow let's focus forward now in terms of the next race rather than just hanging on right now this is the front of the field once again with calderelli extending that gap up nearly to four seconds now but elsa ward's not going anywhere this is i think the story of these two drivers is very similar where they kind of came into the sport a little bit later than many of their peers but they've gone about it by they tried to make up that deficit by running as many races as possible all around the world and both of them we've seen huge strides over the last couple of seasons we certainly have and for michael dinan has been a busy time he just returned from lamar last weekend didn't run in the 24-hour race but in the road to le mans gt3 category there finished on the podium one day so learned a lot about track knowledge there which is uh so important with a young driver's career to take that box and get to le mans for the very first time it's a wonderful experience uh his teammate robbie foley did compete in the 24-hour race with the project one of water porsche but didn't have the best of weekends they struggled a little bit with the handling on the car had some issues and uh ultimately had rear suspension failures we look at russell ward looking down the inside that was a bit more legitimate a little bit closer there and i think these little moves but here by russell ward are really distracting michael dinan enough to probably affect his lap time at this point and i think that's why calderelli is pulling out the lead a little bit further mill sweedler has made his way into the pit lane and amanda has an update for us well ryan you saw he just threw his hands up there is complete and utter confusion over here on this number 10 car and team i talked to the team and asked what was going on they said there's nothing in this data that can let us know so as you see them looking over the car i'm curious of exactly what they're looking at but even the lap before before they pitted when they came back this front stretch here the car was just laboring i'll be curious to see what happened and we'll keep you updated that's very strange because there's so much data that comes off of these cars up to the cloud thanks to aws and down to the teams and you know it's just information constantly pouring off of the car and for them not to have any clue from that data what might be troubling them is a bit of a head scratcher it really is but again you've got just over an hour now it's like a test session keep tweaking on it see if the mechanics can see anything make some changes put him back out there i mean certainly the stewards don't want him running around at a ridiculously slow pace but if they can't just try and get a fix for it before the race tomorrow [Music] cal torelli leads over michael dynan and russell ward though is stalking we've seen him get closer and closer which with each successive lap and he's made a few faints i think he's made a few genuine lunges as well but has not been able to break the concentration of the youngster just up the road well the bmw breaks well also mercedes is probably one of the strongest in the field in terms of the braking department but um you know i think for michael he recognized look i'm stretching it a little bit right before i get to the brake pedal and that should allow me to have that gap or i just hit my marks run the radius through the corner and not compromise my lap time so you get more and more confidence unless the tires start to go away a little bit further the more that you do it you kind of get that dialed in i don't have to really think about it i'll just look in the rearview facing camera and know where he's at but uh not really think about having to defend but by the same token maybe russell will suddenly find a little bit more be a little bit later on that middle pedal and plow down the inside here in one of these corners this seems like the part of the racetrack that coming into this carousel at least that ward is able to close in somewhat but then the grunt of that bmw comes to the four once again and as we look at our race mission powered by aws top speeds through the kink this fearsome corner right here look at michael dine in 113 miles per hour through one of the most fearsome corners of american motorsports yeah and i'm not sure if that's uh on the approach i think they're actually a little bit uh higher than that actually through the middle of the corner probably about 120s is probably what you're going to see at the apex speed there but you're right it is a very daunting corner and certainly the bmw is stretching his legs but he's doing a nice job the key is not to make that critical error just keep hitting your marks try and keep that gap down true if you could keep come in and have that gap down around six or eight seconds on calderelli he will have done an amazing job here in this open extent for turner motorsport you should note as well that this race these races typically do turn around somewhat in the second stint even in the pro class because quite frankly although dinan is racing in the pro class and same reward their co-drivers are significantly more experienced than they are in terms of robbie foley and phillip ellis and so that might change the ultimate capability of these cars here this weekend when that driver change does take place and it's certainly going to affect the pro and lineups quite a bit and so it's always interesting to see who starts to come forward once those driver changes take place you know foley had a gt3 podium here just three weeks ago in a different championship so he'll be able to get straight on the pace and maybe he'll be able to run a little bit quicker than jordan pepper so peppa's going to be under a lot of pressure certainly you think the team will execute this pit stop be able to maintain the gap they've built but anything can go wrong there and then it's all about your in and out lapse book and calderali do on his in lab compared to uh michael dinan and then all the outlaps robbie foley versus jordan pepper gonna have fresh product pzeros going on straight out in the oven to the blankets to get those drivers up to speed that's true that is one unique aspect of this championship compared to other north american sports car racing series it's the only one that has tire warmers in play daddy mind it's changed some of the strategy but that came into effect in the middle of the season a couple of years ago the teams had to adjust to it because calvin some of the traditional strategies employed with pit stop timing were thrown out the window when tire warmers came into the fold yeah it really does uh thinking about the undercut versus the overclock that changes when you're ready up to speed immediately so sometimes they're doing the undercut and worrying about getting those tires up to up to speed quickly you can be bang on it you know pretty much by two or three corners in they're not going to be at their ultimate temperature and performance but uh they're pretty close to it so it doesn't take much of a load to suddenly get them bang into their sweet spot a couple of noteworthy drives are right here in this shot conrad gruenwald certainly through the first 30 minutes of this race has been a star in my eyes qualifying that car in the top five and keeping it there right within striking distance of the capex lamborghini that has won a race this season and is one that we look at as a favorite everywhere we go and then michael demaio right behind again just his second ever gt3 race weekend learning a lot on the fly and looking for another spot overall took a peek to the inside trying to find a way past that ferrari but ultimately settles back in line however demayo the canadian who does have a nice pedigree a former pirelli world challenge touring car champion going back to 2014 still getting up to speed with his car and it makes you wonder by the end of the season just how good he'll be once he's totally come to grips with the thing yeah young driver who looked like it slipped through the net a little bit but he and carl thompson had a great relationship with michael runner for the compass racing team carl was running in the same championship that year finished second in the points behind michael so a long time ago but they've stayed in touch good relationship there and that's what it's all about as a young driver you're gonna have some ups and downs you may not have the continuity with your career but it's the relationships that you built and the networking that you create will keep you in the game sometimes it should be noted that rodrigo sales will return to that team later in the year he's got a very busy schedule this year he started the season racing alongside matt mcmurray for compass but is pairing that with several european programs as well uh the plan is to have him back later in the year filling in ably and i wonder if that might be a prelude to something for the future check this out this is a new graphic for us our speeds in real time in kilometers per hour it's worth noting if you're seeing those numbers and thinking wow that's awfully awfully fast and it is but uh it is kilometers per hour not miles per hour and drea calderelli giving this lamborghini a great ride around road america yeah he's touching about 160 into the brake zones for uh 12 to 1 and turn five so that's kind of the straightaway speed that you have and uh and that's with a lot of downforce on these cars that they're running here at road america you needed to get through the corners and certainly into the brake zone so if you've got more down forcing break a little bit deeper as planning those probably zeros into the asphalt and giving you the grip you're looking for to slow it down and andrea on top of being a rapid driver and lamborghini factory driver he also manages the orange one ff racing team that has become one of the premier lamborghini outfits in europe a chinese flag team that did a lot of racing over in the asian championship came to europe a couple of years ago and really burst onto the scene and they've got a multi-faceted program in place in europe this year and andrea oversees all of that also as team manager but his day job is probably still behind the wheel of the race car and there are few better if any behind the wheel of a lamborghini than andrea caltarelli well i think it's a great asset for any team to have to have an ex-driver who's uh kind of spearheading the operation and certainly k-packs have that in darren law super successful sports car driver over the years a lot of big titles a lot of big races and uh he gets it you know when you're a driver and you come in and just say listen there is something wrong having that driver mentality with someone who's leading the charge in terms of the organization really helps that process and get you through it's easy on the good weekends right ryan but when you have a problem someone who understands the situation and those who have withered those storms in the past are probably more prepared to deal with it and listen to the feedback of the drivers translate that into the team management side of things it's been a steady hand at the tiller for capex for a number of years now post his driving career closing in on the pit window calvin and this battle continues to rage do you think there's some sense though for russell ward to just being patient here not forcing the issue and seeing what might happen when the driver change occurs yeah well it's going to be interesting to see what they choose to do what they elect to do here in terms of who's going to be the first to blink so we talk about doing the undercut the undercuts when you come in early a little bit earlier than your competitor you get some fresh prolly p zeros in and you go out in a really strong out lap can maybe beat your competitors in lap so let's see if they both come in immediately when the pit lane opens and turns it over to philip ellis and robbie foley respectively but that could be a key to that in terms of if someone decides to stay out there a little bit longer but either way he just wants to be as tight as he can put it in the hands of the team to execute the pit stop and then have a reset when you get the co-drivers back out there as fast as this bmw has proven to be in a straight line that makes it very difficult to pass as you talked about earlier and maybe if you're windward racing you're thinking our best chance to get this past done is not actually on the racetrack but with clever pit strategy and quick pit work yep and uh but the key is foley can blink first you know what i mean he's gonna have the first opportunity to come in and um see if uh they just say to uh russell ward follow him in if he comes or or do the opposite they've got to make that decision here pretty quickly with less than five minutes to go before the pit window opens yeah exactly so so david ask you here driving this dxdt racing interned mercedes this is another team that's had some big changes in the last year or so moving from utah out to north carolina and david askew not just driving this car but also the team owner feels like that's paying some dividends it opens you up to hiring some really talented individuals north carolina being such a hub for motorsports in the u.s but it's another utah connection behind with the zelus motorsports team jason harbour driving madison snow will take over and uh those two have put together a couple of solid runs this year looking for a kind of a breakthrough type weekend but whether it's out front or not that car is always a fan favorite just because of that bright colorful creative paint scheme yeah pretty cool uh harwood and ty isaac are the co-owners of this team and ty was a racer himself a speed skater who ran in the red bull crushed ice uh championship and uh that was uh an event that used to get 180 000 spectators at times so he ran for the u.s national team in the world cup and so he's a keen competitor loves his racing and uh just great to see uh this utah base team doing so well here bigger and better things to come for them too jason harward still very new to professional racing and he's getting as much track time as he can this year running both in this championship as well as the single driver gt america powered by aws series so we'll see him in this colorful car on track again later today and a couple of races tomorrow as well and chasey down david askew who's been in the series a few years now and has that advantage of experience so i think there's a chance here for jason to go to school a little bit and learn from someone who's got some more track time just up the road and i think for david askew uh doing a lot of testing as we're here we see this battle heating up for a second russell waters right in the shadows there but michael diamond as they once again head down the moraine sweep of the sargento bridge iconic pictures here at road america look at taylor hagler she's having a great run here at the end of her stint really putting the pressure on conrad runewall so she's keeping the pressure on here she wants to try and chase down michael dimeo up ahead for that class lead right now before she hits bit lane east wants to get rid of the impediment which is the out of class am car running just up the road conrad bruno doing a great job as we've talked about but to my eye at least that car looked awfully squirmy in the braking zone and i wonder if maybe the handling's starting to go away as they get deeper into this run and that's let hagler get closer as burnwald has slipped someone off the back of demeo who's uh now slipped ahead of him in the overall running order on that last lap dimeo around grunwald now fifth in the overall on the clock i standings everyone's got to do one more lap he'll complete this lap and could potentially come in on the following lap 50 minutes uh left to go is when that pit lane window opens so but super impressive when you look at taylor hagler she's not that far adrift of venturini there less than a couple of seconds back and uh her lap times uh within a few tenths of the leaders so a really impressive run by taylor she leads another championship tcr competition in north america this year so a big year learning really quickly you put into context the considerable golf in experience between taylor in a gt3 car and someone like giovanni venturini who's been racing gt3 cars at the highest level for several years at this point it really goes to show what a quick study taylor has proven to be and just getting stronger and stronger as the year goes along yeah got a couple of coaches here this working hpd factory drivers ricky taylor who's a lead in a prototype championship here in north america currently and ryan eversley has been a stalwart this uh former competition over the years as well so two really good experienced heads in that paddock working along with the team in terms of pointing these young drivers in the correct direction pit window is open as you see on the screen there and so we'll see who blinks first calderelli by the way has built his lead now to nearly nine seconds so after hanging pretty tough for the first half of the stint michael dinan has dropped off someone he's built up a bit of a cushion over russell ward it was one second half the line that's a good battle to keep an eye on though of course as dimeo comes down and uh is closing in a bit on venturini and the report from the pit lane calvin is that windward might be looking to make that move to the pit lane here early as the report is that windward is getting set up for a pit stop yeah and i'd be surprised if turner don't call michael dinan in as well because uh they can see that and uh you'd have to think that would be the wise move at this stage of the game he's done a great job i really feel that russell north keeping the pressure on has been enough of a distraction and compromise in terms of the racing line that's enabled caldera pull out that gap he's kind of doubled it here in the last uh four or five laps so that could be significant in terms of how we end up here at the end of the day let's keep an eye on these two likely the first ones to come in it doesn't seem too terribly likely that andrea caldarelli will pit from the lead as well as things are going for him with clean track up ahead and indeed he has stayed out on the track for this slap i think or has he ducked into the pit lane he has so calderelli comes to the pit lane puts lie to my words and so does ward meanwhile diamond stays out and will lead this lap now has clean track ahead of him and calvin it's important for dinan here to turn in a nice quick in-lap if indeed he is coming in after this one this is hammer time michael schumacher was known for it in formula one when ross braun used to give him the call lewis hamilton does it now but michael diner needs to do it at this level of competition as well he's got to give everything right now this lap from michael dinan could be pivotal in terms of that track position and the ultimate result here this afternoon is standing on it as he inherits the lead in the bmw meanwhile here comes the k-pack's car from the overall lead andrea calderelli will turn it over to jordan pepper the championship leaders who have dominated this season they've dominated this race so far jordan being installed behind the wheel as the crew goes to work changing tires meanwhile windward racing also hard at work and amanda stands by in the pit lane and that's philip ellis getting in that mercedes he returns for his first time since dakota i talked to him before getting in the car he was actually pouring himself with cold water with an 87 degree temperature right now with a will fill of 97 degrees you can only imagine what these drivers are feeling but i asked him about tire strategy and what his plan will be he simply laughed and said i'll have to tell you after the race but my question for you cal is at this part of the race what do you do to protect this tire strategy heading into the back half of this of this race your thoughts on that calvin yeah i think old about just waiting for the point down there a little bit it all depends in terms of the gap i mean you don't have any option but to go for it if you're tight with someone who's uh still on their in-lap or you got someone right on your tail but uh ideally for pepper he's got that nice margin that called the rally built built that will land to gradually bring those pirellis up to pressure up to temperatures now we're seeing this michael diamond in lap you'd have to assume that turner motorsports will bring him in this lap but you never know what strategies at play slows it a little bit looks like he's hitting for pit lane what was this in lap compared to the outlap for philip ellis that's going to really be the pivotal decision here the other thing to keep in mind calvin is the changeover to ellis was somewhat delayed about 90 seconds there compared to 86 seconds for the two k-packs cars so that tells me there is the potential here that a little bit of ground was lost depending on how turner does yeah that should be uh turner's uh sweet spot right now he's next to a good clean spot and robbie philly should be ahead of philip ellis admittedly ellis is going to be in his rhythm a little bit quicker but that was enough that was a huge margin to give up four seconds we saw the capex leaders come in just give up three tenths of the minimum delta of 86 seconds now we see robbie foley jumping out taking over from his regular teammate here these two are working really well together good friends off the racetrack spent a lot of time socializing and doing fun stuff together really building that chemistry and amanda is watching the pit stop well we were correct robbie foley was out before uh the pit stop with windward racing they are right next to each other i talked to the the team leader will uh turner on what the decision was he said simply they just wanted room for this pit stop so that's why michael diane stayed out for one more lap that door did not close calvin saw that at vir when robbie foley jumped out on day two and uh he had to go back and uh one of the mechanics clicked it but that's going to be an issue sometimes it's not that easy for the driver if it starts to flap around to actually reach the handle or the strap and get that thing closed and at speed that could be an issue interesting windward does come through with philadelphus at the wheel so does k-packs let's look at the timing here was a bit of a slow stop for turner wasn't it 91 seconds that was two seconds slower than the wynwood one so i'm not sure what was going on there it looked like everything was routine but looking about 40 seconds to the the time you lose down pit lane so it should give you 46 seconds doing that easy math to work with that should be more than enough time to do a regular service so something big time i missed they just needed a good clean one they would assume that position they've had a disaster here because it's allowed the sister capex machine the number six car of corey lewis to get around as well and looks like dinan was able to get that door shut so that's good news at least crisis averted on that front this is a car i want to keep a very close eye on dakota dickerson has taken over for taylor hagler and we know he is fast and comfortable in this car because he qualified it on pole for race two tomorrow earlier this morning yeah looking at their pissed up time that was a really good one 86.01 so they gave up a hundredth of a second over the minimum so great job by the race's edge team versus the compass racing team they lost seven seconds so that's given that lead to uh dickerson right now and has given matt murray a big headache he's got chased down a very fast driver here this afternoon there you see the af corsa car coming through jc sana will uh take over that car if he has not already it sounds like he has not conrad bruno driving at the moment and has inherited the overall lead as a result he's going to go as deep into this pit window as he can before turning it over to jc wow really surprised that turner motorsports had that pit stop didn't see anything go wrong so we'll try and check in with them and see if something did happen that we weren't able to observe on the camera but a big change up here in terms of the overall and pro class uh positions and also for this pro-am battle as well dakota dickerson has been waiting for this chance to get back in this car since the first weekend of the season came to an end that's the last time we saw him with racer's edge the plan at the beginning of the year always was for taylor hagler to begin for the full season and dakota and jacob abel all three of them graduates of hpd's gt3 academy they would share that second seat throughout the course of the year and the way that schedules played out dakota wasn't available or it wasn't possible to have him in the car until here so it's been a long layoff for him but man he has gotten right back up to speed in a gt3 card it didn't take long and speaking of up to speed quickly here comes robbie foley he is chased down corey lewis this is the battle for third that didn't take long it was a big gap when he came out the pit lane behind this uh green lamborghini huracan and uh robbie's erased that in short order but catching and passing is a different story we know that the six cars reported some breaking issues from the qualifying session this morning so i'm not sure if everything is 100 from lori lewis he has a ton of time aboard these lamborghinis as well effectively like a lamborghini junior pilot right now and uh he's kind of leading the charge all three of his teammates in both cars really don't have a lot of track knowledge at most of the circles we've run on here this year so they're really leaning on him to uh point them all in the right direction will inherit the lead as coverage has come into the pits that will promote philip ellis to second overall so this becomes then the battle for third and here comes robbie foley taking a peek to the inside and the canada quarterbacks out of it at the last minute settles back in line yeah good driving there corey didn't get super defensive and take the air off the nose of that bmw and robbie was smart enough to know wasn't quite close enough to take advantage and here we see the 61 car conrad clinton world an amazing qualifying run great performance in the race as you can see pit window is still just open so they ran it down the last possible inch to uh get him in and their strategy there is of the two drivers conrad has a bit more pace here this weekend so they've kept him in as long as possible here comes corey lewis on the defensive around the outside robbie foley into term number one move him up to p3 power move for the bmw driver around the outside yeah really great racecraft there by robbie in terms of timing that recognizing he just has enough momentum to sneak back over and get back online and turn into the corner and clear corey lewis so that was really nicely done and great job by corey trying to hang on the position but nothing he could do there with the power of the bmw down that straight away so the next position for robbie foley will be phillip ellis who runs about five seconds up the road we'll keep an eye on that gap and see if robbie can't make some inroads i think visually right there you saw ellis leaving the shot as he crested that hill right as these two made their way down the hill into turn five some work to do but when you've got that rabbit to chase out the windshield calvin that always makes the difference but talking to fast race cars no one faster on the racetrack that last time around than john halen who has the bit between his teeth he just set a blistering lab a one a two minute eight point two and uh that's about a second quicker than what jordan pepper is running in the lead right now so a lot of pace here coming off the back foot a little bit in terms of their track position right now so jen halen currently third in the pro-am class and he sits about 17 seconds behind dickerson about nine behind mcmurray who sits in p2 in the uh division right now but turning laps considerably quicker than those two half a second quicker than dickerson the last time by over a second faster than mcmurray on that last lap so halen will be told that by the team right motorsports on the pit box and he will continue to keep that head down as he chases the top two in the class meanwhile we check in here on dakota dickerson who is the leader in the pro-am class and the driver who started that car is standing by with amanda oh exactly someone that definitely kept their head down during that and has opted to stay seated for this interview as we talked about the heat and the effect on the drivers you can see still a little bit red from her drive i talked to the team owner john marachi just prior to this interview and he said that he told you when you got out of the car that he how proud he was of you describe that drive for yourself um honestly it was probably one of my best drives to date um we didn't get a lot of practice just with the rain and the red flag and practice one so i kind of went out qualifying that was my practice and then the race i just kept getting better and better and obviously having both of the coaches here ricky and ryan are a lot of help and the team has been really great to try and get me up to speed here because i've never driven a gt3 car here but being able to follow the other acura in front of me and just kind of stay up with him and have the gap behind so i didn't have the pressure it really helped me get up to pace there and the team had an amazing pit stop to put us out in front of the compass car so fingers crossed we're not going to get too excited here but we're both having a really good weekend as you prepare for this race to prepare for a challenge like this how do you break down a racetrack that you see for the first time corner by corner sector by sector i'm really big on sector analysis a lot of drivers don't really like it but for me just being able to split the track each corner and see physically how many seconds down i am usually based off of dakota that really helps me and then just being able to look on the dash while i'm at the track like driving um after each corner i can just glance down and be like okay that was a really good turn and then the next one i'm up some more i'm like okay that's i can feel when it feels good um and then just track maps data i have an ipad so now i write all my notes on that and it's just a lot of breaking it down individually breaking throttle steering angle it's a lot of work thank you taylor great job thank you keeping a close eye on that car because we're seeing something coming out at the back of that machine i want to talk about that in a second calvin but just popping up on timing and scoring we got an announcement that cars 19 and 96 will be receiving drive-through penalties for pit lane infractions the 19 is michael cooper and aaron vogel they're back in ninth overall but the 96 is the robbie foley driven car that would be costly as they're running in overall podium contention wow well they certainly didn't uh beat the minimum pit stop delta because they were way outside of that so they must have had some other snafu which may relate to why they were slow as well so it's uh rubbing salt in the wound back to this racer's edge car did you pick up on that as well something maybe from the back of the car definitely an overflow or a vent tube there coming out the tail end and it seems to be a lot coming out so that could be a concern what's not a concern though is the pace of that car dakota dickerson was very fast he picked up six tenths of a second over corey lewis on that last lap and our pro-am leader now is closing in on fourth place overall that could be an interesting fight to keep an eye on but this is the 96 car that as we saw on the screen a second ago got the notification they'll be serving a drive-through penalty and that's a real shame because michael dinan had a great stint and foley looked like he might be in a position to run down phillip ellis for second yeah a really strong pace for robbie thought he only had 10th of the second off again it's fastest lap and his last lap was half a second quicker than jordan pepper immediately peppa's well down the road but even so anything could happen if you had a yellow according to the punk job looked like foley had the potential in terms of the pace to make something happen here this afternoon so this would be a bit of blow just drive through penalty is going to cost you about 40 seconds to the cars that remain word from race control is that the penalty in both instances came from starting the engine while still up on the jacks and it's definitely not something that's permitted for the regulations and costly miscue there for certainly the turner car to a lesser degree the dxdt racing car which was uh running fourth in its class at the time and michael cooper it appears he's already taken that car through the pit lane to serve his drive-through penalty well we talk about being in a rhythm in terms of the driver finding a rhythm on the racetrack and his stint and her stint uh but for the teams as well it's been a long break and i know some of these teams running in other championships but sometimes utilizing different crews so sometimes that's why you'll see these penalties almost like coming out of an off-season ride in terms of getting back into your groove we saw just in the corner of the screen there robbie foley making that long drive down the pit lane talk about it a lot not all pit lanes not all drive-through penalties are created equal this is a tough one to stomach because this is a massive pit lane here in road america yeah it's a big one it's a long upfront stretch and uh you eat a lot of out climbing that hill before you even get to pit lane itself but the minimum speed comes kind of halfway up that hill it was a time when they used to actually implement dual speed zones for the pit lane because of its length but just one set speed now it's a slow 150 kph let's check in on this fight here this now becomes the battle for the overall podium final position on the podium third and fourth in the overall running order with dakota dickerson tracking down corey lewis getting closer and closer and the word from the pit lane is no concern from racer's edge about what we saw coming out of the back of that car so that is welcome news and dakota dickerson then can just focus on trying to find his way past a savvy veteran of gt racing while dickerson himself very new to this form of the sport coming from open wheel racing where he's an accomplished champion in both f4 and what is now known as former the regional americas yeah and uh again you have to factor in the big picture you're sure that john muraki and his crew are giving dakota all the information he needs in terms of exactly who he's running against and uh certainly dakota will know that coming into the race who's in which specific class so it's not like your last uh we saw in the gt4 race a little bit earlier today where one of the uh winners said i wasn't really sure who i was running against this afternoon or one of the podium finishes so um i have to wait and see what sort of attack and approach that dakota uses here he's got the class lead by a healthy margin right now uh nearly 10 seconds over matt mcmurray how much does he want to uh risk that versus the reward of finishing on the overall podium that becomes the question doesn't it because even if the pace is there there is always risk involved in going for an overtake and there's no extra bonus for finishing on the overall podium it's all about position in class and as you said that is well covered at this point based on a strong first stint from taylor hagler and what we've seen thus far from dakota dickerson yeah i'll tell you what he has a lot of pace i mean if he can roll speed here through turn three could be on the attack by the time we even get to the next corner the penalty has dropped fully back now to the seventh overall position john halen has made his way through and he is slowly but surely closing in on matt mcmurray so that would be one incentive here for dakota to go on the attack because everyone knows john halen is charging in the right motorsports porsche not too far behind this battle he's uh he's not too far away but um unless something hard should happen uh dakota should have enough of a lead even running at the pace these two are right now so but you never know i just want to keep pushing and uh we'll see this could be a tasty little battle here in the next couple of laps comparing and contrasting these two cars they do have some similarities between them where might you expect to see or where have you seen dakota have an advantage over the lamborghini and vice versa well i think they're pretty evenly matched but i'd say if anything looking at the costume this weekend that seems like the acura does have a little bit more straight away speed than the lamborghini huracan so he's gotta be close enough to make it do something with i mean the lamborghini is very strong in the brake zones but we have heard that the six cars had some breaking issues so maybe he's vulnerable right there as well just 30 minutes left in this 90 minute affair the seventh race of the championship the hinge point if you will the uh in this season that comes to a close at the end or the middle of october it's interesting we we've talked a little bit about this already but this championship has been kind of slow getting started we had the big break for the total energy's 24 hours of spa so we've not seen this series in action since back in the springtime but we've got a lot of racing packed in to the next couple of months i think four races in the next eight weeks yeah very much a better rhythm to that as we uh move forward we head off to the glen here in three weeks time and a couple of weeks after that uh we're down to uh sebring so lots going on here in the championship and this is where the big teams and the experienced teams are able to handle um this sort of frequency of races and uh very busy time for a lot of these drivers running in global championships as well as this one in north america saw a shot there of the overall leader a few moments ago it's still jordan pepper out in front 9.7 seconds ahead of philip ellis who himself has a 10 second gap over this battle this is though as close as dakota dickerson has been late on the breaks into turn five can he get it woed up yes he can but here comes corey lewis back to the inside he'll have the preferred line up the hill through turn six oh this is going to be tight here does cory get his elbows out tries to nearly touch there dakota just clears him great racing between these two dakota was so late on the brakes they're down into turn five but was able to just control that speed through the apex keeper on the road or he's just able to sneak back up the inside but not strong enough to make it stick made it look irresistible didn't he as late on the brakes as he was and still very much under control and keep in mind this is the driver coming from single-seater racing he's not used to having the abs system that you find on a gt3 car and it seems like anybody i've ever talked to who's transitioned from open wheel racing to gt3 cars the number one thing they say it's not the weight of the car it's not the relative lack of downforce it's adapting to abs yeah it's it's so uh unique and so goes against the grain of what you've trained yourself to do throughout your motor racing career but those electronic aids are so good now just lean on it use it and you'll find a lot of lap time as well well the star of the opening stint of this race was conrad grudenwald let's hear from him with amanda well ryan just called you the star of this race so far but you guys had the best qualifying effort of the season here performing well today what did you guys look at from virginia to pull off this at this moment well lucky for us the team put in a lot of work we did a lot of testing they really helped jc and i understand what it takes to get the most out of this car and we're trying our best to apply it here this weekend and yeah i couldn't be happier the car is great the team's doing great my teammates doing great right before i talk to your own headset with your teammate what information were you related to well we were just talking about race management at this point our competition's you know a few laps down so we're going to play it safe um it seems our front tires are falling off first in the car so i want to really take care of them so that's what we're talking about thank you cool thanks currently running in the lead in the m class jc sata behind the wheel now tenth overall and he made reference to the competitors in the m class john mcgrew now driving the tr3 racing lamborghini five laps down but circulating out on track once again just trying to gather some data ahead of tomorrow and if something were to go amiss here and they were able to make up those laps in time then they could be back in the hunt for a win so that's the race management we heard conrad talking about and looking at cruz times he's within a couple of seconds of the car's best here today on his last lap so we saw sweden kind of cruising around the racetrack i would assume they fixed that issue which is good news but this battle is one that is heating up nicely this is battle for second in the pro-am class mcmurray held it right now again taylor has been very much on the charts apparently holds the fastest lap of the race and on the last lap across the strip he was seven tenths faster than that nori the man in front of him has been that much faster seemingly than anybody since he's been installed in that right motorsports porsche what a pairing he and fred ford have turned out to be here this year the the two of them raced together a little bit last year when uh fred was primarily running in the m class he won the m championship a year ago did one weekend at circuit of the americas as a pro-am his co-driver that weekend was uh busy elsewhere i think at the 24 hours of le mans i remember that correctly and then the three of them all ran together max root fred poor dad and jan haywin at the indy eight hour and were very strong as a trio and that's transitioned nicely into this season and fred's a guy without a ton of gt3 racing experience but looking right at home there's a good little battle going on here between madison snow and drew stavely 8th thing class [Music] just goes to show you how deep the competition level is in this field someone like madison snow is a past gt3 champion through stately gt4 championships under his belt and they're running in the deep part of the top 10. well new teams in both instances not necessarily a new team in terms of the staff and personnel for ian lacy racing which is running drew stapley in this aston martin franken at the co driver but new to gt3 racing after several years driving different gt4 cars the geneta the ford uh among others and it's a big step for them they've talked about that a lot they're starting to to come to terms with the car it seems like as the season reaches its halfway point but the zaylou's car right behind that is a brand new team doing a lot of learning on the fly this year and what a great resource madison snow is to have as part of the driver lineup it's been super successful with lamborghinis and other championships and he can bring some of that to this brand new operation and they've had three top five finishes of the four races they've competed in and madison really sort of strong with vir so quite sure why they're as far off the pace this weekend as they are but it's been an abbreviated uh sort of weekend in terms of the red flags and the lightning in the area and the wet race track and uh they're a team that probably doesn't test as much as some of the others being a slightly smaller operation so i'll put you on the back foot you want to get here get the practice sessions under your belt weak on the race car if you lose a lot of that track time well you're suddenly in race conditions you haven't had enough time to sort things out and it should be worth noting this is not really been the best weekend for the lamborghini as a whole other than jordan pepper out in front right now but we saw a capex struggle for qualifying in race two with both of their cars a bit further down the order and some of the other lamborghini teams we're used to seeing running a little bit further up haven't had the same kind of outright pace we've seen elsewhere and as much as we talk about balance and performance creating a relatively equal playing field you're still going to have as you like to say horses for courses in some tracks it's just not going to be ideal for a certain platform and as far as i'm concerned as long as that's even over the course of a season there's nothing wrong with that that's good right i mean you don't want the same cut and paste sort of performance and uh stacking of the deck uh each weekend so uh that's something that a lot of teams struggle to get their head around i think we're all very selfish as a racer you want to be quickest every single weekend and if some team or car is an advantage you don't like it but as you say you hopefully uh balances itself out over the course of a seven uh event championship thirteen rounds to this championship with their including the series in october but uh look at it just getting back to that haylen mcmurray battle royale for now as we look for later george peppa but uh halen caught him in a hurry but it's kind of uh stalled out a little bit and he was actually a fraction slower than uh matt mcmurray on that last lap i noticed that too and we talked about it a lot but for new viewers it's worth noting these gt3 cars they make a lot of downforce and they're dependent on that downforce and some of that gets compromised when you start running in traffic it does i mean essentially you need the air to be hitting those aerodynamic devices in terms of that front splitter the rear wing the little winglets and um when you take that away yeah you're going to punch a hole in the air for that following car but you're really going to hurt it through the cornering and even into the brake zones this could prove to be a challenge for that very reason as our race leader now has caught the back of the field it's madison snow just up the road we saw him in that fight with drew stavely a few moments ago there's a look at some of these computer screens that these teams have at their disposal capex racing in this instance it's amazing how much data is available to the teams in real time in modern motor sports you're not gonna be comfortable on the last lap uh philip ellis took a second out of jordan peppa's lead and looking at the time on the clock um you know you're looking about 10 laps to go so he did that for 10 more laps um pepper only has a six and a half second lead so this thing is far from over right now we'll keep an eye on the times from filabellas who is running comfortably by himself in second overall second in class but as you say starting to close in somewhat on pepper the race leader that was ellis coming through the shot let's pick him up headed down into the braking zone for turn number five such a difficult corner big time elevation change you're hard on the brakes and a lot of dynamics going on inside that race car that you're trying to manage with the wheel and the pedals you really are it's really a dance on those pedals particularly as the tires start to get worn don't have the grip you can't be as aggressive with everything you just got to uh finally manipulate that in terms of your pressure and your threshold with everything you're doing and this mercedes seems to be hooked up he's carving the corners as i like to call it in terms of the lies that you're looking through there not starting to slip or slide yet obviously they'll rely a bit more on the electronics as they get deeper into this entire run but he'll be inspired by uh recognizing the team we've given him to the leader two laps in a row he's taking a second a second plus out of that gap that will certainly have the capex team very concerned who lead this race right definitely so back we go to this scrap here which has matt mcmurray in the compass racing acura still able to hold off john halen really impressed with what matt's been able to do to keep the wiley veteran behind it yeah and uh go back to three years and say well matt mcmurray may be easy me for someone like anne halen but matt has a lot more experience a couple of championships on his shoulders in the last two years won a prototype competition in 2019 on a gt3 competition in north america in 2020 and that that just gives you confidence and matt mcmurray is really a young man who's really learned the trade very well burst on the scene as a very young man in terms of being the youngest to do this that and the other but right now he's legit he's really really strong we're seeing that on display i mentioned earlier his day job which is working as an engineer with hpd he's a aerospace engineer by training went to uc irvine and has found a nice home for himself within the hpd family not just driving but working within that organization as well it's always such a bonus if you've got a race car driver who understands the mechanical part of the sport has that mechanical sympathy and someone of his level of accomplishment academically certainly falls into that category and he was brought up around the racetrack as well his father chris mcmurray uh had a long career businessman very successful in that arena but also very successful as uh what i'd call a pro-am driver in terms of really wasn't earning his living but just really loved racing and i'm sure matt has been a a big part of that in terms of the family coming to the racetrack over the years and uh being brought up with it and certainly he's had the support of his dad earlier in his career and now he's standing on his own two feet with rice like he's getting here chris a former class winner at the 12 hours of sebring so a lot of racing experience to impart upon his son that's a good look at the right motorsports camp and fred poor dad just relaxing watching on halen do the work now that his job is done for the day yeah he's a impressive guy fred poor dad just uh really have enjoyed watching it over the last couple of years really when i've seen him run and uh just been super impressed with his pace i just love his grittiness when he's behind the wheel even around competitors who have a ton more experience could be a factory pilot for lamborghini or whatever he's not intimidated he just go out goes out there and gives it his all in his mid-50s is pretty impressive we saw that a lot last year didn't we in the second races of the weekend or when max route would qualify and often max would stick that car up in the pointy end amongst some of the pros some of the fastest pros and then his stint would come to a close he'd turn it over to fred cordad and the car wouldn't drop back at all fred was feisty he would hold on to those spots and had the pace to merit it as well and that's carried over some to this year yeah this is a this is a great little battle here and up front it's getting really tight between pepper and philip ellis we talked about the gab is now down to under four seconds so for about five laps here in a row alice has taken a second out of that gap to our leader jordan pepper aboard the number three lamborghini hurricane from kpax racing traffic may have had something to do with some of it because they both had to make their way through madison snow we've seen that jordan pepper has also now cleared drew stavely philabellas is going to have to do that here shortly but after that might have a chance to have some clear track between them there's a pretty big gap into the next gaggle of cars that they would have to lap with just under 16 minutes left so i think we'll see just how real that pace is very soon once ellis makes his way through the lap traffic yeah and if they maintain the current pace that they're on the two leaders there's not a question if it's when philip ellis catches jordan pepper and uh then as we know they seem pretty evenly matched the bmw is stronger down the straight away than both the lamborghini and the mercedes but i don't think there's much to choose between the two but certainly in terms of overall lap time right now philip ellis looks very menacing he's coming in a hurry it's not a name that's necessarily super familiar here in north america although he was part of the 24 hours of daytona winning lineup earlier this year but has been racing a lot in europe with windward and with htp the team that windward acquired and really helped them expand and break out into so many different championships worldwide long time mercedes team htp in europe and a lot of engineering expertise that they've been able to bring to the fold but racing in gt masters or at the nurburgring in nls and gt world challenge europe also in the the endurance cup he's been a big part of their programs and uh this is a team on the rise now we'll see just how good they are can they back up their overall win from race two at vir drew stately will pull over to the side as to not encumber the battle for the lead and now with clear track ahead of him phillip ellis takes off in hot pursuit 3.4 seconds behind the race leader jordan pepper well you know that pepper will have got the message so if he's got anything left if he's managed those tires and he's got a little bit more rubber to burn here in the last 15 minutes it's time to start using it up because you don't want to get to the point where you have to get defensive compromising your lines for 10 minutes or more left on this race distance so game on right now certainly on that last lap we know that ella said to uh get around stably maybe he's being compromised a little bit in terms of the damn force even from a distance back in terms of that ultimate lap time but still took uh nearly half a second out on that lap alone and he's continuing to push climbing the hill here through turn six under the corvette bridge one of the most difficult corners on this circuit it's blind and turn in on an elevation change as well ellis stalking in the almost darth vader colored windward racing mercedes that giant grill grinning in the rear-view mirror of jordan pepper and getting closer it seems by the instant yeah he really is he is pushing hard i saw him start to slip a little bit off at turn six couple of laps ago as he's really starting to ring the neck of that bar and that's really where the experience comes in you just gotta feel the car feel the grip that's given to you don't over exceed that otherwise you're gonna start punishing those cars more and more but look at that line through the king using every inch of the road without risk running off peppa's got a little bit of traffic he's going to be concerned here and uh this is where this young south african driver really has got to dig deep here and trying to hang on to this win well we saw that gap on our graphic right there had dropped three tenths of a second from the last check and now there is some lap traffic just up the road that the leaders are going to have to contend with let's see if they can do so without too much trouble let's also check this gap with the line down to 12 and a half minutes remaining across the line comes the leader jordan pepper in hot pursuit across the line philip ellis the gap down under three seconds two point eight seven nine six tenths of a second on that lapse and not the big chunks that we were seeing about 10-15 minutes ago but nonetheless that mercedes has a faster base right now than the lamborghini in front of it he's going to keep charging but certainly he's minimizing the damage right now jordan pebble with the lap times he's running but he's going to get caught it's just a question of how much time will be left on the board i'm sure a lot of nerves in the pit lane with windward racing amanda you can see everyone sitting attention about three laps ago when ellis was chasing down pepper but they think that there's about three laps before they get to him and russell i'll talk to you just briefly and you said that you're letting philip go all out on tires do you think you'll have enough when he makes it to jordan pepper you know i think so the mercedes is really good on tires you know that's our strong suit uh so you know just hopefully he can keep the car under him and i think we can we can chase him down but getting by him is a different story so when you're sitting in this position you're watching along what thoughts are going through your mind on what you would do you know i mean really the thoughts go back to my step because i think we would have been a little closer if i i made a mistake and let dinan buy so and i couldn't get back by him um so i know but philip is the best in the world and if anyone can get by and fill up cancer everyone's on guard it's high praise for philip ellis remember when russell ward won that race at vir it was mikhail garugie the canadian who drives for this team and other championships who was paired up with russell ward so now back to the regular co-driver philip ellis and it's paying dividends as he continues to close in both of the top two have made their way through some more lap traffic i think that was vesco kazrov who relented and let these two through and now they are running up on the back of jc sana who is uh currently driving the class leading m am ferrari for af corsa well russell ward and philip ellis haven't won in this formal competition uh together but they did win the rolex 24 big endurance race to start on north american championship season so they've got a lot of chemistry they've spent a lot of time together they've worked together a long time so certainly uh russell is very positive in terms of what he feels his teammate is able to pull off here this afternoon but moments like this are crucial right now that is exactly not what jordan pepper needed and that will really inspire philip ellis who gives chase oh that's two laps in a row the turn one has been compromised for jordan pepper turn three also compromised he needs to get the run off of that corner now and get this pass made of this left car going into turn five and maybe create that buffer just for a few moments until filabellas comes through for now soda looking very strong in the ferrari here comes pepper to the inside can't wait around late on the brakes and he gets it he's just going to keep it on the road i thought he's going to wash out wide there what does sardo do now in terms of uh maybe uh halting the progress here for philip ellis tough to get around this little sector here tough to get out of the way even if you want to three flags being waved there for jc sata alice is going to plunge it down the inside uses all of the road and more headlights flashing wow this is tough this is really brutal for these leaders to deal with this at this stage of the game with less than 10 minutes to go well the case of jordan pepper traffic giveth and track traffic taken away the good news for him here is it's hit the windward car just as badly as it hit him maybe worse because we saw ellis there forced to sit in line through the carousel now first to make an aggressive move through the kink and they make contact [Music] wow wow that was so unnecessary big contact there and that's going to be a full course yellow and may end this race that is so disappointing to see a race car crash hopefully jc is okay but so unnecessary ellis had to force it and i just felt if he got to the inside for the king that you could kind of see that you could see that one coming it was going to end in tears that's a real shame for the af corsa run team they had such a great race going great opening stint let's look at it again well alice had to go for it you know he's going to come off this corner a little bit more speed and for jc he's just got to really be more observant here and recognized these are the leaders he's got to the inside so just crack out of the throttle there let him slide through and pick up the line again and he fights out with him gets that little nudge gets on the grass i thought he kept it together then right at the last moment he's just pinching away from that wall enough to turn the race car back across the road and smash into the concrete wall that is a heavy impact you can see the damage done to the left side at the number 61 ferrari and team will have its work cut out we have gone full course yellow safety car dispatched as you would expect for the heavy accident there and what a close call it was for filabellas too i mean that could have ended in tears for two of them ellis though somehow able to keep it pointed straight and at least will secure a runner-up result it would appear so disappointing for the af corsa team conrad did a great job jc you could see from his pace it wasn't like he was just being eaten up by the the leaders here's another look at it and i could sense this was going to come i thought jc is going to get aggressive into the king there's nowhere to go for these two drivers alice could not afford to crack out of it and give jordan pepper another half a second or a second in terms of that gap otherwise the potential victory is going to be gone and um just not an ideal situation on the long history of road america there are not many instances of a side-by-side pass into the kink working out for both involved it's just not a high percentage move under any circumstances and you would think that the af corsa team would have been delivering the message listen these are the overall leaders coming through you got the m-class lead don't jeopardize anything so not only did it you know ruin the end of a potentially great shootout here in the last five minutes or so it's also ruined their race as well um he could have just cracked that over let the leaders go by the the side and just tag on to them and just bring it home hopefully jc is all right and it can be a lesson learned applying to the next time hopefully that car also repairable ahead of tomorrow's second race of the weekend race vision powered by aws top speeds that we've seen so far that bmw no surprise there 162.7 miles per hour but how about the strength of that acura nsx gt3 evo taking down the next two spots on that list yeah very good uh good good chassis works well and they're coming out with an evo kit for for next year evo 22 so um that car should go from strength to strength so hpd acura not resting on their laurels continued to try and build a better and better machine it seemed like that first evo was so instrumental the car was fast it always was but it had a reputation of being difficult and a lot of those problems were solved with the evo kit and it went from a car that in the right hands could perform as well as any to a car that no matter who was driving it seemed like was a really rock solid platform yeah i think that's spot on with that analysis ryan in terms of the car has always been quick right out of the box a demonstrated pace but not the easiest thing to set up and not the easiest car to drive and they just worked on it and uh found it to be a more comfortable setup with the changes that they are making brought them into the production with the evo kit and uh since that time has just really been great and that's that's what you're looking for we talked about that earlier in this race between michael cooper in terms and finding the setup uh that both a pro and an amp driver can run and same thing for a manufacturer they need to develop a car that's not just super fast and super edgy that the ultimate pro can drive but also the one that the gentleman or gender woman racer can drive as well it does look like dakota dickerson is set to clinch the first victory of the season for the pro-am pairing of dickerson and taylor hagler in the racer's edge acura back to the pit lane here in the final four minutes with amanda and you can imagine the frustration that was on the faces of the af corsa team when we arrived and as we look at a couple of replays i'm sure you've seen it as well was there communication with jc on letting ellis by there yeah of course there was um you know i mean it was it's a hairy place to pass an am driver uh he was alongside jc so you know blame is going to lie with jean-claude which is unfortunate it's it's a long hot race out there i don't think he realized he was so close um so yeah it's a it's a real bummer um very sorry for jc and the team uh i'm sorry for i think believe is ellis in the car for having any kind of contact and yeah hopefully we can get the car back together for tomorrow what'd you make of the analysis cal well i think it was very fair i mean uh you're in the heat of the battle and uh going for the win and uh sometimes when you are not a pro as jc is is not he's an am driver a gentleman drive very good one but um you know i was able to think clearly uh and i think he just got wrapped up in the moment there he made it tough for jordan pepper to get by but to me that that i could i could understand it with jordan that's the first leader to come up and make that move but when you then look at your mirror and you see another car there and as conrad said we were certainly giving him the information then that should be a no-brainer in terms of just move out of the way keep it safe bring home the class victory they may still get it because uh looking at the laps here the um the tent car of uh mcgrew and sweden is still a couple of laps behind so we'll have to wait and see what time running out i think they're going to still get the class victory they've done more than 75 to score points and be classified but could have been such a better day in terms of bringing the car back to victory lane having a fresh you know clean car to run with tomorrow there's a ton of work to be done to even see if he can't even be out here for round two but just got an open turn of motorsport it was the car was up on the jacks when they went to drop it so uh that was why the wheels were spinning and a little bit of uh out of sync coordination between the driver behind the wheel that was why the pit stop was slow and obviously why they got the penalty for uh the problem in pit lane earlier today tough information to pass along but a big thanks to the turner folks for relaying that information to us and then to all of you at home disappointing day for them and what might have been robbie foley right now has that car in seven but like it might have been strong enough to challenge certainly for a podium overall podium if not uh something a bit more than that but uh not not their day here today the the thing is though calvin we're gonna do it again tomorrow and with a totally re-stacked grid qualifying was pretty wild this morning as we take a look here at the crown strike fastest lap of the race looks like john halen will solidify that but back to what we expect tomorrow a lot of the cars that featured at the front of this race they'll be starting pretty far back in race two yes uh jordan pepper lines up six so they've got a lot of work to do if they're going to sweep the weekend but um we thought they were vulnerable today i think they were certainly going to be under threat there in the last few minutes of this race but um this incident has been paid to that so they continue to execute uh we've only got beaten once this year the capex lamborghini squad and that was by the wynwood team that are right on their tail again today so tomorrow we'll have to wait and see you got dickerson sitting on the pole i got a lot of really fast cars up there robbie foley lines up third tomorrow i believe and only a few tents off so he showed tremendous pace only a tenth of a second off the end halen's fastest lap that we just saw there from crowdstrike so lots of action expected to resume tomorrow hopefully we'll see that 61 car in the fray however and for k-packs racing the good news is you come out of this with a couple of class podiums first and third as it's running but you know you got some work ahead of you i guess this was pretty good damage control for race one they needed to maximize this one where the qualifying positions were quite good because tomorrow really figures to be a challenge it does but they they they controlled everything they can control ultimately if this pace in the car is not there which it didn't seem to be compared to some of the chases uh but they had a good clean pit stop drivers didn't put a foot wrong jordan there was pretty circumspect with getting around jc sata but kept it clean unfortunately it will in behind the safety car but it is win number five on the season for the number three k-packs racing lamborghini urakon gt3 evo jordan pepper finishes it off the pole sitter andrea calderoni sharing in the glory another win for the team and they'll extend their points lead even further heading into the eighth race of the season tomorrow other class wins first on the season for racers edge motorsports big congratulations to john meraki and the crew dakota dickerson and taylor hagler pick up the win so aaron vogel who made history as the first female gt3 class winner in sro america back at vir taylor hagler follows her into the record books as the second to do so am class win it does appear will go the way of the af corsa car jc santa and conrad grudenwald hopefully that car can be repaired after the heavy crash that brought out this final full course yellow and eliminated any chance for filabellas to run down jordan pepper a lot of teams though i think can take some positives from this lessons to be learned and tomorrow figures to be fascinating it does as we said pretty awkward weekend and for the teams in terms of losing so much try running so they'll learn a lot here today they'll make some tweaks overnight and who knows maybe someone who's struggled today can turn things around and find the magic source for tomorrow how about some kudos to matt mcmurray let's give him a call brings that car home fifth overall second in pro-am despite all the pressure being heaped on him by john halen yes uh he really just sat there and stood his ground and didn't crack under the pressure and halen had such a run going not sure if he used his ties up a little bit or whether it was just the hero wash once he got close to mcmurray that kind of uh halted that charge uh you know he's gonna dig deep and try and find that next step on the podium first time they've been off the top two steps this year but still on that pro-am podium for uh jen halen and fred ford they continue though their string of consistent performances it's hard to find much weakness in what they and right race right motorsports have been able to accomplish to this point in the season here is the final running order all 15 cars as they were classified across the line provisionally we should be hearing from our class winners shortly as they make their way around once again i do wonder what we would have seen from phillip ellis if he could have made that pass on jordan pepper i'd be curious to hear just how nervous jordan might have been is that mercedes got closer and closer i know um it was had all the potential for a thrilling finish and it was thrilling in a different way but um we're looking at dakota dickerson what a strong run he put in here today uh ably assisted by taylor hagler she's got a big smile on her face she's loving her racing and uh she has a big bright future ahead of her and her teammate of course who uh brings it home here yeah she's relatively new to all this too and has been on the fast track if you will running a lot of races and many different types of cars and that's something that can be said for dakota also and i applaud them for challenging themselves jumping from a front-wheel drive touring car in the case of taylor to this rear-wheel drive gt3 car big step up an arrow for dakota i think he's got his eyes set on being an open wheel driver professionally but sees the value in gaining experience in other cars and and broadening his horizons a little bit and whatever path they end up focusing on it makes you a more well-rounded race car driver when you reach the highest echelon of whatever your chosen profession might be yeah and i think you know they're running with a great team in race's age led by john meraki i mean he's given so many young drivers drivers like dane cameron and uh and others uh the one of the taylor boys you know they're starting in racing in gt competition and uh to make this move uh essentially from gts gt4 competition uh where they ran the sims for a number of years and just it was like seamless they got these gt3 cars immediately on the pace were willing to take the big step up and have performed and he just really gives these young drivers the perfect platform to experience uh this formal competition steer them in the right direction give them great advice and uh the team enabled a great day by perfect execution on the pistol i think they're just marginally outside the minimum pit stop delta number and that just sets you up for for success so uh great to see and in talking to john as much fun as they had last year with trent hidman and shelby blackstock winning all the races that they did and they were the dominant team in the championship he takes as much or more pleasure in bringing the young drivers along and seeing them develop and ultimately succeed so i am i'm sure he's going to have a huge smile on his face we saw him walking in the background i'm sure he's going to congratulate his team and his drivers for taking that next big step taking a look at philip ellis coming over to congratulate jordan pepper sharing a couple of words there yeah i don't think they needed to really hear each other i think their uh hand motions are both talking about the same uh situation there towards the latter stages of the race and shake of the head and i think jordan realizes he probably got away with one there in terms of potentially losing that race here today now let's hear from jordan down in the pit lane amanda is standing by almost three months in the last race at vir and the number three lambo hasn't skipped a beat and jordan we're halfway through the season at this point what's been the highlight for you so far you know what i've big congrats to the team because we've been yeah we haven't been really an easy path around road america we struggled the test last week struggled this week but we said when we can get a win is when it's going to matter most and i think today's win is going to mean more than any other win so big congrats to my team they keep digging they keep working it got really close in the end but yeah sad the race ended that way i think for the spectators they were in for an exciting battle with myself in phil but yeah anyways happy with that and super tough for everyone so let's dig deep and keep going the second half of the year congratulations thank you did you find it that way too the hard earned wins or the ones you savored more than the ones you went out and dominated yeah for sure i mean there's so many ups and downs in terms of this sport i mean for someone like jordan pepper and this team they're typically having the high notes do you know what i mean other teams and drivers may struggle a bit more but there's certainly tough days and hard days and uh they realized coming in they had to really keep grinding keep their head down stay focused and they were able to do that and that's why they have success because even when you're on the back foot a little bit you can't give up you just got to continue to believe and they certainly did that today back to victory lane and amanda music standing by with the racers edge team that gets up their win for the acura dakota you came into the last lap on on this run but describe the run for you and the excitement of getting this win yeah it's definitely intense leading a gt3 race but the racer's edge guys gave me another fantastic car and from there was just managing the pace to p2 it sounded like we had another really fast accurate nsx gt3 evo behind us so was pushing there at the beginning part of the stint and then just trying to save tires in case for a restart but really fun glad to get this first win boosted taylor in the points as well so it's an awesome weekend so far taylor the podium is right over your shoulder you're about to head there and you're going to be awarded a trophy your first win when you look back on that trophy what will you remember of the day um honestly just being like a super intense weekend we both i think had our best race of the year so far and pretty much just like the entire team in the car and my co-driver of this weekend congratulations thank you and they should be well positioned to challenge for another one tomorrow starting on pole and the pace that dakota showed there's a very good chance he gives that car over to taylor with uh with a solid lead yeah and he brought up a really good point is that uh they're really working on taylor's championship potential with the other seat being split between jacob abel and dakota dickerson but um she's very much in this battle and uh i mean jan hale and fred porter they continue to be so consistent with strong results every weekend but i think she's probably got her eyes set on second place in the championship particularly with colin brown and george kirsten are competing here this weekend big opportunity for her and they capitalized in race one as you look at the pro-am results big one for racers edge big weekend for acura so far with the one two finish in the class then you get to ride motorsports a class podium for john halen and fred poor dad a solid debut for martin fuentes in this lamborghini huracan gt3 evo he has been doing some lamborghini super troffeo racing to stay sharp we just not seen him in the gt3 car yet this year but he and giacomo altoy i think we'll hear a lot more from them before the season is all said and done yeah toei's fastest laps a couple of laps quicker than jordan pepper aboard a similar lamborghini so i think you said i mean lamborghini is maybe not the strongest force to have here this weekend at road america but uh capex brought home the win but a lot of pace potential with the tr3 machine as well we've seen that play out through race one race two tomorrow who knows because there's also the chance of some weather that we might have to contend with and everything we saw today goes out the window yes uh that's always the curveball the big one in terms of you know you look at the weather forecast you make your best guess but if you get it's one thing if it's wet before the start or but when you get at mid-race this is when you can really have some some fireworks and it's all about decision making there from the driver on the racetrack and certainly the cruise in terms of strategy and if you do make that switch over on tires of course fascinating start to the weekend at road america and as we've heard so many times everyone's just so happy to be back in the race car the long layoff and many of these drivers and teams they're busy in other championships but for those that aren't it's you can do all the exercising you want to stay fit but there's nothing quite like being in a race car to stay ship shape for motorsports no uh you know seat time is really the the key and when you have a little break for some of the teams that are not running on different championships this is an off season i mean it's um 11 straight weekends this is 12 weeks or like weekend to weekend in terms of the gap so a chance to get back in there knock the rust off a little bit get back into your groove uh pit stops there'll be some teams and mechanics talking tonight about how they can sharpen things up a little bit for tomorrow and still one more race to come at road america tomorrow but a busy stretch after that this is the first of four race weekends over the next eight weeks for fanatic gt world challenge america powered by aws and talk about iconic venues coming from road america here this weekend up next will be a trip to watkins glen then to sebring and then to close the season at the indianapolis motor speedway and to do it in an endurance format no less i i think it's hard to find a better stretch of racetracks on a racing calendar anywhere than what we have in store well so much history such iconic racetracks to visit that we see matt mcmurray on his way to another podium run so yeah lots to look forward to take a look at the podiums here we'll be welcoming many of the podium finishers up onto the stage to celebrate i always wonder about winning the first leg of effectively a doubleheader weekend it's it's it's great that you win but you don't get the full celebration do you and you gotta go back to work again the next day well the mechanics it might be papa bear tonight but for the drivers certainly not it's a good night's rest and be ready to go tomorrow long night ahead i'm afraid for af corsa will hope for good news for the car and also for jc sato who was involved in that crash that brought out the final full course yellow and most of the teams though avoiding any kind of major carnage here and that's always a good thing at road america as revered as the place is there is a high risk high reward factor to this place and there aren't very many small accidents at this racetrack so it's great to see that most of the field got through the weekend unscathed and we'll just have our fingers crossed for af corsa yeah it's a shame to uh and not see the inception team uh be here this weekend they were on the initial entry list then we lost the 0-4 crowd strike entry with that testing incident yesterday so uh we hope to see af course are back on the starting grid tomorrow but when you look at that picture i mean what a perfect setting i mean this is a glorious racetrack america's national park of speed didn't disappoint some thrilling racing so far this weekend and still a whole lot more to come across multiple sro america championships should be taking a look at highlights here relatively soon but great to see the fans have made their way out to road america and a lot of them in the campgrounds overlooking the various vantage points around this great circuit highlights for race one of the weekend this is how we came to the green flag it was delayed by a lap because we had a car out of order on the initial formation lap so one lap behind the safety car then we turned him loose and what a great start it was yeah calderelli literally crawled up to the line then hit the lad pedal and took the lead and uh earned the early going michael dynan a nice move down to the inside of russell ward here down into turn five russell hung tough around the outside but michael was eventually able to clear it really great racing and respect between those two dine and able to make the pass right there then pops around the outside does dinan or or is this fully coming back through the field a little bit later i think it was around corey lewis this is before a penalty though ultimately waylaid them this is how the race ended contact racing trying to put the ferrari a lap down philadelphia is trying to chase down the race leader at the time jc sat into the wall and we end under yellow capex racing picks up the wind [Music] [Music] [Music] so you

Channel: GTWorld

Views: 72,690

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, RACE 1, ROAD AMERICA, GT WORLD CHALLENGE AMERICA, AMERICA 2021, GT WORLD CHALLENGE, GT racing

Id: ECkPYL-uFDI

Length: 120min 35sec (7235 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 28 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/ThatWolf]

I just realized that GT World Challenge has been live streaming their races for free, figured I would post the race in case there were others that didn't realize this was also the case. This race starts in a few minutes, but looks like they're going to have a couple more races (including one at Brand's Hatch) this weekend as well.