RACE 1 | WATKINS GLEN | Fanatec GT World Challenge Powered by AWSE AMERICA 2021

foreign [Music] [Music] watkins going international has been hosting elite road racing since the venue first opened its doors in 1956 carrying on a tradition of speed in upstate new york that started on the region's public roads and the years after the second world war after one year away this weekend marks the return of the fanatec gt world challenge america powered by aws to one of the country's most revered circuits hello everyone and welcome to round nine of the season my name is ryan marine calvin fish is alongside we'll hear from amanda busick in the pit lane shortly getting ready to go for the first of two races this weekend for the gt world challenge america championship calvin and road america last time out watkins glenn this time it's just a succession of wonderful racetracks it's a great calendar that we have this year it really is just iconic venues and it's wonderful to be back as you mentioned missing last year so it's good to be back here on site and uh what an incredible racetrack this is so far so smooth but the amount of grip that the track provides these drivers here this afternoon is simply immense the gt3 cars with the downforce that they create just fly through some of these corners and a bit of a jumbled up grid interesting qualifying session this morning it was wet when we arrived we didn't anticipate that i don't think the teams did either so we had a red flag and then like a last lap shootout literally for the pole position and uh the grid positions further down from there so should be some fireworks here this afternoon well we could tell you about this track or we could let jan heroin show you i think we'll opt for the latter this is the porsche track preview hi my name is jan halen welcome to the porsche track preview here at watkins glen coming on to the front straightaway crossing start finish getting ready to break downhill into turn one deep on the brakes hitting that apex and then watch for track limits here on the exit of turn one getting ready to turn into the famous assets here at watkins glen really fun part of the track in this porsche gt3r going up the hill no lift here onto the back straightaway and then getting ready to break into the bus stop deep on the brakes here close to the 150 signboard and then hard over the curbs here into the bus stop and then back to power into the carousel carousel one of the faster corners on the track hard end small tap on the brake and then quickly back to power so much downforce here from the car really fun deep on the brakes here into turn six lots of camber here from the track back to power using up all that exit and then same for turn seven lots of camber here from the track so you can really drive it in deep and then accelerating up the hill ready to get on to this little back stretch into turn eight turn eight one of the best places to overtake uh if you're in a hot battle breaking down the hill again apexing the corner and then watch for track limits here on the exit and then breaking up the hill for turn nine turn nine being the slowest corner on the track and you'll see not much room for error here on the exit right next to that wall and then into turn 10 which is the fastest corner on the track over 100 mile an hour using all that exit curb pushing the car back over to the left ready for turn 11 last corner small tap on the brake and then exiting right next to that wall onto the front straightaway and that was a lap at watkins glen 11 turns 3.37 miles and it is all fantastic that is watkins glenn international down amongst the gt3 cars about ready to do battle is amanda busick what do you have for us in the pits amanda well the countdown is on for race number nine of the fanatech gt world challenge america powered by aws and i can tell you based on her social media aaron bogle is ready to take p1 for the program class she's going to look to better you guys will remember she won her first race earlier this year as we move down pit lane here behind me i have fred pordad who's going to start uh in his class he is uh the points leader coming into this race here in watkins glen it's kind of incredible considering they won the am class year here a lot or won the am class last season but this duo is really dynamic this season between john halen and fred pordad but back in one and two on the grid are the lamborghinis of kpax i think i was told by the team representative it's been seven of nine polls that they have taken on this year and the driver that will take over for corey lewis in the green lamborghini is none other than geo venturini and geo you got to see the track earlier this morning you're going to take over from corey what do you anticipate during race day well honestly uh yesterday we were a little bit on travel but at the end caught it amazing quality today running q1 so we start in first row and obviously the goal is uh you know if you start in the first row the goal is to win the race but uh we have also our teammates on the side so we'll be we'll be tough for him in corner one but we'll see what what happened during the race and i hope that we we can we can bring the car on the podium you guys had the incident earlier this season in vir do you feel like you're still chasing any challenges with this car no honestly was not the one the first sorry and we will be not i guess the last so it's the part of the motorsport life you know so happen but you have to do the move on your mind and pass away the green lambo looking to win here today in watkins glen it would be the second win on the season if giovanni venturini and corey lewis could get that done but they've got to go through the sister car which starts on pole jordan pepper had a huge lap in qualifying put him p1 by over half a second over the sister car then they'll have a couple other pro-class cars breathing down their neck making up the second row of the grid calvin but it has been an interesting season for k-packs in their return to gt world challenge america after focusing their efforts on gt world challenge europe last year making the switch from lamborghini or two lamborghini from bentley it's been a good year they've won a lot of races but the split between the two cars has been a curious story for us to follow really starting with the round in vir yeah amanda alluded to that with geo and um i think since that weekend they've struggled to get the car on the sweet spot as we call in terms of the handling and that really resurfaced itself here this weekend they tested a couple of weeks ago after road america and uh there's just something to miss with this car they actually put jordan pepper behind the wheel of the six machine get his evaluation he said yes there's something wrong with the steering it's kind of vague and you need to really use a lot more steering input to get the car turned into the corner and then you're behind all the way through the corner because with the massive amount of steer input as you get to the exit you're then going to kick the rear end around as well so corey did a nice job this morning but i don't think we really saw the true potential with jordan pepper's pace because of the wet track we got the red flag there's three minutes to go everyone went out got a last let fly and jordan encountered some traffic there so don't be surprised if jordan gets the jump here to maybe eek away from the rest of the field well that red flag in qualifying was the crucial moment in that 15-minute session the car is starting to head out to take the first of two formation laps because the grid we thought might be set we weren't sure if we would be able to resume action but instead that one lap shootout and it really shuffled the grid especially in pro-am and aaron vogel was the one that took the most advantage of that jumping from further back at the pro-am field to the class poll yes and it was interesting to see how that evolved because jordan pepper was trying to gap himself to get you know some space in traffic he passed down with a couple of corners to go he slowed down just blew by him and got on it and effectively got the pro and pole admittedly michael demaio had a good lap on the board but it's really tight that you've got six cars separated from row three back to road uh five by just three tenths of a second so that was in the damp conditions i think it'll be slightly different this afternoon but we saw the same thing in qualifying two so it's a very tight field but certainly for capex they would love to continue this role that they're on but look for that turner motorsport bmw they've got great straight line speed michael don is not afraid to get his elbows out on these open glasses we've seen so far this year so i think venturini's gonna have to defend going up to the inner loop on the opening lap and this turner team has had great success on this circuit already has two races one of them a long distance race in a different gt3 series that they had some good runs in so they've got the experience with this bmw the co-driver to michael dinan robbie foley was a part of those lineups there and that carries over perhaps too today where they'll start on the inside of the second row this car right here the acura nsx gt3 evo a pair of them racer's edge car to the left of the screen compass racing to the right as has been the case it's a revolving door alongside taylor hackler and that racer's edge car jacob abel slotting in but this is a team with a lot of momentum because the last time out taylor hagler and dakota dickerson scored a big win in that pro-am class and she's now second in points yeah she's having a tremendous season we talked about aaron vogel claiming that class poll but certainly uh taylor has had a great year a number of podium finishers and rewarded with that brilliant victory at road america and uh abel is doing a nice job as well i think he's getting more and more familiar with gt3 machinery he's coming off a gt3 weekend just last week over on the west coast so that will help him he's doing his single seater road to indy uh program as well and if you jump between very different race cars how to get back in the groove i think this weekend will be a bit more seamless for him in terms of being up to speed quickly told me it was the first time he has ever driven a gt3 car in consecutive weekends and although his race last weekend didn't last very long there was still the time in the car in the build up to it and he felt like that has carried over here to this weekend so we'll keep an eye on that car one other story line is the return once again of a second car in the am class much of this year it's been a of course running unopposed but starting at elkhart lake the last time out we saw tr3 step up and run an amcar of their own and that's added an extra element to it but those two cars are split by a considerable distance in qualifying jc sada had a remarkable qualifying effort to start eighth overall in the af course of ferrari the assist the other car in the class is considerably further back 13th overall for tr3 racing with bill sweedler qualifying that machine so a big gap between those two but i have a feeling they're going to find one another before this thing is all said and done yeah the tr3 team on the back foot a little bit is what we call a bronze session for just bronze rated drivers early yesterday morning and bill wheeler got hit down into this corner the field is now going into turn one in this downhill run he was uh much faster car went to the inside and someone turned in on him big damage to the right rear corner added to that he all down the racetrack other cars were involved and then that got into the engine in terms of they worried about that's where to do an engine change uh big suspension things on the left right corner so they've been on the back foot you know losing precious practice track time yesterday i think really related to their qualifying position this morning the car at the back of this shot that was the red lamborghini from reardon racing and it's good to see that car out on track they won't like their starting position 15th out of 15 cars but jeff burton had the incident in qualifying just a little spin but he did make slight contact with the wall and it led to a power steering issue that basically put it into qualifying both in q1 and q2 but the riordan team evidently has gone to work they've got that car repaired and they're ready to take the start at the back and jeff burton is one he's running both this and gt america powered by aws a lot of track time on a given weekend and we've seen him get more and more comfortable with gt3 cars as the season has progressed yeah he's uh he's a great uh guy in our paddock in terms of he brings a lot to the table he's on track he's always got a smile on his face he's very enthusiastic and he's another one of these drivers from the amp category he was not intimidated in any way shoulders with anyone on the racetrack so expect him to try and make some moves here early in the game also want to give a shout out to uh car 88 the zelus motorsport lamborghini hurricane jason howard six on the grid that's a really nice run for him this morning as well that he'll share that car with madison snow has had success here at the blend in the past as well yeah beat me to the punch i was going to give them a shout out as well that team it's that brightly colored lamborghini in the middle of the shot there with the bullet corn as they call it it's a bull with a unicorn yes is how you describe it that's the the mascot of the team and they're a fun-loving group out of utah it's been great to see them but they took a hit in road america quite literally in the gt america race most of the season they've had two chassis that they've used between those two series but that car could not be repaired so it's now this uh loan chassis that's going to be pressed into service for four races here this weekend and they expect it sebring as well before that second car can come back for the finale at indianapolis but a great qualifying effort for them looking to improve upon that within the race itself and jason coming a long way in his first season of gt3 racing well you wonder how much chat has been between these teammates over lunch in terms of how to really control the start here capex racing sweeping the front row jordan pepper the south african on the pole and american corey lewis to his flank in the bright green car prior to testing at this track last week corey lewis was the only member of that team with previous laps here at watkins glen but that test proved valuable the team has been up to speed as evidenced by the one-two start that we're about to see waiting for the green flag from tom hansing here at watkins glen it flies big jump for jordan pepper the pole sitter the race is on for third behind here comes dinan in that bmw as we've seen all year long but around the outside russell ward able to grab that spot away in the windward racing mercedes that could be great news for the two lamborghinis so they don't have that bmw hounding them but certainly russell ward has had a great start here and he's putting the pressure on side by side further back in the pack through the s's tough place to do that but so far clean and green as the battle was on once again one third here comes dinan around the outside showing off the strength of that bmw sweeping around and taking the third spot right back really nicely done there it's not easy to get back online and kind of pitch the mercedes there right at apex to the inner loop but that's what i was talking about by ward getting in front of him that took the pressure off venturini so i think otherwise it could have been a cut and paced move from that turner motorsports number 96 on the lamborghini for a second position big twitch there by venturini trying to get the tires up to temp oh that opens the door for dinan the pin quaker attends the university of pennsylvania an engineering student putting that to use here on the outside trying to snag that spot away in the toe of the boot first time around at watkins glen oh this is awesome racing here we talk about michael dynan and the confidence that he's showing now getting into the groove with this gt3 machine coming off two gt4 championships in 2020. hard on the brakes for the heel of the boot and he's got that second spot wrestled away from corey lewis a couple of young americans going at it hammer and tong exiting turn nine i'll get the driver straight sooner or later yeah corey lewis aboard that bright green lamborghini but certainly would indicate that they're struggling a little bit still with the setup on that race car he's dropped positions early like a good clean start from aaron bogle he's first in pro am fifth overall and jason harward still running in the sixth overall position but he's got michael dimeo who's charged from way back on the grid up three spots on that first lap that's the compass racing black and orange acura coming through the back of this picture here in just a moment great start for him he thought he had the pull before the red flag came out and then ultimately the green came out and there was that last lap shootout and qualified yeah actually you're super frustrated by that to be sitting off their lane about three minutes to go in the session having the ball in class then suddenly find himself deep in the package at a great opening lap here moving up into a podium spot early another good start further back in the field frank gannett in that aston martin jumped up two positions he now runs 12th after starting 14th here is taylor hagler behind the wheel of the racers edge number 93 acura nsx gt3 evo giving chase to the class leader i believe that's jc sata who had the qualifying duties and we have a spin that's david askew around yeah you could hear it from the uh on course cameras there someone was going for a loop there i think that's coming out of the inner loop there david qualified 11th dropped a couple of spots on that first lap so maybe the handling not quite to his liking here in the early stages behind hagler is martin fuentes that's tr3 racing operating the white lamborghini at the back of that picture martine made his season debut last weekend with the team alongside giacomo alto i think that two weekends ago the last time out at road america yeah shane for david askew there they were looking for better things here this weekend they had real dire handling issues at road america came for a test here just a few days later and figured something out but uh not the start they were looking for i might have seen a little fluid out of the back of the racer's edge car maybe from the fuel overflow it seems to me we've seen that before at points in the season so we'll keep an eye on it but as i recall that's maybe not the first time as harvard goes on the attack or actually that's on the defensive we've got demeo making up yet another spot that moves him to sixth overall and second in pro-am yeah big run here so uh looking for a strong afternoon the android nsx does run well here at watkins glen international and michael dimeo said he was loving life spoke to him yesterday i said what are you up to outside of this he said i have got so much enthusiasm since getting the opportunity here with the compass racing team he said i'm spending all my time in the gym really focused on racing once again he's in the real estate game as well just to make ends meet but a very talented young driver who kind of slipped through the racing net here for a few years but got this second uh wind in terms of his career and he's trying to make the most out of 29 year old from toronto canada on the charge and he's reeled in aaron vogel this is for the class lead but we just went full course yellow so that breaks off this fight at least for the moment and problems here for the 10 car this is the ammo class car from tr3 bill sweedler behind the wheel but something has gone wrong he's pulled that car into an access road but what the rear wing was i thought so too take another look here oh yeah this is a rear wing that's up the s's i believe yeah high speed section of the track climbing that hill should be flat out so um i should be cut a tire or something prior to that moment but the amount of damage that you have in these cars [Music] should be flat out through there and that wipes out a nearly three second lead that jordan pepper had built over michael dinan and we saw how strong that bmw was on the initial start and how pepper is going to have to withstand that kind of a challenge here once again when we go back to green flag racing let's take another look at it here so watch the windward racing grey mercedes to the outside that kind of breaks diana away from the two lamborghinis but then as we come up through the esses this is where that bmw really comes on strong he's got a big hole by both cory lewis and russell ward just goes to the outside just enough to clear ward and take the apex as they turn into the inner loop that was a great move around the outside and michael dinan was not done corey lewis just ahead dinan was able to track him down and make the pass as well on the opening lap currently runs second splitting the two k-packs cars as russell ward and windward back and forth should note that it is miquel grenier driving alongside russell ward this weekend as was the case when they scored their lone win of the season back at vir the normal co-driver philip ellis driving for windward in the dtm championship qualified in the top ten along with lucas our the team's other driver there racing at asin in the netherlands but they've got a nice bullpen to go to if they need another driver to get plugged in running in as many championships as they are and as we saw in vir you throw michael grenier in and he was right up to speed immediately they very well could have swept that weekend if not for a small miscue in the pit lane yeah very much so so uh they're a team that's on form and uh we know that k-packs they're really the benchmark they've had so much success over the years here in sro competition and when they stack the deck with these lamborghinis and the support they have there plus the driver lineup you thought well this could be easy me for them but the teams from turner motorsport from wim would have certainly made no with their victories this year that if they fall to even a little bit that they're going to pounce and be there for another win and i think for andrea caldarelli you know that the capex team will be telling excuse me for jordan kevin you know that the capex team would be telling him watch out for that bmw he's seen already this year he knows he's got straightaway speed he's got to be on the defensive as they go down that straight away towards the inner loop on the opening lap it strikes me as we're now approaching eight minutes gone by in this race that this safety car is exactly what dxdt racing was hoping for as far as david askew and ryan dial are concerned he had the spin and put him quite a ways behind but that deficit now gets erased and if ask you can just hang with this train maybe make up a couple of spots dial was feeling pretty confident when you spoke to him earlier this weekend that they've got a solid piece of equipment underneath well they're back to normal let's put it that way they were just so lost at road america they threw everything about the kitchen sink at it just could not get the car comfortable it was really just trying to hurt him in terms of some of the high speed corners there and they identified what the setup issue was when they got here for a test um but sometimes you you're trying to catch back up again you've gone down this road trying to fix a problem without realizing there's a fundamental issue there and uh but they qualify well i mean uh ryan was like half of 10 this morning he'd have been up on row two of the grid for tomorrow but it's very competitive but they're certainly back in the mix once again that's what they were hoping for by the way if you're new to the series it looks like as we say this david askew's heading to the pit lane i was about to mention the mandatory pit stop window it is a 90 minute race full service pit stop but it has to be done within a 10 minute prescribed window right around the halfway mark for it to count this would not count as far as the mandatory stop goes you could use almost like a little mini test session here he had poor track position anyway come in here maybe they'll do a quick tweak on the car looks like they're gonna maybe change some uh some tyres here i'm not sure we flat spotted anything when he went concerned about the left rear so maybe they're seeing something telemetry that's indicating a slow leak or something definitely a possibility but there's not much harm in making this stop now under safety car conditions when they were already at the back of the train anyway as far as the 14 cars still running i think you're right just changing that one tire maybe there is an indication that something might have been a miss a small puncture slow leak something like that briefly just said listen i'm struggling out of the bag for tomorrow so you've got to be careful with those changes i believe i did not see any lights illuminated on the safety car that's a look at the tire anything jump out to you no it looks all normal don't see any bad graining or anything or any cuts but they're certainly inspecting something like they feel something is a miss so i would imagine that they've got a sense of this really that was low and that's why they elected to david's got to hustle to catch up with the back of this train because we should be going green it appears this time by he's entering the s's now could be good though because you're generating a bit more time and time you get there you could be right in the sweet spot as everyone's going to struggle for grip for the first few corners and this is approaching the heel of the boot so just a few more corners to negotiate here comes ask you should be perfect i think got an update from kelly burleigh pr representative for dxdt flat spot was the issue for david askew he would have felt that for sure and this gives them a chance to deal with that problem without any real consequence he should be caught back up there he is right at the end of this train so it's gonna be nice yeah very clever strategy there from dxdt that should keep them right in the mix as the safety car accelerates away let's keep an eye on that big hulking bmw m6 gt3 of michael dinan that is a rocket ship in a straight line splitting those two lamborghinis he used that horsepower to his advantage on the initial start after dropping to fourth to drive back to six pepper sensing this as is his right accelerates away at the apex of turn 11 and has built a bit of a gap but is it big enough green flag flies over watkins glen that's exactly where the stewart said the acceleration point is at the apex of turn 11 he's gone but it's also taking the pressure off dyna he doesn't have to defend down into term one if he can get a good run through here but looks like peppa's really executed that nicely got good exit speed out of turn one but here comes pac-man here comes that bmw [Applause] right there just like you alluded to pac-man reference here it comes bmw closing in on lamborghini jordan pepper going defensive into the run to the inner loop goes uh slightly back online to get the better entrance to the corner that keeps dinan at bay at least for now michael dinan though smelling blood he knows this is his best chance yeah and i love i love the aggressive nature that michael diamond is displaying at this higher level of the sport that he's encountering this year winningest driver in sro america competition 17 wins between sprint and sprint x racing last year but that was in gt4 machinery big step for him this year jumping into the gt3 ranks and he has looked right at home from the word go right now pressuring one of the fastest gt drivers on the planet jordan pepper as we drop back to the pro-am is michael dimeo there in the bright orange and gray accurate trying to put the pressure on our pulse center aaron vogel dxdt mercedes amg she's displaying confidence as well we're getting to that point in the season where everyone's kind of finding their feet right now ryan and uh it's showcasing itself in some of these early laps demayo right there in the tire tracks showing you can follow close in these gt3 cars backs up just a hair through turn 10. swings back to the left and the run to turn 11 and back onto the front straightaway once again but compass racing one win to their credit that was vir race two in pro-am looking strong once again in watkins glenn yeah now we see taylor hagler here getting a run on fred poor dad can't quite make it stick gives it up he's very mature behind the wheel despite her experience in terms of making good decisions good choices when she gets in close battles like this one keep an eye on this fight but as we do so tameo has been the man on the move and his co-driver is with amanda i think you guys can see that fight that's going on right there but if you look at michael's uh ability already this morning he's able to gain four position he's put himself in that second spot in the pro-m class and matt you've been here watching along and as you see your co-driver just go to work out here how motivating is that for you it's it puts the extra pressure on for sure he's been killing it he's i think he's made up like four or five places at this point so he's really killing it um yeah we're just loving watching it right now when you watch that restart what it pressed you the most i'm sorry when you watched on for that restart what impressed you the most with michael he just i don't know he's just making quick work of everybody it's really cool to see and it's his first time here so it's impressive how quickly he's come up to speed thank you matt good luck matt actually has his co-driver from a gt3 championship last year mario farmbot who's working with the academy drivers aboard the 93 race's edge acura but also working here with the compass racing team as well he's sitting down pouring over data with uh both matt and michael demaio yesterday so great to have someone of mario's ability he's such a nice guy but just so smart and knows these accurate chassis so well to give them those drivers some advice here this weekend big boost for them and as you mentioned part of that hpd gt3 academy which is very much a part of this racer's edge program taylor hagler came through that last year and she's making a look to the inside trying to snag one more spot away this time from fred poor dad yeah and just learned a lot on the previous attempt it just leaves her breaking that a little bit later want to ensure that she was comfortable make her move so felt her out and just no rash maneuvers she just uh thought you know what i'm going to wait bite my time wait at another lap but now she secures that position that's fourth and fifth in class changing hands should know just a moment ago jordan pepper set the crowd strike fastest lap of the race a 146 321 not sure there's really anyone in the ballpark calvin uh michael dinan was about half a second off with that the last time and everyone else is in the 147 bracket or higher goes to show jordan pepper capex racing in jordan's words this morning after qualifying we are back yeah they found their sweet spot and uh you can see in the look he had a big smile and he hasn't always had that look this year despite the success and the championship leads they feel they've got a really strong race car underneath them and corey lewis there he's uh hanging tough he's just three seconds back of his uh teammate and uh championship leader so uh he's not out of this picture yet but it doesn't seem like that car is quite as sharp as the sister car this weekend which has been that continuing theme throughout the year and we kind of heard from within the team that maybe it did have something to do with an accident that happened in the build-up to the racing at vir heard giovanni venturini saying well we don't necessarily point our finger directly at that but whatever the case may be something just doesn't seem to be clicking and you talked about the test recently jordan pepper sampling both cars back to back and his feedback was yes there is something a little bit different something a little bit of miss whatever the case may be that it just doesn't seem like the three and the six have been on level footing for the bulk of the season and i'm sure it's frustrating as much as anyone well it's frustrating the team is frustrating lamborghini engineer over here this weekend to kind of assist with the whole assault through the end of the championship season i think they're going to be here through indianapolis for the eight hour as well but it really frustrates the drivers it is one thing to struggle for your teammates are having success on a regular basis and have the championship lead but i think it helps ease the pain a little bit when jordan pepper gets in and says guys there's something seriously wrong with this race car so they're an expert group they've got so much experience on their staff there they'll figure it out but sometimes it could be something inherent in the chassis which all of the amount of tweaking on a race weekend is not going to fix the problem exactly so taylor hagler continues to impress charging forward made the pass on fred poor dan for fourth a few moments ago and now challenging for the final podium spot in pro-am jason harward has it taylor hagler wants it harward forced to go on the defensive here and acura is coming [Music] look at that beautiful crossover move from taylor hagler gets to the inside of the 88 car it's now a drag race down the foot of the boot towards the heel slamming on those brakes hagler goes through takes over p3 yeah it seems like that car has really now found its sweet spot uh taylor certainly got a lot more confident with it in the last two or three laps so kind of feeling the way through is obviously not the ideal uh warm-up this morning with the damp and wet qualifying session so she is now truly at home and uh strutting her stuff once again now the next target is the class pull sitter aaron vogel who is something around two seconds up the road as it stands those two had a great battle going back to the first weekend of the season at sonoma and looking to reprise that here 20 minutes gone by in this 90-minute race it's jordan pepper leading michael dinan then corey lewis one two three russell ward is in fourth the leader in pro-am runs fifth that's michael dimeo with aaron vogel right behind and then taylor hacker giving chase running third in class taylor's just taken off there so a couple of really bold moves here last couple of laps and uh she's on the charge moving forward so give jake and abel a great opportunity to uh score a podium run here this afternoon uh certainly taylor's seen on a regular basis including the big win at road america with dakota dixon race vision powered by aws giving us a couple of peaks at different statistics over the course of the race in real time on more of that as the race proceeds see more and more of that real-time data coming into the broadcast hope you folks at home have been enjoying it it's a great asset to bring and give some good insight into what we see on the racetrack that's the gap first to second pepper from dinan it's 2.3 seconds on the stopwatch but visually you can see what it is there and it's about 2.3 seconds further back to corey lewis who runs in third and believe it or not equidistant back to fourth so the top four have found their groove and started to space out somewhat yeah donna's doing a really nice job it's not like perfectly just disappearing on him right now so he's keeping him in sight running very consistent lap times about four to five tenths off what pepper is doing at the front of the field as he just laid down a new best lap of a 146.24 compared to michael dinos 146.72 so uh pepper certainly has the speed advantage right now but it's all about just hanging tough for michael diamond all of these drivers will try and use up these pirelli p0s towards the end of the stint you would anticipate maybe uh the turner motorsports team being on the shy end of that uh opening for the pit stop which has to happen between 40 and 50 minutes in foley still has despite dinan really getting up to speed nicely fully still has a bit more speed than michael so they'll certainly want to strap robbie in as soon as they can today class leader in pro-am from compass racing the carl thompson jill beck led squad and here is the fight for second it didn't take long did it taylor hagler has reeled in aaron vogel and we'll see how long it takes her to put a move for the runner-up position within this class this also is for sixth in the overall running order taylor's just uh caught on fire right now a lap time she was a second and a half quicker than erin on that previous lap so she is absolutely flying right now the car setup is working well and you can see she's feeling it that she is a little twitch on exit but still able to get the power down drag racing towards the heel of the boot taking a peek to the inside vocal goes defensive haggler back to the outside now can she cross her over taylor hagler back on the power here but good defense here from aaron vogel has to go defensive again through turn number nine well these two uh ladies have fought very hard this year four podium runs but right now taylor has that momentum but you can get stalled out a little bit so you'd love to pounce and uh maintain that momentum and rhythm that you've been displaying here in the last few laps of this race sometimes it's easy to just get drawn into the rhythm of the car in front of you so she needs to make it stick she's got ryan eversley working here this weekend as well with the academy drivers so i'm sure he's on the horn on the radio trying to talk her through this situation vogel able to hold taylor off for the moment taylor hagler now redoubling the attack while we watch this battle let's head to the pit lane one more time well you talk about taylor hagler feeling this drive her team is feeling this as well there's been claps and fist pumps all around here and jacob after qualifying today i imagine you and taylor must have sat down and talked strategy ahead of this race what did you guys focus on in those conversations yeah you know honestly qualifying was a little bit disappointing for us with the changing track conditions there both of us relatively speaking we're really really quick in practice um with race pace-wise and things like that but the difficult track conditions caught us out a little bit um so we both knew we had a lot more pace than was shown in qualifying so we knew we'd been moving forward and and she's doing a great job doing that so so we'll see how it goes as you can hear she just got the pass on aaron vogel how does that inspire you today yeah i mean it inspires me a lot you know she's been moving forward a lot i think she's passed like five or six cars at least so far so you know it makes my job a little bit easier i just have to you know stay in the same spot once i get in the car but but yeah you know super proud of we're super proud of the whole team congrats thank you jacob abel a promising up and coming open wheel driver branching out getting some gt experience along with taylor went through the hpd gt3 academy last year but uh he's one that i'm anxious to see it seems like racer's edge has has turned a corner they were so good with this car last year but it was a slow start to the season it was jacob and taylor that scored the team's first uh well not first podium but uh but but they did score a podium at vir together it's been a bit of a layoff from this program for jacob ever since focusing on some of the open wheel stuff which he'll go back to but tell you what it doesn't seem to matter who's paired with taylor the last couple of weekends that car has been going to the front every single time yeah and i'm curious to watch the lap times now she's clear of that traffic to see if she can close in on our pro-am leader which is michael demaio her fastest lap at that point when she got up to second was half a second quicker than the compass racing accurate number 77 so acura versus accurate which brand is which team is going to come out on top of that brand here today should be fascinating to watch the rest of the way michael dinan as you talked about earlier calvin doing his best to keep jordan pepper honest the lead has continued to grow but it's not like it's going hand over fist 3.5 seconds is the difference and this race has the potential to turn a little bit when we get to the pit stop window and the driver changes occur robbie foley so much experience with the bmw m6 gt3 he'll be taking this ride over during that pit stop i'm really curious what he and this turner team can do when that time comes well a lot of it can come down to the time you remember it's not always the leader who has the first opportunity to piss so the timing would have to be perfect with just a slim margin between the two but say you're just shy of that pit lane opening and diner's the first one to die doing the undercut as we call it get robbie fully in fresh tyres they're coming out of their tyre heaters so they should get up to speed really quickly it's all about the tire degradation in terms of what would the inlap be for jordan pepper compared to an out lap but you'd have to think that uh capex will be on top of that and not want to see that occur it used to be the other way around but now in terms of going out on tiger i was at a slight deficiency but uh now with the taiwanese were introduced a couple of seasons ago suddenly that undercut seems to be the way to go martin fuentes now starting to apply the pressure to fred poor dad poor dad in the right motorsports car we saw giving us the tour during the porsche track preview he'll give that car to john halen fuentes was the second weekend racing the gt3 version of the lamborghini huracan takes a peek up the inside not able to draw alongside it has to fall back in line he's got lamborghini factory driver jacobo altoy to finish the race off for tr3 both of these cars factored into the pro-am podium conversation at elkhart lake and i think we both thought with martine joining this team at that round that this tr3 car becomes a factor instantly within the pro-am championship yeah it really does because altoid has already displayed why is a lamborghini factory pilot by his space that he's shown here on u.s soil but every track is a new one for him he's enjoying the experience saw a comment this week where he said yeah everything's new and trying to adjust to it he's he's a fit young lad very much into his dietary regime and he said the problem with the usa is everyone likes their food and even the salads and not to my liking maybe too much heavy on the dressing but uh he's enjoying it he says it with a smile and a chuckle he's really enjoying being here racing in the us for the first time and he's busy he's got a lot going on in europe as well as this program here racing in the endurance cup gt world challenge europe for the emil frey racing team that's had some good runs this year and again watching his co-driver martin fuentes go on the attack he does have some experience with the huracan albeit in lamborghini super trofeo trim what's the difference between a trofeo car and what he's experiencing here with the gt3 machine well the gt3 car is just more of a beast you know i mean in every way it's more powerful it's got a lot more down force so um but he's got a lot of gt3 experience and he keeps sticking his nose in there and with fred poured out as we've seen he's not going to be an easy take so uh there's no point just poking your nose down there you gotta get right alongside before fred is even gonna think about giving it up to you so uh martinez my in this sort of like late sort of shallow angle of approach but he's not quite close enough to make it stick and kind of make fred give up that position up and over the curb there a little twitchy there that's all quite aggressive there that little hump there that crown in the curbing and that's all right as far as track limits are concerned as long as you have two wheels on one of the painted curbs you're all right so martin fuentes just using all of the available real estate trying to reel in last year's am champion in gt world challenge america fuentes himself has won championships in four out of the last five seasons of what is now known as spanish tech gt world challenge america powered by aws competition and just right back at home with this tr3 team and in this series after so much experience now this is interesting because the fight for third overall and in pro has closed in all of a sudden dinan has left corey lewis behind and while he's done that russell ward has been slowly chipping away and closing in he has and um you know again we'll talk about diamonds performance here he's keeping the leader jordan pepper honest about four and a half second gap between first and second lewis is now six and a half seconds back and you can see ward is right there with him so he wants to keep the pressure on and uh see if they can maybe execute under this uh pit stop that's gonna be happening oh in about potentially 10 minutes or so excuse me 20 minutes or so just [Music] uh yeah six hundredths of a second of what pepper did yeah he's really strong on this long run pace for the 96 michael dinan so that's pretty impressive to watch corner speeds at the bus stop also known as the inner loop potato potato tomato tomato whatever you want to call it but that section of the track that was added to slow some of the high speeds we were seeing headed towards what's now known as the outer loop of this race track several big crashes there back a few decades ago and for a time at least in a gt car it turned into a great braking zone and passing zone but these cars are so fast they carry a ton of speed as you just saw in the race vision powered by aws hard to make a move there when uh when you're carrying that much speed you don't have to arrest that speed on entry well the braking zones are so short they're able to roll and float roll and flow so much corner speed now that it does make it more tricky but certainly towards the end of this run and i'll correct myself it's just uh under 10 minutes ago before that pit stop window opens then that would be the fact we may start to get a little bit of tire degradation and uh those brake zones get a little bit longer and there's more potential for a pass peppa continues to uh pepper the fastest lap of this race just brought it down to 46-1 that's really impressive this deep into the session so for michael dinan he's gotta be a little frustrated he just ran his fastest lap and the gap at the front is uh increased so he's doing everything he can but it's still quite not enough to threaten pepper oh how about pepper just going purple lap after purple lap or within a tenth or two every single time getting stronger and stronger as the run goes along and as impressive as that is maybe even more impressive is that a driver significantly less experienced here michael dinan has effectively been able to match him not losing too much ground and turning in fast laps of his own well he's keeping him honest and i think the capex team was saying okay less than 10 minutes to go potentially jordan let's really hammer down and use those tires up if you need to they need to be able to react so if the turner motorsports team elects or they just get it right on the clock in terms of being the first car with the opportunity to make that pit stop they need enough of a buffer in case that undercut is quite powerful here closing in on that pit window within the next 10 minutes like you said calvin should mention also that something appears to have gone wrong for reardon racing we talked about their issue in qualifying and they had a power steering issue as well whether that was because of the spin or if maybe that caused the spin that's not something i had mentioned before as a possibility but it certainly is out there uh we saw jeff burton start this race but he's been in the pits for some time now seven laps behind the leaders uh and we haven't heard yet exactly what might the problem might be but uh should give you the update that at least for now it does not look like that bearded racing car is in the fight any longer already we saw the number 10 tr3 car bill sweedler john mcgrew out of the race their spin brought out the lone full course yellow of the race so far and they will finish 15th here today just got a quick text from george kurtz competing here this weekend saying i'm loving this pro-am battle that's going on in the race so far today so looking forward to seeing george back behind the wheel there in short order but he's got busy time ahead for him he does we missed having you here but we understand unfortunately not really in the points picture after the trying weekend at road america and with crowdstrike about to enter the nasdaq 100 index he's got commitments ringing the opening bell for that particular exchange wish you the best of luck with all that but can't wait to see you back behind the wheel of the race car should be at the indianapolis eight hour should be a very similar if not identical lineup that we saw them have some success there with one year ago and i'm really looking forward to that for sure as this battle starts to heat up again third place overall and in the pro class it's lewis leading ward lamborghini versus mercedes yeah water's pushing hard got a little bit wide through the carousel through the outer loop and uh you saw corey lewis there then attack the next corner and he's slipping and sliding a little bit as well drivers using up as they get towards the end of their stints really impressed with russell lord got the season off to a great start of course with the 24 hours of daytona class win but he's been busy racing all over the place gt3 and gt4 whatever chance he gets and that experience over the last few years has been about as busy as any driver globally in gt racing and it's really helped him get on the pace we talked to him at coda about being effectively a pro in an all-pro lineup that's how it's listed here and he said well that's how i view myself that's how i want to be viewed and i'll tell you he's backed that up it seems like every time it's uh been up to to to try and back up over the course of this season he's really stepped up his game this year yeah the whole team has really gone from strength to strength and they're running a lot of cars globally and that's the nice thing with this gt3 platform is even used in dtm this year which they're competing in that's why philip ellis isn't here this weekend so all of that information flow between the various groups of between the various championships we're competing in just add to the strength that has to your arsenal in terms of how strong you show up each weekend and obviously from russell's perspective just gaining more gt3 experience that's showcasing itself in terms of his on-track performance as well taking a look at the 61 that's the af corsa ferrari jc sata driving that had a great qualifying effort stuck that car eighth overall at the beginning of this race and he'll turn it over to conrad gruenwald who might have been the revelation of the weekend two weeks back at road america and giving chase is frank ginette who is looking more and more comfortable by the weekend they did not test here unlike many of their rivals in fact they do not plan to test ahead of any of the remaining races they didn't in road america and had their best weekend of the year so they might have found a formula that works didn't confuse themselves maybe but um i say that tongue-in-cheek i know it's been difficult uh transition to gt3 and with this aston martin chassis but they're learning the ropes and uh this will be a big learning here for them and hopefully we'll see them back next year and i think they'll just be so much stronger in terms of the confidence for frank gornett as he gets a big run here on jc [Applause] back straight here looks to the inside and just out braves him there to the brake pedal and takes that position away nice job frank really impressive stuff great to see this team getting stronger they've had a lot of support from aston martin with an embedded engineer okay let's see here this is lap traffic for jordan pepper coming around david askew that is not what ryan dial wanted to see it's not going to be easy to come back from that that's a little bit strange because we talked about we sort of coming in and taking that tire and uh basically getting back to the tail end of the pack before we went back to green so surprising to see him go down a lap within this stint as calderelli gets ready to take over the leading car the number three lamborghini huracan see it maybe with it comes a change in fortune it's been a difficult outing in this race i say that they're still running third but that's not what they're here to do they're here to win some races we heard that from giovanni at the start of this race in the pre-race interview starting on the front row they expect to win and it's only happened once so far this year that can't have this half of the capex garage feeling all that good about how this year has transpired no when it's go time they don't quite have that speed they've been struggling with the car the car has not given their drivers the confidence that the number three squad has so uh it's tough but you just gotta keep grinding away there's a fist battle coming into this round of the championship you know you got four drivers tied on the same points total admittedly some 46 back of the leaders and then you've got russell ward only six points back of corey lewis venturini dinan and foley who were tied coming in here so it's a big battle and uh right now dinan probably ahead of them on the road so they had to keep grinding you know there's four rounds to go after this checkered flag here this afternoon championship is coming down to the wire coming by to complete yet another lap that is now 20 in the books next time by that pit lane should be open for the leaders plus these chasers see who comes in early dives in early okay this is martin fuentes who evidently has made the pass on fred poor dad to get up to fifth and he has caught jason harward fourth place in pro am this is eighth overall harward will have madison snow to take that car the rest of the way had a podium at this track in a similar lamborghini earlier this year a couple of utah base drivers for this utah based team awfully busy racing both in fanatec gt world challenge america powered by aws but also the gt america powered by aws championship for gt3 and gt4 cars tr3 also busy this weekend they've stepped up their commitment they're running an additional chassis in gt america caesar bankarella that's a name that should be familiar to those that have followed the championship in the past he's driving a super trofeo spec car in the invitational class a bit later today but uh gregory romanelli the team principal said yeah we're we're pretty busy this weekend with three cars on site let's use first to blink here pit window is open and peppa hits it immediately so they want to protect against that undercut from dinan to foley so it doesn't matter what the turner motorsports team does if this team can execute minimum pit stop time for this races 71 seconds as dinan follows him in as you can see in the background there jc sater is in so as we said it's not always the leader who gets the first opportunity to pit just by being a little bit further back the 61 car is on pit lane as well as lewis and water like to stay out yeah so kpack's splitting that strategy and now i wonder what windward will do i think they've got the pace they might want to try and get in and get some clean air for that car we'll keep an eye on that as it goes along capex racing goes spring into work this team ever since this championship has gone to full service pit stops has consistently been one of the best performers in the pit lane nailing that minimum pit stop delta it's a rare thing you see them too far over and even rarer still that they should run a foul and go too fast well both these teams so much endurance racing experience we talked about turner motorsports winning the six hours of the glen just a couple of months ago so they've had success on this pit lane before this year [Music] one assumes that was a good one everything was done just waiting to release the car 71.5 seconds the minimum is 71 so half a second buffer that's what they're looking for how about the swap to dinan from dinan to foley 71.6 so very close indeed so pretty much same situation leaving pit lane as when they come in admittedly now with new drivers and uh calderali who's just dynamite even though they struggled a bit at road america when calderol he had new tires he said some very impressive lap time so let's see what he can do now as jacob able gets his turn behind the wheel of the races edge machine it'll be his first laps in competition in any type of car and watkins glenn jacob after a dynamic opening stint from taylor hagler looks like the rest of the front runners won't wait much longer just the one lap and immediately corey lewis and russell ward dive into the pit lane here's right motorsports another veteran team with a lot of pit stop experience see them waiting if you're new to this it might look strange but that's a good sign that means they got the service done and now they're holding to make sure they don't go too fast to run afoul of the pit lane minimum delta there's a big concern there i saw the number six paddleboard waving i wasn't sure how close corey lewis was to dug it into his pit box that can certainly uh lose you some precious 10 for seconds look how good the right stop was 71.1 one tenth over the minimum they executed that to perfectionist the k-packs crew now servicing the second car now this would be uh an interesting one because they pretty much came in nose to tail with lewis and russell ward which team can execute the closest to that minimum stop delta following the stop it will be giovanni vintorini versus miquel grenier see the windward car dropped off the jacks first they of course got to the pit stall first due to the location they released the 33. when do they oh there's a hang up there's a hang up on the driver change lewis walks away very late and still the car has not been released so unless wimbledon no they're right on the number perfect 71.07 to 700s outside so things going from bad to worse they're struggling on the racetrack a little bit with the performance and that was a really average pitch stop for this group 10 seconds over for apex on the swap there from corey lewis to giovanni ventorini we'll see how much if at all that cost them in the overall order when things shuffle through assuming we saw the delay for the door being closed and i think venturing he was still probably buckling up because the car all the service was done they would have said go go go and he didn't go and assume and he still had stuff to do in terms of getting strapped in might be able to get an update on that this though is the beneficiary put windward up into the final pro class podium spot third in the overall running order as well that is ryan dial now right behind in the silver and red car for dxdt racing after david askew got the start but unfortunately that car is a lap down after a trying start to this race yeah i'm not sure the 63 has been in yet so i think that's why we're seeing it so close possibly ask you is in pit lane for uh that issue with the car after spinning the tire change but i believe yeah i think they do still owe a stop yes that does say two pit stops so it just might be that they've fallen down we saw them drop a lap yeah i don't know anyway we'll we will as it goes on that's for sure this is the car that lost all that ground i wonder how much it turned out to be uh what's here more on what happened from capex racing with amanda well you may see uh drivers jordan and corey lewis chatting with each other collecting themselves after this run i was able to catch up with corey lewis before he headed over said that geo actually had sat on the belt when he got in the car and they became twisted had to like lift him up to get the belts around to get him secured safe back on the track [Music] well you nailed it there calvin problems with those belts and that's not something you could mess around with clearly a safety issue if you don't get them done upright and credit to them for taking the time as painful as it must have been to make sure that giovanni was belted in and secure but boy that cost him at least one spot i think that's likely all they're going to lose because the pro-am runners were significantly further behind however let's keep an eye on this robbie foley you can see it on the screen well a moment ago you could see it on the screen he had purple right next to him john hayward has just stolen away the race's fastest lap but foley had it at least for a split second there and we'll see how that compares to the lack times from andrea calderoni the gap is seven and a half seconds but clearly there's some pace in that bmw there is we saw great long run pace for michael dinan and he certainly kept the pressure on early peppa gradually eeked away on that last lap at least robbie fully was six tenths quicker than our leader admittedly just pit by yan halen and this is not a big surprise ian hanlon led both practice sessions here yesterday just got pipped to the poll for the race here tomorrow and uh just jumped tremendous pace all season long in fact two wins on the year leading pro am and just really on top of his game right now the belgian foley with some lamp traffic to deal with that's conrad gruenwald who very politely will move out of the way that's an out of class battle not on the same lap so foley goes through and i don't think that cost him a whole lot since gave way calderelli had responded with the new fast lap 146.0 but it's only well less than a tenth quicker than foley so foley's got speed here yeah he closed that gap and if we were to see a full course yellow we know how strong this car is on restarts and foley is matching calderelli now basically 10th for 10th on each of the first several laps since the pit stop now full course caution could totally reshuffle the running order this is the leader calderelli now turning some of the fast laps to the race he's got the crown strike fastest lap at the moment but only by a fraction of a second foley looking really smooth you can see he seems to use a lot less steering input than some of the other drivers here really nice run here by robbie and uh this is the team that has really learned this car well didn't start the season off well even though they run this car this platform this m6 and another gt3 championship here in north america you know running on this pirelli tire has been a big learning uh curve for this team for multimatic to assist with the setups who's got a ton of experience with the m6 and uh they're really starting to find the sweet spot here gaining confidence in the handling of that 96 machine john haywood attacking giacomo out to a two season pros i say season alto is quite young but despite his age he does have an impressive cv coming through lamborghini super trofeo and earning a spot on the lamborghini factory driver roster john halen he's been around for a while raced up in champ car for a time and has found a home in sports car racing specifically with right where he is the swiss army knife wherever they need him they can plug him in and he's got the tool for the job yeah he's just a great racer always has great speed and uh he's sharp too i spoke to him yesterday about how's it going he said well we really feel at certain circuits at rode america through the carousel there and through this circuit as well there's a type of corner a long duration corner where we can have a great balance and everything feels fine but we're just not rolling enough speed and we came with a slightly different philosophy on the setup and it seems to be working so he said the real key corners here of this next one turn 10 can i roll speed through here and through the carousel after the inner loop and he said we are finding that here this weekend he said qualifying this corner is almost flat out and then this beautiful rhythm between 10 and 11 just trying to be super brave here making that switch over that transition across the road getting the car dialed in and then committing to the power early on straight away love seeing that telemetry in real time gives you an idea of what the drivers are doing behind the wheel and on the pedals john haywood giving that porsche a ride and altuay doing a nice job of keeping him at bay at least for now up at the front caldorelli put in the first 145 we've seen from anybody so far in this race he's extended the way to 8.2 seconds that's the zelus car madison snow driving drive-through penalty assigned to that car for a pit lane speed violation they're serving that penalty now and that cost them what was a promising run yeah you're going to lose the best part of 30 seconds uh coming through the pits here so compared to the cars at least a little bit of debris probably just a big chunk of marbling may be flying across the road there again halen has uh caught alto a but putting in the way is a different matter and again you lose that flow you can suddenly get stalled out and you start running at the pace of the car in front of you so sometimes it's so important to pounce otherwise it can take you many lads to suddenly get that position away and the other guys you're trying to chase down for a podium are well down the road this is for fourth and fifth so the podium is down the road and why that matters is right motorsports has an impressive streak of podiums to start the year they've not finished off the podium yet this season first second second second second second third and first those are the results in class so far they have a massive lead in points 67 in total so one bad race really wouldn't derail their championship bid here but that said i'm sure fred and jan and the rest of this right motorsports team would love love to keep that streak alive it's it's quite remarkable given how competitive pro-am has been this season just about every team has won at one point or another they've only won the two but it's hard to find a bad day on their season cv yeah and uh i know we say as a healthy lead 67 points five rounds to go including this one but the person who's in second behind a teammate leads right now so they're looking at maximum point score potentially but uh matt mcmurray is certainly keeping able very honest right now there's only a gap of one second between the two leading acuras in the pro-am class behind them it's 16 or so seconds back to michael cooper he's off the pace he's been off the road and you see the grass built up on the grill of that car so even if it's just a temporary loss of time with it off it could have long-term ramifications from a cooling perspective on that grass we talked about it being a wet racetrack this morning the grass is probably still pretty damp so it tends to stick a little bit more um back behind him he's got a huge gap for anyone behind him so if it does become an issue rather than coming down pit lane sometimes they can just do a quick stop on the racetrack here he comes in just gets it a little bit wrong that was weird he was tight behind al 2a but saw a little wiggle there right at entry and obviously had to take to the grass there and there's packed up the grill accordingly he was running very close to that lamborghini so you're a bit unsighted because you've got the car right in front of you at the windshield any chance you just miss your marks a little bit because you're so close to the car in front yeah certainly but you know typically with someone of his experience you just release the brakes let it flow and sort out on the way through but something was amiss there so i'm not sure if we didn't quite catch it soon enough where it made a really late move and had been a lot more on the brakes than he typically would and just uh got a little bit squirrely and loose on entry but that was a strange one i could see we were watching our toys like where's the the gap was suddenly there and knew something wasn't messing with the speed that he then uh had through the second part of the nfl by the way you should note that foley chopped off some more time and has the gap back down to 7.3 that's about as close as he's been able to get to calderelli this though is the pro-am battle for the lead it's jacob abel who has it and right behind matt mcmurray an internet scene battle between a couple of teams that both run the acura nsx gt3 evo and this is really a testimony to the performance today of both taylor hagler to get the car up into this track position and then jacob abel taking over and keeping matt mcmurray at bay i mean both young drivers but matt has so much more gt3 experience won a championship here in north america last year running the same brand running the same car effectively admittedly on a different tire so he has a ton more experience so hats off to jacob abel and certainly keeping him at bay for now anyway long way to go well jacob got started racing if you will in a go-kart on a dirt oval he's from louisville kentucky and did some of that dirt carting early on he and his entire family though have racing in their blood his dad was a motocross rider before an injury then started doing some vintage racing a little bit later in life but the whole family together went to the mid-ohio school and went through cop school together several years ago mom dad kids everybody they all got it done together and it's a real enthusiastic racing family jacob's an up-and-comer he was named hpd factory junior driver ahead of this season part of the hpd gt3 academy last year and has a promising open wheel career going for him too but talking to him he loves his gt3 racing as well yeah billy abel's a really good friend of scott harrington former indycar driver himself and he'd been working at the mid-ohio school so he's a good family friend was doing some coaching with jacob earlier on in his career so uh you know billy was a a motocross guy just like scott was as well so they know each other well and uh it's been fun to start to watch young jacob come up through the ranks oh when he's wide there that was close just missed it just rolled too much speed there entry had to recover mcmurray needs no second invitation he got close wasn't quite able to draw up alongside but now jacob abel's got to dig in refocus try and get that rhythm back harder and harder to do though the closer that second place car gets well thomas would love to get their second win on the year and they've got a lot of experience admittedly still young in his early 20s still but for matt mcmurray um you know he's got the experience to know he's got plenty of time on his side right now let's just figure this puzzle out how do i get around this young man in front of me and make it stick in a safe way it is amazing we talk about mcmurray as an experienced veteran and he is but he's only 23 years old it's that he's been racing since he was 16 in big time sports car racing and has all of that to draw upon jacob abel's done quite a bit of racing this year he's been very busy he's sixth in indy pro 2000 points but despite them being of a similar age there is a big golfing experience between them especially on the big stage there is and uh this is what's coming into play now jacob is learning the craft in terms of gt3 racing now having to learn with not just driving the race car learning this car on this racetrack for the first time but now dealing with the pressure in the race situation so it's a steep learning curve and we talk about the academy you've got mario farmbacker ryan eversley hpd factory drivers here this weekend giving these youngsters taylor hagler and jacob abel all of the tuition all of the tools to try and bring it home but it's still on their shoulders at the end of the day you are the driver behind the wheel as this battle is now heated back up again halen looks like the gorilla's fine he's obviously not seen extreme temperatures he's got the pressure back on out away for position whatever the problem was for right it must have been fleeting john halen has found the pace once again and giacomo altoy might have hoped that that would give him the respite he needed but that was not to be let's hear about this number 20 car with amanda we talk about the pace that jan halen has found if we go back to practice yawn back to back practice one and practice through the lap times here of 144. that's the only obscene of here this weekend but i was able to catch up with fred just quickly when he got out of the car and asked what the what they've been struggling with with the porsche here this weekend and he said they've been chasing rear grip so as those pirellis get up to temperature maybe that's what jan was experiencing there he didn't say anything else was wrong with the car just looking for grip out of that porsche and he's found some of it now he is dogging the lamborghini up ahead of him just working him over but give out away credit he's not given any sign of weakness has he no it it's a tough crowd and uh it's tough to come through the field and the closer you get to the front typically the sharper the drivers are so um despite jan halen's impressive pace here all this weekend i think if you'd spoken to them last night they wouldn't feel that with uh about 30 minutes to go in this race they'd be running ninth overall and fifth in class that is a bit of a surprise just behind them cruz stavely made a pass on madison snow that was for 10th overall sixth in move they aston martin up a spot but here we go battle is on into the inner loop weaving left and right john halen trying to find a way pass but there is just no gap provided by altoid yeah see samaji bhaji here in a moment because uh yan will uh deal with that for a couple of laps and he's gonna get his elbows out and try and make a move this is the leader with a bit of a moment here in the inner loop oh wow don't want to give the race away yet that's some heart in your throat stuff if you're watching on the big box let alone for andrea calderelli behind the wheel well i think uh this whole race i mean i think that's the impressive thing yes they've had the poor position they've dominated the race in terms of track position but the turner boys both michael diamond and robbie foley have kept both jordan pepper and calderelli honest they've made them keep pushing and when you're pushing like this you get a little bit deeper into the stint you know called it's showing signs that the car will give up and there's still 30 minutes to go effectively so it's not game over just yet certainly not and again that specter of a potential safety car intervention is looming over this race i think especially if you're capex that is the worst case scenario given the strength of the bmw on the restarts and the opening sequence at watkins glen in particular really would favor the bmw in that kind of a situation no change by the way in the pro-am battle for the lead it's still able from mcmurray six tenths of a second which is about where it was when we left it we checked back in here as john halen continues to stalk giacomo out away thus far though without any reward yeah he's a bit further back this goes so i'm not sure he's going to be in position it's all about the timing of this run but i think he's just a little bit too far back and you can see and halen's really taking it in deep on the brakes but i want to try and get by him maybe this car is just really being hurt in the aerodynamics and want to get the dirty air right now let's upset the balance of that porsche maybe if you get by the lamborghini you might have a bit more place to take off with a couple of class podiums so far this year for alto i had to miss the round at vir due to conflicts at the nurburgring oh here comes haywood looking to the inside not close enough though altoid knows it yeah he seems pretty unflappable and he's got such a good read in terms of if jan halen is uh close enough where he has to change his line and get defensive or whether he can just run his normal racing line so he's really got enough experience now that he can look at the revenue and identify where the strengths of that porsche are and where he is vulnerable around this race circuit here comes halen though just able to keep it a little bit tighter we've seen that consistently there through turn nine but it's not been enough to give him any kind of advantage this turn is so fast the gt3 car really high commitment letting it float out wide caught a lot of curb and i saw something fall out the back of that car and those curbs are raised a little bit you wonder what that might do to the under part of these cars and all the downforce that's created down there yeah and he had the off in the inner loop too so maybe something was dislodged in just that extra moment up and over the curbs there as he's using plenty of track this i'm sure he's gonna get a warning from the stewards um hasn't really used it to his advantage take another look here comes through turn 10 up and over the curbs and right there something just comes out from underneath it looks like a similar color to his so sure for something from that right rear body section now he's got a big run on alto as they get down towards the inner loop one more time alto he's just taking that right hand side of the road there but this is a position on the racetrack where i've seen that yeah and even this year make some big moves there he can kind of cut it tight coming out of the inner loop but i'll tell he's just rolling a bit too much speed there to do anything with my eye it looks like altoid knows what the avenue through would be and he's just cordoned it off he knows exactly where he needs to position that car to keep it from being a nice clean overtake for john halen i think that the patience is starting to wear thin for jan halen he knows he's got the pace if he could only get by at uh podium streak very much still on the line here with 26 minutes to go yeah and i think we're pretty close to the seven percent of this race in terms of whether points will be awarded so maybe they're waiting for that before they go a little bit aggressive you don't want to make a move or go wrong you're sitting on the side of the road so boy not only did we lose some points we lost all of our points here today so these teams will really have an agenda terms of when it is exactly good time as well in terms of determining where that point in the race is where they are guaranteed points today love that shot you can see the speed and commitment coming out of turn 11 alto a force to go very defensive here we'll see how halen chooses to play it maybe he's trying to set him up for a run out of turn one this time and get that run through the yes's into this section here where he's very strong matt mcmurray now on the charge trying to find a way by jacob abel closed up about as close as we've seen him in recent laps calvin couldn't get the pass made though no uh just ran up on him probably lost the front downforce a little bit uh but had enough experience just let it go straight for a little bit and uh lost a couple of tents but he's back on him immediately so there's battles everywhere around this racetrack this is where jan hayleth just cut it in tight but certainly not getting the run to make anything stick there altoh is just displaying enough pace to make it really awkward and as i say you get out of rhythm and then if you try and make a move it's a big move it's a big lunge and then it gets a little bit risky giacomo altoy in 2018 was named the best lamborghini young driver that year really started he's climbed through the lamborghini ranks he was successful winning the lamborghini world final that year in super trofeo competition won the italian gt championship and that helped him get on the lamborghini radar won a championship in gt the following year in 2019 and has been racing in gt world challenge europe and other championships over the last couple of seasons coming to the states for the first time a little touch and his first time having to deal with this man john halen who is there he's got the nose to the inside but not far enough along he's just nibbling on his body work there was he he's like my new puppy just gives you a little chew i was thinking about that fish that's just nibbling at the bait right no he's there is he gonna bite in the case of fishing you want him to bite i'm not sure giacomo does in this instance so closest still between the two acuras here with that bro pro am class lead abel is just hanging on murray is just trying to figure out a solution here he had plenty of time he just used about 10 minutes of that time and uh now it starts to ramp up the intensity of trying to get that move done we talked about it in qualifying at mcmurray was an aerospace engineering major at uc irvine and this is like studying for a test here he's gathering all the data trying to find the answer so he can apply him when test time comes when it's time for that final exam jacob abel though able to hold serve here so far mcmurray has as much data as he's acquired just hasn't found the right computation he doesn't have it figured out yet how do you make the pass and these two are exactly the same cars so i guess on one hand you know the strengths and weaknesses but they're they're going to be the same it seems like for everybody and depending on how the two teams set the cars up yeah look like on a couple of occasions the abel's uh like overshooting the entry to the turn seven the toe of the boot but it's one of those corners with its uphill nature you pick up grip as you're going through there there's a lot of rolling speed that you can carry so there's one corner where you can over commit and probably get away with it it's a it's a corner that you can run multiple lines and probably come out with the same outcome in terms of the uh sector time so even though he's vulnerable they're tough to make a move to the inside and be on that shallower exit and get the power down soon enough to make a move before you get to turn eight in the break zone it's worth noting too we talked about the golden experience between these two drivers but in terms of gt experience abel is only in his third gt3 race weekend coming from single-seaters able to keep mcmurray at bay once again you made that transition at one point in your career calvin coming from open wheel to the sports car ranks how impressed are you with what jacob's been able to do with a limited amount of experience in these kinds of cars to draw upon well super impressed i mean it's not an easy transition you've got a lot of weight moving around the car tends to roll a lot more than a single seater obviously i think in the current generation of gt cars like we're dealing with today it might be a slightly easier transition i'm saying that i was better i'm just saying in the older days the the gt cars were a big big difference and uh i think with the amount of downforce that these cars are creating now and the flatter platform add to that the sim program so you can run through and really uh kind of learn the car a little bit before you now on the racetrack really helps that transition but even so it's a big one and when you're dealing with a young kid behind him like matt mcmurray who has a ton of experience in this car he's doing a sensational job jacob told me earlier in the weekend his indy pro 2000 car and this acura they make about the same amount of downforce but they feel a lot different and he said if you have a big moment in a gt car it is a lot bigger than a big moment in an open-wheel car with so much weight moving around it's a good little battle here certainly the dxdt team on the back foot a little bit hasn't been the smoothest race so we see ryan diel is now caught up with madison snow oh drop wheels there that's an unusual spot so he's just trying to figure out a way to uh set up madison there and drop that right side and kind of kick the rear end around on ryan dial so he's digging deep here trying to find a way through 20 minutes to go in this 90-minute race up front no change still calderelli from foley by 7.7 seconds then 13.7 seconds back to miquel grenier from windward he runs third in the final capex entry in the fourth spot jacob able matt mcmurray we saw them a few moments ago they're racing for the fifth and sixth positions overall but first and second in pro-am this as calvin mentioned is further down the order but no less feisty with madison snow seventh in pro-am ryan dial in eighth they are going to war here around watkins glen international yeah both of these uh these drivers or these cars should i say i've had an extra trip down pit lane today so that's why they're so deep in the pack but certainly two of the fastest drivers in our field is the al uses all of the road and a little bit more there coming on that front straightaway he wants this position badly as this one has not gone anywhere halen keeping the pressure on alto a this is for fourth in pro am right now john halen's uh he's a fighter there's there's not many that can keep him at bay for this long and i'm really curious to see how this one resolves itself jacques has been able to do that exact task for pretty much the entirety of his stint keeping the belgian now living in florida john hayward behind him in the fight for fourth he's an avid cyclist he has a bike shop down in the uh saint pete area as well which keeps him busy in his down time but he's on the road so much he's uh certainly very busy and looks like century back into the clutches of both of these acuras so could this help mario does it help abel oh and he's struggling he's got big issues down on power down the straightaway in the end i don't think it affected either of these two credit there to vintorini for making that as straightforward as possible but the frustration continues to mount for the sixth car just not been a strong run over the last several race weekends for them chasing gremlins in that car and right now dropping outside of the top five overall that does not affect how they score points it is a true pro class not an overall category like we've seen in the past where if you're falling behind out of class cars that hurts your points haul they're still in a position to score fourth place points which mitigates some of the damage but still not good situation now fourth in pro still the drivers that they came into this race tied with dinan and foley you're having a big day diamond keeping calderelli honest we had uh halen set the fastest lap of the race and calderoli has lowered that mark but foley is a little bit quicker than haley now in terms of his fastest lap so that gab has been hovered between seven and eight seconds the majority of this stint and uh but it seems like caldorelli is uh kind of keeping that delta the same so time is running out for foley here to make anything happen well i think what we saw in the first stint was jordan pepper able to build that lead between seven and eight seconds and that's what it was when the pit stop happened and they've come out and calderelli has just maintained it from foley before he has kept him on as they traded fastest laps there for a time and there's really been nothing to separate those two and it goes to show the gains that turner has made throughout the course of this season that they are right there on pace with one of the fastest gt drivers on the planet andrea calderelli right at home in his natural environment behind the wheel of a lamborghini yeah like you said they've been trading fast laps fully and called the rally trading punches so to speak so calderali certainly kept it up he's uh we saw him get really twitchy there in terms of how hard he was pushing but right now abel is really looking really smooth right now and i think just that i mean admittedly it's only a car length but it just takes the pressure off you can see there he rolls through on a slightly better line there with the pressure off not looking in his uh rear view camera or the side view mirrors here in terms of where his competitor is and just a super job and that's going to give him the more laps he stays in front the more confidence he's going to give him under 16 minutes remaining remember we've got another race coming up tomorrow race two of the weekend for fanatech gt world challenge america powered by aws and it's a totally mixed up grid because we had uh the second drivers qualify for that race but to your point calvin this one is by no means settled yet altoid forced to give a little bit of ground there on the outside that might be the long-awaited chance for john halen look at that look at him he's just trying to get on the power a little bit early but you know altoid will not give him the lane he will not give him enough room to try and get to the power earlier and get that drag position just great racecraft by the italian right now and holding on to this position just 20 years old giacomo altoy turns 21 on the 5th of october but driving like a seasoned veteran how difficult is it to do what he's doing and withstand this kind of pressure for effectively 30 minutes it's incredibly difficult because that porsche is really a flying machine around this racetrack so i wouldn't doubt if jen halen could get in clean here they could maybe take off a bit as we see uh mcmurray clobbering the kerbs there a little bit and losing a car length or two so again this has given jacob abel a lot of confidence and that's going to make mcmurray's task even harder here as we get towards the chequered flag this afternoon ryan dial by the way did make the pass on madison snow that last lap so that's seventh and eighth changing hands in pro am that is 11th and 12th overall again as you mentioned earlier calvin both of those cars with unscheduled trips down the pit lane there was the spin early in the day as well for david askew driving the car ryan dial is now piloting not been an easy day for them but that's the nice thing about these weekends with two races you can put it behind you quickly you're not stuck thinking about it stewing over it if something doesn't go well on saturday you get to turn right around and try and turn the page quickly on sunday yeah it's like teaming up the next morning after a bad round so uh these guys have not had a great round here at all they're gonna lose that tie for second position in points here and then something dramatic happens here in the last 13 minutes or so but there was something to miss with that race guy that number six car definitely had an issue where venturini was well off the pace and it's persisted the last lap was nearly four seconds off of calderelli's pace and i think amanda has more well to their credit guys if there are struggles with that sixth lamborghini that's persisted racing race out they're at least being tight-lipped on it as you know we've talked to darren law about it we've talked to corey lewis about it we asked geo in the interview prior to the race today i was able to get out of darren just now that g.o is relaying back that he's having handling issues there were questions over whether to bring the car out in or not they're going to leave it out essentially just for points at this point well that's an interesting decision because you said the pro points are based on the pro cars he's running fourth he can't drop any further and fourth if i was that team i'd be using this last 13 minutes there's like a little mini session for tomorrow see if there's anything they can throw at this and just do a couple in and out laps and see if they get any read on what exactly is going on that does make some sense i guess the other side of the coin would be if problems were to befall any of the other three cars in the class and you do that you drop a lap and maybe that costs you the chance to pick up a spot at somebody else's misfortune boy that's a tough choice to make i'm glad i'm not the one making it uh looking here at michael cooper who's had a nice quiet day this is the class pull sitting car that aaron vogel started and turned in a nice opening stint they have since dropped back to third in pro-am and michael is right now running down that ailing lamborghini from uh capex you can see right there that would be for sixth overall michael and aaron though right now set to finish on the podium once again if things finish as they run right now yeah and looking at the fastest laps of both the dx dtt dxmt machines uh cooper is 300 quicker than his teammate ryan dial in the race and i think that was a similar match to what they had him qualifying here this morning for race two so uh very evenly matched between the two uh team cars there and this would be the second podium on the year for the pairing of cooper and the one win at vir but other than that the best finish is a fourth at sonoma back in the second race of the opening weekend of the season fifth in points coming into this race and i i know they're here to win races but getting up on the podium is a special thing any chance you get to do it and especially here in a at a racetrack that is so richly steeped in history like watkins glen cooper has gotten around venturini and uh halen's still trying to figure out this little problem he's got in front of him because after he has just been there every step of the way hasn't made that critical error and that's that that's the hardest part i mean it's one thing around that racecraft but even so when you're looking in your rearview mirror and looking in that review camera to see where the other driver is so easy to just miss your breaking point a little bit miss your turning point and open up the door for jan halen to pounce he hasn't made that mistake yet lunch there late late late on the breaks from john halen closes up to the rear diffuser can he get to power quick enough to challenge into the toe of the boot the answer appears to be no not this time it seems like john is really digging deep into the bag of tricks seems to be really quick but he's not quite as close as he was on previous attempts so where to go with it see just dives it in there and i think he could get on the pound much earlier than he's able to but there's a bit of a roadblock in front of him keep in mind they've got the car of vinta that is a bit off the pace just up the road might that have some impact could that provide the opportunity that otherwise might not materialize for yon hayward inside the final 10 minutes in watkins glen the fight continues in the battle for fourth in pro-am yeah it just depends whether venturini recognizes they're close enough to make the move earlier whether he just bails out of this back stretch here to give them that track position to go racing again but yeah could this be the little uh block that jen halen is looking for in terms of the cheek and the armor position dr has turned that lamborghini into an unbreakable has not given don halen a chance to get by he's gotten close even put the bumper to him ever so slightly on a few occasions has been unflappable still though nine minutes left and what a long nine minutes this must be for giacomo out to it a moment of hope for anne halen went by in a millisecond didn't i'm sure he saw that green lamborghini hurricane thinking oh this could be the opportunity and uh and torini basically just let them both blow by on the straightaway with no drama once again you saw that late lunge out of halen closing in but can't take advantage of it away has every answer to the questions john halen has to him this is intense i mean we've seen it get close but this is like both drivers on maximum attack right now in terms of the defense of alto a and just jen halen so much experience and just can't quite figure it out yet that porsche does not not have the advantages at least in dirty air to make the move stick the question is does he display the patience and the discipline not to do a bump and run here with eight minutes to go is this fun as a racing driver frustrating somewhere in between it's fun i mean everyone one loves a great battle but as you mentioned they haven't been off the podium all year in terms of the 20 right motorsports porsche so and they had pace yesterday so i'm sure they went to dinner last night talking about strategy from the front not being buried in the pack here and then struggling with the car in traffic so yeah it's fun i mean jan loves a great fight but i think they'll be frustrated by the potential pace and potential position of today about half a lap ahead of these two andrea calderoy just past the start finish line has now a nearly nine second lead over robbie foley it has grown over the last few laps here we go again between these two jacob able matt mcmurray and again abel finds him off oh problems for zay loose that car is off the pace might be a local yellow here i'm not sure that that didn't rob mcmurray of a chance yeah either he reacted to that car being there and suddenly caught his peripheral vision because as you come up there out of turn seven you crest that hill that lamborghini on the slow side there and i think right there i think it was almost a reaction after it passed him with that slower car being there well there was a local yellow displayed and until you reach another corner station that is not flying the yellow you cannot pass so he might have been reminding himself we're not there yet i might have cleared the problem car but i'm not to that corner station sometimes the team is giving you that information if they see on the monitor before you arrive there just be careful slow car on the race circuit the key is where is that car now is it going to get into a safe haven and not create a full course yellow but not much time on the board to work with for that yeah i think we'd be hard-pressed to get a restart should it go of course yellow at this stage necessarily rule it out entirely but i do think for matt it looked like he had a run that looked like a chance and there is the car stranded on the side of the road heartbreak for zelus after a great qualifying effort and good first stint from jason harward they have the drive-through penalty for pit lane speed infraction and madison snow has to stop the race car and i hope it's not serious because they've got to use that car later today and the gt america big slide by mcmurray he threw it in there god is skating across the road ringing the neck of that acura trying to chase down the racer's edge car first and second in pro-am this is fourth and fifth overall venturini has dropped all the way down to ninth in the overall order and looks uh poised to lose yet another spot at least on this upcoming lap that card just not on the pace early for the last 10 minutes or so with reported handling issues yeah with that car on the side of the road you know that mac mcmurray is just thinking boy how much time do i have to work with the team is telling him five minutes to go but do i have five minutes are we gonna go yellow here if the stew is determined that that car is in an unsafe position so if he has anything he has to show it right now coming back on to the pit straight once again in the slipstream matt mcmurray compass racing black and and orange car taking a peek to the inside of the identical nsx in the wide and red racer's edge motorsports paint scheme both drivers uh i'd say abusing the track limits a little bit but no advantage to eat the one that is what makes stuart said in the driver's speed and we'll take a look at it if we judge you gained an advantage they will hear from us big run there by matt mcmurray heading down towards the inner loop flicks it to the outside he's not got enough to clear him jacob abel hanging on right near for that win and move around the outside can you get it done unless you're pretty much all the way alongside a quarter injury tough tough in equal cars we saw it with dinan and a couple other moves that been made around the outside where you have a bit more of a straightaway advantage but these cars are pretty evenly matched and once again mcmurray really dives in there and just loses the front end a little bit and has to give it up and that costs him half a car length or so every time through there jacob able looking for his first career win in a gt3 car sixth place in the indy pro 2000 point standings on the road to indy looking to make the step up to indy lights next year if at all possible but he has been [Music] looking very strong as he's got more and more comfortable with his car and this race team the relationship with the team goes back to last year as well because racers edge they run that hpd gt3 academy john meraki really championing that in the cause of some of these young drivers that have come through that academy they've already started their second year of it this year with a number of drivers eyeing potential futures in gt racing and it's a great initiative honda trying to support some of the up-and-comers within the the north american sports car racing market and i think they've identified a couple really good ones dakota dickerson was a real star at elkhart lake taylor hagler had a great opening stint here and now jacob abel finishing it off as well yeah i think it's a great opportunity for these young drivers to learn the ropes at the gt3 level and i think for john muraki is a great opportunity to introduce new young drivers to his squad and showcase what they can do as mcmurray keeps the heat on but it's just the perfect solution i mean uh hats after the whole group with hpd and braces edge for coming up with this concept and the proof is in the pudding they're winning races they're running at the front and bringing these young drivers uh up through the ranks very quickly and uh leveraging all of the experience that they have with the hpd contractor drivers as well guys like dane cameron ricky taylor ryan eversley and mario farmbach of the latitude being here on site this weekend [Music] it's been a great duel pretty much the entirety of the stint here and jacob abel much as we've seen from giacomo altoy and his defense of jan halen has been able to parry every thrust matt mcmurray deep on the brakes closing in once again at the heel of the boot lets it run out wide over the curb just barely keeps those pirellis on the painted line that's what he needs to do not to not run afoul of track limits stays tucked in line little twitch there on corner exit cost him a bit of ground tucks back in line trying to stay within striking distance of the class lead with just over one minute to go yeah jacob just doing a really nice job and he's not compromising his line too much now i mean you can sense that he's gained that little bit of confidence that mac maybe does not have enough in his arsenal here to make that move so that's allowing jacob to roll his normal line at normal speed through some of these corners and um you know he realized he's getting really close now as we see calderol he's going to do this lap should see white flag this time through that's right and look you can see just how off the pace the sister car is because here comes calvarelli around to put a lap on the number six car these are team cars but not fighting for position it has been a trying weekend to this point despite qualifying on the outside of the front row for the green number six lamborghini white flag flies however for andrea calderelli he's less than two and a half miles away from yet another race win and just super impressed with uh what this team has done both drivers uh you know impeccable really in terms of their performance and also the performance of the pro p0 calderelli's last lap 146.3 that's only six tenths off his fastest lap of the day which is the best lap of the race so far so to be this deep in a stint and still performing at that level admittedly on a slightly lower fuel load as well as you burn it off but even so great performance and here we come down what's the final lap for calderelli but these guys have a lap and a half to go i believe yes they do john halen as close as he has been does he have the answer to this riddle giacomo altoid playing the part of the sphinx and jan halen trying to solve the puzzle unable to do so so far coming through for the penultimate time these two will see the white flag the next time bye yeah it's uh taking a lot of patience from jan halen but does he see an opportunity here in the last three and a half miles or so [Music] we'll see just how aggressive he wants to be in the fight for fourth back to the overall leader andrea calderelli lamborghini factory driver team manager of the orange one fff racing team that he races for over in europe will be seeing that team come into the states for the indianapolis eight hour who he drives for in that race is still a bit up in the air will it be k-packs will it be orange one but we got some time to figure that out for now coming around to complete their final lap for the sixth time this year jordan pepper and andrea calderelli are race winners in gt world challenge america team is pumped up just increases that championship lead and it's not insurmountable but they're in really great shape with four rounds to go here we go pro-am lead up for grabs even still foley has crossed the line to take the checkered flag second overall and in pro jacob abel still trying to fend off the challenge from matt mcmurray stalking him in the compass racing car compass versus racer's edge with half a lap to go got that gap it should be enough he's been really consistent here down into the brake zone got the abs to work with you as the tired deck starts to kick in a little bit and you don't have the amount of grip to work with just use that abs into these big brake zones now just bring it home jacob's co-driver taylor hagler scored the first win of the season for the team alongside dakota dickerson in the last race at road america jacob told me that was motivation i want to do the same coming through turn 11 for the final time the first time in his career as a gt3 driver jacob abel and taylor hagler they win for racers edge holding off matt mcmurray by less than four tenths of a second here comes john haywood around giacomo alto a into turn 11 for the final time can he cross him over drag race to the checkered flag giacomo alts away holds off john hayward in the fight for four wow it looked like jan halen actually got the position and looked altoa had to come back at him and get it in the final couple of corners that was a little tight there well i wonder if there's a little bit of frustration we had halen now we didn't see those last few corners how that evolved no we did not and i am curious to hear what happened there yeah jan halen's taking off like he is miffed about something 34 000 of a second the difference at the line fred poor daddy with a little roll of the eyes he might have seen something we did not or hurt something we did not but as it stands it's a dramatic finish there for fourth in pro am andrea cantorelli crown strike fastest lap of the race 145.781 the only well only one of two drivers to dip into the 145s in the race today miquel grenier who finished third for windward did so late in the running with a 145.9 a run for grenier we didn't see him a lot but another nice podium run for the winwood racing team and that will put russell ward very close to uh calderelli and lewis for third in the points dinan and foley should assume second based on this runner-up finish there are the provisional results with jordan pepper and andrea cantorelli taking their sixth win of the season by 9.389 seconds over turner motorsports robbie foley and michael dinan who do move to second provisionally in points with the second place finish given the issues for the other capex racing car minutes windward over racers edge holding on for their second race win of the season but the first for jacob able taylor hagler her second win of the season that's big for her she's in the middle of the points fight came in in second should definitely help her cause she's a big year busy here as a number of these drivers have fewer programs so she leads a tcr championship as well this year later than going so great stuff let's see what happened here i think we're about to see what went on with john hayward and giacomo altoy this is turn nine i think again gets the run finally times it nicely gets to his inside side by side heading towards turn 10 [Applause] well track limits i guess is the real question i mean he effectively used uh exceeded the curbing there a little bit to make that pass and get it back so we'll have to wait and see i have no doubt they'll take a good close look at it and this is what happened after the race the more i look at it i think that more was a case of jan not expecting the car up the inside at least that's how i'm choosing to read it and uh nevertheless big thanks to both of them for putting on such a great show for us we didn't have the pass i guess we kind of did there and then it swapped back but it uh it was a tremendous fight for basically 45-50 minutes it was awesome uh great battle throughout the field uh some for the for the victory some for deeper in the points but everyone was digging deep incident between nine and twenty under review from race control if in the course of our post race coverage we get word as to what happened we'll be sure to pass that along to you but that is the latest that we have seen curious what the stewards have to say about all of that as it looks like amanda is ready to go to talk once again to andrea calderelli and jordan pepper who win overall this case your sixth win on the season what goes through your mind when you see that checkered flag yeah it was you know it was good it was a kind of a solo stint i tried to stay focused and try to push because we knew that bmw was was quick jordan did an amazing job to pull that gap at the beginning so um yeah i really wanted to bring it back first for the guys because it was a very hard weekend for us in road america so when when i saw the checkered flag finish first it's definitely a bit of a relief after the last weekend jordan you said at the beginning of the day that we're back what exactly did you mean by that look it's like andrea put it we we we didn't quite have the the dream road america weekend and you know we we're all pushing to maximize every potential and you know we put our heads together we as a group collectively worked hard and yeah really impressed by the boys you know they they the ones who are when we go away after the weekend they're the ones who are grinding back at the workshop finding the problems and we never really found a problem but this track just obviously suits the lamborghini really well and uh just proud to drive such an amazing car for such an amazing team and share the car with andrea and get our sixth win so awesome thank you quite a season they're putting together they're trying to clinch this championship nice and early before the indy 8 hour then the way that the eight hour works with points being paid at the the three hour mark if you don't have to worry about points you can do more with your strategy early in that race plus there's andrea trying to figure out who he's gonna drive for and i think that decision becomes maybe a little bit easier if he were to clinch ahead of that race but uh that might be a topic of discussion for another day a lot of credit to jacob abel first of all taylor hagler maybe we should start there she had the brilliant opening stint she was as aggressive as they come but abel had to finish it off and uh looks like amanda is standing by so let's go ahead and hear from our pro-am winners well jacob i know you got to see that win from the perspective of your car but i got to see it from the perspective of your team your dad was watching that last lap on the phone tracking you around he was pacing your team was at the wall to celebrate you as you pass by your first win in gt gt3 will be the best part of it yeah i mean it was amazing i don't even know where to start i mean it's been such a long journey with all of the racer's edge um and honda hpd folks you know the first time i ever drove a car with a roof on it or actually the first time i drove a race car in general was a honda so you know i've been with them forever and you know it's been awesome to build that chemistry with the racer's edge crew you know john has established such a such a good group of guys and you know i i'm kind of speechless so i can't be more happy you know taylor did an absolutely phenomenal job there at the beginning uh you know our qualifying wasn't the best like we talked about earlier but you know she got us up there and then the racer's edge guys got us in the lead and all i had to do then was hang on it was probably the longest race of my life but you know super fun taylor i believe it was a right uh front tire that took you guys out in race two and rode america and you were on a journey there to the top bouncing back from that in the adversity where did your fight come from today um honestly kind of we i mean we had a really bad call it wasn't the qualifying that i wanted just with the mixed conditions and when i'm usually that far back i'm like a dog with a bone as long as i have something to chase i'm going to be up there and you know if i could have had a few more laps a little bit more time i think i would have been right up there with demayo i was catching about half a half a second a lap i think um usually i just get a little fire under my foot and as long as i have something to chase we're good to go it was on show today congratulations great stuff from both of them they uh they both held up there into the bargain and it shows just what a team sport especially this kind of racing where you have the driver changes you got the pit stop you need to be perfect in all phases and they were they really were and uh taylor just uh i mean it took her a couple of laps to get into her rhythm get into the groove the cast set up seemed to come to her then she was just carving her way through that field and that really set up a great pit stop by the team as they alluded to both drivers and then jacob just tremendous pressure from matt mcmurray as we said throughout the race a ton more experience in gt3 machinery and particularly this race car this acura nsx he knows like the back of his hand but he couldn't figure out a way through and uh i think as the race wore on jacob got more and more confident in terms of holding on to that position it's going to be interesting to see if any of this carries over to tomorrow what the teams can do going to work trying to adjust on the cars a little bit tweaking on the setups will we have some different protagonists certainly the start of the race is going to look different based on qualifying alone it will and if you look at robbie foley's pace compared to calderelli there i mean carl dorelli really didn't make any grounds i mean he just kept the the gap constant so with foley uh starting the race tomorrow um what can he do if he can get a good start if he can get the track position maybe they can make something happen and michael diner's got a ton of confidence we talk about all these young drivers learning their craft learning the ropes is coming to the forefront here in the latter rounds of this championship season definitely so and then you mix in some of the veterans as well want to show you on halen put on for us drew stavely had a nice run as well to finish fifth for ian lacy racing in pro-am but in the am class it was all about af course amanda and as you can see behind us we're just moments away for the podiums for this am winner to celebrate and jc commendable effort today qualified really well what's been the funnest part of this journey here in watkins glen for you oh i had the most fun the first 15 minutes of the race was just amazing i just felt the car fell the track everything came together i was calm conrad here kept talking in my ear and and uh giving me some guidance but at the end there was just magic it was very very cool it was very i really enjoyed myself today and for you conrad how will you reflect on this race performance i could not be more proud of him his qualifying was astounding i mean i i haven't seen him drive like that for years uh so really really good job on qualifying i left us in a great point strategy wise with our competition way back and they ended up having a mistake so we asked jc to take it easy bring the car back in one piece and it's pretty easy race so i'm looking forward to tomorrow thanks thank you very much and another win for a of course um they have been so strong in the game class and this might be their best weekend yet as highlighted by that qualifying performance but this is a look at the race highlights great jump from pole for jordan pepper look at this michael daddy got shuffled all the way back to fourth but it's not going to take him long he'll be back to second yeah big pound move there with the bmw m6 and just slots and threads the needle there between corey lewis and russell ward there on the opening lap and that really set up their day they had a really strong run here going from strength to strength on the back of that win at road america good battles here this was taylor hagler and she started her charge you heard her make reference to the fact that qualifying didn't go according to plan i for one am grateful because she was absolutely must watch television marching her way up through the field ended up giving it over to jacob abel who is embroiled in a great duel all race along with matt mcmurray that was a moment late in the race for andrea calderelli but he stayed up front and then a fight that lasted the better part of an hour between giacomo altoy and john haley yeah kev going right down to the wire there we see a little problem for the zelus car unfortunately in a little twist here by matt mcmurray i'm sure he saw the car at the last moment or saw the yellow flag there's the checkered flag the sixth time this season for the pairing of andrea caldarelli and jordan pepper last lap fireworks for fourth and fifth in pro am giacomo altoway by fractions of a second able to hold off beyond halen race two of the weekend for hopkins glen coming up tomorrow [Music] [Music] you

Channel: GTWorld

Views: 82,558

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

Id: _YRwFZkw5GE

Length: 119min 55sec (7195 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021