RACE 2 - ROAD AMERICA - GT WORLD CHALLENGE AMERICA

[Music] [Music] nestled in the rolling hills of wisconsin's kettle moraine region road america has a well-earned reputation as america's national park of speed marrying a majestic backdrop with one of the fastest most challenging track layouts anywhere in the world today the iconic track plays host to the eighth round of the season for the fanatec gt world challenge america powered by aws hello everyone my name is ryan marine calvin fish is alongside and reporting for the pit lane will be amanda busick it is a pleasure to have your company this weekend on a beautiful day here in america's dairyland this has been a remarkable season so far infinite gt world challenge america and this track is a perfect setting for it let's take a tour of the track with our porsche track preview hi this is jan helen with the porsche track preview here at road america coming onto the front straightaway getting ready to start a lap here at road america long straight away and a long ways from the start finish line into turn one always makes for a lot of good action at the at the start of the race sixth gear 162 mile an hour down the fourth gear really fast turn one using all of that exit curb really fun corner and then into turn three laid on the brakes down the second gear and then getting ready to uh set up for a really good exit onto that long back straightaway into turn five getting ready to go under the bridge here and this straightaway is all about setting up for a late b breaking into five lots of good overtaking opportunities here hard on the brakes at the 200 sign sixth gear all the way down the first sharp left-hander and then up the hill into turn six very short tap on the brake here car gets really light on the uh on the exit of the corner and then into turn seven just a short lift back to power and then flat out down the hill into turn eight breaking right at the 200 down the second gear using a little bit of that curve at the apex and then ready to enter the carousel long sweeper right fourth gear really fast really fun here in this uh porsche gt3 r with all that down force and then exiting the carousel setting up to uh to enter the kink kink is uh one of those famous corners here in america really fast fifth gear 137 miles an hour at the apex and then down into canada corner braking's gonna be right at the 300 again a good place to uh to make some moves hitting that apex curve and then again using all of that curve on the exit and then setting up for billy mitchell super front corner blind on the entry and then using all that curve on the exit laid on the brakes for turn 14 making sure we set up for a good exit and then on to the front straightaway and that was a lap here at road america road america this weekend is the site of round seven and eight of the fanatic gt world challenge america powered by aws one of three legs to the global fanatec gt world challenge powered by aws a championship four gt3 manufacturers encompassing racing in north america europe as well as australia these are the manufacturers participating in that championship scoring points across multiple classes to this point in the season here at road america marks the next round clear skies up above on a weekend that has been dominated by weather as part of the story line that goes back to the practice sessions earlier in the weekend but it looks like we should be in the clear this is what racing looked like yesterday calvin will welcome you into the broadcast now as this is a look back at how race one played out yes andrea calderelli from the poor position there grabbed the lead but a great move by michael dinan that's the inside of the turn of motorsports m6 putting the pressure on russell ward early here's a move up the inside what a move it was by dinan getting to the inside there of the windward mercedes show with the strength of that bmw platform that battle carried on from turn five all the way to turn six and even ahead to turn seven yeah great respect there between the two drivers then a little bit later in the race system moved by his teammate robbie foley getting around the uh number six car from kpex that bright green lamborghini huracan but unfortunately during the pit stop that 96 card the wheels spinning but big moment in the race right here we had a battle shaping up for the overall lead that was filabellas trying to put a lap on jc sata's am class car it all went wrong in the king therefore the race ended under full course yellow conditions a difficult outing in a lot of respects but capex racing kept up the strength of their season picking up the overall win once again but calvin it's not going to be so easy today difficulties in qualifying for the capex team they'll start in sixth with the three car and in tenth with the six car yeah i mean they continue to keep winning but despite the fact that the lamborghini maybe even the fourth or fifth fastest mark here this weekend you've got a porsche an acura front row you've got a very fast mercedes you've got robbie foley lining up third on the grid in a bmw so they certainly have their work cut out this weekend also of note unlike the race one that we saw yesterday it will be pros starting the cars in the pro-am lineups they qualified as well for this race and the grid is all mixed up if you joined us for race one the starting order looks a lot different today than it did 24 hours ago certainly does dakota dickerson is going to start this race from the poll aboard the uh pro-am winning car yesterday from race's edge motorsport acura has always shown a lot of speed here at road america as a monster lap he put together just piping jan halen to the pole by four hundredths of a second so that right motorsport car another podium run yesterday but uh they continue to lead in their class and the question is can a pro-am car battle for an overall win i think there's a decent chance that we could see that scenario play out with several of the pro-class contenders starting a bit deeper in the field but we can't forget about the turner motorsport bmw that starts third it's been right at home here at elkhart lake road america about to come to life with the sound of racing engines and down amongst the grid of gt3 cars is amanda busing well guys we're just moments away from race number eight here in the fanatec gt world challenge powered by aws season and you talk about the acura's finding speed here cal well the bmw as you know is doing just as well the robbie foley michael dining entry finished fourth yesterday they will look to get on that podium here in race number two at road america and how about the battle yesterday for the win between the lamborghini in this car unfortunately it was cut short by a full course yellow there at the end but expect a lot out of phillip ellis in that team here today and with winning yesterday taylor hagler became just the second female to win in the gt world challenge sro america series here in taylor yesterday you told us that you had the drive of your life what has to happen here today you guys do have the overall pole position what are you looking forward to um i just have to repeat yesterday i mean we did a little bit of data but uh we kind of just looked at it and we're like don't make any big changes just do exactly what you did yesterday i'm a big person of consistency i'm usually a pretty consistent driver once i'm on that pace i'm on that pace i think that's a really good thing to have and it just helps you as everyone falls back you're still consistent obviously like you said we have an advantage with dakota being overall pull we're kind of just looking for him to keep stay steady be consistent as usual bring the car in one piece and then hopefully i can get out there in a good position and just have another drive of my life tomorrow today out of the pro-am category taylor hacker will look to see the checkered flag herself this time she'll be wrapping up the race after dakota dickerson gets the start in cal taylor was rock solid in her stint yesterday but dakota dickerson looks like a star in the making qualifying on overall pole yeah he really does really impressive young man i mean the lap he put together was totally on the edge and he's shown a lot of confidence behind the wheel of that race car so uh expect a lot from him today going to be a lot of pressure you know jen halen the seasoned vet who starts alongside is going to put the pressure on gonna want that overall lead early and the lead in the class this is another car that could come through to the front reindeer behind the wheel of his dxdt amg mercedes only two cars in the stable running here this weekend unfortunately george kurtz who shares the car with colin brown had a big incident here on friday in a practice session a lot of damage to the race car and he took a bit of a bump on his arm he's been watching the events this weekend said he feels a-okay and should be back for the next round at watkins glen tough not having to hear george but we know you're watching speedy recovery to you and we'll see you at the next one it's been a good weekend for the acura we talked about the racer's edge side of things this is the compass racing acura michael dimeo matt mcmurray they were race winners back at vir the last time out for this series that will be a car to keep an eye on let's head down to the grid as we get close to the command to start engines at road america well this race is going to kick off the back half of this 2021 season and the drivers are ready to get after it so with that john baldwin from pella to kick us off with the race drivers start your engines magnificent field of gt3 machinery roaring to life and we'll be sending them out on the formation lap around this 14-turn four-mile racetrack road america we already had the porsche track preview we had the on-board lap but calvin you've raced here this is a track that tests every bit of driver and machine you need the car to be working for you these are long duration corners here so you can't keep fighting the race car the car has to have the grip has to have the balance so had a lot of dry track time this weekend but certainly some of that has been on what we call a green race track with the rain that's been in the air has watched the racetrack clean and so still a bit of a guesstimate here in terms of what setup you want to start this race with today cars starting to roll out behind the safety car racing coming up soon at road america the field slowly making their way out onto the racetrack one thing to keep in mind unique among north american sports car racing series these drivers and teams do have access to tire warmers so that should help them go on the attack early in this race it's an interesting grid in a lot of respects and let's just look at the front row calvin with dakota dickerson a newbie to gt3 racing only one previous weekend under his belt and he's got the veteran john haywin starting to his left-hand side yeah big contrast there in terms of experience certainly and uh very evenly matched only four thousand of a second between them in the ultimate pace for the qualifying and the poor position so but look behind them couple of really quick cars robbie foley they're looking pretty racy here this weekend they tested here they found a little bit of speed in that bmw he'll start third and phillip ellis i think he was on a charge he was going to catch that leading capex machine yesterday by that full course yellow at the end when would racing looking for their second win of the season what do you make of the struggles we've seen this weekend especially in qualifying for this race for capex racing well it's unusual but i mean they've been struggling for straight line speed with their lamborghinis all season long they came for a test here a couple of weeks ago and said that was the one thing they were searching for and didn't really figure it out so when you look at the layout of this circuit right you've got three really long stretches one is right here this is the run from turn three down through the marine sweep down to turn five certainly the front straightaway and also from the carousel you've got the kink in the middle that you gotta get through uh without cracking the throttle too much but a big run there as well down to canada corner so if you're struggling for straightaway speed you're probably going to struggle for lap time here at road america as we said earlier they're probably the fifth fastest car or manufacturer in this race it's gonna be tough to even get on the podium this season has reached the halfway point in fact it's past the halfway point now for gt world challenge america points certainly part of the conversation at this stage in the season how much are these teams and drivers thinking about the championship here this weekend well i think for the three-car they're at such a solid start very big league coming in this round today but uh there's been a big battle behind them that battle for uh second position is uh between five drivers separated by a handful of points so that's what they're looking for they just need that three car to falter a little bit anything can happen there's still a long way to go as amanda said we're just getting to the halfway point of the championship here today beautiful views of this road america from the camera crew positioned all around the race track great to have fans here on site as well taking in all the sights and sounds of an sro america weekend rally gt4 america already racing here this weekend gt america powered by aws the tc america series powered by the skip barber racing school as well but it all builds to this fanatec gt world challenge america powered by aws race two of the weekend coming up in just a few short moments from america's national park of speed the lamborghini euros safety car set to accelerate away leaving the field under the control of the pole sitter dakota dickerson for racers edge motorsports in that white and red acura he is the pole sitter for the first time in his gt3 racing career john halen from wright motorsports starts to is outside denis robbie foley and filabellas bmw and mercedes in row number two michael cooper and jordan pepper make up row number three matt mcmurray from compass racing and the lamborghini factory driver giacomo altzoway paired this weekend with martin fuentes starts seventh and eighth ryan dial and corey lewis rounding out the top ten in ninth and tenth then back to madison snow and drew stavely in positions 11 and 12. john mcgrew and jc sata starting 13th and 14th invesco kazarov for reardon racing at the back of the field after a front weekend quite frankly for that team and problems early for zaylus motorsports that is that lamborghini madison snow coming to the pit lane here early we'll dispatch amanda to check out what might be going wrong with that car but as we do so we await the green flag from todd hansing in the flag stand dakota dickerson accelerates away but john hayward tucks into the slipstream and do not forget about that bmw it's rapid in a straight line yeah robbie foley they're laid back a little bit trying to get the run but didn't time it quite right now he's looking at the inside of jan halen that door may be open as they go side by side the leaders there through turn one looks like there might have been a little bit of contact between the acura and the porsche weaving for position philabetis on the attack drops a wheel and somehow saves it he was pointed the wrong way in turn number three and the field stacks up behind that mercedes what a save that was right in front of michael cooper and our championship leader jordan pepper that was an amazing uh move there by the swiss driver he dropped the wheels look for a way inside there of robbie fully into turn three didn't quite make it stick there may have been some contact there's bodywork rubbing on one of those cars possibly side by side they go through turn number five for the first time michael cooper in that purple mercedes trying to fend off the challenge that's capex racing and jordan pepper race winners yesterday but fired back in traffic here and contact between the two around goes cooper i think the field has managed to miss him but that's a real shame for that car which started fifth here for race two of the weekend yeah pepper got the run exiting turn five got to the inside apex of turn six but with the grip and these probably piece heroes michael felt confident running the outside rim there but just not enough room got the bump got it turned around that was costly for the championship leaders as pepper dropped several spots the sister car among those they got around that's the green lamborghini at the back of the shot corey lewis the american gets the start here in race two of the coming weekend through the carousel for the first time and now through the treacherous king one of the most fearsome corners in north american racing drew stavely there aboard the aston martin the boyle boy our championship leader jordan pepe had worked cut out formed at the start of this race got even more now as you see him regrouping is there any damage to that lamborghini hurricane early that quickly becomes the question doesn't it as he tries to find his way around besides the rear den racing car let's take a look at the replay cal see jordan there he's down at the apex cooper decides to run the outside rim there and just a little bobble there you can see jordan have to correct the race car mid corner just a little bit wide and enough to get into the side of michael cooper it's definitely out of character for jordan pepper not a driver we're used to seeing making any errors whatsoever but looks like everyone was able to recover and at least keep on the race track dickerson continues to lead by three tenths of a second over john halen and right behind robbie foley lying in weight he is the best place to the pro-class cars meanwhile here comes ryan diell on the attack yeah nice move there on corey lewis who gets to the inside of that number six lamborghini huracan right behind there there's matt mcmurray who's coming off a second place finishing class here yesterday for compass racing he and michael demaio have proven to be a really good combination they won a race at vir the second place yesterday so some momentum behind that pairing coming into this race here dickerson has been able to lay down a bit of a gap not a big one but it's noteworthy when he's got a veteran like john haywin right behind him and robbie foley showing the strength of that bmw right there in the tire tracks looking for a way past the porsche yeah dickerson looking really comfortable here up front he's not making any mistakes car is not sliding at all we've got five different manufacturers represented in the top five spots on this field right now just amazing word from amanda in the pits on the zetloose car their data showed that they thought a tire the left front in fact was losing air pressure so they called madison snow to the pit lane to make that change and avert potential disaster this is a long race 90 minutes and a full force yellow could reset things so they look to try and keep in contention stay on the lead lap and hope for a safety car intervention that might bring that lamborghini back to the pack yeah you can see madison weaving around as the grid formed up to climb the hill there i thought he's just trying to generate tire temperature you're not allowed to do that that late in the lap but either way he was feeling something out crew probably radioed to him listen check to see if the car feels okay and he suddenly died for the bit lane ryan ziel made that move on corey lewis for third i think that was sixth overall we dropped back to the leader in the m class here two m class cars on the grid this weekend for the first time that's great to see this is john mcgrew driving for tr3 racing as they expand to a second entry here this weekend yeah they got this car and the nine car currently driven by giacomo altoy who's having a good run here running in the top five he's sharing that second car from tr3 with uh marti fuentes a multiple champion here in sro world challenge competition over the years and uh here we see jordan pepper trying to cut his way through this field but it's not easy for him now we're seeing he's still stuck behind the rear did car and here comes drew stavely making that aston martin look about as racy as it has all season long they've been building up to the second half of the year looking to hit their stride ian lacy racing with the white aston martin stalking down the capex racing lamborghini that is the championship leader but appears to be in strife that was close there he went to the right hand side had to flick back to the left here we see this battle continuing here between corey lewis and matt mcmurray oh little touch there two touches make it three as they crest the hill with turn six somehow they come out on the other side but the fight's not done yet nick murray fighting back to the outside of the lamborghini ultimately has to relent at least temporarily but the fight continues through hurry downs yeah i think that's going to fire up matt mcmurray a little bit because cory was definitely leaning on him a little bit on that climb up to turn six really no more to give him the lead that he needed dial has sprinted away from this battle after making the pass on lewis on the previous lap that's sixth overall we're watching seventh and eighth overall a couple of cars that are not in the same class but it's worth remembering unlike other sports car racing series we're talking about multiple classes but in the same specification of gt3 machinery no difference between the gt3 car and the am class and the gt3 car in the pro class and look at this you know got michael cooper right on the tail of the driver who kind of forced him off the road a little bit sure there's not going to be any love lost here between these two right now oh the michael's a cool customer he doesn't get rattled too easily he just wants to find his way back past that black lamborghini not a bad recovery all things considered do you think he was pointing the wrong way for quite a while there on the racetrack exactly and that really just to uh adds to the display the fact that jordan pepper is struggling here for speed this afternoon aboard that lamborghini huracan number three our championship leader as we watch this fight further back in the field no change at the front here comes drew stavely to the outside of vesco kazarov give him another position aston martin flexing the bustle down the front stretch boy he's got the grip between his teeth here today he's really got a lot of speed in that in lacy run aston martin vantage cut through the field right now and now it's the m-class leader that lies ahead of him that's john mcgrew driving and he's got good pace we saw that yesterday despite some problems that that car encountered there is some good speed in that lamborghini so it's not going to be easy just because it's a lower class for staveway to clear the traffic no super impressive run here by john to hold that track position right now here we see this battle continuing here this is for seventh and eighth position overall sixth and seventh in the class between matt mcmurray and corey lewis keep an eye on that white lamborghini right here giacomo alto a two laps ago set the race's fastest lap a 208-3 he was about a half a second off of that pace the last time by but he's starting to reel in the top four altoae and martine fuentes mentioned it earlier tearing up here this weekend after fuentes has effectively sat out the season to this point concentrating on super trofeo competition but stepping into the seat previously occupied by zion gondor we expect him to close out the season as well for tr3 racing this should be a very good pairing here is dakota dickerson though leading the field of gt3 cars has a lead of nearly three-quarters of a second over john halen that's the right motorsports porsche giving chase right behind and then robbie foley biting his time in the turner bmw right behind top three running line to stern at america's national park of speed race two of the weekend at road america [Music] the gap at the front has grown to seven tenths nearly eight tenths of a second how impressive calvin has dakota dickerson been yeah he's been super impressive i mean just a monster lapping qualifying as he said just uh really at home behind the wheel of this acura nsx and hats off to race's edge for giving him such a strong car as well they've really made this transition up to gt3 machinery over the last three years uh just seamlessly they've got great engineering on that team car is really quick and uh this nsx driver academy that they put together has really showcased the talent that is around in our paddocks and taylor and dakota are certainly displaying that here this weekend states we did make the pass on john mcgrew on that last lap that moves him up to ninth in the overall running order we also need to report that michael cooper has come to pitt lane in that mercedes that was part of the coming together with jordan pepper just a few laps to go it looked like he was back on the pace but something evidently amiss with the card that he shares with aaron vogel we're hearing a report that pepper may have a time hold during his pit stop possibly for that avoidable contact and that was uh jordan's issue in terms of rubbing there and turning michael i think we talked about it how this was likely to be a challenging weekend for a race i should say for capex they salvaged something yesterday despite not having the ultimate pace that we've seen out of them throughout the course of the season but with a qualifying situation the way that it was here for race two they had their work cut out for him it needed to be about a picture-perfect race for them to get back up on the podium and doesn't look like that's really in the cards based on the way things have started for the championship leaders no and uh looking at that problem for michael cooper looks like he's emanating from the right front corners the opposite side of the car george had that contact with uh jordan pepper so maybe when he went off the road just kind of hit one of those curbs the wrong way around but either way it looks like their day may be done looking at the language from the mechanic there who looked underneath the corner that was the telltale sign wasn't it you saw the mechanic gesturing and it's typically not an indication that repairs are going to be enacted and looking at these lap times right now jan halen is gradually sneaking up on our leader here took a couple of tenths out of that lap on uh dakota dickerson foley dropping back by a civil margin a couple of tenths off the leader's pace so be all about tire degradation and management at this stage of the game brian got a nice start to this race jumped up to the sixth spot overall runs fourth in pro-am he'll be turning that car over to team owner for dxdt racing david askew and behind him this battle rages on corey lewis fighting a rearguard action trying to keep matt mcmurray behind him lamborghini versus acura in the midpoint of this field as they roar under the sargento bridge [Music] dakota dickerson continues to lead by a half a second over john halen this is the scrap back a little bit further in the field seventh and eighth in the overall running order third place in pro corey lewis in the green lamborghini being chased by fifth place in pro-am matt mcmurray yeah matt is certainly fired up i don't think he's really comfortable with the amount of room that uh corey lewis gave him a few laps ago so that's gonna keep the bit between his teeth to try and chase him down but looks like drew stable is gradually inching up on these so they've really found the sweet spot seems today with this handling of that aston martin definitely looking strong as he and that team have all season long that'll bring a big smile to his face lacy's face and frank gannett the co-driver as well did you see some smoke off the back of that bmw just there calvin yeah i think i did so i'll have to take a look at that this m6 is a bit vulnerable in terms of the gearbox on this race car i didn't see it that time exiting canada corner let's hope it was just dust on the track perhaps that we saw kicked up but not a sign of something more sinister exciting ties with bmw they got the new gt3 machine here this weekend on display the new m4 been a lot of buzz about it and uh a lot of commitment from teams like turner motorsports moving forward so exciting times for gt3 racing in general globally and also here for bmw we saw michael cooper bring his dxdt racing mercedes to the pit lane a few moments ago and amanda music has an update standing by with aaron vogel the teammate of michael cooper the 19 mercedes is out of the race today but as we have been talking uh during our show is that we think about the championship we think about the back half of this season as you look forward to watkins glenn how do you prepare for that erin well you know mercedes and dxdt just gave us a really great car this weekend we knew we had the pace here to be super competitive again and it's really unfortunate but sometimes in racing this happens so i think we're just all going to you know get our heads together and make sure we keep this this good car running and take it to watkins with us and you know hopefully build some more momentum for the second half of the season we'll see you down the road thanks very tough break there difficult luck for the race one winners in pro-am back at vir the last time out day ends early for michael cooper and aaron vogel yeah and that's a shame i believe uh some of these teams tape acts and i think dxdt are heading off to watkins land this week for a couple of days of testing so that'll give them a chance to get back behind the wheel and not have to wait three weeks to uh get back into that racing mode so uh it's always good to get back in a race car after a frustrating day the gap between these two seems to have stabilized it's hovering between seven and eight tenths of a second pretty regularly that's dickerson to halon then it's robbie foley trying to somewhat distant third but the good news for him is he's the leader in the pro class right now and unlike in previous years where sometimes we've seen it be an overall classification for the all-pro lineups and where you finish in the overall running order is how you score points that's not the case this year with this pro class so as they run right now foley and dinan would be on track to score first place points within their class despite being third on the road behind two pro-am cars yeah and i saw there that line that robbie foley takes down through kettlebells on the approach to turn 12. he sort of like stays to the left a little bit further i think there's some oils right down there so that may be in the smoke that we observed the lap or so ago ryan hopefully that is the case in the car is 100 fine but yes i think uh michael diner's got good pace here he tested here as well with robbie a couple of weeks ago and uh they feel the car is good and mike was very much on form so did a great job yesterday in the opening stint and i think when robbie fully does pit and turn it over he could be one of the faster drivers on this field over the last several laps john halen's been chipping away or at least holding steady in that gap but it did change somewhat this last time by dakota dickerson now leads by 8.6 seconds he was marginally quicker about a tenth and a half faster than halen the last time around and that's allowed him to pull out this gap such an experienced team racers edge motorsports made the jump up to gt3 racing after several years campaigning gt4 cars but they've got a rich history going back many many years and john meraki he's got a sharp crew assembled around them and around this team down to a single car operation this year after running two a year ago but they know how to get the job done they really do and it's a great point i mean they obviously competed here at gt4 gts competition for a while but they do have gt experience uh in north america and i think that's what helped them make this a transition up to these cars but great partnership with acura i love the academy program that they're uh still doing this year with a new batch of drivers you got ricky taylor ryan eversley hpd factory drivers here helping out coaching mentoring dakota and taylor this weekend so there she stands staying cool alongside john meraki big smiles right now dakota's doing a fine job taylor will take over when the mandatory pit stop window comes around and it is a full service pit stop in fanatec gt world challenge america driver change refuel and four fresh for lep zeros so these drivers unlike in pirelli gt4 america for instance don't need to worry about preserving the tires for their co-driver just the race car itself yes management right now but certainly when you get to those last five minutes or so you just gotta use them up and uh have them hanging on by a thread literally if you need to when you come in for that pit stop and that pit stop window opens when you see 50 minutes on the clock at the top of the screen there so 50 minutes to go in the race and then you have to have that pit stop at least be on pit lane by the time that clock hits 40 to go love this data in real time looking at the speed in kilometers per hour for the race leader dakota dickerson great new insights brought to you by the friends at aws as dakota dickerson continues to pace the field he leads john haywin by just over eight tenths of a second today's coverage is brought to you in partnership with fnatic aws and crowdstrike [Music] it was a frantic start to this race calvin but it has settled down somewhat and now we can lean back a bit and take stock of where things stand i think the car to keep an eye on though is the one running fifth at the moment with giacomo altoy at the wheel martin fuentes a very fast driver about to take over when the pit stop happens and i think he's fired up to resume his career in sro america after having so many good seasons championship winning season talking to him earlier this week and he is so happy to be back in the pack yeah he's a great personality great to see him full of titles over the years he's had fact in success as well so he's found a great team here he likes the lamborghini for a long time you know around ferraris of course as did the tr3 team but i think in jack mo altoy he's got a great teammate with a lot of pace young italian lamborghini factory driver his family brought him up through racing ranks they own a race circuit in italy his brother races uh his father was a rally driver so he's lived and breathed racing all of his life he's in the blood no doubt about that watching robbie foley through turn 14 dropping the left side wheels off ever so slightly easy to do there in that corner a couple of things to note though uh vesco kazrov just made an unscheduled pit stop in the reardon racing lamborghini that's him rejoining right there that was a bit of a close call should also note that there was a change in position on the previous lap jordan pepper finally did get that move made on matt mcmurray to move him up to ninth in the overall running order in the championship leading car you know every point in every position is precious and on a tough day you just gotta keep digging and i'm sure jordan didn't expect to be uh this deep in the pack struggled a little bit qualifying just didn't have the pace the other car the corey lewis car had some breaking issues in that qualifying session that's why he was down in 10th position on the grid but george just said quite honestly we don't have the pace here this weekend that's what it comes down to sometimes it's the b.o.p system coming and going horses for courses a little bit you see sometimes it's stronger sometimes it isn't depending on where you end up driving but right now it looks like it's very very good news if you're running an accurate sx gt3 evo controlling the pace from out in front jan haywin in hot pursuit [Music] robbie foley about four seconds behind in the third spot phillip ellis as well and uh right there trying to keep tabs on it talking about the way with the race's fastest lap so far running there in the fifth spot as it stands just over 20 minutes gone in race two of the weekend in elkhart lake dakota dickerson out in front leading by eight tenths of a second over john haywood has been near the mandatory pit stop window not quite there yet but getting closer and calvin fish that's when this race will get a completely different complexion when we make the switch from the pros and the pro-am lineups to the amateur drivers those with less experience yeah we do and there'll be a bit more of a delta there between the various drivers jumping on board for this second stint but there's also some very competitive drivers in that category as well in terms of the am partners so uh should still be a fascinating battle here to see through the chicken flag here this afternoon here is foley behind the wheel of this bmw we've become so accustomed to seeing him in bmw machinery it was a bit jarring last weekend when he was racing at the 24 hours of le mans in a porsche took some getting used to but he and michael dinan have proven to be a really good pair driver coach and co-driver making the jump from gt4 to gt3 here for this season after a remarkable run especially for dinan running in a couple of gt4 championships in sro america last year here is altoid the car behind him is the laps reardon racing car that made that unscheduled pit stop so don't need to worry about that as far as positions are concerned but now to a very quick indeed and you can see sliding the rear of that car a little bit through the exit of turn number six ringing the neck of the raging bull yeah he really is and uh really nice man we had the chance to chat to him for quite a time man to really learn the race tracks but he's a quick study and uh seems like these drivers of the current era ryan just give him a few laps they're up to speeding on a racetrack as challenging as uh road america is drew stanley starting to run down corey lewis that's remarkable stuff this is the first season in gt3 equipment for drew for this ian lacy racing team and by their own admission the season did not start well they really struggled at sonoma and it's been getting marginally better week in and week out but this has to be so cathartic to come out here and on pure pace be running with the benchmark team in the series at least to this point in the season and having the pace to match them yeah that's really cool this would be a big shot in the arm for this whole group i mean they were pretty uh down beat at the start of this year they knew it was going to be a big step and a big challenge but they thought they were going to be closer to the pace based on their past experience and success so it's good to see them finally hitting their stride and start to find their groove a little bit jordan pepper on a comeback drive of his own having contact with michael cooper that sent him off track as well it sounds like he's been a judge to have some fault in that we understand there should be a penalty coming during the pit stop basically a hold for some extra time that will waylay him further but he has been able to recover at least for now up to the ninth spot in the overall running order but running at the back of the pro class he's got to get to his sister car the green lamborghini right there if he wants to make any headway as far as point scoring scenarios are concerned yeah he does so a lot of work cut out for them and there's still a lot of rounds to go in this championship so he knows it's not over a lot of experience there you got to keep digging just can't think oh i can have a bad race or two no that's not the case uh those points get eaten into really quickly and to the m-class we go john mcgrew doing a very nice job running 10th overall the leader in the am class jc sata is giving chase he's in the other am car from af corsa running 12th and his co-driver conrad gruenwald had a heck of a day yesterday just a remarkable story they're even on track though after the heavy crash they had in race one but as far as this team goes mcgrew and bill sweedler have a lot of experience running in ferraris but making the switch along with tr3 to lamborghini and here's matt mcmurray coming down the pit lane ah and the hard right turn behind the bomb yeah now that's uh not within the pit stop window so something unscheduled here that's a shame uh they've had a strong couple of weekends including the win at vir good run here yesterday so that's a disappointment for that whole group and on what is one of the most difficult races to date for capex racing and what's been a brilliant season to this point andrea calderelli one of the drivers is standing by in pit lane with amanda over here watching the performance of his teammate jordan pepper i think andrea knows the challenge that he has ahead of himself it's roughly a second or so off of of the pace of dakota dickerson what has to happen during this driver change where you guys can make up a little bit of that time miracle not much really it's uh we we were struggling yesterday we're struggling today um we have also 15 second penalty i guess from the contact which again it's another decision that i don't know where it comes from but uh we'll see it's gonna be very difficult but we go out there and we try to do maybe you know uh wish for a safety car or something like that we've been covering that the lamborghinis are down we've been covering that the lamborghinis are down on power this weekend why do you feel that no no the i think the lambo is fine we we saw that there is another team that with the with the lambo they they said the fastest lap of the race so we're just struggling both cars so i don't know we'll just have to figure it out before next race a very honest assessment from andrea calderelli co-championship leader along with jordan pepper in this car but running right now all the way back in ninth and fourth out of four in the pro class meanwhile the sister car coming under assault from the aston martin [Music] calvary curious to get your thoughts on what we heard from andrea he was uh not mincing any words was he what he said they needed a miracle to get back into this fight well you just can't turn the car around there it's not like set throwing who said it tires out or even the tweak that you do the setup tire pressure wise or whatever is going to give you the pace they're looking for i'll toys run a 208.3 jordan pepper's fastest lap of the races at 210.1 that's in a different zip code and corey lewis 210.8 so there best part of two seconds off the pace here so whatever they decided to throw at that race car today they had the pool yesterday they controlled the race they would come under pressure at the end by philip ellis certainly but seems like they've gone backwards a little bit in their decisions today well the silver lining of that story for them has to be yeah maybe we struggled this weekend but you still get an overall win in race one on a weekend you're struggling as much as they feel like they are to come away with a victory that's not half bad no it isn't and that's what that group is all about so much experience in the cockpit so much experience on the pitch stand itself so you get that track position it's going to be tough to beat them but when you're on the back foot like jordan pepper is and corey lewis is tough to make any headway they just have the pace in the car to really make up that drag position so they're kind of stuck here right now and uh as colder ollie said there's not going to be any miracles here today it's just damage control at this stage if they've got a late race caution maybe they can stack everyone up if they manage their tires a little bit better maybe make up some positions there but otherwise it's just a long day ahead this is heating up right here robbie foley currently holds third overall but the lead in pro and filabella says slowly but surely tracked him down windward racing the class winners at the 24 hours of daytona earlier this year going from strength to strength that team just stronger and stronger year after year yeah a really quick car they have right now with this mercedes just seems to be a well-balanced car suits most of the circus that we run on and never seems to be on the back foot and have a performance deficit and uh philip alice really strong driver and russell ward yesterday did a tremendous job that fight that he had with michael dinan early was just tremendous so team is on the on the rise uh running on the global stage running in dtm won the rolex 24-hour race earlier this season so big things ahead for them and even in the present as they continue to grow they're showing their strength running right there in contention to take the race lead away this again is the fight here between corey lewis and drew stavely pro and pro-am respectively drew stable showing his quality here behind the wheel of his gt3 aston martin giving it the best run it has had all season long but looming in the background jordan pepper starting to reel in that battle for seventh in the overall running order dakota dickerson leads jan haywin first from second by one second now robbie foley sits third but starting to come under pressure from philip ellis to the windward racing mercedes giacomo altoy only two seconds behind that pairing as the battles start to heat up now within 10 minutes from entering the mandatory pit stop window you'd have to imagine these two leaders right now probably keep their current drivers behind the wheel a little bit longer kind of deep into that pissed off window so maybe 15 to 20 minutes for these two drives that we're looking at right here and for uh robbie foley and philip ellis for the same matter as well so still a little bit of time to do on this opening stint you've got to really manage these tyres it looks like the two front running cars are doing that a little bit better than the bmw behind them but still along with a lot of meat on the bone yet in this stin i would suggest just due to the relative experience levels of the drivers involved that the first car in the running order that would be likely to try to come in early and make some headway as a result would be corey lewis running in seventh he'll be turning that car over to lamborghini factory driver giovanni venturini yeah i think we've seen them do that earlier this season that would absolutely be my call as well in terms of strategy we have seen a yellow in the pit stop window earlier today with gt4 spring x competition so if you could make that stop and then there's suddenly a yellow that kind of slows down the leaders that stayed out on the racetrack even for a few corners or half a lap that can be the difference in terms of doing that undercut and getting those fresh pirelli p zeros on with venturini behind the wheel robert foley has dropped off the pace of the top two but is still running solidly in podium contention and then he'll turn this car over to michael dinan phillipe ellis will turn his car over to russell ward and we'll see what those two pros can do albeit on the lesser end of the experience spectrum as far as the pro drivers in this field are concerned that said calvin we're reaching the point of the season where we're halfway through these guys now have nearly over a half a season of gt3 racing under their belts and maybe we should stop talking about them in those terms because they've earned that they've been quick at various times all year yeah they really have and i i find this pro battle at the beginning of race two on these weekends uh great but i think the ants who finish off upon some stellar racing so far this year so i think everyone's back in the groove i mean a lot of these teams and drivers have been racing globally philip ellis has been busy robbie fuller just got back from le mans where he made his debut last last weekend as you mentioned uh surprised to see him behind the wheel of porsche for that one but got his feet wet wasn't the best of weekends for him but uh had a dnf in the race with some suspension failure aboard that project one porsche but nonetheless there's nothing like getting those initial laps at the mall for the future for a young driver like robbie we talked about it a couple of times what a great run drew stavely is giving this ian lacy racing car and the man who'll take it over is frank gannett who's down in the pit lane with amanda ryan i absolutely love watching drivers get ready for their turn in the car some drivers pace along some are just stoically looking kind of you can see them prepping for the race in their mind well frank cadet he's just sitting over here cool as a cool cumber we just found out we're wearing the same race suit so we're sharing a couple laughs as well but frank it's almost your time behind the wheel when you watch this first half of this race what can you take from drew on your stent i just try to be fast i mean he out of the box he's just been so fast and we didn't get a chance to test or anything so uh i just need to get in the car he's putting a lot of pressure on me by passing all these people but he went off and so he's coming back on he doesn't have radio communication so we're going to try to signal him a little sooner so just in case we're going to shorten him up one lap but i was teasing the guys yesterday when i came in i said everyone's cheering for me to do one more lap so one of the guys came up and said look you're going to get that chance to do one more lap i was like oh god i don't know if i want to do that or not but he's doing such a good job see you soon it's been a tremendous drive for drew stavely frankinet getting geared up and ready to go and you can see how much he's enjoying this seeing that car run a little bit further up but we do talk about this sometimes the pressure cooker that the pros can create for their am counterparts if they have a good first stint that's what frank's staring down isn't it yeah it definitely ramps up the stakes a little bit but frank's getting a lot of experience now a lot of seat time so uh he'll be more comfortable with these type of scenarios that he's been put into but i'm sure he's enjoying this seeing the team and the car excelling right now drew stavely is about a second a lap faster in terms of the fastest laptop today over the guys that he's chasing corey lewis so we'll have to wait and see how this one plays out yep we sure will dakota dickerson leading john halen right now one second is the gap at the front of the field robbie foley filled the bellis first and second respectively in pro but third and fourth in the overall running order then we get to giacomo altoway third in pro-am it's been one of the fastest ones so far but we keep our eyes here on robbie foley and phillip ellis giving chase bmw leading mercedes around the racetrack ellis is certainly keeping the heat on robbie here late in the stand about five minutes before they could hit pit lane but we expect unless robbie's really struggling for tyres here to maintain this stint a little bit deeper into the run but again as we said michael diamond had good pace here this weekend not quite up to robbie's speed as you'd expect with this level of experience but less than a second off which is a pretty good delta between a pro and now [Music] that's what it takes isn't it too especially when we're talking about a pro-am lineup it's a little bit different with the all-pros but again diane's development has been so accelerated to this point in the season it's been remarkable to see how quickly he's come to terms with this gt3 car and i think you have to give robbie foley a lot of credit for that his driver coach as well as co-driver yeah they get along very well they're good friends they do a lot of stuff away from the racetrack together so i think that just builds that chemistry and uh enables uh you know robbie to just understand michael a little bit more it's not all about just data and how quick you can drive a race cars looking at personality traits and uh just trying to get everyone dialed in phil labelle is closing in though on the back of robbie foley trying to hold down that position as best as he can in the turner motorsport bmw that is the fight for third overall and the pro class lead today's coverage is brought to you in partnership with pirelli rebellion and total dakota dickerson leading the way and building a gap calvin up to two point three seconds now over john hayward withstanding the pressure early in the stint and then showing his true ability to extend the gap on one of the gt world's veteran drivers and fastest drivers john halen yeah i'm not sure jan had a slip on that previous lap or whether there was that traffic they were just seeing there with the loose uh lamborghini or not dreaming to play but he lost a second and a half to the gap to the leader right now and that has really taken the pressure off to go to dickerson he just focused now on these remaining laps in his stint and just really trying to use those ties up and uh as big a gavin cushing as he can for his teammate and we've talked about the brain trust john meraki and company there at racer's edge but they get a lot of help from a couple of brothers jim and nick patton jim is the engineer nick is the lead mechanic on that car and between the two of them they've got nearly three decades worth of experience and putting it all to good use helping to bring a couple of young drivers up to speed with dickerson and hackler and then throw in jacob abel as well who's been quick when he's been given an opportunity in that car yeah certainly uh some really good young talent and uh they're enjoying that experience they love having mentors like ricky taylor current prototype leading champion here defending prototype champion for last year in fact as well for penske racing on board here he knows this racetrack so well and just can really convey a lot of the experiences that he's had over the years along with ryan eversley another hpd driver has so much gt3 experience to uh convey to them as well closing in on the pit window opening it should be the next time around for these leaders yes certainly should be but again we expect the leaders to stay out there trying to extend this stint a little bit long before they turn it over to their and partners that is true so perhaps that opens up a chance for someone a bit further down this might be depending on the timing i don't think capex is are they that far back where they could take advantage of this it's worth noting unlike in previous years it's not a case where the leader has to be the first one to see pit lane so we'll keep an eye on that situation as we go back to the front of the field dakota dickerson flying around this four mile circuit for racers edge motorsports and extending his lead [Music] the gap has grown from first to second 2.2 seconds now is the difference and taylor hagler teamed up with dakota to pick up not only a class win but an overall podium in race one of the weekend yesterday she's going to be thrown into that pressure cooker next when the pit stop takes place in the window cal just seconds from opening up yes and she's very much up to the task as well she seems to be able to deal with pressure very well she had a third a fourth podium of the year in fact she won a vir as well but third was dakota here yesterday so i think she's geared up and ready to go a lot of confidence right now she leads a uh touring car chairmanship in north america at the current time doing a duo program this year so looking at the lap times though our leaders dickson and haylen almost identical just seven hundredths of a second separating them on the last tour around so that's that lamp before where halen lost that second and a half so that's been the big delta right now at this stage of the game but a lot of pressure now from alice on robbie foley interesting how they decide to play this too if they've got confidence in russell ward and they very well might he certainly earned it they could try and pit him out of this position and hopefully get some clean track maybe use that to leapfrog to bmw well the key is they're going to have some software which should indicate where they're going to come out look down the inside that's a late move there by philip ellis that typically will not work you're typically going to have contact this fully dies for pit lane exactly what you talked about ryan in terms of really relying on the speed and the pace of michael dinan here getting some fresh prolly p zeros on there doing the undercut getting that fresh set of tyres on early and then it's hammer time for michael dinan so it's actually the opposite of what i thought might happen with turner making that call instead of windward and what a vote of confidence that is for dinan because the only way this strategy works is if he is on it from the word go well the key is the tie warmers in the past you've got to gradually get those tires up to temperature even those a pretty warm day so he should be able to get on and start leaning on that car within two or three corners here particularly by the time you get to the carousel and halfway through this lap the pace and the speed should be in those tires he has to take advantage of that for this strategy to work here comes the turner bmw sliding to a halt and michael dinan the winningest driver in sro america one year ago all in gt4 competition but 17 wins across sprint and sprint x taking over the controls of this bmw m6 from his more experienced teammate robbie foley who's helping to get him belted in yeah and they need a smoother pit stop than yesterday he lost time in the pit stop the car didn't come off the jacks the wheels were spinning so slow pissed up and they had a drive-through penalty for that so they just need a good clean one right now and let michael do his job now turner's a veteran operation you don't expect to see them make the same mistake twice just saw corey lewis stuck in here comes the number six car capex racing they've been renowned for their quick pit work ever since this full service pit stop entered into the regulations a few seasons ago yeah very much so uh you expected this one to happen because uh pretty evenly matched our corey lewis and venturini uh not a great pit stop for turner motorsports 29 129.5 and uh 126 is the minimum 86 seconds so uh they lost a bit of time there they did well to keep an eye on that and want to see what kind of outlet michael dinan could put in meanwhile the top two stay out on track dakota dickerson continuing to extend that advantage a remarkable opening stint for the gt3 neophyte hasn't been in this race car since at least in race condition since the season opener at sonoma it's philip ellis so they're following trend here in terms of coming in a lap later than the turner motorsports car and if they can just have a solid stop here they've got about three and a half seconds to work with in terms of doing a pit stop a little bit quicker that should give them the track position and presumably they've seen the data that we have with the pit stop time for turner so they know what they need to do now they bring that car in and russell ward will be taking over the native of texas who's been doing a lot of racing in various championships around the world here comes dinan starting to get that car up to speed through the carousel yeah and that low to that corner should really generate the tire attempt he's looking for before he gets to the king so this is the team very much have a lot of momentum right now russell ward potentially can win this race this afternoon they need a good clean pit stop right down on the 86 second mark we saw the number six car just appeared at an 86.1 so a good start for capex there that's what you expect from the darren law lead team here is winward going to work phillip ellis he was a star yesterday very likely would have had a chance to fight for the lead before the full course yellow that came out late in that race that prevented us from getting that opportunity to see those two fighting for the top spot 33 car leaving the pit lane now looking for the overcut here comes dinan down the front straightaway 96 closing in and he's already up to speed yeah not a great pit stop for windward racing either they kind of pretty much identical to uh the uh 96 here but now it's all about diners going to be very much in the rhythm he's got go on the attack early here before russell ward gets into his rhythm so the in lap for philip ellis was slightly quicker than michael dinan's outlap because their pit stops are almost identical in years past you might say well we're going to see cold tires on that mercedes but again with tire warmers in play that's really not part of the story line here he should be able to be on it pretty much right away there's not a huge variation from leaving the pits right after a pit stop to a car that's already done a lap on track we'll see what dining can do though in that rapid bmw as capex sends out the sister car and remember he had to serve that 15 second hold there so calderelli jumped in and even though the service was well done it's going to be a very slow pit stop for those guys yeah there it is but uh right on the money so you add 15 seconds to that stop that would be 141 they did a 140 1.8 so uh even if you've got a penalty you still need to execute it close to that margin this is the fight here and it looks like windward able to make the jump at least for now see what dinan could do can he retaliate behind that wheel of the bmw m6 through the kink what a thrilling corner that must be in a high downforce car like a gt3 machine yeah it really is it's uh pretty edgy but they do have a ton of downforce so uh as you get a bit later into the stint a little bit of tight degradation it's not quite as easy but i know russell ward got up on the wheel we spoke to him yesterday and he really felt that by letting michael diamond pass early in the race yesterday that really cost them the opportunity to grab that win so he knows how important this out lap is and getting on the with the program because they potentially still win this race overall here today see what kind of pace they have over the long run meanwhile we're getting towards the end of this pit window nsx porsche the top two and we're about to see two more veteran teams go to work in the pits before too much longer racers edge right there white motorsports right behind they can go one more lap but it's pretty edgy if you have a spin or any kind of delay on that in lap that would cost you you'd be suffering another drive-through penalty so see how far they want to push it he's going to stay out i like the strategy they're being very aggressive here by race's edge well that certainly helps them in the fight for the overall keeping their fastest drivers in these cars and then we'll see what hagler and poor dad can do i think that could be a fascinating duel neither have a ton of experience fred's got the edge in that respect but taylor was very very strong yesterday i expect more of the same from her in that team yeah i think so too and then i think they gotta look in their rear view mirror and look for russell ward potentially coming up on them too so i still think the 33 car could be the car to beat here this afternoon might very well be right they are the only team windward racing i'm speaking about to have won a race overall that is not capex racing they had that big breakthrough win at vir calvin and that seems to have galvanized the team it's proof of concept they're doing everything right going up against one of the established championship teams of the series yeah made that move to the new evo mercedes earlier this year so uh we're really going to strengthen the strength they started to understand that we talked about it yesterday ryan in terms of they got so many programs going on all that data and all of those notebooks just get expanded by running this car essentially in the same spec with the gt3 formula globally that just really helps their cause love this live data yeah touching the grass there you don't want to be getting in there in case you pick up a little bit of grip so this will be his in-lap he's pushing for all it's worth and yeah and just trying to close that gap if you can we often talk about the importance of in and out laps why do they make such a difference from a strategy point of view well i think it goes back to michael schumacher really set the trend when he's running for ferrari with ross braun on the horn on the radio saying this is the hammer time you got 10 laps to your pit stop michael make them qualifying laps and that's what it's all about in the past people are just careful get into the pit lane don't make a mistake now it's you got to be on edge you've got to be pushing using this car up particularly as you're going to get a fresh set of pirelli p0s for your teammate use every ounce of rubber you've got left here in the last five laps or so just an amazing stint from our pulse setter dakota dickerson to hold this lead for the best part of 50 minutes and they'll come in with just 26 seconds to spare the thing to remember is you don't have to have your pit work completed before the window opens you just have to be in the pit lane these two have done that the strategy played to perfection now the pit crews get to strut their stuff they'll make the difference here over the next two minutes very rarely that you see that the lead of the race has given them essentially a one lap advantage in staying out and still beating that time clerk ryan so by having the pace being out front and that has really delivered them this opportunity to stretch the margin over the rest of the field so now it comes down in these two pro-am cars not just fighting for the top two spots overall but the top two positions in pro-am crucial for their championships taylor hagler fred poor dad they'll fight it out the rest of the way dakota dickerson from pole has dominated this race and hagler's going to have to finish it off fred porthead though he's got other ideas yeah he's very much not intimidated by these situations these pressure cooker situations we've described and uh he's not afraid to get his elbows out he doesn't care who's he's up against it could be another pro a lamborghini factory pilot like aldorelli he's gonna give him an equally hard time little bit tight there getting this wheel into that right rear corner getting all done how close are they to that minimum stop looks like they're still waiting so that's the good news if they see that tie go on and release him that means they're a little bit behind but should be a good one if they get it right on the data they beat their 20 car out fred poor dad waiting see how close they cut it 29.6 so they left a bit of time on the table there they could have cut a lot closer both squads in fact and that's gonna bring this car into the picture how quickly can the two less experienced drivers haggler and poor dad get up to speed even with the tires coming out of the tire ovens here comes russell ward with a full head of steam running third overall and he's got an overall win in the back of his mind i'd have to say they were not well executed pit stops by any of our leaders here in fact the top four had pretty poor in terms of getting close to that delta still a whole lot to be decided here in the final 38 minutes of this race race number two of the weekend in road america very much up for grabs taylor hagler holds the overall lead [Music] here we go racer's edge acura making the way through hurry downs fred poor dad behind the wheel of the right motorsports porsche been really impressed with this first half a lap here from taylor hackler cal she's not been waiting around at all now immediately into the groove confident young lady and that confidence is building week by week with the more experience she gets more results she gets so she's going to feel comfortable here she should have the pace on fred here i believe and i think the real key is the team keeping her informed as to it where that number 33 a plus reward is this is mixed class racing right here the am entry from tr3 that lamborghini leading the giovanni venturini driven capex racing lamborghini the green one at the back of the screen now it's bill sweedler behind the wheel of the am class leader and looks like around the outside through the carousel venturini thought about it thought better of it yeah those marbles are there big time right now so if you venture offline through the carousel you're gonna go for a big big ride in a hurry as i read this i don't believe this is for position even in the overall running order i think the tr3 car is down a lap if i'm looking at this correctly but crucial here for uh vince rainey to clear this car so we can go off and and try and run down david askew the next car in line and look at bill squealer he's getting racist i said there's no easy pickings out there these m's are the real deal someone like bill sweeter a lot of gt3 experience hasn't been running on a consistent basis just lately but even so he's going to dig deep in that knowledge pool and uh he's putting it to good work here despite being down lab he's going to give venturini a tough time he's won championships in major series has experiences in all the big endurance races around the globe so not going to be easy no question about that uh we do have a change of position fred poor dad has lost second spot around goes russell ward the leader in pro now runs second overall and the target is acquired that would be the acura nsx piloted by taylor hagler just up the road not much between these two now just about three seconds between first and second in the fight for the lead overall acura leading mercedes leading porsche at the front of the field infanatech gt world challenge america powered by aws russell ward is on a charge making his way around fred poor dad to grab the second spot just moments ago and look at that right out the windshield he can see his quarry taylor hagler leading overall but not in the same class it's worth noting this is a pro card trying to run down a pro-am car it doesn't matter both of them want the overall win so uh certainly taylor would love to get a second program win win of the weekend she'd love to hang on to it but i think russell waters just got too much pace right now he's got to be patient though no need to push her and make a mistake here or risk the car still 34 minutes on the board he's got plenty of time here comes ward right in the tire tracks of taylor hagler where will he make his move and mercedes amg gt3 evo looming large and ominous in the rearview mirror takes a peek to the outside in 14. a late apex on quarter x it puts the power down and now the long drag strip 4 400 feet from turn 14 to turn one down road america straightaway yeah it's a big stretch but the acura has certainly got a lot of power so she should be able to hang on here despite russell ward getting a bit of a draft here does he push the envelope right now and try and dive down to the inside i think there's better places better opportunities for russell here he's got a lot of pace he caught taylor in a hurry right now but obviously you want to pants when the iron is hot so to speak and he dives down the inside there this is turn three russell ward takes the lead for winward very opportunistic gets that move made hagler still though leading in pro-am and i think part of the reason that russell felt like he needed to make that move now right there looming large in the background michael dinan is starting to turn it on he has come past fred poor dad so has martin fuentes so tr3 now with fuentes moving up another spot they run fourth overall and second in pro-am and dinan still has some designs on trying to win in the pro class if he's going to do that he needs to get past hagler and try and run ward back down yeah watch for martine fuentes he's currently third in the pro-am he's probably got enough pace to catch fred poor dad and get get past him and then he's going to get the hammer down in fact he's by him right yes yes he's got by him here so this is a [Music] ah now that's it that's a lap car another white car pardon me there yes that's the other m class car conrad bruno driving for a of course uh what an opening stint he had he ran into the top five overall yesterday for the duration of his time on the racetrack yeah there's a bit of a gap for fuentes to catch for that so my mistake there in terms of the two bright white cars so that's the ferrari not the lamborghini that uh martin fuentes is uh behind today so up front russell ward still pushing really hard you can see the car twitching there under braking for canada corner taylor hagler hanging tough but michael dinan is chasing and you're exactly right my mistake fair as well and it doesn't help that martin fuentes has run a ferrari for years and years and years it's hard to get that out of your head that he's driving a lamborghini here uh this weekend and for the duration of the season joining giacomo altoway who has the fastest race lap still set pretty early in the going and that car currently runs in the fifth spot but as you say a little ways down the order so russell ward continues to lead the gap is now 2.3 seconds over hagler and looming large is the bmw m6 michael dinan starting to make some headway in running down hagler and taylor's co-driver is standing by with amanda in the pits the car that they are concerned on is the fred poor dad county the other pro-am class is also chasing down taylor hagler when we got over here dakota you're getting a high five from uh taylor hagler's dad other people have stopped by and gave you fist bumps you started this race from the number one position walk us through the drive you had today yeah it was a good start uh the team went over the kind of the start procedures for me so i felt comfortable leading the race from pole position from there i knew yon was going to try and take it to us for the first few laps so try to put together some clean laps in the beginning and then from there kind of like yesterday just tried to manage the gap save the tires hand it over to taylor in a good position you said you were kind of concerned there on your own tire strategy at the end of the race there was there any recommendations that you would give over to your co-driver yeah absolutely i think you know for us right now we're starting to burn fronts off before the rear so told taylor to take care of the fronts right now she's doing a fantastic job managing the gap some great pace so i think she knows what to do we've got a healthy margin right now but obviously it's a long race so keep an eye on that but i'm really confident in tailoring the team right now it's no wonder dakota dickerson felt right at home out in front of the field it might be a new sensation in a gt3 car but this is the 2018 f4 us champion the 2019 f3 us champion nine wins across those two seasons back in 2018 and 2019 had a bit of a slower year last year didn't run as many races but was part of the hpd gt3 academy and that's what set him up for this partial season run with racers edge they're the ones that run the car for that academy they really liked what he did same for taylor hagler same for jacob abel and i'm so excited to see the three of them get to race all together at the tail end of the season as part of the indianapolis eight hour yeah that should be a great run for them the longer race will certainly be a new experience for them as well but uh dakota dickerson is the real deal i mean you talked about a single-seater career in the junior formula very impressive indeed and uh that run he put together here this weekend with the poor position yesterday and just uh to to lead jan halen who's one of the fastest drivers even though he's silver rated certainly one of the fastest gt pilots in north america currently that is really making a statement i think that will get a lot of team owners attention up and down this paddock that in the pole position ronnie put in qualifying yesterday it was magnificent stuff but now taylor hagler is the one in charge of that car and while this is not a fight for class position she'd dearly love to hang on if at all possible to second place in the overall running order but michael dinan's got other ideas he still wants to run down russell ward who continues to lead overall by over four seconds now over these two yeah when we look at that pro-am lead heckler's last lap time is about half a second quicker than fred poor dad so she's actually gapping second position in class right now so she's increasing her lead even though dinan is putting the pressure on so poor dad has a pretty healthy gap himself he's he's following a bit of drift of what taylor hagler is able to do here but has a nice chunk of a gap over martin fuentes it's about 18 seconds between those two in the fight for second and third in pro-am but up front it's all russell ward and windward racing leading in elkhart lake [Music] today's coverage is brought to you in partnership with acura ferrari and lamborghini [Music] [Music] just past the two-thirds mark in this race 28 minutes remaining in the 90-minute contest we're through the pit stop window and now you can see this race unfold in front of us and how about another shout out to the af corsa team and conrad grunwald the driver we saw his pace yesterday he's backing that up once again but the team huge repair work to do after the big crash that ended the race effectively yesterday when jc sada hit the wall turning that car around and running nice lap times here with conrad behind the behind the wheel here though is a fight for position it's giovanni venturini he's caught martin fuentes this is a pro car on a pro-am car two like lamborghini huracan gt3 evos let's see what the lamborghini factory driver can do with the very experienced gentleman driver yeah martine has no easy pickings but certainly venturini gets the run here slides it down to the inside martine doesn't want to find him too hard he'll recognize the big picture in terms of lamborghini really want those pro points here today with the kpec squad able to get that move done is giovanni vintorini around martin fuentes that moves venturing into the top five overall of what has been a trying afternoon for the championship leading capex racing team as a whole that is the second place car in the championship coming into the weekend with venturing behind the wheel the championship leaders have had a very difficult weekend i think it's safe to say andrea caldarelli mired all the way back in eighth not helped by the fact that he did have to serve a time penalty for contact in the first stint that occurred when jordan pepper was driving that number three car yeah and i certainly think that six squad could lose second place in the points here uh by the end of this weekend haven't had a great weekend and certainly uh the winwood racing team have and uh fully dying and have a good day today despite the penalty yesterday where they could have had potential podium run as well there michael dinan appeared to be falling back a little bit off the back of taylor hagler but he erased a lot of that deficit right there and now is closing in once again on the back of the acura nsx gt3 evo from racers edge motorsports taylor hagler holding down the second spot overall michael dinan closing in in that bmw m6 gt3 for turner motorsport russell ward leads that mercedes that comes through the picture is the overall leader second place overall right here taylor hagler but michael dinan is right behind running second in pro but third overall trying to get one more spot in the overall pecking order look at conrod greenwald he's uh catching these uh these cars in front of him right now so despite being a lap down just a great display of the pace of that ferrari here this weekend as you said he had a stunning run early in the race yesterday and the disappointment at the end they still got that m class win despite the car having a heavy shunt during the final moments of the race but just a great display really their strongest one is dinan now slides it down on the inside i think taylor is going to give him that inside line he doesn't want to fight it too much remember this is not a battlefield class position just overall so she does the smart thing right there trying to go for back to back pro am wins is taylor hagler won yesterday alongside dakota dickerson first win on the season after a nice stretch of solid runs podium finishes things of that nature but was looking for that breakthrough and she and dakota dickerson and the whole racer's edge team achieved that goal yesterday and they're backing it up they show it's no fluke charge really hooked up they can see her able to hug that inside line there through the beginning of the carousel turn he's gotta make a decision now on conroy groomwall what sort of pace does he have does he want to be looking in that rearview mirror and uh fighting that ferrari or does he just want to let him go and settle in just try and consolidate that lead a couple of notes from amanda in the pits number one the af corsa car we see running is actually not the chassis that ran yesterday it's the repaired chassis from their big crash that they had at sonoma that they've been carrying around as a spare and it is doing very well indeed as we've mentioned down the order somewhat but still leading in am and lapping with great pace thanks to conrad gruenwald the other thing to note is the number 19 dxdt car did get back out aaron vogel is driving but is now looks like nine laps down 18 laps down to the leader and at this point some of that is doing some testing mileage probably but also there's the chance to try to get to 75 of race distance in order to at least score some points because if you don't reach that threshold there will be no points on offer yeah that might be tough though because um leader's gonna do about 10 more laps it looks like and if she does 10 more laps she's still going to be about the 50 to 60 percent mark not 75 so i don't think the math is going to work out for her but nonetheless i think you're right get the car back out there i believe they're one of the teams that are testing up watkins blend this week so probably just want to make sure the car is ready to go and they can roll off the truck and be sure the car is in good shape it doesn't hurt to get the mileage right i mean it's all about experience and that learning curve so no point just sitting still you put all of this effort into being here this weekend give aaron these race condition laps down to the pit lane we go once again robbie foley is with amanda busing well there's a round of applause here at turner motorsport when michael dinan went around taylor hagler and the pursuit of russell ward begins it's roughly eight second gap at the moment robert when you look at the difference between the mercedes and the bmw where might you have the advantage i think on one lap pace we're quite strong but uh today it's pretty hot this track typically has a lot of tire dagging with our long wheelbase we tend to have the tire drop off slightly more so i think you saw that late in the first stint where i had a comfortable gap then had a case of traffic one time in the kink i lost a second or two and the mercedes was right there so they're quite strong in the long run they have a good driver line up they're great competitors so michael got stuck with some of the pro-am cars for a moment so we'll see what he has for the end of the race but yeah so far so good michael's doing a great job he has all year so looking good race one pro am leader suddenly in strife calvin and it looked like at least one of the right side wheels on this car from racer's edge motorsports was not rotating what are you seeing yeah i think it was the right running so uh we talked about conrad getting close to her so i'm not sure if there's potential contact we're trying to see if we can find a replay on that but either way she is in trouble now and trying to crawl her way back to pit lane so whether there was a suspension failure or whether there was contact with another car left to try and find out that's heartbreaking after such a good run the pole city car overall here today thanks to dakota dickerson and taylor hagler was having well she called yesterday's race the drive of her life hoping to have another one of those today and i think she was she was in the midst of a really solid drive not quite sure what went wrong but you can see the frustration shock disappointment on the racer's edge crew just to spare right now amongst that crew they can't believe what they're looking at look like they're in total control of this class victory she's off the road there it's down in turn eight i believe before the carousel so i'm not sure if there was contact with uh some traffic or not what i don't know is whether or not that was cause or effect calvin maybe something went wrong and that's why she was off track or maybe there was some contact made that led to her going off track but whatever the case the result is the same and just have to feel for the team all the effort they put in the strength they showed and 20 minutes or so before this race comes to an end officially it looks like theirs is done that's a disappointment after what has been a fantastic weekend fantastic race performance by the whole team certainly dakota dixon they're ready here i think there's a bigger issue than just uh changing that wheel so she's probably trying to relay the information but something has broken in that right front corner from tr3 they're now fifth in the overall order second in class and completing the pro am podium at the moment would be david askew right now running seventh overall it's been a nice quiet run for david after a great opening stint from ryan dial he was worth the price of admission as is usual from old razzle dazzle at the start of the race yeah here you can see the floor is back underneath i think that's why it's not turning you can see the underbody there anything you're seeing here help diagnose where the problem came from the cause or effect question not really i don't see any hit so i'd suspect that maybe something collapsed there on the right front suspension and caused her to go off the road and then i think has kind of pulled that plank from the front splitter maybe back underneath the front wheel so it won't turn any longer well it takes one of the fastest cars out of the race it also means that michael dinan has no pressure behind he had made the pass on hagler a few moments before but now runs by himself in the second spot some 10 and a half seconds behind the race leader russell ward at the windward racing mercedes [Music] coming into the final 18 minutes of this race another change in position worth noting andrea calderelli has caught and passed martin fuentes to move into the top five overall but still fourth in pro-am and 11 seconds behind the next clue sorry fourth in pro and 11 seconds behind the next closest car in class which is the sister car with gigofani venturini driving they run fourth and fifth overall third and fourth in the pro class six from three for k packs racing back to the front windward racing seems to be the one team that consistently is right there punching above its weight you might say or maybe they've established themselves in the gt3 landscape now to say that they're a team on par with just about any in gt3 racing yeah i think this is their new weight they are heavyweights in this championship right now they're the real deal uh they're running consistently at the front and um it wouldn't be an exaggeration to be saying this could be going for their fourth consecutive victory uh they won at vir they could have run the the initial round there at vir round one there because uh they had that pit stop snafu and yesterday by the full course yellow would certainly uh potentially want yesterday so they're consistently running the sharp end and vine for victory every single race right now and every race in every series it seems like they're racing infinite gt world challenge europe endurance cup by the way we did have a fanatec gt world challenge europe sprint cup double header today at brands hatch in a big congratulations to wrt charles verton dries van thor clinching a second consecutive gt world challenge europe's sprint cup championship today great work by them a couple of thrilling races one that had its result overturned in post-race tech as happens from time to time with the akka asp i think it would be uh teammates rafaeli martiello and timor brogaslovski winning on the road but handed a penalty for contact with the then leading jodah mclaren that took them out of contention and put them in the wall rather hard anyway all that to say there's a lot going on in the gt3 racing world and windward is a team that seems to be in the thick of it whether it's sro racing or gt masters or the 24 hours of daytona racing at the nurburgring or in dtm where philip ellis is a race winner in that championship already this season at the lausa's ring for windward racing just a remarkable run of form for that team it continues to expand fast in every championship it enters they lead right now russell ward behind the wheel michael dinan giving chase in the turner bmw final 15 minutes of racing action from road america and what has been an action-packed weekend there was some thought that perhaps weather would intervene here on sunday but that thankfully has not proven to be the case it's a beautiful day for racing a bit warm but sunny skies no real threat of precipitation here for the final quarter hour of racing take a look at the repaired number 19 car aaron vogel behind the wheel now to the teammate and team patriarch david askew driving for dxdt and right now runs in the final podium spot for the pro-am class yeah this will be a real shot in the arm they haven't had the best of runs this year in terms of uh results they've had pace on occasion but certainly haven't been putting on the podium on a regular basis so be great for ryan diell here who returns to road america coming off a prototype victory here just a few weeks ago so it's been a happy hunting ground for ryan he went over to lamar last weekend but unfortunately one of his teammates had a big shunt in one of the qualifying sessions so they saw no further action that week and didn't compete so a lot of traveling but not a lot of miles under his belt so we look forward to this one and uh hopefully david can just bring it home here well at the risk of putting the old jinx on something here this is kind of the weekend that askew and digal have needed just a nice quiet solid run nothing terribly noteworthy david does appear to have his hands full a bit that car gave a noticeable twitch through turn 14. but if they can lock down a podium finish i think they'd be awfully pleased yeah they had the disappointment vir had an incident there so they missed the opening round and uh then dial came back and really put on a storming drive there at the beginning of that race so the pace is there and it's a big operation they've moved their headquarters over to north carolina from the utah base they had before so been a lot of movement logistically um expanding their team running three cars in this championship running the gt america cars as well uh as well as uh overseeing uh kevin bowham's tc entry this year as well so they're an expanding operation but they do it right they have a lot of resources and uh they're doing a lot of testing and giving their drivers the ultimate opportunity to succeed come the race weekend finished fifth in class yesterday did ask you and dial looking for their second class podium of the season and it's been a long wait should they get it done that came all the way back in the first race of the season when they finished second in pro-am at sonoma looks like some traffic ahead of the race leader now frank gennette driving the ian lacy racing car that drew stavely started and is the aston you see right there and it's uh frank leaving a little bit of room to the inside there for the race leader to come through what i am saying is that carl dorelli is gradually catching despite that 15-second hold during their pit stop the the three-car is catching the six car he's only about a second and a half back from him to keep an eye on that fight as it develops for fourth and fifth overall and third and fourth in the pro class but russell ward firmly in control [Music] today's coverage is brought to you in partnership with optima motool and skip barber [Music] one question i have for you calvin mentioning that battle between the two k-packs cars and the advantage right now swinging in favor of the three-car that is the championship leader any chance we see the orders swapped around just to better increase their odds of bringing home the title as they've been the dominant of the two cars in that pairing thus far this season yeah they're not as tight as i thought they were it must have been my mistake looking at timing and scoring there but yeah it's certainly a legit question they run liner stern admittedly has a slightly bigger gap than the one i thought they had between them but you know it's not game over for the six cars so i think they'd be reluctant to give it up at this time so i think it'd be a tough call to make venturini slowed down enough for calderelli to uh get around him but certainly calderelli in terms of his pace i don't believe that jordan pepper had run much better than a high nine and called the rally on fresh rubble when he first got behind the reel ran a 208 seven which is only four tenths off the fastest lap of this race so we talk about them struggling uh four tenths off is not that much around a four mile circuit so uh maybe a question of what could have been here today yeah that's very true and it sends the capex team back to the drawing board a little bit but they've got a big test planned before the next round at watkins glen then it's the trip to sebring and everyone basically will be working from a brand new notebook as far as that event is concerned it's been a long long time since sro america or in its previous guys pirelli world challenge race down there at the airport circuit in florida yeah but some of these teams ryan as you well know has had a lot of experience there in other disciplines so guys like right motorsport turner motorsport uh certainly uh flying lizard and capex collectively have had a ton of uh races there maybe would be a bit on the back foot in terms of not having as much uh track time there as some of the other marks that they're competing against but nonetheless it's a transition over to these tires on that circuit and uh it's a rough one it's uh it's renowned for its bumps at sebring so we go from a relatively smooth run here to the very smooth run at watkins glen and then the rough and tumble of sebring international raceway russell ward continually lapping in the low two elevens just solid lap after solid lap the lead is growing 15 and a half seconds now over michael dignan at the front of this field race two of the weekend inside the final 10 minutes at road america in elkhart lake wisconsin russell ward took over from phillip ellis and drove to the point he has been unstoppable since then remarkable consistency from the young texan son of the team owner who he's driven with in the past and having a ball at the moment leading this field of gt3 machinery around road america david askew right here in the dxdt racing car carrying the crowd strike colors unfortunately no george kurtz and colin brown here this weekend they were here on friday but big crash for george kurtz sent them home early for the weekend but as david askew continues to lap here in podium contention let's hear from his teammate and coach ryan dial well the team finished fifth here yesterday and their last podium finish was the first race of the season in sonoma ryan we were talking about how much your team might really need this right now is this a great time to find this performance in this team for you yeah it seems like david and i have had a little bit of a slump uh and it's been a tough weekend for us to be honest we uh we were on pole here last year and then we have come back here and we've just struggled so uh difficult weekend but hopefully this is a good result to end on uh guys at dxdt we uh we're pretty late last night again early this morning to try and improve the car and clearly we did that so a little bit more work to do we have a test coming up this week and we'll try and make her faster for the next one said he might miss his flight home and he's trying to get home for his wife's birthday yeah it's my wife's birthday tomorrow so i gotta go home for that best of luck with your travels ryan but let's focus here for the next seven and a half minutes on securing that second podium of the season what a great character he is here we have a change not for position that was a lat card the jason harwood driven zelus car they had the issues right off the bat cow they had to come to the pit lane before we even took the green so they've been on the back foot ever since currently running in 12th overall sixth in pro-am but we are seeing giovanni vintorini here starting to close in on fred ford and that would be for third overall albeit not a class battle now he's really consistent lap times here and uh not quite the pace of some of the other cars out here today but uh certainly venturing he's having a good stint calderelli i mentioned i thought he's a little bit closer to his teammate than he actually was it might have been a blip on timing and scoring on my mistake but either way he's got a good margin over his team i don't think there's going to be any team orders that we uh discussed earlier on in terms of them making him give it up as he slides down the inside of fred poor dad and you know that right motorsport will been on the uh radio two fred descent let it go for me to fight this fuentes is the guy we have to focus on and he's a good margin behind us about 20 seconds 30 seconds back exactly right poor dad as much as the overall podium would be nice doesn't pay any extra there's no prize that comes with that no extra points or anything so when an out-of-class car comes through and catches you at a quick rate of speed fred porn dad doing the right thing just moving out wide opening up the third line venturini needs no second invitation he dives up the inside and moves into the top three overall i am seeing russell ward in the pits on my timing and scoring and if the pictures back it up this is the overall race leader pitting from the lead my goodness dinan flies through to grab that lead some kind of technical issue you'd have to assume here for russell ward let's this light in the going don't see any smoke or anything there's no way he could be out of fuel is there oh total heartbreak they do plug in the air jacks is that the fueler behind yes he might be on to something maybe an error or a problem i should say with the equipment you can see russell just shaking his head inside the cockpit oh boy that is painful we'll see how much it costs him we know dinan has come through to take the lead how close is venturini how close is calderelli wow what a shocker in the late going totally under control love the urgency from russell ward when he got up on the wheel in this stint just went on the attack immediately just trying to stretch that margin to a comfortable number which he had done so now michael dinan back up front he's used to being in this position in terms of leading races like he did so often last year ryan 17 race wins across two gt4 series with sprint and sprint x one year ago but has not tasted victory in gt3 equipment yet three make that four podiums on the season coming into this weekend but seeking that first win here is russell ward after the pit stop did he lose second spot i don't they did yes i think both the three and the nine are ahead of i him you're right because that looks like fuentes there in sixth overall he's running behind carl dorelli so boy that does drop the windward car to the back of the pro field and just like that on a day in which capex racing has been scratching its head looking for speed they might be set for a double podium that's hard to believe i believe that's bryce russell's dad who races himself quite frequently and uh they just can't believe the numbers i'm not sure if it's a fuel pickup issue where they can't get the last few leaders out of the tank or whether they just didn't top him up enough during that pit stop so some miscalculation but this is uh this is a tough one to take just really had everything in order and under control well you said it earlier there this is a team that can point it now three races and say we could have had that there was the first race at vir where a little snappu in the pit lane cost them a win they did win the next one yesterday through no fault of their own yellow came out as they were working their way through lap traffic the lap car in my opinion fought a little bit too hard and that resulted in a crash for that af corsa car in the kink and that broke off the fight for the lead so they didn't have a chance to try their luck yesterday and now today let's get an update on what happened amanda well cal was right on the car did run out of fuel and after that car came in phillip ellis had his head in his hands from that moment on he just left here from pit lane but to add insult to injury guys turner and windward are pitted right next to each other they had to hear the round of applause as dinan took over the lead of this race that's a stab in the gut isn't it oh that is salt in the wound certainly but you know all respect to both teams i'm sure turner wasn't doing it they're just so pumped up they've been close to a victory this year and finally it looks like they might break through and get their first win yeah they were runners-up in class at least at vir race number one and a couple of third place finishes as well race vision powered by aws giving us some information about top speed and consistently yes it's the bmw but again for the second straight day the acura very stout as well in a straight line yeah and we saw that displayed in the early going here today by dakota dickerson and you're going to hit that top speed about three times it's pretty much equal within a mile an hour in terms of the three long stretches of flat out running here at road america but pretty impressive stuff very impressive as well for the combination of robbie foley and michael dinan they just kept their nose clean and at least to this point with 90 seconds left they've avoided that crucial mistake and now it comes down to one final four mile tour of america's dairyland the national park of speed road america well this will be a fun lap for uh michael dinan despite the pressure of leading this race is nearest pursuer is some seven seconds back right now and that is venturini so uh he's got everything very much in control just hit his marks stay focused and there is venturini so he hasn't given up it's been a nice strong run here taking over the range from corey lewis hasn't been the smoothness of weekends for this squad breaking issues in qualifying for corey lewis and them starting from the 10th overall grid position here today has the gap down to seven seconds so that's at least keeping michael dying in honest but it would take one of those miracles he heard andrea calderelli talking about in his interview with amanda earlier to make his way to the front but it's been a strange weekend with all any number of strange things that have occurred so we're not going to call this race over until we see this car cross the start finish line through hurry downs for the final time turner motorsport out in front there's will turner screen right robbie foley in the middle j o'connell who's uh come over and started to engineer this squad and uh he has so much experience with this m6 chassis worked with the team rll bobby ray hall's team for a number of years and uh works the multimatic right now on a consultancy basis as well so a lot of experienced heads right there robbie foley who started the race in this car has extensive experience racing for turner in both gt3 and gt4 and other championships so when his young charge michael dinan who won all those races last year in gt4 came to him and said i want to go gt3 racing robbie foley knew just where to point him it's taken a little bit but this team has started to find the speed and consistency and on a day when many of the front runners faltered turner did not up the hill for the final time michael dinan behind the wheel it is taco time for turner michael dinan robbie foley win at road america great job michael dinan this will turner heading over to the pit wall to give him the big thumbs up venturini not too far behind and um here comes fred poor dad great run for them as well now they do what they do best just put together a nice clean run might not have had the fastest car in pro-am but they don't make mistakes john haywin had a strong opening stint he challenged for the overall league from time to time then settled back in nice and comfortably turned it over to fred poor dad and fred did what he does best and put in consistent lap after consistent lap good enough to clinch the victory in the pro-am ranks that'll be good for the championship hunt there and the winner in the am class a f corsa with the spare chassis pressed into service sweeping the weekend holding off the tr3 duo who come home in second in pro and am i should say here at road america [Music] there is the man of the hour the team of the hour michael dinan the youngster behind the wheel first gt3 victory in sro america competition for michael tynan and he's taking a nice slow victory lap calvin you always savor the first one oh yeah soak it up because uh that was a nice run for those guys here today i don't think they had the pace to uh do anything about russell ward in the woodward racing number 33 mercedes amg but you've got to be there to take advantage of money commit competitors has a problem and uh here comes russell he's going to be super super frustrated he drove a great race he did so did phillip ellis before him excellent opening stint great pit work as well here's the pit work that put them ahead of this car the eventual winner everything was shaping up to be [Music] exactly as windward would like it and whether it was a miscommunication or a miscalculation or a problem with the equipment not enough fuel got in the tank one way or the other and it cost them dearly with the unscheduled pit stop in the final minutes yeah that was um a good solid run i mean i think philip alice's in lab was also a important factor in that turnaround on the pit stop exchange as well so uh they did everything right other than uh they'll figure out i'm sure they may know already what went wrong here in terms of whether they didn't get fuel on board or enough fuel on board during the pit stop or whether they have a pickup issue here late in the going whatever the case may be they'll go back to the drawing board try and learn from this one so they cannot uh suffer the same fate later maybe the turner car ran out of gas across the line i know michael dynas slowed down dramatically but you certainly burn a lot of fuel here you flat out for so long i'm not sure if everyone with the amount of green flag running we had here today got caught out by a little bit pretty good return to the championship for this man martin fuentes who is a former champion in a couple of different classes with his tr3 team it was under a slightly different name at the time but same team led by gregory romanelli behind him got the chance to get plugged in alongside giacomo alto and comes away with a class podium in the second race of the weekend second place car but the top car as far as the fastest lap of the race is concerned crowdstrike fastest lap came early and it went to giacomo altoway who teamed with martin fuentes to take home second place in pro-am sixth in the overall finishing order great return to the championship for martine after about half a year away and look at the celebration here your pro-am winners sharing a hug fred pordad with the helmet on yon halen smiling about to put the pirelli winners hat on as well these two have made a great pairing and the right motorsports team behind them they know their business the best of the best yeah never off the podium in terms of their class positions this year second win on the year will extend their championship lead so they continue to execute and just a really strong team as you said a great driver pairing i think they're really got great camaraderie there great chemistry and the results are showing that we'll hear from turner in a bit we understand they might have run out of fuel on the victory lap so for now let's start start with the pro-am class winners with amanda well as you guys are talking about why the pairing between jan halen and fred pordad works out yawn i'll come to you on this we're discussing why this pairing works so well what do you feel what do you feel is the key to this relationship well i think not just with fred but with the team we've all been together for many years and um yeah we all know each other and know what what makes us uh you know what makes it click so yeah just super happy to be here and finally coming home with a win because we've been waiting on that all season long so good job today of the you know for the whole team and you know the the acura was definitely strong today uh had a lot more straight line straight line handling than we did but um yeah we gave them a good run and then you know they got a little unlikely but you got to take those races when they come so super happy for the team good points for the championship and yeah up to the next one you win the race here today fred it was a second place finish yesterday as jan just alluded to a great points weekend for you guys this is your first season racing in the pro-am class why did you know you'd have so much success well i knew the success of right motorsports and drivers like john halen i mean these guys are top-notch there's no one better in the world quite honestly and i think you know my job is to fit in and learn and do as i'm told and so far so good i've followed instructions fairly well make a few mistakes had a moment today out there but uh fortunately you know had the skills to to get out of that moment and uh just very happy i felt like the the first place podium has eluded us all season for the most part so really happy we got another one today congratulations it has been a long awaited second win on the season for that pairing you've got to go all the way back to the season opener at sonoma they did win there in the pro-am class it's been podium after podium since then but back to the top step as we take a look at the race results yeah so long ago they couldn't even remember themselves that's right uh i think michael dinan will be remembering this one he and robbie foley teaming up to get a memorable win drama in the final minutes put them at the front and i think they'll have the same perspective on this yeah maybe we got a bit lucky but you take them when you can get them yeah you have the devastation of losing some you should have won so you got to accept these ones when you have a bit of good fortune and uh for russell ward phillip ellis uh they they deserve to win here either yesterday or today got one kind of taken away from yesterday i feel even though jordan pepper had the track position i think philip alex had the speed to get around him at the end there and the race was cut short with that full course yellow and today they were in prime position but came up a little bit shy that's right hey looks like the liquid molly sponsored turner bmw has made its way around on fumes to the pit lane and that should mean an interview coming up relatively soon robbie foley and michael dinan they've been working together for a couple of years let's hear from him now michael you pick up your first win in gt3 you slowed down and saw your team there you were low on fuels but when you took that last lap around here at road america what do you remember about this victory uh well i remember my gt4 victory my first one it was quite emotional and there's nothing quite like that first victory but this one here in gd3 still amazing and robbie and i've been waiting for it all year everyone's done an amazing job on the whole team robbie he's a great co-driver did an amazing job in his first stint and finally came to us so super psyched and just a huge thank you to bmw turner liquor molly yeah sometimes in racing you just have to be present when the opportunity arises robert we talked to you prior to the racing and you weren't sure about being able to catch up to the mercedes but you guys get the win what was your reaction when you saw windward take the pit yeah it's never how you want to win but we were wondering uh there was a discrepancy in our stop versus theirs and maybe they had a fuel rig issue or their fueling issue or maybe they short field we're not totally sure but we were curious about that the whole race and yeah i mean it's never how you want to win a race but for me and michael we've been working so hard at this for so long and and luck and skill plays into into every race so you take them when you can get them and uh yeah we've had a good year so far a great car here at road america and really happy for everybody and especially michael to get a win today and try to keep this momentum going top spot on the podium belongs to turner motorsports great great effort between those two robbie foley michael dinan picking up the win overall here at road america turner motorsport and bmw top the podium today's coverage is brought to you in partnership with mercedes amg and 511. [Music] post race celebrations underway here at road america on elkhart lake and what a celebration it will be for turner motorsport i suspect it will include tacos knowing will turner he's been known to paint up his car to say tacos instead of turner from time to time just to show off his love for the cuisine but whatever the fare might be it will taste excellent for not just the drivers but that whole team they've been working hard to coax the speed out of this m6 and they know bigger things are coming next year when bmw debuts the m4 gt3 yes certainly exciting times ahead but that term team knows how to get it done so much success here over the last handful of years and i like the way they go about their racing they have fun with it but they take it seriously they've got some really key personnel in place and will turn as a great team leader to allow people to excel in their positions and it's just really a great opportunity for michael dinan to join that squad this year robbie fully obviously had the relationship with turner michael want to make this move up to gt3 machinery as he said and uh you know he has the confidence in robbie he believes in him and robbie said listen come and join this group i think you're going to enjoy it and even though michael's been driving for other groups here recently i think he really enjoys this team and he's found a happy home it's a sweep of the weekend at the m class for af corsa amanda with the podium behind us the jc sata is ready to take that top set jc when you look at the struggles of the weekend a lot of times racing is about redemption how did you keep your cool about you and perform here today i have a great teammate he talked me up over dinner got my head back into it and just woke up and decided you know what you can't look back so just move forward and go get it done and we did and he did all the credit goes to him today so he did a great job conrad it looks like you guys have just taken this ferrari and and taking it around this course with with monster energy here all weekend where did you find uh in the ferrari that allowed you to have that type of performance well it's a ferrari so i mean it's going to be pretty good right out of the box this car has been sitting on the trailer for a while we told jc to be very careful in the car uh you know the crew did the best they could to get everything together so took him a few laps and then once he got up to pace he did a perfect job pit stop was perfect the team did an amazing job they were here at 10 or 11 o'clock last night so i couldn't be more grateful so really happy and looking forward to watching this plan congratulations thank you hey of course i go hey of course the best in the business certainly none better just look at what they did last weekend sweeping the pair of gt classes at the 24 hours of lebanon just one week later a sweep of the weekend in the m class in fanatec gt world challenge america powered by aws a couple of wins for the payer of conrad gruenwald and jc sata in their ferrari 488. podium celebrations about to get underway a couple of other drivers to highlight and teams as well calvin how about ian lacy racing we saw what drew stavely did early on frank gannett though brings that car home fourth in pro-am their best result of the season yeah very much in the mix today and that's what that group of racers want to see they want to see a competitive element they've struggled a bit get into grips with the aston martin vantage this year but today was really a breakout for them and i think it's going to give them a lot of hope and confidence moving forward you can see the overall podium assembling and look at the smiles there and congratulations from the capex crew they know how hard turner has been working for this moment amazing job grab those trophies guys great sportsmanship between the two established gt teams flanked by their capex racing compatriots robbie foley and michael dinan in the middle hoisting the number one on their trophies and it'll be a happy champagne champagne spray for these two michael dinan's first ever victory in gt3 racing comes in road america and fanatec gt world challenge america powered by aws [Music] good job guys well we were talking a little bit calvin about the run from ian lacy racing that was one of the standout performances to me anybody else a bit further down the order that baby got short shrift that deserves some just rewards well i think conrad gruenwald was excellent behind the wheel of the af course of ferrari great opening stint yesterday and a great pace here today as well as closing yesterday great opening stint here today um i think bill sweeler showed a lot of pace he got his elbows out even though they were lapped down didn't make it easy for venturini to to get by him so great to see some of these uh names returned to uh sro competition i think uh some disappointment uh for a lot of the teams i think for race's edge i mean taylor hagler had a great run going there we're not quite sure what happened there a suspension failure if there was contact with someone but that'll be a big disappointment for that team because uh it was a big day dakota dickerson's pole position and the pace that he had early leading to his round of stops was that was excellent indeed i think another thing worth noting taylor hagler and dakota dickerson they were excellent until the issue and the suspicion was it was just a tire puncture effectively that took them out of the pro-am lead they ultimately are classified eighth in pro-am and i do believe they will be classified because they completed 31 laps i brought brought up the calculator for this one 31 out of 41. the winners did 41 laps that comes out to 75.6 percent so by half a percentage point i think they will at least have done enough distance in this race to score points and that's really important let me tell you that makes a big delta at the end of the season yeah you never know where those points could come up i remember a couple of years ago alvaro parent had a big crash in a bentley at st pete and they repaired that car he got out and did just enough laps to score points in that event and the points he scored that day ultimately helped him win a championship yep you have to keep digging you uh despite the frustration you gotta have a clear head and think about what can we still achieve here today is it just get the car back out there if it's round one make sure it's ready to roll for round two or even for the um dxdd team with the number 19 car that had the issues they got uh aaron vogel back out there got a big important test coming up they want to make sure the car was 100 before they rolled off the truck later this week three more stops on the calendar all within the next eight weeks it's a rapid fire set of races here for fanatic gt world challenge america powered by aws watkins gwen up next for a pair of races there sebring with two races there and then an interesting twist with ims the indianapolis motor speedway hosting the indianapolis eight hour for the season finale and points for this championship will be paid at the three-hour mark then at most teams we expect will continue on for the duration of the full eight hours and the american championship will be joined by many of the stalwart teams of the intercontinental gt challenge powered by pirelli and of course the globetrotting gt3 championship run under the sro umbrella which basically picks local events that they can be a part of uh the bathurst 12 hour didn't happen this year because of the pandemic but that is one example this total energy is 24 hours of spa that occurred about a month or so ago indianapolis and then the season finale at kyle ami in south africa so it should be a massive grid and also we'll have gt4 cars on an invitational basis mixed in and by all indications we're looking at at least 35 40 cars in that field to end the season should be exciting speaking from the side of this the start to the race here race two of the weekend yeah to go to dickerson here from the ball timed it perfectly looks like robbie fuller is going to have an opportunity to get inside yan halen by the time they got to turn three but dan halen takes that line away big moment here look at that philip ellis wheels in the grass manages to save it that was the save of the weekend and it looked like it might have saved them a race win unfortunately it all went wrong towards the end it went wrong early right there for michael cooper contact with jordan pepper this was a heartbreaking moment for the pro-am leaders at the time heartbreak for the overall leaders right here as windward had to come in late and open the door for turner to claim their first overall win of this season [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: GTWorld

Views: 45,492

Keywords: BlancpainGT, Blancpain, GT, GT3, Endurance, Sprint, Series, Cup, Motorsports, watch, FIA, driver, sportscar, racecar, car, events, Spa, 24h, team, europe, pro-am, pro, racetrack, RACE 2, ROAD AMERICA, GT WORLD CHALLENGE AMERICA, GT WORLD, CHALLENGE AMERICA, GT racing

Id: jwGrz_HeIqs

Length: 125min 38sec (7538 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021