Huge damage can be seen including completely ripping one of the wheels off. Thankfully Lucas Luhr, the driver at the time, was able to climb out of the auto, seemingly unhurt. And after a day of brake problems, Sprint Cup teammates Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray were done because of a crash.
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At famed Daytona International Speedway of all places. “But all of us want to be part of this race, it’s a great race, a great way to start the season”. The same couldn’t be said for the two Mazdas, which showed impressive pace but retired with flywheel and engine failures, respectively. “So to not make any mistakes and increase the gap up to the end was unbelievable”. After the final stops were completed, the #4 Corvette of Oliver Gavin was on the bumper of the #912 Porsche of Earl Bamber, but the #3 Corvette piloted by Antonio Garcia would come out just four seconds behind the battle for the lead with a fresh set of tires and enough fuel to push for the remainder of the race without concern.
With two laps left, Garcia passed Gavin to the outside in the tri-oval, but with a deft crossover move, Gavin retook the top spot as the cars entered Turn 1. Antonio was coming so quickly, Gavin said. “He’s an wonderful teammate, and I knew I was going to have my work cut out to beat him”.
In the GTLM class, the No. 66 will be driven by Joey Hand, Dirk Muller and Sebastien Bourdais.
The two pro-am classes, GT Daytona and Prototype Challenge, would take two drastically different turns, both from each other and from the other two classes competing.
Competitiveness can be as unsafe as actual mechanical issues, though: in the early hours of the morning, as fatigue no doubt began to grip, two Lamborghini Huracans – loudly battling for GTD class victory – wiped each other out leading onto the pit straight, starting yet another period under the yellow flag. But Babini was pushing his fuel too. “This was teamwork. This was awesome….” “We had that last year, but this year we had a little bit of a hiccup”. “There’s always that consolation that if something happens, oh well, we did it previous year”. Allmendinger had a solid stint, keeping Michael Shank Racing in lead after seven hours.
In fact, soon after Allmendinger turned over the auto to Negri as the clock approached midnight on Saturday, the vehicle expired while leading.
Defending IndyCar Series champion and defending Rolex 24 victor Scott Dixon drove off track during the session, spewing mud all over his No. 02 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing entry. We will back later to give you guys an update before the race finishes.
Again, brakes were the culprit. Had the race gone one more lap, he might have had the win. “One infection I take an antibiotic, one infection they said just takes time”. I made it through there and I didn’t exactly know where I was but I knew there was a road there somewhere. It’s in theory the last hurrah for one of the most celebrated cars in this prestigious race. The repaired vehicle rejoined 13 laps down. Larson was not injured. Ford’s #67 GT, a vehicle that had been running well through the night after the issues it suffered yesterday afternoon, comes rolling to a stop in the middle of the track, bringing out the safety auto for a 17 time.
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“I learned to get up to speed faster”, said Brown of the WEC schedule that took him to previously unfamiliar circuits. “So I was just kind of hoping it was going to be soft”. I don’t even remember anything hurting at all or whiplash or nothing. The No. 4 vehicle was handed down a 60-second stop-go penalty in the 21st hour of the race for violating pit-light rules, while the No. 3 auto was given an infraction for speeding in pit lane. IMSA officials said he was “conscious and stable”, but offered no further details about his condition.
