With around 2hr15m to go, the #01 Cadillac of Chip Ganassi Racing of Sebastien Bourdais appeared to improve its chances, with the sister car of Alex Lynn falling off the track briefly just ahead before it pitted and Lynn gave up his ride to Earl Bamber. Bourdais then pitted, and CGR got his replacement Renger van der Zande out ahead of Meyer Shank Racing’s #60 Acura, in which Tom Blomqvist had replaced Helio Castroneves.
Olivier Pla also had a brief off in the #31 Action Express Cadillac but he had second place in his hands, 13sec behind Filipe Albuquerque in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura, but being pressured heavily by Bamber.
AXR called Pla in with 1hr59m to go and installed Mike Conway. Although that moved Blomqvist up to fourth, it was very clearly not going well for MSR, since its Acura ran 26sec behind the similar car of WTR. This gap reduced to 21sec with 90mins to go, the point at which Bamber and van der Zande pitted the two Ganassi Cadillacs.
By the time Blomqvist pitted with 1hr25m to go, he had sliced his deficit to Albuquerque down to 16sec before WTR brought the #10 car in.
That elevated Bamber into the lead with 80mins to go, 7.2sec ahead of Albuquerque, with van der Zande third, 1.5 seconds behind and pressuring the black-and-blue Acura, but running 15sec ahead of the MSR Acura.
The AXR challenge appeared to have faded, with Derani, who took over the #31 from Conway, and Mike Rockenfeller in the Ally Racing-branded #48 both running a lap down.
With 70mins to go, van der Zande made it a Ganassi Cadillac 1-2 with a move on Albuquerque at Turn 6, and now Blomqvist would have a straighter shot at his championship rival, 14sec behind the WTR car. They looked evenly matched, though, and Albuquerque inched away over the next couple of laps, then the gap came down to 14sec again…
Bamber pitted from his 10sec lead with an hour to go, and van der Zande stopped next time by. This briefly promoted the Acuras to 1-2, and now Blomqvist was only 9.5sec behind, but two laps later it was 11sec.
With 50mins to go, the two Ganassi Cadillacs collided. Bamber got held up by the Korthoff Mercedes GTD car, allowing van der Zande to get a run on him on the outside approaching Turn 1, and the pair made side-by-side contact that sent them both into the gravel on the outside and into the tire wall.
That of course brought out the full course yellow, and when the Acuras pitted, Meyer Shank Racing got Blomqvist out ahead of Albuquerque, who then pitted for a second time to top up fuel without losing position.
At the restart with little more than half an hour to go, Blomqvist retained the lead from Albuquerque, and they were now being pursued by Derani. Even 5mins after the restart, only 1.4sec covered this trio. But with 22mins to go, Blomqvist had pulled out a four-second lead, while Derani had fallen four seconds off the back of the WTR Acura.
With 14mins to go, Blomqvist came under intense pressure from Albuquerque as they encountered GT traffic, but it was that very traffic that also proved the WTR car’s undoing, Albuquerque making contact with the Winward Racing Mercedes.
The car trickled slowly to the pits with a dozen minutes to go, leaving the MSR Acura with a five-second lead over Derani. Kamui Kobayashi came home third in the second AXR Cadillac, one lap down.
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With under two hours to go, Vasser Sullivan’s Lexus RC F led in Ben Barnicoat’s hands, keeping Matt Campbell’s Pfaff Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R at arm’s length before pitting and Jack Hawksworth hopped aboard to take the race to the end.
James Calado in the Risi Competizione Ferrari had knocked Antonio Garcia’s Corvette C8.R into a spin at Turn 10B but escaped any penalty and handed over to Daniel Serra who rejoined the track behind Hawksworth, Connor De Phillippi’s RLL BMW M4 and Garcia.
With 75mins to go, Hawksworth’s lead was 5.5 over De Phillippi, with Mathieu…
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