FIA WEC/ALMS, 12 Hours of Sebring - Hour Eight Old Guys Rule - So Do Yellows At just past the 8 hour mark, the troubled No. 1 Audi stops again. Even though they're a lap down, Muscle Milk is pushing. Klaus Graf got the HPD car into the 1:47 range, only abour .4 seconds off of their qualifying time. This is serious. If it wasn't for the extended stop for the legality panel, which cost them to have 3 minutes more pit time than the leader, who knows what might be happening with this effort. Audi might want to pay attention. Tragedy for Aston Martin - the car lost the LR wheel entering the hairpin. Yellow. Sad happening for the team - they were a strong 4th at the time. The Aston incident brings out yellow number seven. Audi No. 3 pits, among others, taking advantage of the caution. Yeah - It's Quote Time Adrian Fernandez “It’s going better than we hoped, our race pace is looking more competitive than we thought it would but I think that’s because the rest of the field are coming back to our pace over a stint – That means we have very good consistency.” Paul Daniels (JWA Avilla Team Principal) “We were effectively excluded for getting out 5 minutes late after changing the clutch at the start of the race.We sent the car out with no floor and no anti roll bar and appealed to the Stewards, we think we’re going to be OK. Bart Hayden We had a small fire when Nick (Heidfeld) pitted and took off the engine cover to see what was causing the problem – It turned out to be the engine cover itself so we changed that and sent the car back out. Doug Fehan “It’s been just about perfect so far, absolutely to the plan.” Pat Long (#45 Lizards Porsche) “We’re still way behind but pushing hard for a 70% finish and points – It’s a long, hard way to do this race though.” Mike Guasch (#5 Muscle Milk Oreca FLM09) “We could be out, there’s a fair amount of damage at the rear – A arms and suspension, the car is pretty banged up.That’s pretty disappointing as we were running 4th with me and Memo still to come – A podium was looking very possible.” Mark Lieb (#77 Felbermayr Proton Porsche) We have to be very careful on tyres, there’s a big drop off for the last 5 or 10 laps in a stint.That wasn’t so bad for Richard or Patrick as they had Safety Cars at the start of their stints but it was difficult for me just now. “On pace we have no way to stay with the Ferraris and the Corvettes are too – easily 4 or 5 tenths faster but over a stint we are consistent. “We had one lucky stop at the start of the race for fuel and tyres that gave us a clear run at the early part of the race.” Karun Chandhok - #22 JRM HPD “I’m enjoying this more than I thought I would.Anthony Davidson had told me that I’d be surprised at how much fun sportscars would be after F1 and I have to say he’s right – I’m really getting into it now. “Coming from Friday testing in F1 where you’d run and then someone would take over the car for the race – it was like getting your Christmas presents taken back at lunchtime on Christmas Day! “Traffic is tough and I’m having to re learn how to deal with it – At first I was doing what I had learnt in single seaters – when you come up to pass another car you wait for the opportunity – You simply can’t do that here, you have to be more aggressive ! “The team though have been very, very impressive, and the car has far exceeded our expectations considering it wasn’t even a runner at the start of the week.” The 22 HPD had to pit when the pits were closed, as they were in danger of running out of fuel. By doing so, they had to take a penalty, but they really didn't have any choice. Brabs stayed in the car. With 4:24 to go, we're green again. McNish is leading - for Audi, the Old Guys Rule. Having a clean consistent run is Dyson Racing and their new Lola although they just dropped down to 12th overall. Ouch - Dempsey Racing LMPC was taken out by the Performance Tech. The Dempsey car became airborne into the catch fencing. Yellow again. Taken out may not be the right description. More like a racing incident with no place to go for Performance Tech. Krohn Ferrari into the wall - front damage but the car made it to the pits under its own power. Before the stops, GT(E) is a Corvette 1-2. The Aston is back on track, although it is 10th in class (3rd in WEC GTE), 7 laps back. Hour 8 Summary - Unravelling If the first seven hours were relatively clean-relatively being a relative term, then the eighth hours was a bit different. It was punctuated by two caution periods and more than two incidents. The Aston Martin’s luck has waxed and waned but this time the wheel of fortune left and sailed towards the trees past the hairpin. It was towed back in and repaired. Then we had two odd events during the ensuing safety car intervention. The first came when the Krohn Ferrari slewed off at the start of the Ullman straight and lightly tagged the wall. Then the oft-troubled No. 5 Muscle Milk Oreca made a non-PC move and nearly chopped another car. All this came about from the concertina-effect (sounds more classy than accordion-effect) which can occur under yellow. After a short green interlude (sing a concertina ballad again), Henri Richard moved over to take the line and didn’t notice Anthony Nicolisi’s similar Oreca. The No. 18 Performance Tech entry was almost completely undamaged but the Dempsey Racing No. 025 PC went into the fencing and skated along, nearly flipping but ending up intact with its wheels distinctly askew. A cowering photographer was nearly showered with debris but since the species Homo Shutteratus is so numerous no one paid much attention to such an expendable creature. JW | 
