FIA WEC/ALMS, 12 Hours of Sebring - Hour Nine

Still behind the safety car - lengthy repairs at turn 10 armco.

Krohn Racing Update: very comprehensive rear suspension on the #57 Ferrari 458 Italia - will take a while to repair it.

It's 18:40 here at Sebring and we're back to green! 

News just in: the #55 will get a stop/go penalty!

Spin for Robert Kauffman in the #61 AF Corse-Waltrip Ferrari - back on track now.

Bill Binnie served his penalty - but is back in the pit. Another penalty?

Heavy traffic at the moment - fortunately all drivers behaving at the moment.

Allan McNish not slowing down - 1.7s quicker than Dumas on his last lap and the gap is up to 14 seconds.

Another 1.6 seconds gained by McNish.

Dirk Muller gets out of shape at turn 7 - giving Magnussen some space.

As usual the GT battle is on - the top 5 is within a couple of seconds only. Always amazing here at Sebring.

JWA-Avila Porsche penalties were for passing under yellow flag and then a drive-through for speeding on pitlane (it seems there is an electronics issue that releases the pit lane speed limiter at the end of the pit stop).

Both BMW's are now in the 2:00's - the others are a second slower right now.

In fact we have 2 Corvette Racing cars and 2 BMW Team RLL cars beating the WEC opposition...Team Felbermayr-Proton is the first WEC car in fifth.

Fassler pits the #1 Audi - was 29th overall after its earlier problems.

And now we have the leading Audi in the pit for a regular stop.

Henrique Cisneros has gone into the wall - and quite deep. The former GTC leader needs help to get out. Full course caution.

19:23 And we're back to green! HPD's going over the straight side-by-side - as the two Rebellions are in the pit.

JRM's Peter Dumbreck now third - 1.5 seconds ahead of Lucas Luhr. Team mates in 2011 in the FIA GT1 World Championship they know each other well.

Gap now reduced to just over a tenth of a second - Luhr chasing Dumbreck for third.

Nine hours completed - Audi is still first and second.

Bouchut leads in P2 for Level 5 Motorsports - Dalziel is is second and Perez-Companc third

In GT it's Corvette-BMW-Corvette-BMW.

Leaders in PC, GTC and GTE Am are Burt Friselle, Bill Sweedler and Patrick Bornhauser.

Six rows of tyres gone and even the concrete wall has been moved backwards - this might be a lengthy one.

Good they had tyres there though.

Take a look at the recent lap times for the GT leaders. Corvette vs. BMW is getting very serious. 2:00s for all.

Pits open - very close calls as the LMP teams race towards the end of the pit lane.

GT pit open - top 5 all in together - this could be fun! It was 4-56-155-03-77 as they came in.

56-4-155-03 as they went out!

Audi #3 is in - as #77 will get a penalty for having too many people over the wall!

Hour 9 Summary - Counting Down

We’re getting to the point where it becomes important to follow the pit stop pattern and see who blinks first. With vibrant contests in most classes the situation is more settled in more portions of the field than in many a year.

Before summarizing those there were two significant incidents. The first came when Henrique Cisneroes went straight off with a possible stuck throttle. The No. 30 NGT GTC class Porsche hit the tires head on but fortunately the Mexican driver was entirely unhurt. Then the engine “done blowed up” on the No. 15 Oak Pescarolo.  It was an unfortunate end to a run that began very well but had faded for the past few hours.

The overall contest will likely come down to a final sprint as both the No. 2 and No. 3 Audis are at a similar pace and pattern of stops. The Petrol P2s have [had, see Hour 9] a close run between the JRM (No. 22) and Muscle Milk (No. 6) HPDs—with the latter ahead of the Dyson Lola in the ALMS sub-group.  In that particular situation the leader has [had, see Hour 9] a bit of an advantage as Muscle Milk is down a tempo—or stop from JRM.

LM P2 is a true crap shoot with both of the leaders, No. 055 Level Five and No. 44 Starworks HPDs at comparable points in their stints and lap times. Despite with both being American entries, the former heads the IMSA sub-group and the latter for the WEC points.

The No. 06 Core Oreca heads PC but is a stop in arrears to second place No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen. GT remains amazingly tight, indeed more so than before. Added to the two Corvettes, two BMWs, Ferrari and Porsche noted last hour we can include the Paul Miller Racing Porsche (No. 48) which has crept onto the lead lap. As with many cars, most of the GTs set their fast times during the “golden hour” when cooling temperatures and well-balanced light allowed for quick laps. The GTE-Am and GTC contests are as before, close with the same cars and a pretty close pattern of stops. The No. 88 Felbermayr Porsche and the Larbre Corvette remain in contention with the WEC class while Alex Job Racing and the remaining NGT car (No. 031) are potential winners in the all-Porsche set.

JW