Trouble for Jackie Chan DC Racing in LM24 Hour 3

Saturday, 17 June 2017

By Stephen Kilbey / Image by Rainier Ehrhardt/LAT

With the race finally starting to settle down, after two chaotic hours of racing at La Sarthe, it's still a Toyota 1-2 up front. Kamui Kobayashi, now aboard the No. 7 leads the No. 8 of Anthony Davidson and is pulling away.
The lead is 28 seconds between the two TS050 HYBRIDS, with the No. 1 Porsche of Nick Tandy a further eight seconds adrift in third.

The big story of hour three, though, was in the LMP2 class.
The two Rebellion ORECAs ran in formation for most of the hour up front, with Mathias Beche in the No. 13 taking the lead toward the end of the hour authoritatively down the Mulsanne Straight off the his teammate in the No. 31, Nicolas Prost.
The Swiss-entered machines hold a 30-lead over the No. 37 Jackie Chan DC Racing 07 Gibson of Alex Brundle in third.
Brundle was fourth, but the sister No. 37 DC Racing ORECA (pictured, top) hit trouble from third, the car, driven by Frenchman Thomas Laurent, was spotted stopped at Indianapolis with front-end damage. Laurent managed to get the car started again, but had to pit for a nose change, after the right-front corner blew off at pit entry. It is now down to sixth.
The pace of the front-runners in LMP2 is astounding, with the leaders already putting a lap on the 13th-placed DragonSpeed ORECA of Henrik Hedman.
In GTE Pro, the No. 95 "Dane Train" Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Marco Sorensen continues to hold a comfortable lead. The sister No. 97, meanwhile, fought its way back up to second overall after falling to third in the second hour. Daniel Serra, in his first ever stint, made a great move on Michael Christensen in the No. 92 Porsche to give the British marque a 1-2.
Third and fourth as the hour ticked over were the No. 66 and No. 67 Ford GTs that leapfrogged the Christensen's 911 RSR in the last set of stops.
Aston Martin Racing also leads Am, after Paul Dalla Lana climbed aboard the No. 98 for his first stint and muscled past Bill Sweedler in the No. 62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari. Sweedler couldn't match the speed of those around him and eventually slipped to third behind the JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 of Dries Vanthoor.
Salih Yoluc in the TF Sport Aston Martin briefly took second after getting in the car off Sweedler, but slipped back as his stint wore on and is down to fourth.