The 16 Car Diary - Sebring hour four report

At 1:53pm, Butch Leitzinger pitted the Dyson Racing No. 16 Thetford/Norcold Porsche RS Spyder and turned over the wheel to Andy Lally to start hour five of the 55th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring. The driver swap, refueling and 4-tire change took 1:25.

Leitzinger's session was a bit fraught.

"Unfortunately I didn't get that many trouble free laps, which is a real shame because when the car was going well it was fast. It's a brilliant car.

"Unfortunately in the first stint, one of the Audis [the race-leading No. 1 Audi of Tom Kristensen] decided to come into the pit lane rather late, and I was already underneath him. He hit me and it spun me around, so we lost some time with that.

"But after that, we were going well again. Then it seems like there's some kind of sensor problem with the transmission with the downchanges. So the car refuses to downshift. That's what that second pit stop [at 1:12 for about 2 minutes] was about fixing that. So that's where we are right now. a little sensor problem.

"Otherwise, the car is fantastic. I can't believe how much potential this car has, so I'm really excited for the rest of the year."

On Lally's out lap, he reported the transmission seemed OK. At hour 4, Lally was sitting fourth in LMP2 - first Porsche behind three Acuras. But then, it's only one-third distance and this, after all, is Sebring.