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Visit Florida RX-8 passes the halfway mark, competing head to head
The #70 RX-8 was competing for 4th place with #40 RX-8, but at around 11:40 pm, its oil cooler picked up a rock, resulting in an oil leak. The #70 RX-8 then headed to the garage for repairs. The burst tyre from the start of the race saw worsening damage to the body that spread to broader areas, with the rear door on the right eventually breaking off. The mechanics repaired it with all their might and their "never give up spirit," but the race had already become quite tough on them by this stage.
Solidifying its position, the #40 RX-8 rose to 2nd place. Though the Porsche GT3 entries showed an astounding speed in qualifying, the #40 RX-8 had already caught up to within 40 seconds of its rivals. At around 12:30 a.m., after switching driver duties from Charles Espenlaub to Patrick Dempsey, the car took over the lead in the GT class. Although it fell back to 2nd place at one point, it once again regained the top position. Running steadily, the RX-8 slowly started to outdistance the others. However, as it was still only 3:30 a.m., it was too early to be optimistic.
John Foster was in 2nd place, along with his fellow RX-8-equipped racer in the #41 car running sixth in class. Having repaired its front section and suspension, the 2010 Champion car, the #69 RX-8 went back in the race. It then made frequent pit stops to make adjustments and repeated that for about an hour, but then stopped running. Though everything seemed to have been going smoothly, the #42 RX-8 also went back into the garage for repair work.
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