Official Rolex 24 Thread - 24 Hour Banter Thread!
#65
01-25-2009 | 12:37 PM
Teamspeed Pro
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 23,875
From: Orange County
An official update with SPOILERS below.
Updated: January 25, 2009, 11:55 AM ET
Law, 3 others on lead lap at Rolex 24
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Darren Law and the pole-winning Porsche Riley Daytona Prototype were out front Sunday as the clock wound down in one of the closest races in the 47-year history of the Rolex 24.
With five hours remaining in the twice-around-the-clock sports car endurance race, four cars remained on the lead lap, including one of the Lexus Riley's hoping to give Chip Ganassi Racing its unprecedented fourth straight win in the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway.
"The pace has just been incredible," Law said before jumping into the lead car. "And there's still such a long way to go that anything can happen. We're keeping an eye on the water temperature, but everything looks good."
Law is co-driving the car with pole winner David Donohue, Antonio Garcia and Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice. Just seconds behind was the defending race champion Lexus of seven-time Daytona winner Scott Pruett, NASCAR's Juan Pablo Montoya and Memo Rojas, three of the four drivers who combined for Ganassi's third straight victory a year ago.
"Those Porsches are really fast," Pruett said. "We lack a little top end speed, but we're hanging in there pretty good."
The Ford Dallara of Max Angelelli, Brad Frisselle, Pedro Lamy and Jeff Ward was third, followed by the Porsche Riley of six-time Daytona winner Hurley Haywood, J.C. France, son of NASCAR board member Jim France, Joao Barbosa and Terry Borcheller.
The second Ganassi entry, co-driven by IndyCar stars Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti -- the fourth member of last year's winning team -- and Alex Lloyd, had problems in the early morning hours and fell to fifth, four laps behind the leaders.
With Franchitti at the wheel, the brakes failed and the 2007 IndyCar champion and Indianapolis 500 winner was penalized a 30-second stop for driving past the chicane on the backstretch of the 3.56-mile road circuit. After he gave up the seat to Dixon, the hood of the Lexus inexplicably flew off, costing the team more laps.
Roger Penske's Porsche Riley, making its Rolex Grand-Am Series debut with Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Ryan Briscoe co-driving, led several times in the early going, but fell to sixth, 13 laps off the pace after having to replace a broken rear end.
"We thought we had everything covered pretty well, but you never know what's going to jump up and bite you in this race," said Penske Racing president Tim Cindric. "We've still got a fast car, so we'll just try to make up some laps and get a good finish."
Jimmie Johnson, the three-time reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion whose team finished second here a year ago, had some bad luck early in the Pontiac Riley he shares with former CART champion Jimmy Vasser and Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty. Johnson stopped Saturday night to have a broken tail light replaced and wound up having the gearbox replaced after he broke the transmission trying to get the car in gear. The team was seventh, 22 laps behind at the 19-hour mark.
With plenty of attrition, the leading GT class car, a Porsche GT3 driven by Jorg Bergmeister, Andy Lally, Patrick Long and Justin Marks, was eighth overall, just one lap ahead of the GT3 of Kevin Roush, Dominik Farnbacher, Eric Lux and Matthew Marsh.
Law, 3 others on lead lap at Rolex 24
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Darren Law and the pole-winning Porsche Riley Daytona Prototype were out front Sunday as the clock wound down in one of the closest races in the 47-year history of the Rolex 24.
With five hours remaining in the twice-around-the-clock sports car endurance race, four cars remained on the lead lap, including one of the Lexus Riley's hoping to give Chip Ganassi Racing its unprecedented fourth straight win in the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway.
"The pace has just been incredible," Law said before jumping into the lead car. "And there's still such a long way to go that anything can happen. We're keeping an eye on the water temperature, but everything looks good."
Law is co-driving the car with pole winner David Donohue, Antonio Garcia and Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice. Just seconds behind was the defending race champion Lexus of seven-time Daytona winner Scott Pruett, NASCAR's Juan Pablo Montoya and Memo Rojas, three of the four drivers who combined for Ganassi's third straight victory a year ago.
"Those Porsches are really fast," Pruett said. "We lack a little top end speed, but we're hanging in there pretty good."
The Ford Dallara of Max Angelelli, Brad Frisselle, Pedro Lamy and Jeff Ward was third, followed by the Porsche Riley of six-time Daytona winner Hurley Haywood, J.C. France, son of NASCAR board member Jim France, Joao Barbosa and Terry Borcheller.
The second Ganassi entry, co-driven by IndyCar stars Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti -- the fourth member of last year's winning team -- and Alex Lloyd, had problems in the early morning hours and fell to fifth, four laps behind the leaders.
With Franchitti at the wheel, the brakes failed and the 2007 IndyCar champion and Indianapolis 500 winner was penalized a 30-second stop for driving past the chicane on the backstretch of the 3.56-mile road circuit. After he gave up the seat to Dixon, the hood of the Lexus inexplicably flew off, costing the team more laps.
Roger Penske's Porsche Riley, making its Rolex Grand-Am Series debut with Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Ryan Briscoe co-driving, led several times in the early going, but fell to sixth, 13 laps off the pace after having to replace a broken rear end.
"We thought we had everything covered pretty well, but you never know what's going to jump up and bite you in this race," said Penske Racing president Tim Cindric. "We've still got a fast car, so we'll just try to make up some laps and get a good finish."
Jimmie Johnson, the three-time reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion whose team finished second here a year ago, had some bad luck early in the Pontiac Riley he shares with former CART champion Jimmy Vasser and Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty. Johnson stopped Saturday night to have a broken tail light replaced and wound up having the gearbox replaced after he broke the transmission trying to get the car in gear. The team was seventh, 22 laps behind at the 19-hour mark.
With plenty of attrition, the leading GT class car, a Porsche GT3 driven by Jorg Bergmeister, Andy Lally, Patrick Long and Justin Marks, was eighth overall, just one lap ahead of the GT3 of Kevin Roush, Dominik Farnbacher, Eric Lux and Matthew Marsh.