2008 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona
29/01/08 07:54 Filed in:Racing
TRG PORSCHES FINISH SECOND, THIRD AND FOURTH IN GT CLASS AT
ROLEX 24; BRUMOS, ALEX JOB DP PORSCHES LEAD INTO LAST HOURS
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – January 27 – Both the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars and the
various Porsche-powered Daytona Prototype racers led their class during long
periods of of time at the 2008 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, giving the teams
encouragement for the upcoming Rolex Grand-Am Sports Car points chase.
In the Daytona Prototype class, both the #58 Brumos Porsche – Darren Law, David
Donohue, and Buddy Rice – and the #59 team car - Hurley Haywood, J.C. France,
Terry Borcheller and Joao Barbosa – lead the race overall during the first
three-quarters of the race, with the #58 car rupturing a fuel cell and the #59
car – while leading the race in the 19th hour – broke a tie rod and crashed.
Both cars finished the race, but well down in the standings.
The Ruby Tuesday DP Porsche-powered Crawford of Alex Job Racing held a lead at
the six-hour and the 18-hour marks, but the car, driven by the team of Patrick
Long, Joey Hand, Andy Wallace and Bill Auberlin, suffered terminal mechanical
failure in hour 20.
In the GT class, Porsche, Pontiac, Mazda waged a fierce battle for the entire
race, with Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars from both TRG and Farnbacher Loles both
swapping the lead with the Mazdas and Pontiacs throughout the event. Near the
end, however, the Pontiacs had problems, and the #70 SpeedSource Mazda gained an
advantage over three of the TRG Porsches.
“Finishing second, third and fourth is huge for our team and drivers who are
competing for the championship in the 2008 Rolex Grand-Am series. Naturally, we
would have like to win the top spot on the podium, but some mechanical problems
and some bad luck prevented that from happening,” said TRG team owner Kevin
Buckler.
The #66 TRG Porsche of Bryce Miller/Ted Ballou/Andy Lally/Richard Westbrook
finished second in GT, with the #67 team Porsche of Tim George, Jr./Spencer
Pumpelly/Bryan Sellers/Romain Dumas/Emmanuel Collard third and the #64 team car
of Jim Lowe/Jim Pace/Johannes van Overbeek/Tim Sugden/RJ Valentine fourth.
For Farnbacher Loles, the #87 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup driven by Dominik
Farnbacher/Pierre Ehret/Timo Bernhard/Dirk Werner was the highest finishing car
for the Connecticut-based team (eighth in GT), and the #86 team car of Sascha
Maassen/Joerg Bergmeister/Wolf Henzler/Eric Lux/Leh Keen led the class several
times before control arm and brake issues sidelined their first-place chase.
The other Porsche top-ten GT finisher was the #80 Synergy Racing
Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Mark Greenberg/Daimien Faulkner/Jan Heylin/Lance Arnold
(sixth).
Complete results as well as pit notes are available at
www.grand-am.com.
