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Brumos Porsche Sweeps To Victory In Hotly Contested Rolex24 At Daytona

Daytona Beach, FL – A powerful Brumos Porsche Riley swept to victory in the hotly contested Rolex24 at Daytona. The winning drivers were sports car aces David Donohue and Darren Law along with IndyCar champion Buddy Rice and Antonio Garcia.

The late Mark Donohue won the famed race 40 years ago.

The twice-around-the-clock featured non-stop action and it had 51 car lead changes and 53 driver lead changes. The event also had a record 25 caution flags, consuming 117 laps. In total, 2,616.5 miles were completed or 735 laps around the 3.56-mile road course.

Donohue took the wheel on the final pit stop and after dueling with 2008 race winner Juan Pablo Montoya, the second-generation driver maneuvered into the lead, never to be headed. Although dogged by Montoya, the Pennsylvanian led the final 24 laps, crossing the finish line .167 seconds ahead of his nemesis.

The Brumos team led 254 of the 735 laps.

Brumos Racing has been a household name in sports-car racing for years, but the team seemed to have lost its winning touch until today. For the vaunted Florida team, it won the Rolex24 for the first time in 21 years and captured its first Rolex Series since 2003.

For Porsche, the German manufacturer earned its 21st Rolex24 victory.

“We won this race on preparation; the team took the win,” Donohue said. “We came here ready to run hard, and we worked our tails off in doing so. This race has turned into a 24-hour sprint race. With the field so close and competitive, it makes this win so great.”

Donohue credited NASCAR and IROC veteran Dave Marcis for teaching him how to drive on Daytona’s high banks and those lessons paid off today.

Said Law, “We rolled this car off the truck and didn’t make a change during the weekend.” The veteran driver indicated he, Rice and Garcia were so nervous in the final hour they couldn’t watch the race.

Rice added, “I am shocked with this win. To have my face on Indy’s Borg-Warner trophy and now to win at Daytona is unbelievable.”

Noted Garcia, who took a class win at LeMans in 2008, “This win is incredible, and it is even better than the last one.”

With an hour remaining, Montoya led Joao Barbosa and Antonio Garcia, but during the final pit stop, Donohue replaced Garcia, setting the stage for action-packed final laps. Donohue grabbed second quickly and began chasing down Montoya. He tried many times before making the winning pass on the 711th lap.

Montoya and co-drivers Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas drove the TELMEX Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley to second place. The group, to include a second car, was seeking a fourth consecutive Rolex24 victory for the Ganassi team, and they nearly did it.

The Columbia native was not overly pleased to finish second, but said he gave it his all. “I have 110 per cent, and I drove my butt off. I knew I couldn’t hold off the Brumos car, and it was just a matter of time until he passed me.”

Pruett and Rojas accepted their runner-up position, and the two believe their car needs to be allotted more power in order to be more competitive.

“I couldn’t be more proud of this organization,” Pruett said. “Actually, we did a little bit better than we had expected and the car never had a problem.”

Third place went to a second Brumos Porsche Riley driven by J. C. France, veteran Hurley Haywood, Terry Borcheller and Garcia.

Also finishing on the lead lap was the SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara of team owner Wayne Taylor, F1 veteran Pedro Lamy, Max Angelelli and Brian Frisselle.

The top-four finishers were separated by a mere 10.5 seconds.

Fifth and four laps off the pace was a second Ganassi entry driven by Indianapolis 500 champions Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti along with Firestone Lights champion Alex Lloyd. They led 82 laps and were frontrunners until they had to make a lengthy stop to repair a broken splitter.

Sixth and another frontrunner was the new Penske Racing Porsche-powered team of Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and IndyCar winner Ryan Briscoe. In leading 161 laps, they led the second most laps. The team’s shot at victory ended when they had to replace a rear-end assembly.

NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, Jon Fogarty, Alex Gurney and Jimmy Vasser persevered to a seventh place finish in the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley. The team experienced two significant problems: a clutch malady and midway through the race the transaxle assembly broke. The latter repair took 30 minutes to complete. They drove the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley.

Eighth went to the Childress-Howard Motorsports Pontiac Crawford of seasoned veteran Andy Wallace, Rob Finlay, IndyCar star Danica Patrick and NASCAR notable Casey Mears.

Ninth overall and the GT class winner was the TRG Porsche GT3 Cup team comprised of Andy Lally, Jorg Bergmeister, Patrick Long, R. J. Valentine and Justin Marks. They completed 695 laps.

A sister TRG Porsche took second in class with Spencer Pumpelly, Ted Ballou, Tim George Jr., Emmanuel Collard and Richard Leitz driving.
The Wright Motorsports Porsche GT3 Cup team took third in GT action.

A pit fire momentarily trapped motorcycle ace Scott Russell in his Daytona Prototype, but quick work by his crew saved him from injury. “A bracket holding the fuel pump broke and a fire started,” he said. “It got very hot in the car; fortunately, I had just gotten into the car and wasn’t fully buckled up.”

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