Daytona 24: Porsche fifteen hour report

Farnbacher Racing Porsche Maintains GT Lead as Daytona 24-Hour Race Completes 15 Hours; Brumos Porsche Fabcars Both in Top Ten

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - February 6 - It's that time of the early morning at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona when no one remembers who was fast in practice, who qualified on the pole, or even who made a long pit stop early in the race.

At 3:10 AM Eastern Standard Time, or 15 hours into the event, many of the race cars have either stopped running, or have spent hours in the garage area undergoing major repairs, so the cars still in contention all deserve a great deal of recognition.

In their first major endurance race, #71 German-based Farnbacher Racing USA Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car of Wolf Henzler/Dominik Henzler/Shawn Price/Pierre Ehret holds a one lap lead over the #36 TPC Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car of Michael Levitas/Randy Pobst/John Littlechild/Spencer Pompelly/Jean-Francois Dumoulin. In third place, four laps behind Farnbacher, is the #61 Robert Nearn/David Lacey/David Shep/Greg Wilkins/Mark Wilkins TRG East Porsche GT3 Cup.

The all-Australian team in the #00 Auto Gallery TRG Porsche of Craig Baird/Marcus Ambrose/Paul Morris/John Teulan lost its transmission and was forced to the garage for major repairs while leading in the 10th hour, while the #41 Orison Planet Earth Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car of Wayne Nonnamaker/James Jakes/Joe Nonnamaker/Will Nonnamaker/Victor Gonzales, which was running second early in the evening, was involved in an on-track, head-on collision, and spent several hours rebuilding the front end. The #41 car is currently 21st in class, while #00 is 24th in class, both more than 100 laps down.

Right at the 15-hour mark, #51 Red Bull Porsche GT3 Cup of KarlWendlinger/ Dieter Quester/Johnny Mowlem/Vincent Vosse tangled with the #59 Brumos Porsche Fabcar, causing a yellow flag with both cars being towed to the garage. The #51 was in fifth place in GT, and the #59 in seventh place overall at the time of the incident.

Speaking of the Daytona Prototypes, the #58 Red Bull Brumos Porsche Fabcar (David Donohue/Darren Law/Sascha Maassen/Lucas Luhr) has had both mechanical problems (loose bodywork) and damage caused by driver error (radiator malfunction due to a spin), but the car is running eighth overall, having passed the #59 Brumos Porsche Fabcar (Hurley Haywood/J.C. France/Timo Bernhard/Romain Dumas/Mike Rockenfeller) after the incident mentioned above.

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