Daytona 24: Porsche Motorsport hour 8 notes

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- January 31 -- With one-third of the race in the books, the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race cars continue to outrun their competition at the 42nd Rolex 24 at Daytona.

In the GT class, the #44 Orbit Porsche 911 GT3 RS, with Johnny Mowlem/Mike Fitzgerald/Robin Liddell/Joe Policastro/Jay Policastro sharing the driving duties, has stretched their lead to two laps in class, and moved up to seventh overall. The #74 Flying Li zard Motorsports Porsche GT3 Cup racer of Johannes van Overbeek/Seth Neiman/Lonnie Pechnik/Peter Cunningham/Mike Rockenfeller, which had fallen ten laps behind earlier in the event with mechanical problems, have worked their way back into second place, jus t two laps behind the leader and just ahead of the third-place BMW.

The #66 The Racer's Group Porsche GT3 RS of Kevin Buckler/Patrick Long/Timo Bernhard/Jorg Bergmeister has also come back from 20 laps down to 11th place, only 12 laps down. The other The Racer's Group Porsche 911 GT3 RS cars are sixth and 12th overall in G T.

In the SGS class, the #91 Doncaster Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car of Jean-Francois Dumoulin/Robert Julien/Greg Pootmans/Marc Lieb has a one-lap lead over their teammates, the #71 Doncaster Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car of Dave Lacey/Greg Wilkins/Mark Wilkins/To m Nastasi/Kenny Wilden. Third is the #13 Foxhill Racing Porsche GT3 Cup car of Andrew Davis/Michael Cawley/Charles Espenlaub/Joe Foster. The SGS pole-sitters, #38 TPC Racing Porsche GT3 Cup race of Randy Pobst/ Marc Bunting/Andy Lally/John Littlechild/Michael Levitas is now fourth.

In the Daytona Prototype class, only one Porsche Fabcar remains, with the #59 Brumos Racing entry driven by Hurley Haywood/J.C. France/Tommy Riggins/Scott Sharp running sixth overall. The #58 Red Bull Brumos Porsche Fabcar of David Donohue/Darren Law/Sasch a Maassen/Lucas Luhr was forced to retire with electrical problems in hour six, and the #45 Gunnar Racing Porsche Fabcar of Gunnar Jeannette/NASCAR star Kyle Petty/actor Paul Newman/Michael Brockman came to a stop on the circuit in hour eight.

The rain has become heavy in the eighth hour, with thunderstorms possible before the end of the night. Many of the cars have been slowed by malfunctioning electronics including failed windshield wipers, making a difficult drive at night even harder.

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