Daytona 24: Porsche race report

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).

-credit: porsche