Daytona24: Porsche hour 16 notes

PORSCHE TEAMS HOLD STRONG IN ROLEX 24 AFTER 16 HOURS; PENSKE AND BRUMOS ON TOP IN DP; FARBACHER LOLES RACING AND TRG LEAD GT CLASS AT SUNRISE

January 25, 2009 - Leading more than 300 of the 482 laps completed so far at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Penske Racing Porsche Riley and the two Brumos Racing Porsche Rileys have shown the way to the rest of the Daytona Prototype field after 16 hours at Daytona International Speedway.

The #16 Crown Royal Penske Porsche Riley, driven by Timo Bernhard/Romain Dumas/Ryan Briscoe - being handled by Briscoe at the 16-hour mark - held a slim eight-second lead over the #58 Brumos car of David Donohue/Antonio Garcia/Darren Law/Buddy Rice with two-third of the race complete. The #59 Brumos Porsche Riley of Joao Barbosa/JC France/Terry Borcheller/Hurley Haywood, which has led several times during the night, was fifth after a recent pit stop at 16 hours.

All three Porsche DPs have run so far without any mechanical problems, and are still turning lap times equal to the beginning of the race. Dumas, Donohue and Barbosa have the fastest race laps for their respective teams.

In GT, the #86 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Dominik Farnbacher/Eric Lux/Matthew Marsh/Kevin Roush has also led a good a good part of the night, battling the #66 TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Spencer Pumpelly/Emmanuel Collard/Tim George, Jr./Richard Lietz/Ted Ballou. The TRG entry is one lap down from the leader, while the team #67 TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car of Joerg Bergmeister/Andy Lally/Patrick Long/Justin Marks/RJ Valentine is just 30 seconds behind. The fourth-place Pontiac is three laps down.

Porsche continues to claim seven of the top ten spots in the GT class at 16 hours.

-credit: porsche