Daytona24: Porsche hour eight notes

PORSCHES LEAD BOTH CLASSES OF ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA AFTER EIGHT HOURS; BRUMOS PORSCHE RILEY AND TRG PORSCHE 911 GT3 CUP LEAD DP, GT RESPECTIVELY

January 25, 2009 - The #59 Brumos Porsche Riley of Joao Barbosa/JC France/Terry Borcheller/Hurley Haywood is leading the 47th running of the Rolex 24 Hours one-third of the way through the classic American endurance sports car race.

Barbosa, from Portugal, who was driving the Daytona Prototype when the clock passed the eight hour mark. He had a five-second lead over the Lexus Riley driven by IndyCar star Scott Dixon, and a seven-second lead over the #16 Penske Porsche Riley shared by Timo Bernhard/Romain Dumas/Ryan Briscoe.

In fact, between the two Brumos Porsche Rileys and the Penske Porsche Riley, Porsche- powered DP cars have led 207 of the 261 laps completed. The #59 Brumos car has led for 38 laps, the number #58 Brumos car of David Donohue/Antonio Garcia/Darren Law/Buddy Rice has led 90 laps, and the Penske car had led 79 laps.

"We still have most of the race to go, but the Porsche motor is working well, and our DP teams have been almost perfect so far," said Paul Ritchie, president of Porsche Motorsport North America.

Porsche teams are having similar success in the GT class, where the #66 TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Spencer Pumpelly/Emmanuel Collard/Tim George, Jr./Richard Lietz/Ted Ballou has taken the lead by 36 seconds over the #86 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Dominik Farnbacher/Eric Lux/Matthew Marsh/Kevin Roush. The third-place Pontiac is more than two laps down. In all, Porsche 911s hold seven of the top ten positions in GT after eight hours.

-credit: porsche