When Brumos made the decision to campaign only one car this season (the #59) – and retire last year’s winner #58, a window of opportunity opened for Daytona businessman and long-time Brumos affiliate Bob Johnson. Using a Riley chassis he already owned, Johnson and Brumos developed a win-win situation for everyone involved. “There were several Brumos key team members available to lead the team, along with two of the top drivers in the series. I was able to make arrangements to share raceshop space with the Brumos team and keep the group intact.” said Johnson.
Johnson married his Riley chassis with a Porsche powered engine first approved by Grand-Am in 2007 (during the 2007 season Grand-Am approved this new Porsche engine – the other being a 3.99 liter flat-six). This new 5.0L V8 unit, while not actually constructed by Porsche, is based on the V8 engine used in the Porsche Cayenne and modified by Lozano Bros. Porting in Texas. This coupling of a proven Riley chassis, prolific Porsche power and a stacked driver line-up proved to be the winning combination this year at Daytona for Johnson’s new Action Express Racing (see the video below).
Using a veteran driver line-up including Ryan Dalziel, Mike Rockenfeller, Joao Barbosa, and Terry Borcheller, and support from a veteran team, Brumos Racing, the Action Express Racing Porsche-powered Riley upset the pre-race favorites to win the 48th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. ‘While the pre-race favorites BMW Riley, Ford Riley, Ford Dallara, and last year’s winner, the Brumos Porsche Riley, all led the race at various times during the day and night, mechanical gremlins and miscues on the track derailed those efforts, and the Action Express team came away with the win.
Porsche’s Success in the GT Class
n the Rolex GT class, it looked like a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup victory was in the works once the leading Camaro broke overnight, but the leading TRG Porsches lost their advantage in the last four hours of the event.
First, the #71 TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, with NASCAR star Bobby Labonte at the controls, ran out of fuel on the course and had to be towed into the infield, where the TRG crew met the car, gave it a dump-can of fuel, and got it back on the track. However, Labonte had to circle the track again, and then come in for a full fuel stop and driver change under green, and lost the three-lap lead the team had built in the GT class. Only seven minutes later, the new leaders #67 TRG Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Seth Neiman/Johannes van Overbeek/Joerg Bergmeister/Patrick Long came into the pits with a broken front shock. The team replaced the shock, but it put them five laps back, and opened the door for the #70 Speedsource Mazda to take the lead – a lead they never relinquished. The #71 car, with Labonte, Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard, Spencer Pumpelly and Tim Geroge, Jr., later broke an axle and ended up ninth in class. The #67 car finished second, and third place went to the #66 TRG Porsche Ted Ballou, Kelly Collins, Wolf Henzler, Andy Lally, and Patrick Flanagan.
2010 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona Race Results
Race result
1. Barbosa/Borcheller/Dalziel/Rockenfeller (P/USA/USA/CH),
Porsche Riley (DP), 755 laps
2. Pruett/Papis/Rojas/Wilson (USA/I/MEX/USA),
BMW Riley (DP), 755
3. Hunter-Reay/Bouchut/Tucker/Luhr/Westbrook (USA/F/USA/D/GB),
BMW Riley (DP), 751
4. Krohn/Braun/Jonsson/Zonta (USA/USA/USA/BRA),
Ford Lola (DP), 735
5. Friselle/Negri/Pew/Wilkins (USA/USA/USA/USA),
Ford Riley (DP), 726
6. Angelelli/Lamy/R. Taylor/W. Taylor (MC/P/USA/USA),
Ford Dallara (DP), 711
7. Allmendinger/Friselle/Patterson/Valiante (USA/USA/USA/CAN),
Ford Riley (DP), 707
8. Bomarito/Ham/Haskell/Tremblay (USA/USA/USA/USA),
Mazda RX-8 (GT), 707
9. Bergmeister/Long/van Overbeek/Neiman (D/USA/USA/USA),
Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (GT), 703
10. Henzler/Flanagan/Ballou/Collins/Lally (D/USA/USA/USA/USA),
Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (GT), 691
The 48th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona marks the 42nd anniversary of Vic Elford’s victory in the Porsche 907, Porsche’s first 24 hour endurance win. To celebrate the occasion, David Donohue pilots a 2010 Porsche GT3 around the Daytona road course while Vic Elford, the Grand Marshal for this year’s race, tells the story of his victory for Porsche.
As live TV coverage gets ready to wrap up for the night, Raphael Matos has moved into first place overall at the Rolex 24 at Daytona with the #59 Brumos Porsche Riley. At the same time, TRG holds 1-2-3 in the GT class with Porsche factory drivers in each car. Before you get too excited, please realize that by the time I finish typing this post the leads could very well change again. In fact, with just a little over 5 hours of the race completed there have already been 11 lead changes in the Daytona Prototype class alone.
PorschePurist.com Riding Loud and Proud on the Wing of the TRG #18 Porsche at Daytona
TRG, with five Porsches in this race, is the team to watch in GT class, including the #18 Guardian Angel Motorsports’ Porsche. In their sophomore showing, Guardian Angel is not only still in the race, they are within the top 35 cars overall!!
There’s lots and lots of time left, but things are looking good for Porsche overall. If everyone can make it through the night, we should see some pretty exciting racing tomorrow with cool and dry conditions.
Two (2) Porsche Daytona Prototypes and a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car hold the fastest speeds and lap times in Both the DP and GT classes. Most interesting is that four (4) of the top five (5) fastest cars in the GT class are Porsches, including the No. 23 Foametix Porsche GT3 besting the No. 70 Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8. Full details below.
Top 5 Daytona Prototype Practice Times (Speeds):
Darren Law, No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley – 1:41.586 (126.159 mph)
In most Grand-Am events and other motorsport races, qualifying and pole position plays a significant factor. In races such as the GT2 class in ALMS, where racers and cars are so evenly matched, pole position is even more important. In a race like the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, while qualifying plays a role, it’s not as important as endurance and proper set-up.
Patrick Long tell us, “The grid position doesn’t play such an important role at a 24 hour event. Above all, it’s about finding the optimal race set up during practice and then quickly getting into the rhythm in the race,” he continues by saying, “It’s extremely close amongst the front-runners and this makes for exciting fights. We have a promising starting position.”
And indeed they do. The #67 TRG/Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Joeg Bergmeister, Patrick Long, Johannes van Overbeek and Seth Neiman is set to start seventh as one of the three (3) Porsche’s set to start in the top 10 of the GT Class. In the grid with the #67 TRG/Flying Lizard Porsche is the top Porsche qualifier of Kelly Collins. Collins put the #66 TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup within three-tenths of a second of the pole, but could not penetrate the one-two-three Mazda qualifying results for a fifth place start. Collins will share driving duties with Andy Lally, Ted Ballou, Wolf Henzler and Patrick Flannigan.
“With Porsches’ 63 class wins and 37 class and overall wins for the Porsche 911 at the Rolex 24, we know that our teams have set up their cars for the long haul, and both our race cars and street cars and their components have a solid reputation for endurance,” said Paul Ritchie, president of Porsche Motorsport.
Wedged squarely between the two TRG Porsches in sixth is the #88 Orbit Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Johnny Mowlem, Guy Cosmo, Tom Papadopoulos, John Baker and Lance Willsey.
Overall, the qualifying event for the 24 Hour race was the closest in Daytona history in both the GT and DP classes. Darren Law, from Phoenix, Ariz., put the #59 Brumos Porsche Riley in the seventh spot on the grid, less than a second from pole-sitting V-8 Ford Dallara. Law, who, along with David Donohue, Antonio Garcia, and Buddy Rice won the race overall last year, feels that the car is well set up for the race, and has confidence that this year’s Brumos drivers know how to win a 24-hour event.
“Butch Leitzinger, a three time winner, Raphael Matos, my regular co-driver David Donohue, and Hurley Haywood, the American endurance legend, all know what is needed to win. We have the crew and the car to win, and we hope the drivers can bring home a victory,” said Law.
Times and Coverage
The Rolex 24 at Daytona will take the green flag on Saturday, January 30 at 3:30 p.m. EST, with coverage live on SPEED TV starting at 2:00 PM EST. Live SPEED coverage will continue until 10:00 p.m., and then resume at 7:00 am EST on Sunday morning, January 31 through the end of the race at 3:30 pm EST. SPEED will then stay on the air until 4:00 p.m. to cover the post-race activities.
We first introduced you to Guardian Angel Motorsports last year after a chance online meeting with the founders, Linda and Bruce Ledoux. As it turned out, John and I only live a few towns apart from Linda and Bruce and share a number of mutual friends along with a passion for Porsche and membership in the PCA. We finally had the chance to meet in person at Daytona, in 2009, where Guardian Angel Motorsports raised over $75,000 for Children’s Hospital of Boston.
This year, on January 30, 2010 Guardian Angel Motorsports has again entered a Porsche 997 Grand-AM Spec GT3 Cup race car in the famous Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona sports car endurance race. Their mission is to complete as many laps as possible, raising money for three charities along the way:
LOVE146, working toward nothing less than the abolition of child sex slavery and child exploitation,
FAAN, the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, raising public awareness, providing advocacy and education, and advancing research on behalf of millions affected by food allergies.
Matthew L. Greer Children’s Foundation, the Organization currently plans to educate children, empower them to develop life skills and to help them reach their full potential through supporting organizations that serve children at risk of not reaching that potential, especially in low income areas.
PorschePurist made a donation again this year and we would encourage you to do the same. Listen to Bruce describe his reasons for racing in the videos below.
Kicking off the 2010 Porsche Motorsport Season
Stay tuned all week this week as we prepare for the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. We have interviews with former Farnbacher Loles Grand-Am champ Dirk Werner and last year’s Daytona winner David Donohue. In addition, we’ll be covering the race first hand with updates on Facebook and Twitter.
As title defender and the most successful manufacturer in the history of the Daytona 24 hour race, Porsche returns to the long distance classic in Florida on the last weekend in January with yet another strong line-up. Spearheading the con-tingent is the Porsche Riley of Brumos Racing, who last year pocketed the 21st over-all victory for Porsche. At the time-honoured season-opener of the American Grand-Am Series, a total of six Porsche works drivers compete for various customer teams.
Traditionally, Porsche is well represented with the 911 GT3 Cup in the fiercely-contested GT class. Last year’s winners Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA) have good chances to again grab victory. The Porsche factory pilots share driving duties with Seth Neiman (USA) and Johannes van Overbeek (USA) for the TRG/Flying Lizard Motorsports team. “This race is a fantastic start to the new season,” says Joerg Bergmeister. “In Daytona, drivers gather from a wide range of race series and that makes it particularly exciting.”
TRG brings two 911 GT3 Cup racers for Porsche factory pilot Wolf Henzler (Germany, #66), and his works driver colleagues Timo Bernhard (Germany) and Romain Dumas (France, both starting number 71) to tackle the long distance classic that was run for the first time in 1962. Their factory driver colleague Richard Lietz (Austria) competes for Magnus Racing, teaming up with the winner of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup, Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands). Porsche claimed its first vic-tory at Daytona back in 1968 with Vic Elford, Jochen Neerpasch, Rolf Stommelen, Jo Siffert and Hans Herrmann at the wheel of the Porsche 907.
Porsche Daytona Prototype Racing
In the Daytona Prototype class, Brumos Racing is again regarded as one of the fa-vourites for overall victory. At the wheel of the Porsche Riley run by the successful customer team based in Jacksonville/Florida sit David Donohue (USA) and Darren Law (USA) with Hurley Haywood (USA), Butch Leitzinger (USA) and Raphael Matos (USA). Joao Barbosa (Portugal), who last year clinched third at Daytona with Brumos Racing, now drives the Porsche Riley of Action Express Racing – with Audi works driver Mike Rockenfeller as one of his team mates. The Spirit of Daytona Racing squad fields the third Porsche-powered prototype. With former Indy500 champion Buddy Rice (USA) and Antonio Garcia (Spain), one of last year’s winning drivers in the Brumos quartet, this team also has a top class driver line-up.
One driver, however, travels to the 48th running of the long distance classic in Amer-ica’s sunshine state with a touch of melancholy: For Hurley Haywood, one of the most successful sports car pilots in the world, this is the last time he contests his favorite race. “At some point you have to step aside and make room for younger and faster drivers,” says the five-time Daytona victor and multiple winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours and the 12 Hours of Sebring for Porsche. On 4th May he celebrates his 62nd birthday. For his Daytona farewell he has one wish: “It would be wonderful to close this chapter of my life with a victory.”
The 24 Hours of Daytona takes off on Saturday, 30th January, at 15.30 hours local time (21.30 hours CET). Stay Tuned to Porsche Purist all week for more Daytona coverage including interviews with last year’s winner David Donohue and live race coverage.
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