Porsche nas 24 horas de Daytona

Na 46ª edição das 24 horas de Daytona, realizada no passado dia
28 de Janeiro, as equipas privadas Porsche disputaram até ao final uma dramática luta pelas posições da frente. Com o cair da bandeira de xadrez, a equipa norte-americana “The Racers Group” (TRG) conseguiu dois lugares no pódio com os seus 911 GT3 Cup na classe GT, uma classe particularmente dura.


Porsche teams put in strong performance
The 46th running of the Daytona 24 hour race will go down in the history of America's longest standing sportscar race as one of the most exciting. Right to the final phase Porsche customer teams where amongst the front-runners, with Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars and Porsche powered Daytona Prototypes swapping the lead with the cars of numerous other manufacturers. With this strong showing at the first of 14 rounds of the Grand American Rolex Sportscar Series, Porsche teams demonstrated their competitiveness in the fight for the prestigious US championship.

When the flag dropped after the sprint twice round the clock, “The Racers Group” (TRG) from America could celebrate a fine podium result in the fiercely-contested GT class. With support from Porsche works driver Richard Westbrook (Great Britain), Bryce Miller, Ted Ballou and Andy Lally (all USA) claimed second in the class with a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Third place also went to TRG and Porsche: Tim George Jr., Spencer Pumpelly, Bryan Sellers (all USA) prevailed over very strong opposition with assistance from works drivers Romain Dumas and Emmanuel Collard (both France).

Johannes van Overbeek, who in December was awarded the Porsche Cup as the most successful private race driver of 2007, continued his strong performance of last year. The American crossed the finish line – also at the wheel of a TRG-911 – together with his compatriots Jim Lowe, Jim Pace, RJ Valentine and Britain's Tim Sugden in fourth.

Porsche works driver Timo Bernhard (Germany) as well as the Farnbacher-Loles pilots Dominik Farnbacher (Germany), Dirk Werner (Germany) and Pierre Ehret (USA/Germany) saw the chequered flag as eighth in the class. Bad luck plagued works drivers Sascha Maassen (Belgium), Joerg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler (both Germany), who shared the cockpit of a 911 GT3 Cup with Eric Lux and Leh Keen (both USA). The quintet had to retire with suspension damage after leading for a lengthy stretch.

In the Daytona Prototypes class, Porsche-powered race cars were clearly amongst the quickest. In the 19th hour the leading Brumos-Porsche manned by record-winner Hurley Haywood (USA) retired with suspension problems. The strong performance of the second Brumos-Porsche, with the car holding the lead on several occasions, also came to a premature end with a defect fuel tank. Alex-Job Racing also claimed the lead position several times. In the 20th hour, the Daytona Prototype with factory driver Patrick Long (USA) led before a mechanical problem put an end to its charge.