Daytona 24 Hours

The 24 Hours of Daytona are currently running with racers coming from a broad range of categories. Wendingler, Enge, Tracy, Vasser, Wheldon, Carpentier, Moreno, Magnussen, Gordon, Castroneves, Papis, Gavin and of course, Montoya. A couple girls are also duking it out (yes, this term was coined from [url]www.nsxfiles.com[/url]) with the boys: Katherine Legge, and Milka Duno (venezuelan, who took it all the way to second place on her night stint but then fell to fourth).

After almost 11 hurs, the 01 Ganassi Racing car with Montoya, Pruett and mexican, Salvador Duran, is currently on the lead, with the 02 car, also a Ganassi car, with Wheldon, Dixon and Rojas in second. Montoya started from 12 in the grid and after 3 hours was on the lead, then came Duran at the wheel, who managed to lose a couple of positions, Pruett regained the lead and handed the car to Duran, who is currently driving and increasing the gap to the competition. It was a really close race with the 58 Red Bull/Brumos Porsche of Rice, Donohue and Law for along while, until it got hit accidentaly by a GT3 Porsche.

A couple interesting shots I found at the official website:

1. Montoya in his Texaco overalls although the car is sponsored by Target and Telmex. Obviously, he is racing Nascar in 2007 with Ganassi in a Texaco sponsored Dodge so arrangements were made.
2. A shot form the start in which you can see Montoya on the grass in what must have been a Kamikaze charge towards the lead.

Its going to be in Speed in the morning.

Brumos Porsche Red Bull should have avoided their accident

How was Max Angelleli (sp)'s leg cramping? From the crappy 1 hr coverage on Fox, I saw that the TRG 911 lost it's lights and Alex Gurney had some trouble.

As for the other cars, how did Patrick Long's alternator problem work out? He had faulty power steering because of the alternator.

If anyone hasn't noticed yet, Speed is finishing up the last 7 hours now.

[QUOTE]Montoya in his Texaco overalls although the car is sponsored by Target and Telmex.[/QUOTE]

Aparently Montoya's Telmex suit was lost at the laundromat.

It's over in what was a very close race for being 24 hours. Three cars were on the lead lap until there were 2 hours remaining.

JPM, Duran and Pruett held it it error free, the car was flawless and they had the luck of not being involved in a freaky accident to earn a great win. The Citgo car with Duno in it was just behind them until the final half hour when they had front brake issues. They still managed to finish on the lead lap.

Another grand slam win for JPM who now has Indy 500, Monaco, Monza and Daytona under his belt. It wouldn't surprise me if next year he went to Le Mans.

[QUOTE=magracer]
Another grand slam win for JPM who now has Indy 500, Monaco, Monza and Daytona under his belt. It wouldn't surprise me if next year he went to Le Mans.[/QUOTE]
I gotta give him credit, he is a good driver, but just not an elite F1 guy. As for Le Mans, I am not so sure, he might be under the obligation of his NASCAR contract so he might not be able to. Besides does Ganassi even run anything at Le Mans, because thats who his deal is with.

That was a GREAT race !!!

Yes that was a good race !!

It was an entertaining race, but those Daytona Prototypes are seriously ugly, and do they all have to look exactly alike? Typical of a NASCAR production, where the cars all fit a template and the only visual differences are the paint jobs and decals. Bring on Sebring. Audi will dominate of course but the LMP2 race and GT races should be fabulous.

[QUOTE=Bullitt5435;668447] Audi will dominate of course but the LMP2 race and GT races should be fabulous.[/QUOTE]

In the ALMS Porsche dominates LMP2 :p

[QUOTE=The_Canuck;668464]In the ALMS Porsche dominates LMP2 :p[/QUOTE]

As they should. Well rather, Porsche should stop being such wimps and take it to Audi in LMP1. I have said before, and will again, that would be sick, and I wish Porsche school Audi. If that happens or not, time would tell, but it is my wish.

[QUOTE=Kitdy;668623]As they should. Well rather, Porsche should stop being such wimps and take it to Audi in LMP1. I have said before, and will again, that would be sick, and I wish Porsche school Audi. If that happens or not, time would tell, but it is my wish.[/QUOTE]
With Porsche taking and ever increasing stake in VAG I don't think internal competition is a clever idea. Look at rallying, both Peugeot and Citroen competed for the same championship, but eventually Peugeot ended up retiring. Porsche is already a well estblsihed name, they prefer to enhance Audi's image now. And also Porsche has other better things to do, like the Panamera project.