Porsche Wins a Doube Header !!
 

The Rolex 24 at Daytona, Porsche wins both the Prototype and the GT classes!! :cheers:

Those last few hrs was intense specially the last 30 min. Great driving by both Donahue and Montoya. It was down to Porsche speed on the straights and Montoya's driving in the corners that made it such a close race. In the end it was the Legs of the Porsche that won the race.

Great race, really shows how good the race teams are. It looks like it's the first time that more than two cars (in this case four) were on the lead lap at the end of 2,600 miles/24 hours of racing. Team Brumos Porsche took 1st and 3rd and the fourth place car was only 7.5 sec behind the leader!! Incredible.

Makes me feel proud to be an owner. :cheers: Cheers teammates.

Haven't had a chance to watch the last few hours, but I did spend most of Saturday at the race. Snapped about 700 pics, only have been able to get through and post about a third of them. Here are some from after the sun went down:

2009 Rolex 24 hr at Daytona photo collection

One of the best races I've seen in a long time!!!! :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

Oh and to Kabel, thanks for the photos, I loved looking at them!

Too bad JPM had to cry about Porsche's "unfair advantage" at the post race interview. The Porsches ran 3.99 ltr sixes which were unrestricted to the TRD 5.0 ltr restricted. Everyone knew the rules before the race and chose their powerplants accordingly.

Bravo Brumos...though I am not a big fan of Grand AM (too Nascar like for me), I enjoyed watching the DPs and the GT3s (Cup cars, not even RSRs) run away from the competition.

Congrats to all the boys from Brumos and TRG for the Porsche sweep. Great racing, great wins. My home town boy (Kevin Roush) was leading the GT class for a long time but fell back at the end due to mechanical problems. They finished 6th in GT. Tough day for the teams with Ford motors :confused: .

Some compare the Rolex 24 to the Superbowl of auto racing, drawing drivers from every discipline. To win surely requires extraordinary organization, preparation, talent and luck.

Agree on both counts. Juan Pablo spoiled the memory of a great run at 1st place.

And the prototypes are just too ugly. And smell of NASCAR - even the JC France commercial with a NASCAR-type pit fight.

And it was good to see Brumos livery in the winners circle again.

I also had a problem with the coverage. Too much banter. It was like watching the race and having chit-chatters detract. A little is okay, but why not concentrate on battles for positions (not just for 1st), braking points, driving styles and pit strategy?

And the banners running constantly from first to last in several formats were too much. Give me top five in each class on a split screen when there is a change. And then run down the field every 20 or 30 minutes.

Agreed on all counts. Great race.

For those who wants to watch the ending on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD6W33__-Cs

^agreed. I had a chance to watch the last few hours of coverage and it really was lame, with, little to no GT coverage, and Montoya sheesh dude :rolleyes:

And while I was watching it i processed and posted a few more of my pics from saturday during the daytime (main link up a few posts).
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3133/...a70c2b1dcb.jpg

Yeah, Montoya... what a wuss. Closest Daytona 24 finish in history. Brumos Porsche just spent less time in the pits. :p

They tweak the rules every year in Grand AM to make the racing as even as possible but someone always comes out on top. Porsche definitely has an edge this year judging by the higher speeds on the straights. Last year it was Lexus, and Porsche got pounded. The year before it was Pontiac. Different cars just run better on different tracks. Daytona is a huge horsepower track and the highest speed on the straights usually wins if they can stay out of the pits. I look forward to racing on the more technical tracks in the series where team and driver account for more than horsepower.

Grand Am is my favorite series. Excellent GT racing and though the DP cars are goofy looking the teams and drivers are some of the best.

My wife & went Saturday - great weather and great racing! Anyone know how fast the prototypes run on the straights? We were watching the end on TV and the announcers never said what speed they were going - seemed to be 190 or so based on standing at the fence after the last turn toward the start/finish line.

Too bad they didn't put Hurley in the #58 car for at least one short stint. He's earned being in the winning car one more time. Hurley was looking fragile at the BrumosU school. I hated to see it. Like him, or not, he's been one hell of an endurance Porsche driver for nearly 40 years.
I can't wait to see Mike Colluci again. He's done a heck of a job with the team, including putting up with Snodgras for all those years!
I went over to the showroom first thing Monday morning. It was great to see something other than long faces for a change!
4 cars within 20 seconds after 24 hours? Unbelievable. All the yellow flags, or not, the lap times were nearly identical from the first hour to the last.
Great show!
I hope St. Petersburg GP is as good this year as the 06 and 07 races were. The support race Petite LeMans cars were a hoot in 07. Another great show if you can get there.

The Brumos guys say they can't quite hit 200. Close, but no banana. Their cars looked to be about as fast as any on the straight. The Penskes may have edged them, but the draft makes them all look better.