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One-third of the way into the 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona..........
First, top-5 DP/GT standings............

1. 59 DP Brumos Racing Porsche Riley 247
2. 02 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 247 1.445
3. 16 DP Penske Racing Porsche Riley 247 2.094
4. 60 DP Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley 247 14.334
5. 77 DP Doran Racing Ford Dallara 247 34.104
15. 66 GT TRG Porsche GT3 236 11 Laps
16. 86 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Porsche GT3 235 12 Laps
17. 67 GT TRG Porsche GT3 234 13 Laps
18. 57 GT Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R 234 13 Laps
19. 33 GT Wright Motorsports Porsche GT3 233 14 Laps

Thoughts after 8 hours.............
---As expected, the Porsches continue to dominate the early running, with both the Brumos Racing and Penske Racing teams
---Meanwhile, over in the touring ranks, the battle continues btwn. The Racer's Group and Farnbacher Loles' Porsches for GT supremacy

Hour 9 Standings,
2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona

1. 02 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 278
2. 59 DP Brumos Racing Porsche Riley 278 15.641
3. 01 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 278 17.012
4. 16 DP Penske Racing Porsche Riley 278 27.630
5. 10 DP SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara 277 1 Lap
14. 66 GT TRG Porsche GT3 265 13 Laps
15. 86 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Porsche GT3 265 13 Laps
16. 67 GT TRG Porsche GT3 264 14 Laps
17. 57 GT Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R 263 15 Laps
18. 33 GT Wright Motorsports Porsche GT3 263 15 Laps

Hour 10 Standings,
2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona

1. 02 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 303
2. 10 DP SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara 303 8.214
3. 01 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 303 9.361
4. 16 DP Penske Racing Porsche Riley 303 1:01.362
5. 59 DP Brumos Racing Porsche Riley 303 3:13.501
14. 86 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Porsche GT3 288 15 Laps
15. 66 GT TRG Porsche GT3 288 15 Laps
16. 67 GT TRG Porsche GT3 287 16 Laps
17. 57 GT Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R 287 16 Laps
18. 33 GT Wright Motorsports Porsche GT3 286 17 Laps

Hour 11 Standings
2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona

1. 16 DP Penske Racing Porsche Riley 336
2. 02 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 336 5.712
3. 01 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 336 1:02.012
4. 10 DP SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara 336 1:32.741
5. 59 DP Brumos Racing Porsche Riley 336 1:42.730
10. 66 GT TRG Porsche GT3 318 18 Laps
11. 86 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Porsche GT3 317 19 Laps
12. 67 GT TRG Porsche GT3 317 19 Laps
13. 33 GT Wright Motorsports Porsche GT3 317 19 Laps
14. 57 GT Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R 316 20 Laps

At the halfway mark of the 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona
at the "World Center of Racing"

1. 10 DP SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara 361
2. 02 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 361 0.949
3. 59 DP Brumos Racing Porsche Riley 361 4.080
4. 01 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 361 8.194
5. 58 DP Brumos Racing Porsche Riley 361 28.925
9. 86 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Porsche GT3 344 17 Laps
10. 67 GT TRG Porsche GT3 343 18 Laps
11. 66 GT TRG Porsche GT3 342 19 Laps
12. 57 GT Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R 341 20 Laps
13. 33 GT Wright Motorsports Porsche GT3 341 20 Laps

(quoting from multiple sources......................)
~~~~SunTrust Racing holds the lead after 12 hours of attrition and incidents in the 47th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The field had just returned to green flag racing after the 12th caution in the twice-around-the-clock enduro with Pedro Lamy holding the overall top position in the team's Ford Dallara. Two of the early leaders are still close at hand with Alex Lloyd holding the No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley in second followed by Hurley Haywood in the No. 59 Porsche Riley belonging to the Brumos Racing team that has been the team to beat for speed during the time trails leading up to the race.

The leading GT team sits ninth overall with Kevin Roush in the Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Porsche GT3 with a one lap advantage to their closest rivals from The Racer's Group contingent. Andy Lally holds the TRG No. 67 Porsche GT3 in second with teammate Richard Lietz in the No. 66 sitting third.

13 Hours into the
2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona

1. 16 DP Penske Racing Porsche Riley 398
2. 58 DP Brumos Racing Porsche Riley 398 1.551
3. 10 DP SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara 398 3.507
4. 01 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 398 4.591
5. 02 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 398 5.541
8. 86 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Porsche GT3 380 18 Laps
9. 67 GT TRG Porsche GT3 379 19 Laps
10. 66 GT TRG Porsche GT3 378 20 Laps
11. 07 GT Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R 375 23 Laps
12. 88 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Porsche GT3 375 23 Laps

Hour 14 Standings,
2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona

1. 16 DP Penske Racing Porsche Riley 420
2. 58 DP Brumos Racing Porsche Riley 420 1.000
3. 02 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 420 6.481
4. 01 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 420 9.200
5. 59 DP Brumos Racing Porsche Riley 420 9.560
8. 86 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Porsche GT3 402 18 Laps
9. 67 GT TRG Porsche GT3 402 18 Laps
10. 66 GT TRG Porsche GT3 401 19 Laps
11. 07 GT Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R 398 22 Laps
12. 88 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Porsche GT3 398 22 Laps


Thoughts at the 14-hour mark.............
----(Mod's note)It's a good thing I got a few days off coming up from work........something tells me staying up the whole night will require a lot of sleep.........
----Where are some of the frontrunners................
=#99 Gainsco Pontiac/Riley, 13th overall(DP-13)
=#57 Stevenson Mtrspts. Pontiac GXP-R, 15th overall(GT-7)
=#70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8, 28th overall(GT-12)

15 Hour Report............
note.......there's a Ford joke in here somewhere....see if you can find it!

~~~~Leading the Rolex 24 at the 15-hour mark are Timo Bernhard in the No. 16 Penske Racing Porsche Riley, Antonio Garcia in the No. 58 Brumos Porsche Riley, Joao Barbosa in the No. 59 Brumos Porsche Riley, and Scott Pruett in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley.

Running in sixth place, the last car on the lead lap, is Scott Dixon in the No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley.

The No. SunTrust car is one of only two remaining Ford Daytona Prototypes still running. Both Michael Shank Racing Fords, both Krohn Racing Fords, and the AIM Autosport Ford all have retired as a result of a similar electronic sensor issue. In this case F-O-R-D really does stand for Found On Road Dead.

The other Ford prototype still running is the No. 77 Doran Racing Dallara, currently in seventh place, eight laps off the pace.


Top-5 DP/GT standings....................
1. 16 DP Penske Racing Porsche Riley 448
2. 58 DP Brumos Racing Porsche Riley 448 0.827
3. 59 DP Brumos Racing Porsche Riley 448 1.141
4. 01 DP Chip Ganassi Racing w/F.Sabate Lexus Riley 448 1.418
5. 10 DP SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara 448 1.749
8. 67 GT TRG Porsche GT3 429 19 Laps
9. 86 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Porsche GT3 429 19 Laps
10. 66 GT TRG Porsche GT3 429 19 Laps
11. 07 GT Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R 426 22 Laps
13. 88 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Porsche GT3 425 23 Laps

[part 2.................]

(Mod's note.......apologies for not updating the Rolex 24 results past Hour 15............. )

~~~~(quoting from multiple sources)
Forty years after his father, the late Mark Donohue, drove to victory lane in the 1969 24 Hours of Daytona, David Donohue equaled that feat, crossing the finish line 0.167 seconds ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya to win the 47th running of the longest and most prestigious event in North America.

"I don't know what to say," Donohue exclaimed while celebrating in victory lane. "These guys put such an incredible effort. I know Bob Snodgrass is looking down on us smiling."

A contender from the start, Donohue's pole-sitting Porsche Riley, which he shared with Darren Law, Buddy Rice, and Antonio Garcia, was never too far from the race lead. When the Penske Racing Porsche Riley ran into difficulties late Sunday morning, the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race essentially became a two-way dice between the No. 58 Brumos entry and the No. 01 Lexus Riley driven by Montoya, Scott Pruett, and Memo Rojas. Seven hours later, the contest culminated in a rousing 50-minute duel between Donohue and Montoya that began when Donohue took over for Garcia during the race's final round of pit stops.

Capitalizing on the Ganassi car's superior handling on the tight infield portions of the Daytona International Speedway's 3.56-mile, 14-turn road course, Montoya was able to hold off Donohue for several laps after the race went green again. But eventually the straight-line speed of the Porsche engine in the Brumos car was too much for Montoya, and Donohue was able to wrest the lead from him with about 40 minutes to go. Montoya managed to keep Donohue in sight, closing to the Porsche's gearbox several times in the infield. But the Colombian was never able to get close enough to take a serious shot at the lead, though the margin of victory was the closest in the history of the race.

"We tested for like 3,000 miles here," said Donohue after his fourth Daytona Prototype victory and his first since Mont-Tremblant in 2003. "And we brought a real good package here. There's no doubt we had good top-end (speed). But you really had to know how to use it. That's why it wasn't so easy. Juan protected a lot and I had to plan (my pass) and seize the opportunity when it surfaced."

(...continued on next post)

(.....continuing from previous post)
Montoya said he was in a difficult position as well because he knew he did not have enough power to keep up with the Porsche on Daytona's long straight-aways. "I was actually surprised we came close to the win. On every stint, the Brumos and Penske (Porsche) cars would just drive away from us on the straights. I drove my butt off. I knew if I got any traffic (in the chicane on the backstretch) that I was done; and I did and I was done. They just kept driving off from me - even when I was in the draft."

"We gave 110% and it was a little better than we expected," added Pruett. "It is a little frustrating when guys just drive by you; it just never seems right. Hopefully, everything will get evened out."

Donohue was not impressed with the comments regarding his Porsche's speed. "We came here ready to run hard and we ran hard the whole time. The point of running hard the whole time was to win the . . . race."

As for comparisons with his father, Donohue said he was very proud of his father's accomplishments but that this win was more important to him for what it meant to his team, which had not won a Rolex Series race in several years.

The winning Brumos quartet led 254 of the race's 735 laps, including the last 25 circuits. This was the first Brumos win in the 24 Hours of Daytona since 1991, when it teamed up with Joest Racing.

The second Brumos entry, piloted by Joao Barbosa, JC France, Hurley Haywood, and Terry Borcheller, finished third, 5.504 seconds behind the winners and just over five seconds ahead of the SunTrust Racing Ford Riley shared by Max Angelelli, Brian Frisselle, Pedro Lamy, and Wayne Taylor.

The SunTrust team's performance was significant because the other six Ford-powered Daytona Prototypes in the 49-car field failed to finish the race. Five of them retired early due to the same engine component failure. The failures apparently stemmed from a faulty engine part that was manufactured by a third-party supplier and not by Ford. Both Krohn Racing Lolas, both Michael Shank Racing Rileys, and the AIM Autosport Riley were affected by the problem, which would have taken too long to fix, according to David Brown, the team manager at Krohn Racing. A sixth Ford, the Dallara of Doran Racing, which ran inside the top-10 for most of the race, lost fuel pressure early Sunday morning and retired shortly thereafter

The second Ganassi entry, shared by Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, and Alex Lloyd, rounded out the top-five, four laps down to the winners. That car led 82 laps over the course of the race but lost time to the leaders during the 19th hour, when the car's nose flew off, sending Dixon, last year's Indy 500 winner and IndyCar champion, to the pits for a new front end. By that time it was too late for the team to make up the distance it had lost to the leaders.

A lengthy stop in the 18th hour to replace the car's rear-end assembly dropped the Penske Racing Porsche Riley to sixth overall, 18 laps down to the winners. It was the only major setback for the Penske squad, which led for 191 laps. Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard will contest the rest of the Rolex Series schedule in the Penske car.

Unscheduled stops to fix a broken gear cluster in the transmission in the fourth hour and to replace the car's rear end assembly during the 11th hour relegated last year's runner up, the Gainsco Pontiac Riley, to a seventh- place finish; 21 laps arrears of the winners.

The new Childress-Howard Motorsports Pontiac Crawford ended up eighth, 33 laps behind the winners, in the hands of Andy Wallace, Danica Patrick, Casey Mears, and Rob Finlay. Electrical issues slowed the brand-new team throughout the event. Wallace and Finlay will contest the entire Rolex Series season in this new Crawford.

The No. 55 Level 5 Motorsports BMW Riley and the No. 13 Beyer Racing Pontiac Riley finished ninth and 10th, respectively, in the Daytona Prototype division.

The BMW Rileys of Allegra Motorsports and Orbit Racing also failed to finish because of crashes.

The race featured a record 25 cautions for a total of 117 laps. Nine cars took turns in the overall lead and there were 51 overall lead changes among 53 drivers.

The Rolex Series will return to the track April 25 at the bucolic Virginia International Raceway.

Rolex 24 Post-Script.......
The winning No. 58 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley was found to be out of compliance for minimum vehicle weight in post-race technical inspection. The car was found to be 12 pounds underweight. The team was fined $5,000 in addition to five driver, team and manufacturer points. This will not affect the race results.