Grand Am Rolex 24 After Six Hours

The first four hours of the Grand Am Rolewx 24 were the domain of the Grand Am stars. The next several hours were the time for stars from other series to shine.

Raphael Matos was the big news of the fourth hour of the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway as he took the Brumos Porsche into the lead. Raphael Matos, who races in the Indy Racing League and also won the GT class at the 2008 Rolex 24, maintained a two-second lead over NASCAR and former IndyCar star Juan Pablo Montoya in the 02 Telmex Ganassi BMW-Riley, who had a two-and-a-half second cushion over Le Mans vet Lucas Luhr in the 95 Crown Royal NPN BMW-Riley, who was three-and-a-half-seconds ahead of Memo Rojas in the 01 Telmex Ganassi.

In GT, the story was all TRG Porsche. Romain Dumas and Andy Lally in the TRG Porsche GT3s and Johannes van Overbeek in the TRG/ Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche GT3 raced nose-to-tail around the track until five-hour mark, when the Lally car developed a misfire. Their nearest competitors were a lap down, so TRG and Porsche were not exceedingly worried.

Into the fifth hour, Matos and Montoya fought hard for the lead, the gap cut to half a second.

Shortly after the five-hour mark, rain started falling briefly, adding more drama to the plot.

Fifth-place Scot Tucker in the 55 Crown Royal NPN BMW-Riley caught up to Memo Rojas, trailing by less than half a second.

Five Hours in and the Racing is Intense

Into the sixth hour, Matos and Montoya continued their battle, with Montoya searching hard for a way around in the infield, while Matos seemed to have an edge on the banking. At times the gap was down to a tenth of a second.

At five-and-a-half hours, Jan Magnussen in the Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R passed the ailing Porsche of Andy Lally to take third in class, and set off after Johannes van Overbeek in the Flying Lizard Porsche (shades of ALMS.)

A few minutes later, Emil Assentato in the 69 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 went off and slammed the tires, bringing out the seventh caution.

On lap 164, the race went green and within a lap the 21 Matt Connolly Motorsports Porsche of Jim Briody spun hard into the Armco, just missing the tire barrier, bringing out the eighth caution.

The running order at the yellow was Jimmy Vasser in the 99 Gainsco car, Lucas Luhr, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Dalziel in the Action Express Racing Porsche-Riley, Tracy Krohn in the Krohn Ford-Lola, and AJ Allmendinger in the 66 Shank car.

The yellows suited the SunTrust car, which went off and broke a splitter leaving the pits. After going a few laps down trying to fix a broken antenna, the SunTrust Racing Ford-Dallara which started on the pole, was now five laps down.

On the restart, Juan Pablo Montoya fought past Lucas Luhr. Ryan Dalziel was under pressure from AJ Allmendinger, with Scott Tucker right behind.

In GT Robin Liddell in the Stevenson Motorsports Camaro took the lead over Tim George who replaced Romain Dumas in the TRG Porsche and Seth Nieman who had replaced Overbeek in the TRG/Flying Lizard Porsche. Jonathan Bomarito in the remaining SpeedSource Mazda RX-8was fourth in class, a lap down.

Six Hours Gone

At the six-hour mark, Paul Menard in the Spirit of Daytona Racing Coyote-Porsche spun coming onto the Horseshoe, and got T-boned by Dion von Moltke in the Starworks Motorsport BMW-Riley. Von Moltke had nowhere to go, and tore the nose off the Coyote, while also damaging the front and rear of the BMW-Riley. This brought out the ninth full-course yellow.

On lap 177, the green flag waved, and Juan Pablo Montoya made another good start. AJ Allmendinger pushed past Ryan Dalziel coming off the banking onto the infield, with Scott Tucker and Memo Rojas filling out the top five.

Ozwaldo Negri was flying in the SunTrust Ford-Dallara, trying to get back on the lead lap.

In GT the order remained Robin Liddell in the Stevenson Motorsports Camaro, Tim George in the TRG Porsche, Seth Nieman in the TRG/Flying Lizard Porsche and Jonathan Bomarito in the SpeedSource Mazda RX-8.

Juan Pablo Montoya set fastest lap of the race right after the restart, working hard to stay ahead of Allmendinger.

By the six-hour mark, the track was drying, and mostly dry on the racing line; temperatures were cool, the drivers were fast, and the racing was intense.

But the Rolex 24 is an endurance race. Cars can lose laps and make them up. Cars can break, crash, wear out. Drivers and crews get tired; mistakes are made.

Six hours into a 24 hour race, no one’s position matters. The last now could be first. Though the race had already provided six hours of intense action, the race had barley started.