Porsche Takes Win in Nail-Biting Rolex Daytona 24

Brumos Porsche driver David Donahue won the Rolex Daytona 24 by less than two-tenths of a second.

David Donohue takes the checkered flag at the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway on January 25, 2009. Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

David Donohue, driver of the #58 Brumos Porsche Porsche Riley drives during the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway on January 25, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

FLORIDA—The Rolex 24 At Daytona Grand-Am sports car race is one of the world’s premier endurance races, and this year’s race showed why: after twenty-two hours of high-speed racing, less than six seconds separated the top four cars. Instead of a grueling test of endurance, the race ended as a flat-out two-hour sprint.

In the end, Brumos Porsche driver David Donahue went pole-to-flag, beating the second-place Ganassi Telmex Lexus Riley of Juan Pablo Montoya by 0.167seconds. Donahue’s win came on the fortieth anniversary of the pole-to-pole victory of his late father, racing legend Mark Donahue. Brumos had not won at Daytona since 1978.

The Rolex Daytona 24 hour race is run on a 3.56-mile road course using some of the Daytona Speedway banked oval, where cars reach nearly 200 mph. This year 52 cars, 20 Daytona Prototypes and 32 GT cars, took the flag for the 47^th running of the Rolex Daytona 24.

The Telmex-Target Ganassi team won the last three Daytona 24s, and was trying for a fourth. Driver Pablo Montoya held a perfect record at Daytona, three victories in three years. The car qualified sixth.

David Donahue took the pole with a record-setting fastest time of 1:40.968, besting Penske Porsche driver Timo Berhard by a mere .001 seconds.

Winner David Donahue completed a record-setting 735 laps, with a record number of cars finishing on the lead lap. There were also a record number of yellow flags, 25, accounting for 100 laps under caution.