Holbert’s Team Rallies in 24 Hours of Daytona

The team of Al Holbert, Derek Bell and Al Unser Jr., driving a Porsche 962 Prototype, erased deficits of up to 35 laps on the way to victory Sunday in the Sunbank Daytona 24-Hours sports car endurance race.

“Lord, am I surprised,” said Holbert, who finally added America’s most prestigious endurance event to his long list of victories, including the 24 Hours of LeMans.

“We were so far out of it,” he added. “But we had perseverance and the other guys had their troubles and we just kept after it.

They fell far behind in the morning hours Sunday at Daytona International Speedway because of a broken throttle linkage and a suspension problem.

A.J. Foyt, Danny Sullivan and Arie Luyendyk finished second, less than a lap behind in what was the closest finish in the 24 years of the 24-hour event at Daytona.

The winners, all first-time winners in this event, made up a six-lap deficit with less than two hours remaining in the attrition-filled race.

Englishman Derek Warwick, Jochen Mass of West Germany, Darrin Brassfield and Jim Busby also led early but also made several long pit stops because of mechanical problems.

The Foyt car, which once led by as much as 14 laps, had long stops for a broken brake line and a broken turbocharger controller, while the Warwick car made a series of stops because of rear-end problems, all in the morning hours.

After both those cars had gotten back to racing, Foyt was in the lead, with Mass falling back to third, behind Bell.

Sullivan was leading by eight laps when he pitted with just under two hours remaining for repairs to a sticking throttle.

Foyt, 51, who won here in 1983 and 1985, was back in the car and trying to protect the lead when he drove out of the pits 10 minutes later and just about three miles ahead of the Holbert car on the 3.56-mile road course.

Holbert, the defending International Motor Sports Assn. Camel GT champion, kept the pressure on Foyt as the latter made quick pit stops each of the next two times around the track for turbocharger boost adjustments.

Holbert finally drove past Foyt in the first turn of the 662nd lap, just 85 minutes from the end of the race, which began at 3:30 p.m. EST Saturday.

It was the first time the Holbert entry had led since the 214th lap, which came in the eighth hour. And it was easy the rest of the way as Foyt continued to have problems with the sticking throttle and wound up second, just ahead of the Mass-Warwick-Brassfield-Busby car.

The winners covered 2,534.72 miles, completing 712 laps at an average speed of 105.484 m.p.h. All three of those figures were race records, breaking the marks of 2,502.68 miles, 703 laps and 104.162 m.p.h. set last year by Foyt, Frenchman Bob Wollek, Thierry Boutsen of Belgium and Al Unser Sr.

The winners earned $45,000, as they beat the second-place car by 1 minute, 49.150 seconds.

Porsches or cars powered by Porsche engines now have won this race 10 straight times and 12 of the last 13. All have been pure-bred German-built race cars, except for the Porsche-powered March that won in 1984. Only 17 of 65 starters were running at the end of the race.

Bell, a four-time winner of the LeMans 24 Hours, had finished second in this race four times.