24 Hours of Daytona : Jaguars Finish First, Third to End Porsche Domination
A Jaguar co-driven by John Nielsen of Denmark, Raul Boesel of Brazil and Martin Brundle of England survived a series of problems early in the race and came back Sunday to end the 11-year domination of Porsche in the 24 Hours of Daytona.
“We had a lot of problems, but had them very early on and we had time to come back,” said Nielsen, who was in the Jaguar XJR-9 prototype when it crossed the finish line at Daytona International Speedway.
The winning car had fallen eight laps behind the leaders after 12 hours, but came back to challenge for the lead by the 18th hour.
The Jaguar held off a late challenge from the Porsche 962 prototype of pole-winner Mauro Baldi of Italy and two-time Daytona winners Brian Redman of England and Bob Wollek of France.
The second-place car wound up with its right-side door missing. It had been damaged in an off-course excursion and fell off late in the race.
The German-built Porsches had won seven straight Daytona 24-Hour races, and cars powered by Porsche engines had won 11 in a row in America’s premier sports car endurance event and the season-opener in the International Motor Sports Assn. Camel GT series.
But the British-made Jaguars came up with a first and third in their first American appearance.
Nielsen was at the wheel when the winning car took the checkered flag after 728 laps, covering 2,591.68 miles on the 3.56-mile road course.
The winners averaged 107.943 m.p.h., pulling away in the last hour to beat the second-place car by one full lap and 54.5 seconds, nearly a second lap.
The second-place Porsche led as late as lap 654, about 2 1/2 hours from the end of the race. But, when Wollek made a routine pit stop, the Jaguar went ahead to stay.
The Porsche 962 of defending champions Al Holbert, Chip Robinson and Englishman Derek Bell also made a strong effort, leading numerous times during the first 18 hours. But, after losing 23 minutes and seven laps in the pits because of a turbocharger problem, the car retired with just under two hours left when its engine quit while Bell was running third.
That ended the hopes of Holbert and Bell for an unprecedented fifth consecutive 24-hour victory. The two had co-driven to two straight wins here and at LeMans.
“It just broke,” Holbert said of his car, which finished seventh. The Jaguar of American-born Eddie Cheever, John Watson of Northern Ireland and Englishman Johnny Dumfries, which also led several times, took third despite nursing a sick engine over the last few hours of the race.
