Cars Trade Lead as Halfway Point Nears in 24-Hour Race at Daytona

A Jaguar and a Toyota were locked in a tense battle as Saturday night became Sunday morning in the 24-Hour race at Daytona International Speedway.

The Jaguar prototype, co-driven by Davy Jones, Scott Goodyear and Scott Pruett, took the lead Saturday night in the ninth hour of the IMSA Camel GT season-opener, but the Toyota Eagle of pole-winner P.J. Jones, Rocky Moran and Mark Dismore, regained the top spot early in the 10th hour.

The Toyota, which had been either first or second for the entire race, gave up the lead to the Jaguar while in the pits at 11:39 p.m. EST.

The two leaders had been running less than a lap apart on the 3.56-mile road circuit for nearly two hours before the Toyota came in for a routine pit stop, but wound up staying in longer than usual because the crew had problems fitting a new nose onto the car.

Pruett, an IndyCar driver, was in the Jaguar when it took the lead and found himself about half a lap ahead of the Toyota when Dismore drove it out of the pits.

Minutes later, Pruett made a scheduled stop, giving the lead back to Dismore.

The leader had covered 370 laps and 1,317 miles by midnight--just past nine hours into the twice-around-the-clock event.

The race, which ends today at noon, began under overcast skies with temperatures in the low 60s. The National Weather Service forecast included a 50% chance of rain overnight.