Jones, Moran, Dismore Win at Daytona

A Toyota Eagle prototype co-driven by P.J. Jones, Rocky Moran and Mark Dismore won the Rolex 24-Hour sports car endurance race at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday.

The four-cylinder-powered car, known more for its sprinting ability than its endurance, started from the pole and led numerous times, battling another Dan Gurney All American Racers Eagle in the early hours, then a Jaguar and finally a Nissan.

They set a relentless pace that almost ended their own chances.

“We didn’t know how to approach the race,” said Gurney, a former driving great who in 1962 won the first sports car endurance race at Daytona. “So we just said, ‘Let’s go and race and see what happens.’ ”

The winners overcame Dismore’s brush with the wall in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, a 76-minute pit stop at mid-morning to replace the gearbox and the rear end and several shorter non-routine stops to replace brake pads.

The winners, despite all of their problems, covered 698 laps and 2,484.88 miles and averaged 103.543 m.p.h.

Second, 10 laps behind the winners, was a GTS-division Ford Mustang co-driven by Tommy Kendall, Mark Martin, Wally Dallenbach, Robby Gordon and Robbie Buhl.