Quick Brake Work Makes Difference at Daytona

Were it not for some heavy traffic, the winning Nissan would have had no trouble at all in the Rolex 24-Hours sports car endurance race that ended Sunday.

“The only real problem we had in 24 hours of racing was when Scott Pruett got into a situation with somebody getting in his way and forced him into the grass,” said Paul Gentilozzi, who combined with Pruett, Butch Leitzinger and Steve Millen of New Zealand for the victory at Daytona International Speedway.

The incident caused a bent wheel and brake caliper that had to be changed every three or four hours. The crew was able to change the caliper and bleed the brakes in less than a minute.

That made it easy for the car, which led the final 14 hours 25 minutes, to handle the 63-car field that included eight of the new open-cockpit World Sports Cars, supposedly the new glamour machines of sports car racing.

Their best finish was ninth, with only three running at the end.

The winning car fought off early challenges to finish 24 laps plus 2 minutes 23.957 seconds ahead of a Porsche 911 Turbo, driven by Bob Wollek, Dominique Dupy and Juergen Barth.

The winning car covered 707 laps--2,516.92 miles--on the 3.56-mile road course that included two-thirds of the 2 1/2-mile, high-banked oval and a narrow, twisting infield section. The Nissan averaged 104.8 m.p.h.