Sports
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
ROLEX 24 HRS AT DAYTONA 2015
Rolex 24 hrs Daytona 2015
USPA NEWS -
Team Ganassi first across the finish line this past week-end at Daytona with Kanaan, McMurry and Larson behind the wheel of a quick and reliable Riley/Ford.
Chip Ganassi Racing claimed a sixth victory in the Daytona 24 Hours after a thrilling race.
Chip Ganassi Racing claimed a sixth victory in the Daytona 24 Hours after a thrilling race.
Dixon took the lead from Jordan Taylor during the pit stops and ran with the Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara-Chevrolet glued to his gas pedal through the next stint.
Another faster turnaround at the final stops gave Dixon a four second cushion that looked like enough to give the Kiwi a second Daytona victory.
A final yellow flag with 20 minutes to go could have opened up the race, but Taylor was forced to pit to hand over to team-mate and brother Ricky in order to avoid a penalty given to a driver for spending more than four hours behind the wheel in any six-hour period.
Another faster turnaround at the final stops gave Dixon a four second cushion that looked like enough to give the Kiwi a second Daytona victory.
A final yellow flag with 20 minutes to go could have opened up the race, but Taylor was forced to pit to hand over to team-mate and brother Ricky in order to avoid a penalty given to a driver for spending more than four hours behind the wheel in any six-hour period.
The WTR car, in which Max Angelelli joined the Taylor brothers, lost any chance of second place after it was forced to take a drive-through penalty for entering the pit-lane when the pits were closed, leaving it more than a minute down in third place.
The Action Express car came back from sitting three laps down after being stranded out on the circuit without fuel pressure, the result of an issue with an electrical connector, but ultimately didn't have the pace to challenge over the closing stages.
Fourth place went to the Spirit of Daytona Coyote-Chevrolet in which Richard Westbrook, Michael Valiente and Mike Rockenfeller were handicapped by electrical problems throughout the race.
The Action Express car came back from sitting three laps down after being stranded out on the circuit without fuel pressure, the result of an issue with an electrical connector, but ultimately didn't have the pace to challenge over the closing stages.
Fourth place went to the Spirit of Daytona Coyote-Chevrolet in which Richard Westbrook, Michael Valiente and Mike Rockenfeller were handicapped by electrical problems throughout the race.
GT Le Mans honours went to the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R shared by Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Ryan Briscoe.
Garcia saw his 30s lead over the chasing Rahal BMW Z4 GTE of Dirk Werner disappear with the final yellow but managed to hold on to claim the win from the car Werner shared with Bill Auberlen, Augusto Farfus Jr and Bruno Spengler.
The BMW had been leading before the penultimate round of stops when a misthreaded wheel cost the car half a minute.
The second Chevrolet, which had started on class pole with Oliver Gavin, was in the hunt for victory for much of the race until Tommy Milner suffered bodywork damage Sunday morning.
Garcia saw his 30s lead over the chasing Rahal BMW Z4 GTE of Dirk Werner disappear with the final yellow but managed to hold on to claim the win from the car Werner shared with Bill Auberlen, Augusto Farfus Jr and Bruno Spengler.
The BMW had been leading before the penultimate round of stops when a misthreaded wheel cost the car half a minute.
The second Chevrolet, which had started on class pole with Oliver Gavin, was in the hunt for victory for much of the race until Tommy Milner suffered bodywork damage Sunday morning.
The PR1/Mathiasen team claimed Prototype Challenge with Tom Kimber-Smith, Andrew Palmer, Mike Gausch and Andrew Novick after the leading CORE Autosport entry was crashed out by Colin Braun with 20 minutes to go.
The Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R of Ben Keating, Kuno Wittmer, Dominik Farnbacher, Al Carter and Cameron Lawrence took the GT Daytona class victory in front of the Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America of Shane van Gisbergen, Leh Keen, Andrew Davis and Cooper MacNeil.
The Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R of Ben Keating, Kuno Wittmer, Dominik Farnbacher, Al Carter and Cameron Lawrence took the GT Daytona class victory in front of the Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America of Shane van Gisbergen, Leh Keen, Andrew Davis and Cooper MacNeil.
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