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  Sportscars

A Group of Racers

The Racers Group had what you might call a fairly good 2002, including winning their class at the Le Mans 24 Hours. Kevin Buckler's Porsche 996 team did better than merely win their class at the opening sportscar race of the 2003 season. They won it outright.

"We never really wanted to think about (winning overall) because it seemed out of touch," said Buckler. "We knew we had a little shot at it, but that's all it was. We put our heads down and did what we do best. The guys do such a good job on the team. It all just worked perfectly."

The GT Class was theoretically the slowest of the four classes competing at The Rolex 24 at Daytona, with the other classes being the controversial Daytona Prototype class, SRPII (the class otherwise known as LMP675) and GTS. In the last three Daytona 24 Hours, the more fancied prototypes have been upset by Dodge Viper and Chevrolet Corvette entries from the GTS class. This time the GTS cars too were upset as much as the prototype classes, as GT cars filled the top three places.

Qualifying saw some strange results, as with the Daytona Prototypes being guaranteed the top grid spots, the fastest car in qualifying ended up in the seventh grid spot. Second generation sportscar racer Justin Bell took his Chevrolet Corvette around the banking in a time of 1:49.394. The Multimatic Ford driven by Scott Maxwell that took pole position was the third fastest car in qualfying with a 1:50.512.

With the race underway, Maxwell led the field away from the line, but soon the Fabcar-Porsche driven by David Donohue moved into the lead while the rest of the field was led by Anthony Puleo's Corvette who took up third behind the two DP cars, until one of the Moslers moved up into third.

At the end of the first hour the Brumos Motorsport Fabcar-Porsche still led the race, finally showing the pace the Daytona Prototypes hadn't shown in qualifying. The team's second car sat in third place for most of the first hour until the Bell family Corvette moved into third. Overheating would soon strike down the big Chevy and the lead of the GTS class briefly transferred to the RWS Porsche 996 until the Perspective Racing Mosler moved into the class lead.

Into the third hour and the GT cars were moving past the more fancied competitotrs, the RennWerks Motorsports Porsche 996 taking the lead in the third hour when the lead Fabcar pitted. It was temporary though as pitstops briefly dictated the running order. The Brumos Fabcar team ran 1-2 for the next few hours.

In the sixth hour the Saascha Maassen led Porsche had a suspension collapse and spun in the chicane. Damage was extensive and the debris caused a yellow flag period. Only one lap back under green and the yellows were back out after the second #67 Racers Group Porsche crashed into the spun and stationary #21 Lola-Nissan in a head-on collision.

In the next hour both Fabcar-Porsches hit engine problems leaving the Racers Group Porsche in the lead. With the #58 Fabcar retired, the #59 struggled on in second ahead of the Ris Competition Ferrari 360. Kelleners in the Ferrari lost a wheel in the seventh hour, giving third to the Rennwerks Porsche. The Fabcar closed on the Racers Group Porsche and traded the lead for a while before The Racers Group reasserted themselves, the Fabcar then struggling to keep second as they battled with the Rennwerks Porsche. Just past midnight the Fabcar with Scott Goodyear at the wheel finally recovered the ground it had lost and retook the lead as the Porsche pitted. A puncture would soon rob them of that lead and the prototype started slipping down the order from there.

The pole position winning Multimatic-Ford had moved into second place into the 17th hour and was lapping the fastest on the circuit. While the #66 car led, the #68 Racers Group Porsche joined its #67 sister in crash-induced retirement when it struck a barrier and flipped on to its side. A lengthy pitstop late in the 22nd hour dropped the Multimatic-Ford down the order and the Risi Ferrari moved into second. and so it stayed over the final two hours with the GT cars from Racers Group, Risi Competition and Rennwerks outlasting the prototpyes to take the podium positions.

The Multimatic topped the Daytona Prototype class in fourth ahead of the surviving Fabcar-Porsche. They were the only Daytona Prototype cars to finish. SRPII disappointed in terms of overall results with the Essex Racing team salvaging honour for the class with a 1-2 finish in class in seventh and eighth outright in their Nissan-powered Lolas. Archangel Motorsports Lola-Nissan was third in class and 18th outright.

Attrition decimated the highly fancied GTS class with the best of them over fifty laps behind the winner. Perspective Racing's Mosler MT900R took the class, just two laps ahead of the Corvette fielded by Morgan Dollar Motorsports. The Rollcentre Mosler, second four months ago at the Bathurst 24 Hour, was third in class and twelfth outright.

Result of Rolex 24 At Daytona, Daytona, Florida, USA:

Pos  Drivers                                   Car
 1.  Kevin Buckler/Michael Schrom/             Porsche 996 GT3-RS 
     Timo Bernhard/Jorg Bergmeister            (1st GT Class)     
 2.  Ralf Kelleners/Anthony Lazzaro/           Ferrari 360GT
     Johnny Mowlem
 3.  Johannes van Overbeck/Richard Steranka/   Porsche 996 GT3-RS
     Dave Standridge/David Murry
 4.  Scott Maxwell/David Brabham/              Multimatic-Ford 
     David Empringham                          (1st DP Class)
 5.  Hurley Haywood/JC France/                 Fabcar-Porsche
     Scott Goodyear/Scott Sharp
 6.  Marc Lieb/Leo Hindery/Kyle Petty/         Porsche 996 GT3-RS
     Peter Baron
 7.  Ross Bentley/Don Kitch/Joe Pruskowski/    Lola-Nissan 
     Justin Pruskowski                         (1st SRPII Class)
 8.  Wade Gaughran/Peter Macleod/              Lola-Nissan
     David Gaylord/Steven Gorriaran
 9.  Jerome Policand/Michael Neugarten/        Mosler MT900R Chevrolet 
     Andy Wallace/Joao Barbosa                 (1st GTS Class)    
10.  Charles Morgan/Rob Morgan/                Chevrolet Corvette
     Lance Norick/Jim Pace