MSR bag maiden Daytona 24H victory

Michael Shank Racing held on to score its maiden Daytona 24 Hours victory on Sunday after coming home just over five seconds clear of the Starworks Motorsport squad.

AJ Allmendinger, Ozz Negri, John Pew and Justin Wilson, making his first competitive start since fracturing vertebrae in an IndyCar practice accident six months ago, combined to give the #60 Ford Riley victory after 761 laps.

Their biggest challengers came in the form of pole-sitters Allan McNish, Lucas Luhr, Alex Popow, Enzo Potolicchio and Ryan Daziel who threatened to set-up a tight finish in the closing stages after a flurry of caution periods bunched the field.

MSR’s excellent weekend was completed by British F3 champion Felipe Nasr, Jorge Goncalvez, Michael McDowell and Gustavo Yacaman who bought the #6 sister machine home third.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s expected challenge was halted during the night when its #02 BMW Riley suffered a broken gear lever. Despite the setback Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya clawed back three laps to finish fourth, just one down on the podium trio.

Last year’s race winning Ganassi BMW Riley showed strong pace but was hobbled with gearbox issues during the closing hours, leaving the #01 car to come home sixth behind the #5 Action Express Corvette.

GT class qualifying suggested the race would be an ultra-tight affair and so it proved with the top five all finishing on the lead lap. Ultimately it was the #44 Magnus Racing Porsche of Andy Lally, Richard Lietz, John Potter and Rene Rast that prevailed ahead of the similar #67 TRG and #59 Brumos Porsches.

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Tom Hornsby