Rolex 24 At Daytona hour three wrap up

Ferrari, Ford and Porsche – three famous names in international endurance racing – were running up front after three hours of the 39th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona Saturday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway. Holding the lead was the Risi Competizione Ferrari 333SP driven by Allen McNish, followed by Butch Leitzinger in the Dyson Ford and Bob Wollek in the Champion Porsche. Rounding out the top five were Max Papis in the second Dyson Ford and Irv Hoerr in the Robinson Racing Riley & Scott Judd.

The hour began with the third caution period for an incident involving the Cirtek Motorsports Porsche and Sezio Florida Racing Mader Norma. A brief rain shower quickly let off, with racing back to dry conditions. A pair of NASCAR Winston Cup regulars were at the wheel. Dale Earnhardt was running fourth in GTS and Kyle Petty ninth in GT. Class leaders after three hours were the No. 2 Corvette in GTS, No. 79 Team Sweden Nissan Lola in SRP II, JET Motorsports BMW M-3 in GT, and Team Amick Corvette in AGT. Retiring from the race was the Rocketsports Saleen S7R of two-time Trans-Am champion Paul Gentilozzi, with suspension damage. “We can repair it, but we’re here to win and you can’t win Daytona running 22 ½ hours.”

-DIS