Ford Smokes Daytona Competition
Motor sports
Butch Leitzinger heard every sound, felt every vibration as the clock ticked through the last hour of the Rolex 24-Hours sports car endurance race in Daytona Beach, Fla.
The winning car, a Ford Riley & Scott MK III, led the last 8 hours but began belching white smoke with about 55 minutes to go.
“They were telling me it was smoking, but the mirrors were shaking so much I couldn’t see it,” said Leitzinger, who dropped to a slower pace and babied the car home. “It was probably for the best because if I could have seen it, I’d have probably turned to jelly.”
Seven drivers took turns in the winning car in America’s premier twice-around-the-clock event. Dyson Racing’s lead quartet of James Weaver and Wallace, both from England, John Paul Jr. and Leitzinger began the race Saturday in an almost identical car, which led for 5 hours in the early going.
They lost the lead in the eighth hour and saw their race ended 60 minutes later by an engine failure.
When the foursome looked around, the car co-driven to that point by team-owner Rob Dyson, Elliott Forbes-Robinson and John Schneider was cruising in sixth place, six laps behind the Oldsmobile R&S MK III of defending champions Wayne Taylor, Scott Sharp and Jim Pace and Eric Van de Poele.
The pole-winning Ferrari of Fermin Velez of Spain, the father-son duel of Charles and Rob Morgan and car-owner Andy Evans earned its second consecutive runner-up finish in the Rolex 24-Hours.
The winners covered 690 laps and 2,456.4 miles on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course, finishing 1 lap and 14.891 seconds ahead of the Ferrari 333SP.
The second straight Americanmade car and engine combination to win this event averaged 102.292 mph.
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