David Donohue, from Malvern, Penn., driving the #58 Red Bull Brumos Porsche Riley, qualified fourth overall and first among the Porsche Daytona Prototypes for Saturday’s 45th running of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.
Donohue, whose father, the late Mark Donohue, won this race in 1969, is only one-tenth of a second off the pole, putting the car in great grid position for him and his co-drivers, 2004 Indy 500 champion Buddy Rice, 1996 IRL IndyCar Series co-champion Scott Sharp, and his season-long co-driver Darren Law.
“While the starting position in a 24-hour race is not that important, this position helps minimize the possibility of being entangled in a first-lap incident, and is a great boost for the Brumos Porsche crew, which has worked very hard to find the speed that we had today, ” said Donohue, whose was part of the Oreca Viper team that won the Rolex 24 in 2000.
Other Porsche DP’s that qualified in the top ten included the Ruby Tuesday Alex Job Racing Porsche Crawford entry, which factory driver Patrick Long put in the eighth grid position for his co-drivers, who include defending DP champion Jorg Bergmeister and fellow Porsche factory driverRomain Dumas. Tenth was Porsche factory driver Timo Bernhard—an overall winner in 2003 with Bergmeister - who will co-drive the No. 47 TruSpeed Motorsport Porsche Riley with past Rolex 24 class winners Rob and Charles Morgan.
In the Rolex GT class, four-time Porsche Supercup champion Patrick Huisman, from the Netherlands, put his Synergy Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup on the pole by fourth-tenths of a second to lead a qualifying session that seven of the top ten cars bearing the Porsche crest. Huisman will share the cockpit with former New England Patriot tight end Steve Johnson, defending Porsche Supercup champion Richard Westbrook and newly-named Porsche factory driver Richard Lietz.
“We were a little late getting the car out onto the grid, so there as a lot of traffic entering the track for qualifying. We decided to wait a little for a clear track, and then we went out and ran our fast lap. It was not a perfect lap, however, so I feel there is even more speed in the Synergy Porsche,? said Huisman, who won the very competitive Porsche Supercup series from 1997 - 2000.
Second was the Tafel Racing Porsche qualified by Wolf Henzler for his co-drivers Dominik Farnbacher, 2005 Rolex GT winner, Eric Lux, last year’s Daytona Grand-Am Cup victor, and Jim Tafel, the team owner.
Porsches have won the Florida classic overall 20 times, the most recent victory being scored by The Racers Group Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in 2003. Porsche competitors have scored 60 class wins - dozens more than the nearest competitor - and 35 of those wins have been in 911-based race cars. Two winning streaks that may never be broken include a 12-year overall consecutive win period from 1977 - 1988, and a 22-year streak from 1966 - 1988 where Porsche scored either a class or overall win.
