Daytona 24 Hours 1979

Sketch of the Daytona International Speedway, the race was held on the combined oval and street course

The 17th Daytona 24 Hour Race , also the 17th Annual 24 Hour Pepsi Challenge, Daytona International Speedway , took place on February 3 and 4, 1979 at Daytona International Speedway and was the first race of the World Sports Car Championship of that year. At the same time, the race was the first round of the IMSA GTO and GTU championship in 1979.

The race

The organizer received 84 entries for the first sports car world championship run of the season. Finally, on the afternoon of February 3, 68 racing cars of the GTX, GTO and GTU classes started the race. From the pole position went Martino Finotto into the race. The Italian achieved a time of 1: 46.113 minutes on his fastest lap in practice on his Porsche 935 .

After 24 hours of racing time, the three US racing drivers Ted Field , Danny Ongais and Hurley Haywood were waved off as winners.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	GTX	0	Interscope Racing	Ted Field Danny Ongais Hurley Haywood	Porsche 935/79	684
2	GTO	65	Modena Sports Cars	John Morton Tony Adamowicz	Ferrari 365 GTB / 4 Competizione	635
3	GTX	11	Bruce Canepa	Bruce Canepa Rick Mears Monte Shelton	Porsche 935	627
4th	GTX	94	Whittington Bros. Racing	Don Whittington Bill Whittington Jürgen Barth	Porsche 935/79	622
5	GTU	7th	Mazda Technical Center	Yoshimi Katayama Yōjirō Terada Takashi Yorino	Mazda RX-7	617
6th	GTU	77	Mazda Technical Center	Walt Drilling Amos Johnson Roger Mandeville	Mazda RX-7	615
7th	GTU	60	EJ Pruitt & Sons	Rusty Bond Ren Tilton	Porsche 911 S.	612
8th	GTO	54	Montura Ranch Estates	Tony Garcia Juan Montalvo Alberto Vadia	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	587
9	GTO	98	Van Every Racing	Lance Van Every Ash Tisdelle Robert Overby	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	579
10	GTO	03	Lubrifilm Racing	Angelo Pallavicini Enzo Calderari Marco Vanoli	Porsche 934	577
11	GTU	75	Mike Ramirez	Mike Ramirez Manuel Villa Luis Gordillo	Porsche 911	560
12	GTO	37	Botero Racing	Honorato Espinosa Francisco López Jorge Cortes	Porsche 911 Carrera RS	551
13	GTU	33	Peter Welter	Peter Welter Richard Aten Jack Refenning	Porsche 911	550
14th	GTO	58	Diego Febles Racing	Diego Febles Phil Currin	Porsche 911 Carrera RS	543
15th	GTX	5	Budweiser Racing	Charles Mendez Johnny Rutherford Paul Miller	Porsche 935	529
16	GTU	27	Miami Auto Racing	Ray Mummery Tom Sheehy Luis Sereix	Porsche 911 S.	522
17th	GTU	62	Koll Motorsports	Bill Koll Jim Cook	Porsche 914/6	511
18th	GTO	95	Stephen E. Bond	Stephen Bond Philip Then	Chevrolet Monza	509
19th	GTO	21st	Oftedahl Racing	John Wood Tom Bagley Carl Shafer	Chevrolet Camaro	493
20th	GTU	42	Bullwinkele Racing, Inc.	Tom Ashby Bill Bean Bob Beasley	Porsche 911	493
21st	GTU	08	Southern Racing Ent.	Terry Wolters Nort Northam Richard Weiss	Porsche 911 S.	488
22nd	GTU	34	Drolsom Racing	George Drolsom Mark Greb John Maffucci	Porsche 911	482
23	GTO	64	Lenton B. McGill	CC Canada Russ Boykin Tom Ciccone	Chevrolet Camaro	458
24	GTU	61	Faza Squadra	Al Cosentino Dick Starita Taku Akaike	Mazda RX-3	444
25th	GTU	8th	Automobiles International Inc.	Anatoly Arutunoff José Marina Danny Sullivan	Lancia Stratos HF	439
26th	GTX	6th	Dick Barbour Racing	Dick Barbour Brian Redman Paul Newman	Porsche 935 / 77A	410
27	GTO	80	Herb Adams	Herb Adams Peter Frey Louis Spoerl	Pontiac Firebird	408
28	GTU	17th	Racing beat	Jim Mederer Don Sherman Jeff Kline	Mazda RX-7	393
29	GTO	93	Whittington Bros. Racing	Dale Whittington Don Whittington Preston Henn	Porsche 934	389
30th	GTU	71	Bill Scott Racing	Bill Scott Mark Hutchins Pierre Honegger	Porsche 911	388
31	GTU	40	Performance specialists	Steve Southard William Cook Earl Roe	Porsche 914/6	385
32	GTX	1	Gelo Racing Team	Bob Wollek Jacky Ickx Peter Gregg	Porsche 935 / 77A	342
33	GTO	69	Bytzek Automotive	Klaus Bytzek Rudy Bartling Ludwig Heimrath senior	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	335
34	GTO	29	Stratagraph Inc.	Billy Hagan Hoyt Overbagh Ron Reed	Chevrolet Monza	331
35	GTU	89	Hamilton House Racing	Joseph Hamilton Rob Hoskins Herb Forrest	Porsche 911 S.	329
36	GTO	51	Casablanca Fan Co.	Robert Kirby John Hotchkis Howard Meister	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	328
37	GTO	15th	Bavarian Motors International	Alf Gebhardt Sepp Grinbold	BMW 3.5 CSL	299
38	GTO	81	Performance export	Ernesto Soto Francisco Romero Oscar Notz	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	241
39	GTU	01	DR Racing	Dave White J. Kurt Roehrig John Hamilton	Porsche 911	223
40	GTX	13	Hal Shaw Racing	Hal Shaw, Jr. Tom Spalding Norm Ridgely	Porsche 935	222
41	GTU	36	Case Racing	Ron Case Dave Panaccione	Porsche 911	210
42	GTX	53	Guy Thomas	Guy Thomas Milton Moise Tom Nehl	Chevrolet Camaro	201
43	GTO	06	Al Levenson	Al Levenson Gary Baker Lanny Hester	Chevrolet Corvette	197
44	GTX	23	Charlie Kemp	Charlie Kemp Carson Baird Kees Nierop	Ford Mustang II Cobra	168
45	GTX	3	Jolly Club - sports car racing team	Martino Finotto Carlo Facetti Giampiero Moretti	Porsche 935	164
46	GTX	4th	LM Joest Porsche	Reinhold Joest Rolf Stommelen Volkert Merl	Porsche 935 / 77A	162
47	GTO	90	Bob's Speed ​​Products	Rick Kump Bob Lee Sam Miller	AMC AMX	156
48	GTO	12	Oftedahl Racing	Gerry Wellik Tom Bagley Joe Chamberlain	Chevrolet Camaro	147
49	GTO	56	Peerless Racing	Craig Carter Murray Edwards Richard Valentine	Chevrolet Camaro	144
50	GTX	2	Gelo Racing Team	Manfred Schurti John Fitzpatrick Bob Wollek	Porsche 935 / 77A	135
51	GTU	57	John Tremblay	John Tremblay Bob Lapp	Datsun 240Z	118
52	GTX	9	Dick Barbour Racing	Bob Akin Rob McFarlin Roy Woods	Porsche 935	117
53	GTX	66	JMS Racing-Pozzi	Jean-Claude Andruet Spartaco Dini Claude Ballot-Léna	Ferrari 512 BB / LM	103
54	GTX	67	JMS Racing-Pozzi	Claude Ballot-Léna Michel Leclère Jean-Claude Andruet	Ferrari 512 BB / LM	101
55	GTX	24	Graham Shaw	Graham Shaw Don Yenko Jerry Thompson	Chevrolet Monza	86
56	GTO	38	Boricua Racing	Bonky Fernandez Chiqui Soldevilla Tato Ferrer	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	73
57	GTX	68	NART	Bob Tullius Jean-Pierre Delaunay Pat Bedard	Ferrari 512 BB / LM	72
58	GTX	43	Meldeau Tire Co.	Bill McDill Stephen Behr	Chevrolet Camaro	59
59	GTO	46	Mauricio de Narváez	Mauricio de Narváez Albert Naon Pedro DeNarvaez	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	46
60	GTO	07	Budweiser Racing	Dave Cowart David McClain Kenper Miller	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	35
61	GTX	00	Interscope Racing	Preston Henn Ted Field Danny Ongais	Porsche 935 / 77A	29
62	GTX	14th	Bavarian Motors International	Steve Griswold Steve Earle Rick Knoop	BMW 3.0 CSL	25th
63	GTU	96	Gary Wonzer	Gary Wonzer Robert Whitaker George Van Arsdale	Triumph GT6	20th
64	GTU	48	Frank L. Leary, III	Frank Leary Casey Mollett Steve Cook	Datsun 240Z	13
65	GTX	18th	JLP Racing	John Paul Al Holbert Michael Keyser	Porsche 935 JLP-1	12
66	GTU	79	Sports Ltd. Racing	Bob Bergstrom Brad Frisselle	Mazda RX-7	9
67	GTX	73	Howey Farms	Clark Howey Dale Cook Tracy Wolf	Chevrolet Camaro	4th
Not started
68	GTU	63	Faza Squadra	Al Cosentino Craig Fisher	Mazda RX-3	1
69	GTU	78	Associated Speed ​​& Performance	Ken Williams Wiley Doran Neil Upchurch	Datsun 240Z	2
70	GTU	T	Mazda Technical Center	Yoshimi Katayama Yojiro Terada Takashi Yorino Walt Drilling Jim Downing Roger Mandeville	Mazda RX-7	3

¹ not started ² not started ³ training car

Only in the entry list

Here you will find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race but did not take part for a variety of reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis
71	GTO	04	Rick Thompkins	Rick Thompkins Dave Heinz Tom Cochran	Chevrolet Corvette
72		05	Cliff thank god	Cliff Thank God Danny Terrill	Chevrolet Corvette
73	GTU	20th	DiLella Racing	Vince DiLella Manuel Cueto Jose Fernandez	Porsche 914/6
74	GTO	22nd	Dale Kreider Racing	Dale Kreider Bruce Davidson	Chevrolet Corvette
75		25th	Larry Parker	Robert LaMay Larry Parker	Ford Mustang II
76	GTU	31	Hiram Cruz	Hiram Cruz Juan López Mandy Gonzalez	Porsche 911
77		35	Luis Botero	Pedro DeNarvaez Luis Botero Henning Buff	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR
78	GTU	44	Sud Porsche Racing	Kent Murry George Van Arsdale Richard Weiss	Porsche 911
79	GTU	45	Paul Cloutier	Jan Chudziak Paul Cloutier Lou Timolat	Mazda RX-3
80	GTU	83	Zotz Garage Inc.	Harro Zitza John Belperche Doug Zitza	Porsche 914/6
81	GTU	85	John E. Hulen	John Hulen Ron Coupland Bob Speakman	Porsche 914/6
82	GTX	86	Tom Ross Racin	Tom Ross William Kull James Southard	Ford Pinto
83		87	U-Mo Racing	Charles Gano Earle Moffitt Robert Uiterwyk	Chevrolet Corvette
84	GTU	88	DAY Enterprise Racing	Dave Yerger Dario Orlando Tony Cassata	Alfa Romeo GTV

Class winner

class	driver	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
GTX	Ted Field	Danny Ongais	Hurley Haywood	Porsche 935/79	Overall victory
GTO	John Morton	Tony Adamowicz		Ferrari 365 GTB / 4 Competizione	Rank 2
GTU	Yoshimi Katayama	Yojiro Terada	Takashi Yorino	Mazda RX-7	Rank 5

Racing data

• Registered: 84
• Started: 67
• Scoring: unknown
• Race classes: 3
• Spectator: unknown
• Race day weather: cold and dry
• Route length: 6.180 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 24:00: 24.870 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 884
• Total distance of the winning team: 4227.039 km
• Winner's average: 176.077 km / h
• Pole position: Martino Finotto - Porsche 935 (# 3) - 1: 46.113 = 253.776 km / h
• Fastest race lap: Peter Gregg - Porsche 935 / 77A (# 1) - 1: 49.447 = 203.217 km / h
• Racing series: 1st round of the 1979 World Sports Car Championship
• Racing series: 1st round of the IMSA GT series 1979

literature

• Peter Higham: The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing. A complete Reference from Formula 1 to Touring Car. Guinness Publishing Ltd., London 1995, ISBN 0-85112-642-1 .

Web links

• Race results at wspr

Previous race 6 Hours of Road Atlanta 1978

Sports car world championship

Successor to the 12-hour race at Sebring 1979