Wayne Taylor, Scott Sharp, and Jim Pace Win 24 Hour in Daytona

02/05/96

ESPNET reported on the victory of an American team at Saturday and Sunday's IMSA sanctioned Rolex 24 at the Daytona International Speedway. Wayne Taylor, Scott Sharp and Jim Pace drove their Oldsmobile R&S Mark III to victory, winning the closest race to the finish in the Daytona race's history.

Overall winners Taylor, Sharp and Pace prevailed in a last ditch rush for the finish-line winning by a minute and five seconds--the margin of victory was 21 seconds closer than the previous record for closest race which was set in 1989.Sunday's finish marked the third time in the race's history that first and second place finishers were on the same lap.

Taylor was challenged in the final 9 minutes of the 24 hour race by Max Papis in a Ferrari. Papis and the rest of the MOMO/Yokohama Team (Moretti, Wollek, and Theys) started the race in pole position but placed second in the World Sports Car class; Jim Downing, Butch Hamlet, Tim McAdam and Barry Waddell drove their Mazda to place third in the WSC.

The GTS-1 class was won by Irv Hoerr (defending champion), Darin Brassfield and Rob Morgan, driving an Oldsmobile Aurora. Second place in the class went to Peru's Eduardo and Juan Dibos who drove a Ford Mustang; Almo Coppelli and Rocky Agusta of Milan, Italy placed 3rd in a Chevrolet Callaway Corvette.

Lilian Bryner, Enzo Calderari, Ferdinand de Lesseps, and Ulrich Richter (3 time Daytona title winner) won the GTS-2 class in their Porsche 911. They finished third overall, tying the record time for any GTS-2 car in the event's history. Raimist and Doolin, also driving a Porsche 911, placed second in GTS-2; David Donohue, John Paul Junior, Javier Quiros and Bill Adams took third in their BMW M3.

Check out a Summary of top 10 finishers in all categories.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel