Engine Engine No. 9: Action Express Tops Rolex 24

January 31st, 2010

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Some teams have tried for years to win the Rolex 24 At Daytona and never made it victory lane at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

But the first time was certainly the charm for the Action Express Racing team headed by former Brumos Racing affiliate Bob Johnson. Drivers Joao Barbosa, Terry Borcheller, Mike Rockenfeller and Ryan Dalziel celebrated victory in the 48th annual endurance classic with other former members of the Brumos team now working on the No. 9 Porsche Riley.

The Porsche engine in the machine was not sanctioned by Porsche and was built by the Lozano brothers. It originated from the Porsche Cayenne design.

“This is amazing. I can’t even begin to describe it. Twenty-four hours is a long time, but the last 15 minutes could be longer. We have a great team and they work through problems with expertise,” said Johnson, with less than a quarter-hour remaining in the 24-hour grind.

It was the first time a Porsche-powered machine had won in back to back seasons since 1986 and 1987. Brumos Racing claimed the Daytona victory in 2009.

Borcheller was the only one of the four drivers that has previously won the Rolex 24 overall.

The team dominated the final third of the event its very first race despite little sponsorship and an untested car, which qualified eighth in the Daytona Prototype field. The team , with Barbosa taking the checkered flag, completed the most laps (755) in the twice-around the clock event, which began in the rain, during the Daytona Prototype era.

“Winning overall is a great compliment to the whole crew. They did an amazing job. They never quit. We didn’t have the fastest car when we arrived here, but they turned it around and it was very consistent,” said Barbosa, who had previously posted a class victory at Daytona.

The team took the lead on Sunday morning after leader Justin Wilson radioed his Chip Ganassi Racing crew that his No. 01 Riley-BMW had blown up. However, after Wilson brought the car to the pits, the team found no major problems and sent Wilson back on to the 3.56-mile road course.

But the damage was done, as Wilson returned to the track in second place, behind the No. 9 Action Express machine.

While the Ganassi team with Wilson, Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Max Papis at the wheel finished on the lead lap (50.49 seconds behind the winner), the final several hours of the race was run without a caution flag and the Ganassi team was unable to run down the winners.

Third place in the Daytona Prototype division went to the No. 95 NPM Motorsports Riley-BMW shared by Lucas Luhr, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Christophe Bouchet, Scott Tucker and Richard Westbrook.

In the GT class, the Speed Source (Mazda RX-8) team took advantage of the misfortune of many of its rivals and rallied from being several laps down to take the victory with team owner Sylvain Tremblay, David Haskell, Nick Ham and Jonathan Bomarito claiming the victory.

“The amount of work that goes into this, I cannot even fathom it,” said Bomarito, who won the race for the first time.

“I can’t even put it into words,” said an emotional Haskell, who was fighting back the tears.

It was the second Daytona triumph for the Speed Source team in the past three years.

Second in GT was the No. 67 Porsche co-entered by The Racer’s Group and Flying Lizard Motorsports for drivers Jorg Bergmeister, Patrick Long, Seth Neiman and Johannes van Overbeek.