Juan-Pablo Montoya’s return to the American racing scene saw the Colombian post victory in the Daytona 24-hours at the Florida circuit on Sunday the 28th of January. The Colombian, who shared his Lexus Riley with Scott Pruett and Salvador Duran, will return to Daytona in three weeks for the Daytona 500, the first race of his NASCAR career with the Chip Ganassi Racing team.
The result puts Montoya in exclusive company having won the Indy 500, Champ Car title and Daytona 24-hours, all at the first attempt and all with Chip Ganassi Racing. “It was tough,” said the Colombian. “The first 20 hours you don’t know who you are racing against. You don’t want to get into any fights with anyone because you don’t know whether or not they are going to be there at the end. My last stint I had five hours to go, and I had to push like crazy. Everyone drove well, but we had a little more pace in the car.”
Montoya’s former Formula One contemporaries doubted that he would complete the 24 hours, but he was the bedrock of the driving line-up, posting competitive lap times throughout his stints behind the wheel even when the Florida weather turned to its worst. The flooded flat sections of the track and the dry banking posed their own challenges but Montoya, the CGR team and the car ran faultlessly to record victory by little more than a minute from Darren Manning, Ryan Dalziel, Patrick Carpentier and Milka Duno in the Citgo Racing car.
The Citgo team traded the lead with CGR from the ninth hour, and on Sunday morning less than a second separated Dalziel, leading, from third placed Max Angelelli. The Italian was sharing with four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon, Jan Magnussen and Wayne Taylor, but a brake problem in the final hour dropped the car back to third position, two laps off the winners.
Marc Basseng led the Alegra Motorsport Porsche team to victory in the GT class, sharing the Porsche with Scooter Gabel, Carlos de Quesada, and Jean-Francois Dumoulin. The car suffered from an overheating problem in the closing stages of the race but held on to win by seven seconds. The Ferrari 360 Modena retired from the race in the fourth hour with Andrea Montermini behind the wheel.
The result puts Montoya in exclusive company having won the Indy 500, Champ Car title and Daytona 24-hours, all at the first attempt and all with Chip Ganassi Racing. “It was tough,” said the Colombian. “The first 20 hours you don’t know who you are racing against. You don’t want to get into any fights with anyone because you don’t know whether or not they are going to be there at the end. My last stint I had five hours to go, and I had to push like crazy. Everyone drove well, but we had a little more pace in the car.”
Montoya’s former Formula One contemporaries doubted that he would complete the 24 hours, but he was the bedrock of the driving line-up, posting competitive lap times throughout his stints behind the wheel even when the Florida weather turned to its worst. The flooded flat sections of the track and the dry banking posed their own challenges but Montoya, the CGR team and the car ran faultlessly to record victory by little more than a minute from Darren Manning, Ryan Dalziel, Patrick Carpentier and Milka Duno in the Citgo Racing car.
The Citgo team traded the lead with CGR from the ninth hour, and on Sunday morning less than a second separated Dalziel, leading, from third placed Max Angelelli. The Italian was sharing with four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon, Jan Magnussen and Wayne Taylor, but a brake problem in the final hour dropped the car back to third position, two laps off the winners.
Marc Basseng led the Alegra Motorsport Porsche team to victory in the GT class, sharing the Porsche with Scooter Gabel, Carlos de Quesada, and Jean-Francois Dumoulin. The car suffered from an overheating problem in the closing stages of the race but held on to win by seven seconds. The Ferrari 360 Modena retired from the race in the fourth hour with Andrea Montermini behind the wheel.
