Dyson Wins Second Rolex 24

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 31, 1999 / 5:36 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

A Riley & Scott Mark III, co-driven by team-owner Rob Dyson, splashed to victory with Butch Leitzinger behind the wheel Sunday in the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.

Also taking their turns - and enduring the worst of the weather - were Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Englishman Andy Wallace.

After a warm, sunny start to the twice-round-the-clock event on Saturday, rain developed overnight. As Leitzinger drove it to the finish, water pelted into the open-cockpit of the red, white and blue Can-Am car.

"Elliott and Andy took the most treacherous moments when the rain was coming down really hard, and I was able to just get in and ease it to the end," Leitzinger said as the entire Dyson team celebrated around him, hugging and high-fiving in victory lane.

Leitzinger was able to cruise through the final two hours with a two-lap lead over the runner-up Ferrari 333SP of Max Angelelli of Italy, Allan McNish of Scotland, Wayne Taylor of South Africa and Didier de Radigues of Belgium. The official margin was one lap plus 1 minute, 55.69 seconds.

The winners covered 708 laps - 2,520.48 miles - on the 3.56-mile, 11-turn road course. They averaged 104.9 mph.

"It was a hard race," said Forbes-Robinson, like Wallace a three-time winner in the Rolex 24. "We had competition the whole way.

"We had to keep after it the whole time, and the weather conditions were certainly not the best. Fortunately, we were able to keep out of most of the trouble."

The only mechanical problems the winners had through the grueling event were a broken alternator that cost them four laps in the pits during the first four hours of the race and losing radio communications after the rain began Sunday morning.

"The worst pressure was driving without a radio," Wallace said. "The water got to the radio, so I didn't know how fast I was going or how fast everybody else was going. I just had to look at what other cars were doing and decide when it was a good time to come in and get rid of the wet tires."

Forbes-Robinson said there also was a problem with rubber building up on the car's foot pedals.

"They were sticking, so if you gave it a hard throttle, it just stayed on," he said. "You had to stick the clutch in to stop the slide. That can get pretty busy. But the car was working so well, it was a pleasure to drive."

Of course, driving in the rain in an open-cockpit car was no pleasure.

"I just hate the rain," Forbes-Robinson said. "There was so much water, it was pouring into my lap and onto the radio."

It was the second victory in three years for Dyson's team in the premier sports car race in the United States. In fact, all four winning drivers were part of the winning team in 1997, when an Indianapolis-built Riley & Scott Ford won for the first time.

The other Dyson car, shared by pole-winner James Weaver o England, Stuart Hayner, Dorsey Schroeder and Dyson, led several times in the early going and was out front until the sixth hour.

Then, it collided with a slower car in the chicane on the backstretch. That sent the car to the pits for more than an hour and ended its shot at the victory.

But, eventually, the car returned to competition, and Dyson was on the track at the end, finishing 22nd, 115 laps behind on the 3.56-mile, 11-turn road circuit.

A Can-Am class Ferrari shared by CART stars Jimmy Vasser and Max Papis, former Formula One driver Stefan Johansson and owner Jim Matthews led several times in the first half of the race. But they wound up third, trailing the winners across the finish line by 14 laps.

Fourth, five more laps back, was another Ferrari, this one driven by Enzo Calderari, Angelo Zadra, Carl Rosenblad and Lilian Bryner, one of only three women in the 77-car field.

The fifth-place car, finishing just 643 laps, was another Can-Am Ferrari, co-driven by Henry Camferdam, Duncan Dayton, Eliseo Salazar and Scott Schubot.

A Porsche 911, the winning GT3 class entry, co-driven by Cort Wagner, Kelly Collins, Anthony Lazzaro and Darryl Havens finished sixth overall. Next came the GT2 class winner, another Porsche 911, with Andre Ahrle, Hubert Haupt and David Warnock driving.

There were 15 full-course caution flags for a total of 176 minutes. That kept the Chevrolet Corvette pace car so busy that at one point on Saturday night, United States Road Racing Championship officials had to use a backup pace car while the primary went to the gas pumps.

But, even with all the early traffic and the spate of yellows, there were no serious crashes in the 37th Rolex 24, the official beginning of Daytona's Speed Weeks, which will peak on Feb. 14 with the Daytona 500.