24 Hours of Daytona : Defending Champions Move Out to a Lap Lead

Chip Robinson, teamed with defending champions Derek Bell of England and Al Unser Jr. in a Porsche 962 GT Prototype, moved out to a lead of almost a full lap as the Sunday portion of the Daytona 24-Hours sports car endurance race began.

Still solidly in the hunt nine hours into the race at Daytona International Speedway was the Porsche of A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Danny Sullivan.

The younger Unser, an Indy-car star, was at the wheel of his team’s car when it beat Sullivan out onto the 3.56-mile, 11-turn circuit after routine pit stops on lap 166, about 5 1/2 hours into the race.

Sullivan had inherited the lead from the Porsche 962 of West Germans Jochen Mass and Klaus Ludwig and American Bruce Leven during the fifth hour.

The leaders completed 280 laps in the first nine hours, averaging 112.229 m.p.h.

The Leven car, which Mass put on the pole position in qualifying Thursday, led most of the first five hours before being sent for a long stay in the pits by a collision with a slower car.

Ludwig was at the wheel with a two-lap lead over Sullivan when he attempted a routine pass of a group of slower cars on the banked portion of the Daytona speedway. But one of the slower cars slid up the banking and whacked Ludwig, badly damaging the suspension and underside of the car.

The crew, working frantically, finally sent the Porsche back onto the track, 25 laps behind. Two laps later, it was retired from the race because of “a bad vibration.”

The Chevrolet Corvette GTP of Sarel van der Merwe of South Africa and Doc Bundy overcame some early suspension problems to move up to third, four laps behind the leader at the end of eight hours. But, as midnight approached, the car developed an engine problem, went into the pits and never returned.