SAMAX - Rolex 24 18h

The No. 17 SAMAX Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car is still in the hunt for a top-10 GT finish in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, but the team's No. 11 Tuttle Team Racing/SAMAX Riley was out of the race after 16 hours.

The No. 17 Porsche was pushing for a class podium finish with stints from Johnny Mowlem, David Shep and Bryan Sellers. The charge was stopped when Sellers was cut off in traffic and had contact with another car, damaging the car's center radiator. The crew quickly replace the radiator, but dropped back to eighth at 18h. Boris Said reported the No. 11 Riley was losing power during his last stint in hour 14. Kyle Petty took over at 15h38, but rapidly lost oil pressure and the team decided to retire from the race.

Dr. Steve Bunkhall (No. 11 engineer): " The engine was losing oil pressure and clearly we had to stop before it failed. Over the last hour, Boris reported that he was losing speed. It's frustrating because he said that when he was running with the quicker cars, the car handled great and he could beat them under braking, but we were just losing out on top speed. The guys have worked so fantastically hard to get this car ready and come here at all, and so hard during the last 16 hours to keep it running, it's just a shame it's finished this way."

class race position
car        start        6h        12h        18h
11           26          12         14           out
17            9           11           4              8
71          13            9          out

race report
car        time         driver                      action
11         11h20      Tuttle in                 [addition to previous report]
             12h35                                       spin; pit - tires, fuel, oil
             12h57       Said in                   pit - driver change, tires, fuel
             13h5                                         contact - lost deck lid, right rear tire puncture
                                                                garage - broken brake line, bodywork damage
             14h49                                       pit - tires, fuel
             15h38       Petty in                   pit - driver change, tires, fuel
             15h40                                       garage - oil pressure problem, out of race

17        13h22       Mowlem in             pit - driver change, tires, fuel, brake pad change
             14h29                                        fuel
             15h28       Shep in                   pit - driver change, tires, fuel
             15h48       Sellers in               pit - driver change, tires, fuel
             16h49                                       contact; garage - replaced center radiator
             17h19       Arnold in                pit - driver change, tires, fuel, back on track