Daytona 24-hours

ENDURANCE RACES often provide surprising results, and at Daytona (Florida) on February 3rd/4th the 24-Hour event which opened the 1973 World Championship for Makes was won by a Porsche 911 Carrera driven by Americans Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood. Due for Group 4 homologation in March, two prototype Carreras were supplied by the factory to Gregg/Haywood and to Roger Penske’s team, and Mark Donohue/George Follmer were duelling for the lead after 14 hours when a piston broke. Only four good prototypes took part (pictured below): the Gulf-Mirages were fast but had serious clutch problems, the Matra-Simca retired with engine trouble when leading after nine hours, and a Lola T282 with electrical trouble. Second overall and winner of the Grand Touring category (bottom picture) was the NART Ferrari Daytona driven by Milt Minter/Francois Migault, being overtaken by the Barber/Kemp Chevron B19 which later retired.