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GRAND-AM
GRAND-AM: 50 Years Of Rolex 24, 1993
Dan Gurney's team soars to victory, sets Daytona qualifying record...
Dan Gurney's Toyota Eagles, pictured here at Miami, were lightning fast on the high banks of Daytona. (Photo: LAT)
Dan Gurney went down in the record books as the winner of the first major sports car race at Daytona International Speedway when he won the 1962 Daytona Continental – the event that grew into the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
The American motorsports icon is also proud of the fact that, as a team owner, one of his Eagles posted the fastest sports car lap in the history of Daytona International Speedway, when P.J. Jones rocketed to the pole for the 1993 Rolex 24 with a lap of 136.520 mph – a record that stands today.
Both of Gurney's record-breaking cars will return to Daytona for the 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 in January. The Arciero Racing No. 96 Lotus-Climax 19B that rolled to victory in the inaugural event as well as the No. 98 Toyota Eagle fielded by Gurney's All American Racers Toyota team that captured the 1993 Rolex 24.
Jones was joined by Rocky Moran and Mark Dismore in winning the 1993 event, kicking off a standout season that saw the Gurney Eagles win every race they entered.
Jones, the son of racing legend Parnelli Jones, shattered teammate Juan Manuel Fangio's year-old record by two seconds in qualifying in the No. 98 Eagle Mk III. Fangio qualified second, co-driving with Andy Wallace and Ken Acheson in the No. 99 Toyota Eagle.
Other significant entries included a trio of TWR Jaguars, a handful of Porsche 962s and a Nissan NPTI-90 fielded by Kevin Doran, who made his debut as a car owner in the event.
While the others struggled, the two Eagles pulled away. Four hours into the event, the No. 99 pitted with electrical problems, beginning a series of issues that led to an early retirement.
The last of the TWR Jaguars – driven by Scott Pruett, Davy Jones and Scott Goodyear – battled throughout the night with the remaining Eagle. Then, in the early morning hours, both cars had problems.
Pruett pulled off course with transmission problems, and the future DP star did repair work to the shift linkage to get the car back in action. Six minutes later, Dismore pitted the Toyota, with Gurney's team spending one hour, 16 minutes replacing the transmission, and the team fell to third, 30 laps behind the lead Jaguar, which was battling Doran's Nissan driven by Gianpiero Moretti, Derek Bell, John Paul Jr. and Massimo Sigala.
With two hours remaining, though, the race came back to the Toyota as both the Jaguar and Nissan went out with engine problems. Gurney's team cruised to victory, leading the final 96 minutes.
"We came here with not very high expectations," Gurney said. "We intended to race and see what would happen. I thought our engine was our weakest link, but our engine people said to run it hard. We ran hard so they had to keep up with us. It was the right move."
Pruett won the Group C category for his fourth Rolex 24 class triumph. His first overall victory was a year away. Moretti – who nearly won with Doran their first time out – had to wait until 1998 for his first victory. In GTS, Jack Roush saw his team win for the ninth straight year, with Tommy Kendall, Wally Dallenbach, Robbie Gordon and Robbie Buhl finishing second overall in a Ford Mustang, 10 laps behind the winning Toyota.
Gurney's All American Racers went on to ring down the curtain on GTP competition by winning every race they entered in 1993, with Jones and Fangio placing 1-2 in the final IMSA Camel GTP championship.
The American motorsports icon is also proud of the fact that, as a team owner, one of his Eagles posted the fastest sports car lap in the history of Daytona International Speedway, when P.J. Jones rocketed to the pole for the 1993 Rolex 24 with a lap of 136.520 mph – a record that stands today.
Both of Gurney's record-breaking cars will return to Daytona for the 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 in January. The Arciero Racing No. 96 Lotus-Climax 19B that rolled to victory in the inaugural event as well as the No. 98 Toyota Eagle fielded by Gurney's All American Racers Toyota team that captured the 1993 Rolex 24.
Jones was joined by Rocky Moran and Mark Dismore in winning the 1993 event, kicking off a standout season that saw the Gurney Eagles win every race they entered.
Jones, the son of racing legend Parnelli Jones, shattered teammate Juan Manuel Fangio's year-old record by two seconds in qualifying in the No. 98 Eagle Mk III. Fangio qualified second, co-driving with Andy Wallace and Ken Acheson in the No. 99 Toyota Eagle.
Other significant entries included a trio of TWR Jaguars, a handful of Porsche 962s and a Nissan NPTI-90 fielded by Kevin Doran, who made his debut as a car owner in the event.
While the others struggled, the two Eagles pulled away. Four hours into the event, the No. 99 pitted with electrical problems, beginning a series of issues that led to an early retirement.
The last of the TWR Jaguars – driven by Scott Pruett, Davy Jones and Scott Goodyear – battled throughout the night with the remaining Eagle. Then, in the early morning hours, both cars had problems.
Pruett pulled off course with transmission problems, and the future DP star did repair work to the shift linkage to get the car back in action. Six minutes later, Dismore pitted the Toyota, with Gurney's team spending one hour, 16 minutes replacing the transmission, and the team fell to third, 30 laps behind the lead Jaguar, which was battling Doran's Nissan driven by Gianpiero Moretti, Derek Bell, John Paul Jr. and Massimo Sigala.
With two hours remaining, though, the race came back to the Toyota as both the Jaguar and Nissan went out with engine problems. Gurney's team cruised to victory, leading the final 96 minutes.
"We came here with not very high expectations," Gurney said. "We intended to race and see what would happen. I thought our engine was our weakest link, but our engine people said to run it hard. We ran hard so they had to keep up with us. It was the right move."
Pruett won the Group C category for his fourth Rolex 24 class triumph. His first overall victory was a year away. Moretti – who nearly won with Doran their first time out – had to wait until 1998 for his first victory. In GTS, Jack Roush saw his team win for the ninth straight year, with Tommy Kendall, Wally Dallenbach, Robbie Gordon and Robbie Buhl finishing second overall in a Ford Mustang, 10 laps behind the winning Toyota.
Gurney's All American Racers went on to ring down the curtain on GTP competition by winning every race they entered in 1993, with Jones and Fangio placing 1-2 in the final IMSA Camel GTP championship.
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