A Porsche parade

It was the first year that the 24 Hours of Daytona were to be run as part of the IMSA Camel GT Challenge and the entry list for the race displayed 50 cars. The practice sessions had been dominated by John Greenwood Super Vette who did "only" 1m55s223 to establish himself as the polesitter. It was 3s slower than his record lap during the 1974 IMSA Finale. Following the Corvette were the two Works BMW who were running their first ever IMSA race and brought a welcome addition to the usual field. Behind those cars, you could find Maurice Carter-Gene Felton Camaro followed by Al Holbert-Elliot Forbes Robinson on the first Porsche Carrera, then Juan Carlos Bolanos-Michel Jourdain who had received a welcome additional driver as Hans Heyer put this car in sixth position, just ahead Peter Gregg-Hurley Haywood and Hector Rebaque-Guillermo Rojas-Fred van Beuren similar car. Plenty of action was to be awaited from that race. At the start, as expected, John Greenwood pulled away, trailing the two BMWs driven by Ronnie Peterson and Sam Posey leading the quintet Holbert-Gregg-Carter-de Lorenzo-Thompson, all swapping places and providing the fans with some great racing actions. The Ferrari Boxer driven by Claude Ballot Léna would come back to the pits after the pace-lap to retire from the race. John Greenwood easily maintained his pace, Peterson was 28s and Posey 50s down after one hour when Peterson pitted in a hurry : the engine had blown. Vince Muzzin took the wheel of the leading car, after its second refueling pitstop, and Sam Posey took briefly the lead of the race. Muzzin would take back the lead but for a short period as the car began overheating. Many pitstops after changing the radiator, they would find out what caused so much trouble was a heat-escape valve, a part that would be replaced in two minutes. The BMW took the lead and began to dominate the race and had built up a three lap lead over the Holbert-Forbes Robinson Porsche. Earlier in the race, Peter Gregg had collided with Guillermo Rojas Porsche and lost fifteen minutes to repair his car. He was now pushing hard and despite some bodywork damage, was coming back to a leading position. The BMW driven by Sam Posey was always in the lead but had to stop, definitively at 12.45 am. The American cars no longer any threat to the German cars, the Porsches would fight together for overall victory. Al Holbert-Elliot Forbes Robinson became the new race leaders. They would hold their position for a few hours, before experiencing transmission trouble. At the halfway mark, they led the race with a four laps lead over Peter Gregg-Hurley Haywood. The gap between the two cars would soon be nullified as a thick fog was to slow down nearly every racer. At 6h15 am, Hurley Haywood, not to be slowed so much by this fog, took the lead of the race, definitively. It was done the easy way as Holbert's Porsche was quietly getting into more and more trouble. The transmission was getting worse and slowed the car who was losing ground. As they tried to nurse the car to the chequered, Al Holbert and Elliot Forbes Robinson were overtaken by six more cars to finish eighth overall. A well-deserved rank as they did not cross the finish line to retire one hour prior to the chequered. Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood had an easy but strong pace to finish 15 laps ahead Michael Keyser-Billy Sprowls, Charlie Kemp-Carson Baird took third place, fourth were George Dyer-Jacques Bienvenue. The GTU class was won by another Porsche, the Rusty Bond-George Rollin-John Belperche 911S. The first non-Porsche in the standings was the Ferrari 365GTB4 entered by Interscope Racing for Jon Woodner-Fred Phillips, who placed 7th overall.