Butch Leitzinger heard every sound, felt every vibration as the clock ticked through the last hour of the Rolex 24-Hours sports car endurance race.
The winning car, a Ford Riley & Scott MK III, led through the last eight hours but began belching white smoking with about 55 minutes to go."They were telling me it was smoking, but the mirrors were shaking so much that I couldn't see it," said Leitzinger, who dropped to a slower pace and babied the car home. "It was probably for the best because if I could have seen it, I'd have probably turned to jelly."
Seven drivers took turns in the winning car in America's premier twice-around-the-clock event.
Dyson Racing's lead quartet of James Weaver and Wallace, both from England, John Paul Jr. and Leitzinger began the race Saturday in an almost identical car, which led for five hours in the early going.
They lost the lead in the eighth hour and saw their race ended 60 minutes later by an engine failure.
When the foursome looked around, the car co-driven to that point by team-owner Rob Dyson, Elliott Forbes-Robinson and John Schneider was cruising in sixth place, six laps behind the Oldsmobile R&S MK III of defending champions Wayne Taylor, Scott Sharp and Jim Pace and Eric Van de Poele.
"We kind of neglected those guys early in the race," Paul said. "We let them run their pace while we ran the No. 16 car up front. They were running a different, more conservative pace initially.
"When I got in the No. 20 for the first time, it was absolutely perfect," he added. "They did a real good job keeping it nice and fresh."
Jones (1982), Leitzinger (1994) and Wallace (1990) all won the race for the second time, but it was the first Daytona win for Dyson as an owner and a driver.
Weaver, Leitzinger and Wallace followed Paul into the winning car, helping to fend off a strong effort from the pole-winning Ferrari of Fermin Velez of Spain, the father-son duel of Charles and Rob Morgan and car-owner Andy Evans, who gave the Italian car manufacturer its second consecutive runner-up finish in the Rolex 24-Hours.
The winners covered 690 laps and 2,456.4 miles on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course, finishing 1 lap and 14.891 seconds ahead of the Ferrari 333SP.
The second straight American-made car and engine combination to win this event averaged 102.292 mph. The race last 24 hours, 48.691 seconds.
Drivers are awarded championship points only for the car in which they start the race, and IMSA gives points to a maximum of three drivers in each entry.
The second-place car was slowed by two accidents, both with Charles Morgan at the wheel. Two other early contenders ran into much worse problems.
The defending champions held the lead for several hours during the night and early morning hours, but had to retire in the 15th hour with an engine failure.
"We were running a conservative race," said Taylor, the defending IMSA World Sports Car champion. "Everything seemed to be in order ... then this."
Sharp, Pace and Taylor then joined Eduardo Dibos of Peru and Barry Waddell in another Olds R&S MK III in driving to third place. A long pit stop for a front brake problem cost them 17 minutes and a shot at the win with about two hours remaining. They wound up 19 laps behind.
The Ferrari that finished second last year and started on the outside of the front row for this race also led in the early going. However, the car lost 41 laps during the night, spending more than an hour in the garage because of an electrical fire. That relegated the team of Gianpiero Moretti of Italy, Didier Theys of Belgium, Derek Bell of England and Antonio Hermann of Brazil to seventh place.
There were a record 14 full-course caution flags - 13 in the first 18 hours. But there were no serious accidents and no injuries reported.
Fourth place went to a Porsche 911 entered in the new GTS-2 division, which was co-driven by Germans Ralf Kelleners, Andre Ahrle and Claudia Huertgen, as well as Patrice Groueslard of France.
They were followed by the GTS-1 winner, a Porsche 911 Turbo entered by Jochen Rohr, Andy Pilgrim, German Harold Grohs.
The GTS-3 winner was the BMW M3 shared by Boris Said, Dieter Quester of Austria, Marc Duez of Belgium and Marcus Oestreich of Germany. It finished ninth overall.
Forty-four of the 80 cars in the race were on the track at the end.