Rolex 24 Race Notes - Notes 5
LAP 109 (03:31:00) - No. 7 STEPHAN GREGOIRE spins in Turn 4 but continues. There is a report of light rain in Turn 7.

LAP 110 (03:32:43) - The lead remains at 10.325 seconds for No. 76 RICARDO ZONTA over No. 02 DAN WHELDON.

UPDATE - FABIO BABINI is now in the No. 16 machine.

LAP 111 (03:34:29) - No. 02 DAN WHELDON has trimmed the lead to 9.310 seconds.

QUOTE FROM MARK WILKINS ON HIS DRIVE - "The car is unbelievable. This team really has prepared an excellent car for Brian, Andrew, Colin and I. It was a great set of tires-we had a little flat spot, but the tire came back just fine. I had a big battle for the lead with Negri but I really was just trying to stay in his air and save some fuel. It was great to move into the lead, and I'm really excited that all our testing and hard work in the off-season has paid off with a really fantastic race car."

QUOTE FROM JAN HEYLEN ON HIS DRIVE - "We should have been in the lead. We had the problem with the bumper when it was yellow, but for some reason they didn't call us in to the pits until we went to green so we had to pit and we lost a ton of time. It's frustrating way to start out the race, but the car is good, really balanced, and we'll just have to fight our way back."

LAP 112 (03:36:13) - There is a report No. 21 VIC RICE has a flat tire and has pulled off the track.

LAP 113 (03:37:59) - The lead stretches back to 11.507 seconds for No. 76 RICARDO ZONTA.

QUOTE FROM OLIVER GAVIN ON HIS DRIVE - "It was a lot of fun. It was good racing against some good guys. I managed to catch a pack including Pat Long, Ricardo (Zonta) and Alex Gurney. We had a good dice for awhile, a good battle. It was quite evenly matched, I think, between all of us. Ricardo managed to get away a little bit towards the end there. It's great fun racing. It's going to be hard. It's going to be very tough. There's nothing easy about this race. It's a little frustrating sometimes trying to make way. You think, ‘Oh, I've got quite a bit of a run here,' but then, all of a sudden, you stumble across a very slow Mazda or a very slow Porsche and you lose your momentum. That's endurance racing. That's how it goes."

LAP 114 (03:39:43) - The lead is now 12.183 seconds for No. 76 RICARDO ZONTA over No. 02 DAN WHELDON.

LAP 115 (03:41:27) - The top five are No. 76 RICARDO ZONTA, No. 02 DAN WHELDON, No. 61 ANDREW RANGER, No. 99 JIMMIE JOHNSON and No. 60 GRAHAM RAHAL.

UPDATE - No. 03 ED CARPENTER had transmission problems, which is why the car went behind the wall. ROMAIN DUMAS will be the next driver of the No. 67, according to the TRG team.

LAP 117 (03:45:00) - No. 69 NICK LONGHI brings the MAZDA RX-8 into pits.

LAP 118 (03:46:43) - The top four in GT are No. 86 JORG BERGMEISTER, No. 70 DAVID HASKELL, No. 07 JAN MAGNUSSEN and No. 81 RICHARD LIETZ.

LAP 119 (03:48:29) - There are reports of rubber pieces in Turn 1. No. 99 JIMMIE JOHNSON brings PONTIAC RILEY onto pit road for routine service. He falls to 11th in the rundown. No. 10 MICHAEL VALIANTE takes seventh from No. 59 JOAO BARBOSA. No. 77 FABRIZIO GOLLIN has slowed on the track.

LAP 120 (03:50:13) - No. 02 DAN WHELDON pits for routine service from second in Daytona Prototypes (falling to seventh), while No. 70 DAVID HASKELL pits from second in GT. No. 59 JOAO BARBOSA also pitted. There are team reports the No. 27 PORSCHE GT3 has a flat tire.