Florida Sports Wire

  PHOTO BY DON COBLE The winning GT Prototype team of Laurin Heinrich of Germany, Julien Andlauer of France and Philipe Nsar of Brazil took the checked flag for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona on Sunday at the Daytona International Speedway. For Nsar and Porsche Penske Motorsports, it was their third consecutive win at the 24-hour sports car endurance race. DAYTONA BEACH – The premier sports car teams in America threw everything at Roger Penske’s Porsche 963 team of Philipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Teams of Cadillac V-Series.R couldn’t get it done. Neither could BMW M Hybrid V8s, Acura ARX-06s or a single Ashton Martin Valkyrie. Mother Nature even took a try without success. Nasr kept the sleek GT Prototype in the lead for most of the final six hours, including a challenge from Jack Aitken’s Cadillac with 20 minutes remaining on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course, to win for the third consecutive year. A...

  Connor Zilisch waits for his Cadillac V-Series-R pit crew to finish their work during a stop during the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona at the Daytona International Speedway. P HOTOS COURTESY OF CADILLAC Connor Zilisch, left, gets tips from fellow Cadillac driver Colton Herta from Wayne Taylor Racing during the ROAR Before the 24 practice on Jan. 17 at the Daytona International Speedway. DAYTONA BEACH –  As a fan of sports car racing, Hurley Haywood is impressed with what he saw Saturday at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.   As one of the greatest endurance drivers of all time, he   hasn’t  quite grasped the concept of how a car’s success is governed as much by  technology  as  a driver’s skill and tenacity.   As one of only two five-time winners of the  most   prestigious  racing marathons in America,  he recalled victories when  drivers and crews slept in lawn chairs, snacked on lukewarm  chili  and drank warmed...

Penske Porsches setting pace for possible third consecutive victory PHOTOS BY DON COBLE The No. 7 and No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 GT Prototypes showed a lot of early speed at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona at the Daytona International Speedway.   DAYTONA BEACH –  Drivers had to deal with a lot of unknowns in the first four hours of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona sports car race.   F irst, Michelin brought a new tire compound that made the rear tires dance most of the way around the  3.56-mile Daytona  International Speedway road  course that includes a twisting, flat section in the infield and  a significant portion  of the high-banked superspeedway .   Temperatures were in the low 40s during a three-day test session at the ROAR Before the 24 at Daytona a week earlier, but they approached  nearly 80  degrees  at the start of the twice-around-the-clock marathon on Saturday at 1:40 p.m.   A nother issue for 58 of the 60 teams w a...