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Daytona 24 Hours: Ganassi's Dixon, Kanaan, McMurray and Larson win

Chip Ganassi Racing claimed a sixth victory in the Daytona 24 Hours after a thrilling climax to the 2015 race

The #02 Ganassi Riley-Ford EcoBoost DP shared by Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson prevailed over the lead Action Express Racing Coyote-Chevrolet Corvette DP by 1.3 seconds at the end of a five-lap dash to the flag following the 18th and final safety-car period of the rae.

Dixon took the lead from Jordan Taylor during the penultimate round of pitstops and ran with the Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara-Chevrolet glued to his gearbox through the next stint.

Another faster turnaround at the final stops gave Dixon a buffer of four seconds that looked like enough to give the Kiwi a second Daytona victory.

A final yellow with 20 minutes to go could have opened up the race, but Taylor was forced to pit to hand over to team-mate and brother Ricky because he was about to contravene a rule that prevents one driver from spending more than four hours behind the wheel in any six-hour period.

The WTR car, in which Max Angelelli joined the Taylor brothers, lost any chance of second place after it was forced to take a drive-through penalty for entering the pitlane when the pits were closed, leaving it more than a minute down in third place.

The Action Express car came back from three laps down after being stranded out on the circuit without fuel pressure, the result of an issue with an electrical connector, but ultimately didn't have the pace to challenge over the closing stages.

Fourth place when to the Spirit of Daytona Coyote-Chevrolet in which Richard Westbrook, Michael Valiente and Mike Rockenfeller were handicapped by electrical gremlins for much of the race.

The best LMP2 car was the pole-winning Michael Shank Racing Ligier-Honda JSP2 shared by Oswaldo Negri Jr, AJ Allmendinger, John Pew and Matt McMurry, which ended up 11th after two significant delays resulting from an off during the night.

Sportscar stalwart Scott Pruett missed out on the chance to challenge for a record-breaking sixth overall Daytona victory aboard the #01 Ganassi entry courtesy of clutch issues that raised their head in the 22nd hour and put him and team-mates Joey Hand and Charlie Kimball out of the race.

CORVETTE WINS GTLM

GT Le Mans honours went to the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R shared by Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Ryan Briscoe.

Garcia saw a 30s lead over the chasing Rahal BMW Z4 GTE of Dirk Werner disappear with the final yellow but managed to hold on to claim the win from the car Werner shared with Bill Auberlen, Augusto Farfus Jr and Bruno Spengler.

The BMW had been leading before the penultimate round of stops when a misthreaded wheel cost the car half a minute.

The second Chevrolet, which had started on class pole in the hands of Oliver Gavin, was in the hunt for victory for much of the race until Tommy Milner suffered bodywork damage late in the morning.

The PR1/Mathiasen team claimed Prototype Challenge honours with Tom Kimber-Smith, Andrew Palmer, Mike Gausch and Andrew Novick after the leading CORE Autosport entry was crashed out by Colin Braun with 20 minutes to go.

The Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R of Ben Keating, Kuno Wittmer, Dominik Farnbacher, Al Carter and Cameron Lawrence took the GT Daytona class victory by seven seconds from the Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America of Shane van Gisbergen, Leh Keen, Andrew Davis and Cooper MacNeil.

RESULTS - 740 LAPS:

Pos Class Driver Team Car Gap
1 P S.Dixon, T.Kanaan, K.Larson, J.McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Riley/Ford 24h00m57.667s
2 P J.Barbosa, C.Fittipaldi, S.Bourdais Action Express Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 1.333s
3 P R.Westbrook, M.Valiante, M.Rockenfeller, G.Cosmo visitflorida.com Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 6 Laps
4 GTLM J.Magnussen, A.Garcia, R.Briscoe Corvette Racing Chevrolet 15 Laps
5 GTLM B.Auberlen, D.Werner, A.Farfus, B.Spengler BMW Team RLL BMW 15 Laps
6 P E.Curran, D.Cameron, M.Papis, P.Keen Action Express Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 19 Laps
7 GTLM O.Gavin, T.Milner, S.Pagenaud Corvette Racing Chevrolet 22 Laps
8 PC M.Guasch, A.Novich, A.Palmer, T.K.-Smith PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 26 Laps
9 P J.Pew, O.Negri, A.Allmendinger, M.McMurry Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Ligier/HPD Engine
10 PC J.Bennett, C.Braun, M.Wilkins, J.Gue CORE Autosport ORECA/Chevrolet Accident
11 GTD B.Keating, D.Farnbacher, A.Carter, K.Wittmer, C.Lawrence Riley Motorsports Dodge 36 Laps
12 GTD C.MacNeil, L.Keen, A.Davis, S.Gisbergen Alex Job Racing Porsche 36 Laps
13 GTD M.Snow, J.Heylen, P.Dempsey, P.Eng Wright Motorsports Porsche 38 Laps
14 GTLM J.M.Edwards, L.Luhr, J.Klingmann, G.Rahal BMW Team RLL BMW 39 Laps
15 PC M.Goikhberg, C.Miller, S.Simpson, R.Mitchell, T.Vautier JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 39 Laps
16 GTD P.Lathouras, M.Rugolo, R.Aguas, M.Griffin AF Corse Ferrari 39 Laps
17 GTD C.Haase, B.Miller, D.von Moltke, R.Rast Paul Miller Racing Audi 45 Laps
18 GTD B.Sweedler, T.Bell, A.Lazzaro, J.Segal, J.Westphal Scuderia Corsa Ferrari Clutch
19 GTD D.Faulkner, K.Giermaziak, M.Skeen, R.Butcher, M.Avenatti GB Autosport Porsche 53 Laps
20 GTD D.DeBoer, M.Riddle, E.Salazar, K.Wilson, B.Davis TRG-AMR Aston Martin 62 Laps
21 GTD B.Keating, J.Bleekemolen, A.Carter, M.Goossens, S.Bleekemolen Riley Motorsports Dodge Engine
22 GTD M.Winkelhock, R.Thorne, S.Hoshino, T.Fujii Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi 70 Laps
23 P S.Pruett, J.Hand, C.Kimball, S.Karam Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Riley/Ford Clutch
24 P R.Gewirtz, S.Lewis, M.Kvamme, D.Cheng RG Racing Riley/BMW 96 Laps
25 GTLM N.Tandy, P.Pilet, M.Lieb, M.Christensen Porsche North America Porsche 100 Laps
26 GTLM P.Lamy, P.D.Lana, D.Turner, S.Mucke, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 108 Laps
27 GTD J.Potter, A.Lally, M.Seefried, M.Ragginger Magnus Racing Porsche 124 Laps
28 GTD M.Marsal, M.Palttala, A.Priaulx, B.Said Turner Motorsport BMW 136 Laps
29 GTD C.Nielsen, J.Davison, C.Nygaard, B.Davis TRG-AMR Aston Martin 147 Laps
30 P J.Pace, B.Defoor, D.Hinton, D.Schroeder, D.Smith Riley/BMW 150 Laps
31 GTLM J.Bergmeister, E.Bamber, F.Makowiecki, M.Christensen Porsche North America Porsche Engine
32 GTD F.Longo, D.Serra, M.Gomes, A.Bertolini Scuderia Corsa Ferrari Accident
33 GTD D.O'Young, M.Beretta, M.Basseng, C.De Phillippi, N.M.-Melnhof Muehlner Motorsports America Porsche 201 Laps
34 PC C.Cumming, B.Junqueira, J.Hawksworth, G.Menezes RSR Racing ORECA/Chevrolet Engine
35 GTD P.Lindsey, S.Pumpelly, J.Norman, N.Canache, K.Estre Park Place Motorsports Porsche Gearbox
36 GTLM W.Henzler, B.Sellers, P.Long Team Falken Tire Porsche Engine
37 P B.Hartley, R.Barrichello, R.H.-Reay, T.Graves, S.Mayer Starworks Motorsport Riley/BMW Engine
38 GTD J.Michaelian, M.Lira, C.De Phillippi, R.Flores, N.M.-Melnhof Muehlner Motorsports America Porsche 326 Laps
39 P S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, D.H.Hansson Tequila Patron ESM HPD Gearbox
40 PC M.Plowman, M.Drumwright, I.Breukers, S.Blackstock, R.Ruscitti BAR1 Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet Engine
41 P J.Miller, T.Long, B.Devlin, S.Tremblay Speedsource Mazda Overheating
42 GTLM P.Kaffer, D.Rigon, G.Fisichella, O.Beretta Risi Competizione Ferrari Engine
43 PC M.Schultis, R.van der Zande, A.Popow, M.Hedlund, F.Albuquerque Starworks Motorsport ORECA/Chevrolet Engine
44 PC J.French, J.Mee, J.Vance, S.Johnston Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet Not running
45 GTD I.James, M.Farnbacher, A.Riberas Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche Engine
46 GTLM F.Perrodo, E.Collard, G.Bruni, T.Vilander AF Corse Ferrari Not running
47 P J.Bomarito, T.Nunez, J.Hinchcliffe, S.Tremblay Speedsource Mazda Not running
48 GTD K.Bachler, C.Zochling, C.Engelhart, L.Willsey, R.Ineichen Konrad Motorsport Porsche Not running
49 P T.Krohn, O.Pla, N.Jonsson, A.Brundle Krohn Racing Ligier/Judd Not running
50 P E.Brown, J.van Overbeek, J.Fogarty Tequila Patron ESM HPD Not running
51 P M.Rojas, K.Legge, G.Chaves, A.Meyrick Claro / TracFone DeltaWing Racing DeltaWing/Elan Not running
52 P J.Taylor, R.Taylor, M.Angelelli Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 1m07.074s
53 PC J.Mowlem, T.Papadopoulos, T.Drissi, B.Alder, M.Plowman BAR1 Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 27 Laps


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