SunTrust wins Daytona

Collard and Howard-Boss' driver Andy Wallace had been running within a few car lengths of each other as the race went into its final hours, but the latter then dropped back with tyre pick-up issues before spending nearly half an hour in the garage with a gearbox problem. Jan Lammers, who shared the car with Wallace and ex-NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, rejoined in fifth place but the victory that seemed so likely at dawn was now a forlorn hope.

With all of SunTrust's other major rivals having already suffered myriad problems and dropped out of contention, Collard and his co-drivers were able to cruise home comfortably - despite handling difficulties resulting from damage sustained during the night.

NASCAR ace Jimmie Johnson (sharing with Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Butch Leitzinger) just beat his recovering Howard-Boss Motorsport team-mate Lammers to second - the two cars crossing the line 0.4s apart in a formation finish.

Doran's Matteo Bobbi, Fabrizio Gollin and Didier Theys car had looked set for second until dropping off the pace dramatically in the final hour and slumping to fifth, behind Stefan Johansson, Cort Wagner and Jamie McMurray in the first of Chip Ganassi Racing's three cars. Their team-mates Scott Dixon, Casey Mears and Darren Manning completed the top six despite the car briefly catching fire at around 10am Daytona time.

Last year's Grand-Am champion Scott Pruett brought his Ganassi entry home seventh after the Doran car he had been battling with crashed out at turn one in the final minutes.

The fast and reliable Porsche GT3 entered by Farnbacher Racing controlled the GT class for the majority of the race and duly earned a dominant victory, even sneaking into the overall top ten after Krohn Racing/TRG's lead car caught fire with an hour to go.



Angelelli/Taylor/Collard (SunTrust Pontiac-Riley) 710 laps
Leitzinger/Forbes-Robinson/Johnson (Howard-Boss Pontiac-Crawford) + 11 laps
Wallace/Lammers/Stewart (Howard-Boss Pontiac-Crawford) + 11 laps
Johansson/McMurray/Wagner (Ganassi Lexus-Riley) + 12 laps
Gollin/Bobbi/Theys (Doran Lexus-Doran) + 13 laps
Dixon/Manning/Mears (Ganassi Lexus-Riley) + 16 laps
Pruett/Briscoe/Diaz (Ganassi Lexus-Riley) + 22 laps
Donohue/Law/Luhr/Maassen (Brumos Fabcar-Porsche) + 30 laps
Magnussen/Labonte/Herta/Labonte (Doran Pontiac-Doran) + 35 laps
Henzler/Farnbacher/Price/Ehret (Farnbacher Porsche GT3) + 46 laps