1979 24 Hours of Daytona

The 17th Annual 24 Hour Pepsi Challenge Daytona was a 24-hour GT race held on February 3–4, 1979^[1] at the Daytona International Speedway road course. The race served as the opening round of the 1979 World Championship for Makes, 1979 World Challenge for Endurance Drivers and the 1979 IMSA GTX, GTO and GTU Championships.

Victory overall and in the GTX class went to the No. 0 Interscope Racing run Porsche 935/79. The car was driven by team owner Ted Field and professional co-drivers Hurley Haywood and Danny Ongais. Over the 24 hours elapsed time of the race the Interscope Porsche completed 684 laps, covering 4,227 kilometres. The team dominated the race, winning by 49 laps, a distance of over 300 kilometres.

Second place was the GTO class winner, the No. 65 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 enterred by Modena Sports Cars and driven by American racers, John Morton and Tony Adamowicz. Third and 57 laps behind the winner was the No. 11 GTX Class Porsche 935 raced by another all-American team, Bruce Canepa, Rick Mears and Monte Shelton. Fourth and third in GTX was the No. 94 Whittington Brothers Racing Porsche 935/79 driven by the brothers, Bill Whittington and Don Whittington and their German co-driver Jürgen Barth. They finished 62 laps behind the winning car.^[2][3]

Second in the GTO class was the No. 54 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR driven by Americans Tony Garcia and Alberto Vadia, and Cuban driver Juan Montalvo, 97 laps behind the winning Porsche and 48 laps behind the class winning Ferrari. A further 12 laps behind was third in class Porsche 911 Carrera RSR of Americans Robert Overby, Ash Tisdelle and team owner Lance Van Every.

The GTU class was won by the No. 7 Mazda Technical Center, debuting the Mazda RX-7 at Daytona. The car was driven by all-Japanese crew of Yoshimi Katayama, Yojiro Terada and Takashi Yorino. The Mazda finished fifth outright and 67 laps behind the winning Porsche. Team mates finished just two laps behind in the No. 77 Mazda RX-7 driven by Americans Walt Bohren, Amos Johnson and Roger Mandeville. Third and five laps further behind was the No. 60 Porsche 911 S of Americans Rusty Bond and Ren Tilton.

Class winners denoted in bold and with ‡.