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NEWS

Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona January 29, 2006 - January 30, 2006
Although Maassen, of Raeren Belgium, had a fast qualifying time, he started t
The No. 58 Porsche-powered Fabcar started 29th on the 66-car grid due. Sasha Maassen quickly charged to 12th during his first double stint, followed by David Donohue of Westchester, Pa., and Darren Law of Phoenix, who had equally strong stints. All three drivers led during the first seven hours of the race.

A water-hose leak zapped them out of the lead at 7h31, but a quick repair put them back on track in seven minutes, three laps behind the race leader. They steadily worked back to second place at 18h32 and stayed in the top three until the final minutes of the race. Law was driving when he was hit by the race leader and spun off track. The resulting bodywork damage cut the left-rear tire, forcing a pitstop just six minutes from the finish. The trio finished fourth.

"This was one of my best finishes at Daytona. To bring the car from 29th to 12th without any damage was really good, because it would have been easy to get into trouble," Maassen said. "We had some problems, but we were always able to keep the car in the lead group. The Brumos Porsche team didn't make any mistakes."

The Rolex 24 At Daytona was held Jan. 28 and 29 on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway infield road course in Daytona Beach, Fla.

5th Gear - the popular auto-related British Television Show
   ratings of current sports cars
   "sports cars" are defined as:
        • convertible
        • manual transmission
        • rear-wheel drive

considered:
Radical
KTM
Mazda Miata MX-5
Toyota MR2
Lotus Elise
VX220 (re-worked Elise with turbo)
BMW Z4
Honda S2000
TVR Tamura/Tabura?
Porsche Boxster

and the winner is... Porsche Boxster