The Daytona 24 Hours has firmly established itself as the curtain-raising event on the motor racing calendar for most people and, seeing as the Flordia sports car classic celebrates its 50th anniversary this weekend, it seems prudent to delve into its past and select a stand-out race.

Fortunately, the flux-capacitor rigged Delorean so often used on this website didn’t have to venture too far through the space-time continuum to find a classic edition of the Daytona enduro, for the 2009 race was an absolute corker and produced the closest finish in the event’s history.

Four cars were separated by less than two seconds at the start of the final hour, and two of them were still battling hard as they took the chequered flag after racing twice around the clock.

The closing stages of the race had effectively become a sprint to the flag as Chip Ganassi driver Juan Pablo Montoya fended off advances from David Donohue in the Brumos Riley-Porsche. Time after time Donohue tried to find a way past Montoya, making various attempts at passing the Colombian, but to no avail.

Ever present in Montoya and Donohue’s rear-view mirrors were Joao Barbosa in the second Brumos vehicle and Max Angelelli in the Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara-Ford, waiting to capitalise on any error. Any of the aforementioned drivers could genuinely have won the race.

And then the inevitable happened and the roles were reversed, as Donohue’s relentless pursuit of Montoya paid off with 39 minutes remaining when he passed the NASCAR star exiting the Bus Stop Chicane.

Montoya wasn’t about to give up his lead that easily, and stuck like glue to Donohue as the clock ticked away. “I was surprised I could stay with him,” said Montoya, who managed to shake off Barbosa and Angelelli, the pair having to settle for third and fourth respectively. “I drove my butt off in the hope that they would make a mistake.”

But Donohue somehow kept his cool and held on to eventually cross the finishing line just 0.167sec ahead of his pursuer in what was a nail-biting climax to one of the most thrilling Daytona 24 Hours in living memory.

Rather poignantly, his win also coincided with the 40th anniversary of his father, Mark Donohue’s, victory in the 1969 event. It also gave the veteran sports car squad Brumos Racing its first Daytona win for 31 years, and Donohue was quick to commend the team following the race.

“These guys put a lot of effort into this,” Donohue said. “I’m glad to be able to carry the flag. The Brumos team is just a tenacious bunch of guys, they never give up and today proves the point. We came here ready to run and we ran hard the whole time.”

But while Donohue and the Brumos crew celebrated, the Ganassi drivers were bleating on about the new four-litre engine Porsche engine having an unfair power advantage.

Given the incredibly close finish to the race, one could suggest that the rulemakers had in fact got it right…

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