IMSA decided to relax the rules slightly on their highly popular series for 1978, allowing the Porsche 935 to compete for the first time. The 24 hour event in Florida would prove to be a good start to a season that would end with 935s winning 12 of 14 races.
The #99 car certainly looked like a standard Brumos entry, but was actually the German GELO team's 935/78 entered by Brumos Porsche for Rolf Stommelen and Toine Hezemans. Peter Gregg, one of the primary drivers of the #59 Brumos car, also put in an hour behind the wheel of #99. Of course, Gregg was more than happy to apply pressure to Stommelen/Hezemans when they met on-track!
Porsches air-cooled coupes are proven endurance race winners. The new twin-turbo flat-six in the #99 935/78 had a tendency to smoke under deceleration, however, and so Stommelen/Hezemans were careful to keep a light foot on the throttle every lap as they passed the race officials! The duo worked very hard to avoid getting black-flagged.
At the end of 24 hours, the spectacularly fast twin-turbo 935/78 was fully 30 laps clear of the second place Dick Barbour Racing 935/77! Driving carefully and consistently, Stommelen and Hezemans, with the help of Gregg, earned Porsche's first FIA World Championship points in a year that Porsche would leave for the private teams to contest... to defend Porsche's honor!
The Stommelen/Hezemans Brumos Porsche 935/78 #99 sets the pace for a six-car formation finish! Brumos 935/77 #59 of Peter Gregg finished ninth.
