1988 Winning Jaguar XJR-9D at
the IMSA Daytona 24-Hour
Driven by Martin Brundle
/Raul Boesel & John Nielsen
Exoto's $300 MTB 00108
After years of being campaigned in the U.S. by Bob Tullius Group 44 Racing, Jaguar shocked the American team by handing over the full reigns for the IMSA project to Tom Walkinshaw Racing in 1988. The Daytona race was run under IMSA (International Motorsports Asso) sanction & the Jags sported the well known Castrol livery for all the U.S. ImSA races. Having been racing in Group C in Europe since 1985, this wasn’t a huge stretch for TWR and they made their IMSA debut in the Daytona 24-Hour event with three of the sleek XJR-9s with a formidable drivers line-up. Grand Prix vets John Watson, Eddie Cheever, Jan Lammers, Martin Brundle, Raul Boesel and Johnny Dumfries joined sports car vets Davy Jones and John Nielsen and GP vet and 1985 Indy 500 winner Danny Sullivan in the Castrol-sponsored cats.
Porsche 962’s took the pole and led from the start, including lapping all three Jaguars early in the race, but TWR stuck with a conservative race strategy rather than hot-lapping with the competition. As car-after-car fell by the wayside, the Jones/Sullivan/Lammers #61 Jag went to the lead only to retire soon after with engine problems. The Cheever / Watson / Dumfries #66 Jag went to the lead only to have a run-in with the leading Jim Busby Porsche that sent both cars to the pits.
With one hour remaining and trailing the Jag by 15 seconds, the Busby Porsche which had won the pole on the pole, was forced to pit with a cut tire, brake problems and loose bodywork. The Brundle / Boesel / Nielsen / Lammers #60 Castrol Jaguar XJR-9 ended up winning the event by a lap and 54 seconds, giving Jaguar its first victory in a 24-hour race since Le Mans in 1957 and ending Porsche’s 11-year winning streak in the event. Another Jag using the Silk Cut livery would then win at LeMans.
The Busby Porsche & the #60 Jaguar exchanged the lead eight times in the closing hours. Tom Walkinshaw took no chances as the Porsche closed and put Lammers in for Boesel for a brilliant two-hour shift, though the media, unaware of the switch, the media voted Boesel the Norelco Cup for being the outstanding driver during Lammer's critical stint of the race.
Exoto's tribute #60 boasts in 1:18 scale Jaguar V12 DOHC engine, fully wired and plumbed; carbon fiber engine compartment; hexagon head machined bolts over engine valve covers; removable rear bodywork; functional front shock/spring suspension system; opening double-hinged doors; photo-etch metal radiators, race-detailed interior with instrumentation, Momo racing wheel, and fabric harness; wheels with machined center nuts and semi-pneumatic Dunlop slicks; and that stunning White with Green & Red color scheme.
The photos shown are of a display model. The car that you will receive is brand new in an unopened box.
