Fernando Alonso's venture into endurance racing is such a rare phenomenon for a leading F1 driver these days that his progress at Daytona has understandably attracted considerable attention. There have been excited tweets about how close the double world champion was to pole and how much faster he is compared to the next driver in the same car. Fair play to him.
Perhaps this is not the moment to mention that on this weekend fifty years ago, Vic Elford won the Monte Carlo Rally, crossed the Atlantic and, a few days later, gave Porsche their first victory in the Daytona 24 Hours.