The GXP.R's never fair that well on the high speed tracks. They have had the durability the last few years to pull off a few wins, but no one has anything for the RX8 in a straight line. The knock against the RX8 is the crap mileage, which plays into the GXP's hands on the shorter facilities where there is more throttle transitioning.
The Ford's, I wish I could make fun of their issues, but they all had the same parts failure and it is a Delphi supplied part, ssosoooooooo GM kinda sabotaged them I guess. lol One of the Ford's did finish 4th despite making two more pit stops than the winner. Kind of impressive considering the pace they managed to keep at the front the whole race.
I really wonder what would have happened if there were only the average 15 full course cautions instead of the new record 24. Figure 1 lap of caution is the same amount of time as nearly 3 laps at full speed. Could they have hit 900 laps? Would it have played against the Porsche's and their notorious crappy mileage?
That is the beauty of endurance racing, there is no way to compensate for how good or bad 24 hours will go and why compared to the 3 hours or less most other major motorsports events take.
Got a few months until the next time Grand Am will be on TV, but only a few weeks until we get to see the ALMS crowd take on the 12 Hours of Sebring
