DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Pole-winner Didier Theys led an international quartet of drivers to victory Sunday in the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.

The Belgian driver, along with car-owner Fredy Lienhard of Switzerland and Italians Mauro Baldi and Max Papis, drove a Judd-powered Dallara from seven laps down in the early morning hours to a six-lap victory in the sports car endurance event.

It is the first time a pole-winning car has won the race since 1993 and the second Daytona victory for both Theys and Baldi, who were also teammates on the winning Ferrari in 1998.

SportsRacng Prototypes took the top two positions in the 40th anniversary 24-hour event, just a year after the top finishing SRP car in the five-division race finished 11th.

"I was very nervous, very emotional the last hour," said Lienhard, who drove the last half hour in the winning car. "I'm the first Swiss who ever has won a 24-hour race in Daytona. Unbelievable. I was almost driving like it was a dream at the end."

Baldi said the win was particularly satisfying because the car was new and barely tested, and the Judd engine was an unknown quantity.

"We weren't sure the engine would finish the race, but the car and the engine were both brilliant," Baldi said.

The winning Dallara led several times throughout the twice-around-the-clock race, but was far behind the Judd Lola SRP entry of Jon Field, Michael Durand and Duncan Dayton as the sun rose Sunday morning. The American trio had led throughout the night and appeared on the way to an easy win until a broken gearbox stopped the car on course and forced it to retire halfway through the 20th hour.

The Dallara, which survived electrical problems, was then able to cruise to the victory, beating the Elan Riley & Scott shared by NASCAR's Robby Gordon, Indy Racing League star Scott Sharp, Jim Matthews and Britain's Guy Smith to the finish.

The winners completed 716 laps and 2,548.96 miles at an average speed of 106.142 mph.

A Nissan Lola co-driven by Anthony Lazzaro, Bill Rand, Terry Borcheller and German's Ralf Kelleners won the SPRII division with an overall third-place finish.

Perhaps the best showing in the 73-car field was by the fourth-place Porsche-powered Lola co-driven by five-time Daytona winner Hurley Haywood, three-time winner Andy Wallace of Britain, Sascha Maassen of Germany and Lucas Luhr of Monaco.

The car started from eighth on the grid, but fell all the way to last because of a sparkplug on the first lap around the 3.56-mile road circuit. After a lengthy pit stop, the Lola went back out and almost immediately had a gearbox problem that brought it back in for another long stop.

After falling 50 laps behind, charged back, but had to overcome gearbox and linkage problems during the night before finishing 33 laps behind the winners.

GTS division winners Paul Gentilozzi, Brian Simo, Scott Pruett and Michael Lauer in a Jaguar finished fifth overall.

Kevin Buckler, Michael Schrom and the German duo of Timo Bernhard and Jorg Bergmeister won the GT division with a sixth-place finish in their Porsche GT3 R. That victory extended Porsche's record for division wins in the Daytona race to 54 and was the 28th division win in the race by a Porsche 911-based car.

The Corvette of Andy Pilgrim, Craig Conway, Doug Goad and Michael Ciasulli finished 22nd overall to easily win the AGT division despite being 123 laps behind the overall winners.

NASCAR stars Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick both were in cars that ran well on Saturday but fell out with mechanical problems before dawn on Sunday. Kyle Petty, co-driving a Porsche GT3 R with Mike Borkowski, Leo Hindery and Peter Baron, ran to the end and finished 15th, 73 laps behind.