Two cars penalized following Rolex 24 Hours

Two GT Daytona-class cars – including a podium finisher – have been moved to the bottom of the results of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, after IMSA’s examination of timing and scoring data.

The 2019 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opener saw the #11 Grasser Racing Team’s Lamborghini Huracan win the GTD class by 5.2sec ahead of the #29 Montaplast by Land Motorsport Audi R8.

However, the latter car, driven by Daniel Morad, Christopher Mies, Ricky Feller and Dries Vanthoor, is judged to have fallen foul of regulation 12.13.2 regarding Minimum and Base Drive-Time.

That rule states, “Two drivers rated silver and/or bronze must individually achieve the minimum drive-time and each other driver (regardless of Driver rating) must individually drive the car for a base drive-time as listed in the SR or Car penalized in the drive-time penalty order priority.”

Minimum drive-time for the GTD class at the Rolex 24 was 4hrs45mins and base drive-time was 3hrs30mins (although both times were reduced by a percentage owing to time lost during red flag periods).

According to IMSA, Feller did not meet the minimum time for a bronze or silver-rated driver and thus the Land team's superb runner-up finish has turned into a desultory 22nd place.

Thus AIM Vasser Sullivan’s #12 Lexus – piloted by Townsend Bell, Jeff Segal, Frankie Montecalvo and Aaron Telitz – is elevated to second on the team’s debut, while the #88 WRT Speedstar Audi of Frederic Vervisch, Kelvin van der Linde, Ian James and Roman De Angelis gains third.

The other car hit by the penalty is the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488, in which Toni Vilander has been judged to have not met the so-called 'base-time' minimum.

That car, which he shared with Cooper MacNeil, Dominik Farnbacher and Jeff Westphal, had posted a retirement in the torrential conditions that ended the Rolex 24 early. However, it had still been classified 14th but has now been moved back to 23rd.