TUSCC – Poll: GTD Finish Marred with Penalty

The 52nd Annual Rolex 24 race was the start of a new era in North American sports car racing. It is often said that first impressions set the tone for new relationships. The final seconds of the GT Daytona race between two of the businesses very best teams ended in what will leave a sour taste in many people’s mouths for the next few weeks.

The 555 Ferrari 458 run by Level 5 Motorsport led the way on the final lap as the Flying Lizard Audi R8 gave chase and decided to lay it out on the line going through “the kink”. The Audi could not hold the line and eventually slid off the track and into the grass. This ended the race between the two giants and gave the Level 5 gang the victory. This was Ferrari’s first win at Daytona since 1998, or so we were led to believe until the end of the race. IMSA then passed a time penalty to the Level 5 team for what appeared to be avoidable contact and awarded the hard fought GTD win to Flying Lizard. This marked two years in a row that Audi won a GT class level race during the Rolex 24.

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATDUs1mE068]

Is this racing worthy of a penalty? Or is it the product of hard, respectful racing between teams? I will let you make the call. Vote in our poll and comment in the below section on how you seen what was one of the best battles during the 24 hour race.

[yop_poll id=”2″]

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3 Thoughts to “TUSCC – Poll: GTD Finish Marred with Penalty

  1. To be perfectly clear here, it was a bullshit call. How can you call an “avoidable contact” penalty when there is NO CONTACT? Seriously! Watch the video above. THERE IS NO CONTACT! It’s the worst case of an official affecting the outcome of the game, ranking right up there with a ref blowing a touchdown call in the closing seconds of the Superbowl. It’s an inexcusable blunder!

  2. sejarzo

    Well, now we know this has been reversed, and the original penalty call was based on the last lap action in the kink…but there was a “hip check” by the 555 on the 45 in the bus stop several laps earlier that damaged the 45, and the 555 missed the bus stop (on the next lap, I think?) and the telecast didn’t show where the 45 was at that point…but it had to have been ahead of the 555 based on the comments by the broadcast crew.

  3. Yeah, just saw that the call had been reversed. As for the earlier hip-check, there could have been legitimate debate about whether that warranted a penalty. It is not permissible, however, to issue a make-up call for an earlier missed call.

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