Yahoo Autos Penske Porsche, WTRA Acura penalized following Indy 6-hour
At the conclusion of last Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Battle on the Bricks six-hour race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the sanctioning body announced an extended post-race technical inspection for selected GTP cars — one from each manufacturer, plus the two privateer Porsche 963s.
Two infractions were found, resulting in fines and cars being moved to the back, including a penalty for the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 that has significant championship implications.
The No. 6 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy finished third in the race but was found to have modifications to its wiring harness/loom that were outside of homologation. The car will be moved to 10th place in the final GTP race standings (second-from-last) and Porsche receives a fine of $10,000 as the manufacturer.
The penalty takes the championship points between the two PPM Porsches from a dead heat to a significant lead for the No. 7 and drivers Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr. The gap that would have been 14 points is now a 124-point advantage for the No. 7 team. Further, the gap back to the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande is now only 40 points, putting what would have been an almost guaranteed one-two for PPM in the championship in jeopardy.
The No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 had modified components in its brake ducting system that were outside of homologation. The car will be moved to 11th place in the final GTP race standings (last place) and the manufacturer receives a financial penalty of $10,000.
Seven cars — the No. 24, No. 6, No. 85, No. 40, No. 5, No. 01 and No. 63 — were impounded for in-depth technical inspection. Normal post-race technical inspection is typically completed within a couple of hours after the race, but IMSA chose to do more thorough inspections following the Indianapolis race, near where several of the teams are based. The inspections were completed on Monday.
