Drivers Seeking “Middle Way” in IMSA’s On-Track Conduct Rules

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competitors are hopeful of finding a compromise with the sanctioning body’s recent crackdown of on-track conduct that has gone “a bit too much to the other side” according to multiple drivers.

A significantly ramped up officiating procedure was introduced two races ago at Virginia International Raceway in the wake of August’s incident-filled all-class race at Road America, which the majority of drivers admitted the rate of contact without penalty was “over the top.”

Led by race director Beaux Barfield and IMSA’s driver stewards and team in race control, both the VIR round and most recent race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway saw numerous penalties handed to drivers, either for incident responsibility with another car or for blocking, resulting in a significantly different-looking race to what teams had become used to in IMSA racing over the years.

“I think in general, the message is clear where they want to achieve, and I think it’s good that they try to achieve it because I think Road America was too much,” said BMW M Team RLL driver Dries Vanthoor.

“It was not the way we all want to go racing, and I don’t think it’s any good for the people watching either.

“But I do think now they went a bit too much to the other side of the wall. I find there should be somewhere in the middle, because now I find you still need to be able to race.

“IMSA was always cool because you could race and… you lean a bit on each other as long as we left each other space and was fair to each other. But at [Road America] nobody cared about each other and just had no respect and just pushed each other off.

“But now I feel like you also can’t really race anymore, because as soon as you do something wrong at least on the GTP side, then [you get a penalty].”

Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports driver Alexander Sims, who along with co-driver Antonio Garcia, are locked in a tight championship battle in GTD Pro, has commended IMSA for its increased enforcement of penalties in recent races.

“Honestly, I’m quite happy with it,” he said. “I think that rules are there to be respected, and everyone can make mistakes, and that happens.

“But there has certainly been a lot of racing in the near past that was not just people making mistakes. It was people knowingly driving other people off the track and going beyond what I think the spirit of the racing should be.

“I think the stewarding has been forced to take a very hard line, and maybe they’ve had to go maybe too far the other way to make a point, but that’s just the reality of the situation. I think the right decision has been made.

“Having done some, or been in the steward’s room in other championships myself, I can understand how difficult it is from their point of view to officiate correctly every single time.

“But I think on the whole, the IMSA championship is officiated very well. And I think we can all probably agree that Road America was too out of hand. And so I think the right reaction has happened.”

AWA Racing’s Matt Bell added: “IMSA has always been a series that had a little bit more freedom in racing than most around the world, which has always made it probably one of the most entertaining sports car packages to watch and participate in in the world.

“It went a little bit too far at Road America on several fronts.

“But perhaps I’m not too sure going the equal and opposite reaction on the other side of what the line should be for IMSA was maybe being the perfect solution so far.

“I think everybody in the drivers’ meeting room always has the right idea of what IMSA racing should look like and we just need to get back to what that is and not go too far under it and not go too far over it.

“It was a little bit too tight in reaction to everything that happened at Road America. It would be good to see you just getting back to what it should be, what everybody knows IMSA should be.”

Dane Cameron, who has 163 IMSA starts to his credit and is a four-time WeatherTech Championship title winner, has also shared his support of the more strict enforcement but like Vanthoor, expects it will eventually slightly swing back the other way.

“I think we all support this, but when the change is so drastic and so sudden at critical points of the year, it can be a little bit tough, for sure,” he said.

“Most of us learned the hard way for sure at Indy; there’s going to be some calls that are fair that you feel are fair. There are some calls you feel are not fair, but that’s always typical, regardless.

“But I think,  for the large part, all the drivers will be in support of getting things a little more back in line.

“I think we can all agree it had gone a bit too far in the last few races, so it’ll take a few races to get it right, probably to where we all agree that it’s in a happy place.

“IMSA has always had great racing for all that, so I think that will still remain into the future for sure.”

Sims: No Need to Change System for Petit Finale

When asked if it’s important to keep the current rules of engagement through this weekend’s season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans, with championships at stake, Sims said: “Absolutely.”

He added: “I think that continuing things through Petit would definitely be sensible, now that the drivers are getting used to the new system, as it were, which isn’t really that new.

“It’s just things are being forced correctly, in my opinion. I don’t see a huge amount of new regulations being written. It’s just we’ve had enough guys. You’re taken to make now.

“I think it’s difficult from the championship’s point of view, honestly, even in the off-season to say, ‘We’re going to relax things a bit now.’

“They can’t, right? Because then you give an inch and everyone will take a mile. So I think that’s for them to just try and find the right balance of being consistent.”

Bell, however, expects the closing stages of the ten-hour enduro to have a different complexion than to years’ past.

“The intensity of this race in the last hour in previous years has been… there are people with nothing to lose, just absolutely sending it up the inside,” he said.

“There’s been some moves at Turn 10 and Turn 1 across various classes in the last few years, and I think have not been in the spirit of any racing, worldwide.

“So it should hopefully tame quite a bit of that versus some of the stuff that I’ve seen at Petit Le Mans in previous years that’s just kind of been a little bit over the top.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John