IMSA: Estre on “Extremely Short Leash” for Possible Suspension

Photo: Porsche

Kevin Estre is on an “extremely short leash” that could lead to the Frenchman being suspended by IMSA for the remainder of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season in the event of continued on-track incidents according to race director Beaux Barfield.

Barfield’s comments came during an IMSA Competition/Race Control media roundtable held Thursday at Virginia International Raceway, site of this weekend’s Michelin GT Challenge.

While the GTP class is not in action in Virginia, Barfield expanded on the decision-making process to place the Porsche Penske Motorsport driver on probation for two races following his late-race incident with Jack Aitken at Road America that led to both entries crash out of the race, which ended under yellow.

“There was a long conversation taken into many people’s account, including all of these people that I mentioned in race control, up to executives in IMSA to evaluate what we saw on-track and come up with an appropriate conclusion about what the right action was,” said Barfield.

“If there was any discussion about suspension, that was not in line with precedent that had been established for probation and suspension over the last, let’s say, ten years.

“So if there was discussion about that, it ended up… the precedent really for an offense like this with the history that we’ve had with these teams and these drivers was such that it was more in line with probation.

“And that’s a long way of saying that it was a deeper discussion to say precedent became really the prevailing point on how the decision, the final decision was probation over suspension.”

When asked what happens if Estre incurs further penalties or violations in the final two GTP races of the season at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and/or at Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Barfield said: “I would say that… he’s on an extremely short leash that could lead to him serving the remainder of his probation on the sideline.

“That’s the intent. That’s the purpose of [the protocols in place].

“In terms of trying to give you some understanding on how long that leash is, I think that would be pretty difficult.

“But if he’s involved in similar on-track incidents, then I think he’ll be finished pretty quickly.”

The last time IMSA suspended drivers in the WeatherTech Championship came in the first post-merger season in 2014 when Alex Tagliani, Matteo Malucelli and Gaston Kearby were all given one-race bans for separate incidents.

IMSA, however, has placed drivers on suspension in several of its sanctioned single-make series, one as recently as this year.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of factors considered if we have a situation where Estre crosses our radar, and is this going to apply right now or after?” said Barfield.

“Because we’ve had similar conversations internally about that situation directly from Road America.

“So it’s going to depend on a lot of factors that will be taken into consideration before I could just give you a general, ‘Here’s what I think we do, because I think it’s going to be a harder question than that.'”

When asked by Sportscar365 if a driver could be ejected during the middle of a race, Barfield said: “We are fully empowered within the regulations to say, ‘We don’t want that driver on the track anymore’ and it’s in there.

“As a threat to parking a car, that’s not something common in IMSA, but certainly we’re empowered within the regulations to do so.”

Barfield clarified that it would likely be the driver that would no longer be able to participate in that situation and not the entire entry, which would allow the car’s co-driver(s) to continue if the entry is still able to meet the minimum and maximum drive time regulations.

“We’ve had conversations in this endurance environment,” he said. “It could be that driver is no longer permitted to continue could certainly result in putting another driver in the car. It gets complex.”

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