IMSA Updates Sporting Regulations, Drive Times

IMSA has made a handful of updates to the Sporting Regulations for 2015, released in a Competition Bulletin on Wednesday. The full Sporting Regulations were released in December.

Notable updates include, among other items, a stop plus 30-second penalty for an incorrect starting driver and a note that cars can only enter the pits prior to the start of the race in an emergency.

Closed cockpit car side net specifications have also been updated within subsection 21.6.

Another area noted was that in instances of conflict of FIA/ACO regulations for fueling equipment, IMSA Rules will govern. This would affect entries such as the Aston Martin Vantage GTE and AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia, cars that aren’t TUDOR United SportsCar Championship regulars.

Minimum drive times have also been updated, but only affects the Prototype and GT Le Mans classes and Trueman/Akin-eligible drivers in the four two-hour and 45-minute races in the second half of the TUDOR Championship season.

Races at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Road America, Virginia International Raceway and Circuit of the Americas will see the P/GTLM and Trueman/Akin minimum drive times drop from 60 minutes down to 40 minutes at those four events.

All other minimum and maximum drive times outlined in the November 7 IMSA Competitor Memorandum remain intact.

For the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the minimum drive time is four hours and 30 minutes (270 minutes) for all classes, and the maximum drive time is 14 hours (840 minutes) and no more than four hours in any six-hour stint.