Porsche Penalty Upheld; BMW Confirmed Watkins Glen Winners

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

BMW M Team RLL has been confirmed winners of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen after Porsche Penske Motorsport’s penalty was upheld by IMSA supervisory officials in a denied protest.

Confirmed in the release of the official results on Thursday, the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly, which crossed the line in second but was moved to first place after the No. 6 Porsche 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy was found to have had a chassis skid plate measuring thinner than the legal minimum during post-race technical inspection.

Porsche Penske lodged a protest shortly after the penalty, which moved the car to the rear of the finishing order.

“After receiving official notification from IMSA of the post-race technical penalty in Sunday’s race, Porsche Penske Motorsport subsequently requested a protest,” the statement provided to Sportscar365 read.

“IMSA Supervisory Officials reviewed documents provided by Porsche Penske Motorsport but did not find anything that would have overturned the penalty decision. Official race results and point standings were released this morning with the penalty upheld.”

Porsche Penske, meanwhile, provided the following statement:

“Porsche Penske Motorsport has to accept IMSA’s decision to deny our teams protest and keep the results of IMSA’s post-race inspection at Watkins Glen which resulted in the No. 6 entry being relegated to last place in class after taking the overall victory in theSahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen last Sunday. 

“The team did not begin the race with any intention of racing the car at a ride height that would cause the amount of front skid block wear that was measured post-race and did not receive any performance benefit as a result.

“The unforeseen wear was caused by in-race damage that resulted in changes to the underwing and front skid area that caused aerodynamic instability bouncing.  

“After such a great job by our team and drivers, we are left with no recourse but to move forward and fight for another victory next weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.”

BMW M Team RLL team principal Bobby Rahal offered his perspective on the confirmed results.

“Obviously, we are pleased by IMSA’s technical group decision,” Rahal said. “There is nothing like winning, but I was most happy with the pace of the BMW M Hybrid V8 throughout the Watkins Glen race.

“My thanks to everyone at BMW who have worked so diligently on both sides of the Atlantic over a very intense period of time on the new-era GTP program.

“Our guys were in Munich starting last July assisting with the car builds. We received the cars in September and began testing in October. Five races into the season, we are winners.”

De Phillippi, Yelloly and the BMW squad missed out on claiming victory on the track at Watkins Glen, but they learned of the Porsche’s infraction and were provisionally awarded the win later Sunday evening.

A celebration photo was taken earlier this week in victory lane (pictured above), while the team was taking part in a Michelin tire test at The Glen.

“Obviously a win is a win, but we certainly didn’t want it to come under these circumstances,” said De Phillippi.

“We would have preferred to hold onto the lead for those last four minutes (before the No. 25 was passed late for the lead by the No. 6) and I would like to have celebrated with my teammates.

“But that’s racing. Everybody with BMW M Team RLL did a phenomenal job throughout the race overcoming the issues we had early on with some unlucky contact, so to bounce back with strategy and speed was an incredible feat.

“Maybe we didn’t pick up the win how we would have liked, but we certainly had the speed to represent a win, and I figure it was still well-deserved.”

With the Watkins Glen triumph, Yelloly and De Phillippi have achieved podium finishes in three of the last four races.

The victory also vaulted the No. 25 duo from fifth to second in the GTP standings, just 64 points behind the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R and drivers Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims.

John Oreovicz/IMSA Wire Service contributed to this report

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