Keating Ford Stripped of Le Mans GTE-Am Win

Photo: Drew Gibson/Ford

Keating Motorsports has lost its GTE-Am class win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans due to a minimum refueling time violation and fuel capacity infraction.

The No. 85 Ford GT of Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga had claimed top class honors following a commanding drive in Sunday’s race but was found to not have met the minimum refueling time of 45 seconds during its pit stops.

According to the FIA stewards report, the car’s refueling system measured the time of 44.4 seconds, which is considered a breach of the regulations.

It initially resulted in a post-race time penalty of 55.2 seconds, which would have demoted the car to second in class, although a second technical infraction, for the car exceeding the maximum fuel capacity, has resulted in the car’s disqualification altogether.

It has handed the class win to the No. 56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR of Joerg Bergmeister, Patrick Lindsey and Egidio Perfetti.

The Project 1 trio also picked up the FIA World Endurance GTE-Am drivers’ title on Sunday, initially with their second place class finish.

Bill Riley confirmed to Sportscar365 they don’t plan to appeal the rulings.

According to the FIA, the 55.2-second time penalty was calculated by  the difference in the refueling time (0.6 seconds per stop) multiplied the number of stops the car made (23) and multiplied by four, as a penalty.

The car’s fuel capacity, meanwhile, was measured by the FIA to be 0.1 liter above the maximum 96 liters.

The decision, made by the FIA on Monday evening, came less than an hour after the No. 68 Ford GT was disqualified from the race for exceeding the fuel capacity.

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