Cameron Ruled Out of Pro-Am Title Due to Points Technicality

Photo: SRO

Dane Cameron has been ruled out of winning the Blancpain GT World Challenge America Pro-Am title due to a technicality in the series’ sporting regulations that has recently come to light.

Cameron, who heads into this weekend’s season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway sitting four points behind class championship leaders Kyle Marcelli and Martin Barkey, will have his points “removed” from the final championship classification, according to SRO Motorsports America.

This is because Cameron is classified solo in the championship after sharing the No. 43 RealTime Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo with two different Bronze-rated co-drivers this year.

It’s understood the rule was added for the 2019 season.

Bret Curtis took part in the opening rounds of the season before getting replaced by Mike Hedlund, due to a back injury for Curtis.

Section 10.3 of the GT World Challenge America sporting regulations states that professional (Platinum or Gold) drivers classified alone in the Pro-Am category “will be removed from the final classification” of the series.

The technicality also affects the No. 91 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Anthony Imperato, who has had two different professional co-drivers in Matt Campbell and Dennis Olsen, whose points will also be removed.

It has eliminated the chance of Cameron being able to win two major North American sports car championships in the same year, after having claimed the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship DPi title with Acura Team Penske last weekend.

“Unfortunately I’m not allowed to win the drivers’ championship,” Cameron told Sportscar365.

“There seems to be a bit of an extra section on the back page of the rules that nobody seems to know about. But it turns up at the last minute.

“I’m a little disappointed it’s going to go that way. I was excited to have the opportunity to win both of the championships.

“I’m super happy to have gotten the DPi title on the other side. That was the number one [objective] as we did the full season. 

“We had a great year, won a ton of races and to be in a place to where we could have still won the championship after missing three rounds was pretty cool.

“We’ll see if we can still win the teams’ championship for RealTime.”

The Peter Cunningham-led squad, which missed the opening weekend of the season at Circuit of The Americas and was classified as a Pro class entrant for one additional race, sits only two points behind Racers Edge Motorsports heading into the final two 90-minute races on Saturday.

Cameron and Hedlund are riding on a four-race class win streak, including overall honors in Race 2 at Road America.

“We won a bunch of races in a row so we’ll see if we can get two more,” Cameron said. “Getting the overall win last time out was great but I don’t think anybody knows what to expect here at all.

“I’ve won nine races so far so I think ten would be cool to get. It’s for sure the most wins than I’ve had in a year before, so it’s been cool. 

“A big thanks overall to Acura Team Penske, RealTime, Acura/HPD for these great opportunities, and Mike, Juan [Pablo Montoya] and Bret at the start of the season. 

“There’s been a lot of great people involved so it’s great to be in a good place in your career where you can drive with some of the best teams in the paddock with some of the best co-drivers.”

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