O’Connell Penalized for Overboost; Parente Inherits Win

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Johnny O’Connell has bene stripped of his victory in Sunday’s Pirelli World Challenge race on the streets of Long Beach due to a technical infringement determined post-race.

O’Connell’s Cadillac ATS-V.R was found to have exceeded its allowed boost levels in the race, which has promoted Alvaro Parente to the race winner.

Parente started from pole in Sunday’s caution-filled 50-minute race before losing the lead to the four-time and defending PWC champion on Lap 15.

O’Connell received a post-race penalty of 10 seconds, relegating him to second, still ahead of the third-place finishing No. 31 EFFORT Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Long.

“In post-race tech they found we had a few boost spikes that were not to their liking,” O’Connell said.

“From what I understand these were when we were in traction control situations, so not a speed advantage at all. But rules are rules.

“A second place finish does not take away from the accomplishment of Cadillac Racing today. I am proud of the team.”

It marks Parente’s first career PWC win in only the factory McLaren GT driver’s fifth series start.

“I have mixed emotions about winning the race this way,” he said. “I would have liked to have won the race on the track.

“We had a near perfect weekend with winning the pole position and racing for the win. It’s too bad that Johnny (O’Connell) was penalized because we had a great race today.

“But I am happy to win at a famed track like Long Beach in my first appearance. I’m happy for the KPAX team and McLaren and I look forward to racing next week at Barber (Motorsports Park).”

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