PWC to Review Yellow Flag Rules with Teams After Race 1 Confusion

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Pirelli World Challenge officials will meet with SprintX team managers later this morning to review the full-course caution procedures in the wake of Saturday’s opening race of the weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, which led to some confusion and questions post-race.

The No. 8 Cadillac ATS-V.R of Michael Cooper and Jordan Taylor took the win by 46 seconds, after completing its mandatory pit stop and driver change while under the race’s only yellow.

However, a number of drivers and teams have alleged that the Cadillac gained the nearly one-lap advantage due to Cooper not properly slowing at the time of the yellow, as well as the pace car not picking up the correct leader, which was the Cadillac that was in the pits at the time.

“As written in the notes given out at the drivers meeting, when we go yellow, the leader is to slow to pace car speed. The 8 car did not,” one SprintX driver told Sportscar365. “This is why they were able to beat everyone out of the pits.”

With Jordan Taylor rejoining as the leader, and the pace car having picked up the second-placed No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Joerg Bergmeister, a wave-by process was not initiated, despite Taylor restarting behind the majority of the field.

The overall issue stems from a rules change, agreed upon by all team managers in a meeting prior to Race 1, that saw the pit window remain fixed between 25-35 minutes, no matter if a caution comes out.

Last month’s SprintX season-opener at Virginia International Raceway saw officials hold the pit window during a yellow in Race 2, which could have prevented the Cadillac from making its pit stop in that situation.

“We exercised that decision by opening the pits at the 25-minute mark,” a statement from PWC read. “Then a full course yellow came out in the middle of the pit window. As determined in the meeting, the pit window remained open until the 35-minute mark. The teams made their decisions to pit their cars in that 10-minute pit window.”

PWC President and CEO Greg Gill told Sportscar365 that the decisions that led to the results have been “thoroughly reviewed” and stand as-is, with the official results from Race 1 in the process of being finalized.

Gill said an official memo will be released following this morning’s meeting to clarify any questions teams may have.

The second and final SprintX race of the weekend is set for 3:40 p.m. ET.

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