R-Motorsport Retains Silverstone Win

Photo: Dirk Bogaerts/SRO

R-Motorsport has held onto its win in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup race at Silverstone following an investigation for a alleged technical infringement.

The No. 76 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 was disqualified from qualifying after taking pole for the three-hour race in May after the stewards had failed to find data in the data-logger.

The Arden/JOTA-supported team appealed the decision, which allowed the team to start the race from pole and eventually claim victory with Matthieu Vaxiviere, Nicki Thiim and Jake Dennis driving.

R-Motorsport has been allowed to keep the victory, its first win in just its second race, after a hearing in front of the RACB Sport National Court of Appeal.

However, the team has been fined €5,000 plus an administrative cost of €500 while it hasn’t been refunded its appeal fee of €2000 as it was still found to be in breach of Article 89 of the Blancpain GT Sporting Regulations.

Initial claims that the data-logger contained no data from qualifying were found to be false although the court decided that the team had still breached the regulation concerning the data-logger by failing to check the LED checklights on the system.

The SRO technical witnesses present claimed that the SD card had been removed during the session and likely re-inserted before the car was taken to scrutineering.

The court found that disqualification from qualifying was “not entirely unjust” but decided to reduce the severity of the penalty as it found no ill intent from the team management.

“We are extremely glad that the superb victory of our car No. 76 has been retained,” commented Team Principal Dr. Florian Kamelger. 

“We are now looking forward to the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps, the highlight of our season.”

Dennis, Vaxiviere and Thiim are fourth in the Endurance Cup standings heading to the Total 24 Hours of Spa at the end of this month while the team is also fourth in the teams’ standings. 

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.