IMSA says there was an “officiating error” in the early checker for the Daytona 24 Hours

IMSA says there was an “officiating error” in the early checker for the Daytona 24 Hours

The race was very exciting because of Felipe Nasr’s No. 7 Porsche Graff Motorsport 963 and Tom Blomqvist’s No. 31 Cadillac V-Series. R were both vying for first place.

There was a lot of confusion when the white flag, which meant the last lap, was shown by mistake with three minutes left in the 24 hours.

This flag always terminates the race, even if it was shown by mistake. 2.112s separated Nasr from Blomqvist as the winner.

It was shown to the GTD the classroom leader first. They crossed the finish line and got the timing chip at 24h00m03.261s, corresponding to the time that the winner ought to have recorded.

But the GTP leader had already crossed the line, even though the NBC TV screen showed that there were still two laps to go. Nasr saw the checker via 1m35.277s left in the 24 hours.

The official statement from IMSA said, “Because of a mistake in run control, IMSA accidentally raised the white cross with less than three minutes left in the race.”

When the lap was over, the run-leading No. 7 GTP car got the checkered flag via 1 minute, 35.277 seconds left. This meant that the race ended one lap short of the planned 24 hours.

A rule from the 2024 IMSA wearing Regulations as well as Standard Supplementary Regulations says that if the checkered flag is displayed before the leading car finishes the scheduled amount of laps or before the time limit has been reached, the race is still considered over when the flag is displayed.

Porsche won the Daytona 24 Hours for the first time since 2003 and with a prototype for the first time since 1995. They did this by beating Cadillac in a late-race battle of strategy.

The Action Express Racing team for the American brand took a risk at the second-to-last round of pit stops, but a safety car in the last hour ruined what looked like a brilliant strategy.

When the leaders stopped for the last time under yellows, it was Porsche Penske Motorsport’s turn to make the aggressive move.

For that reason and because Felipe Nasr drove flawlessly during the 32-minute sprint towards the flag, the long winless streak came to an end.

It was very close, but Nasr won in the Porsche 963 LMDh he drove with Matt Campbell, Dane Cameron, and Josef Newgarden.

At the flag, Tom Blomqvist was a little more than two seconds behind in the Action Express Motorsports Cadillac V-Series. R LMDh that he shared via Jack Aitken and Pipo Derani.

Of course, the order of finish would have been different if not for the 15th or final safety car in the first round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship.

The 24 Hours of Daytona on Saturday and Sunday ended early. The checkered flag flew while there were still over thirty seconds left in the event on both the race broadcast and the infield of the track.

It was over early, according to IMSA, because of an “officiating error in race control.” Even though there was a mistake, the race was over when the green flag was raised because that’s what the series rules say should happen in this situation.

An official statement from the governing body on Monday says that the mistake led to the white flag being raised with less than three minutes left in the race and the checkered flag being thrown with one minute and 36 seconds left in the event, giving it a total official time of 23 hours, 58 minutes, and 24 seconds.