![[VIDEO] Corvette Racing's Costly Refueling Penalty at Road America Explained](https://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/2023-2/080923_1b.jpg)
If you were watching the Corvette C8.R last Sunday at Road America, you were probably feeling pretty good in the final hour of racing. We saw Garcia and the No. 3 C8.R jump out of the pits in first place at the 51-minute mark with the P2 Aston Martin nipping at his heels. After a few laps, Garcia was able to take control and was running solidly in first place.
Unfortunately, the Corvette team was penalized for not meeting the minimum refueling time during that final fuel stop, and Garcia was forced to give up the lead by serving a drive-thru penalty with 24 minutes left to race. The Corvette would reenter the race about 30-seconds down from the leader, and would finish in third place. It was an uncharacteristic penalty from the team who prides itself for its pit lane performance.
Adding insult to injury, instead of winning and gaining those extra points to close in on the points-leading Lexus, that car finished P2 in class ahead of the Corvette, and now we are even further behind in the GTD-Pro standings.
On Tuesday, Luke from Pratt Miller Motorsports grabbed a white board and filmed a video for YouTube explaining why the Corvette team was hit with the refueling penalty. According to Luke, the team’s internal formula for determining what the minimum refuel rate should be when they weren’t doing a full refueling was incorrect.
We believe the minimum refueling times are one of the stupidest rules in IMSA as it takes away from the crew’s performance in pit lane, and this explanation will make you hate the Balance of Performance hoops that teams have to jump through even more.
Source:
Pratt Miller Motorsports
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For starters, fueling rigs are not 100 percent dependable. Minimum refueling times are handicapping the pit crew and not the car. BoP should be limited to the performance of the car only. No point in having fuel strategies if you can’t use them on your last couple of pit stops. If the flow rate of the rig drops off near the end of the supply, no way should there be any BoP rules attached to the timing of refueling. If Corvette Racing loses this championship, it will be squarely on the shoulders of a pointless and obscure BoP rule. Balance of Performance should be directed at the race car, not the pit crew, unless it is for safety.
I wouldn’t be surprised if at times the teams spend more time juggling BoP rules than just racing.
Sounds like some stupid ass rules from IMSA, what else is new. IMSA needs to pull it’s head out and let people friggen race. Hopefully the C8R and the gang will kick ass the rest of the year and flip IMSA off while getting their trophy for the Championship. Lol, explaining all this makes it even more aggravating.
Thanks for a clear and understandable explanation of what happened. Now that I understand what happened, I still feel it is a BS penalty. Keep up the great work, guys.
1 second off the minimum fuel time, so IMSA makes them do a drive thru the pits penalty which takes 42 seconds & drops the C8R Chevy Corvette from 1st to 3rd. Sounds really fair, IMSA……..yeah, right. BS!
Everyone gets a trophy, just not our turn. Let’s run what you brung and get the socialists out of IMSA (NASCAR).
Agree with all of the sentiments above, and add merely that IMSA, and certain other racing governance orgs, seems to feel they must design arcane rules to penalize race teams for being too good (!). (See FIA/WEC’s “success ballast” penalty.) Oh, and I think that’s the second penalty on CR unjustly and/or incorrectly applied in the last couple of races – didn’t they get tagged with one for another car hitting one of the ‘Vette’s changed out tires in pit lane, when evidence showed the tire to clearly have been within the CR’s pit area, not out in the drive through lane as was alleged (and they were punished for – the penalty stood.)
Absurd that pit strategies are controlled by big brother IMSA, (idiots managing speed attacks). When racing used to be how the best prepared and effort wins!!!, hard to watch and bop is just another reason I watch from distance. Surely there’s a lot of race fans upset about it and why it mostly happens to corvette racing team!!!??wth???…
A 42 second penalty for a 1 second infraction. Totally justified call, right guys?
If this was an obvious infraction, then fine, but in this case, the punishment far outweighed the crime. But then again, the Lexus is the designated champion for this season, so whatever.
Looking forward to seeing 4 Corvettes on the grid next year!
I have often thought that IMSA predetermines its champions so that there’s an even distribution of trophies across all makes to keep all of the manufacturers interested and engaged.
It became apparent earlier in the year that Lexus was to be awarded this year’s championship as a reward for all of their years of effort. This over-the-top penalty only reinforces my belief. Very sad way to rob Team Corvette of any hope of securing this year’s trophy.
Championships should be decided on the track and not in IMSA’S board room.
You’d think IMSA would be trying to reward Corvette Racing with a championship in their final year seeing as how they’ve been the only manufacturer that has stuck with ALMS/IMSA every year for 25 years, kind of like how it seemed they handed the championship to the Dodge Viper in their last year in competition some years back.
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