Mathieu Jaminet’s late-race pass initially gave the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport car a win Sunday in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International, but the car was assessed a post-race penalty that gave the victory to the BMW pairing of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly.
During inspection, the Porsche of Jaminet and co-driver Nick Tandy was found with a skid block that measured less than the permitted minimum thickness. Hours after the race finished, IMSA announced the ruling, which moved the car to the back of the finishing order.
That ruling gave the No. 25 Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW its first win in the modern Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) era of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series.
De Phillippi won for the sixth time in the WeatherTech series. Yelloly claimed his first victory.
Porsche Penske Motorsports released a statement after the decision:
“Following post-race inspection at Watkins Glen International, IMSA has penalized the No. 6 entry in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen citing that the front skid wear of the No. 6 Porsche 963 was less than one millimeter outside the legal tolerance. The rear skid wear was noted to be well within the legal tolerance. Porsche Penske Motorsport plans to collect all of the data and follow the protest procedures.”
How race finished
After methodically but steadily closing the gap over several laps, Jaminet maneuvered past lapped traffic and race leader De Phillippi with six minutes on the clock. Two minutes after the pass, a crash that briefly sent Bill Auberlin’s car upside down brought out a caution flag and Jaminet secured the apparent victory under yellow.
De Phillippi and Yelloly initially finished second out of a race record-tying 57 cars in the BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid. The field included nine cars in the top GTP class.
The Porsche penalty moved the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Cadillac of Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken to second place, followed by the…
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