rolex 24 hrs race handing out penalities like NASCAR

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP)

The third-place finisher in last weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona has been hit with harsh penalties for a rules violation.

RACE OF CHAMPIONS

See the best photos from the Rolex 24 at Daytona .

Grand-Am Road Racing stripped the No. 60 Ford Riley of Michael Shank Racing of its podium finish, $35,000 in prize money and 30 championship points.

The sanctioning body discovered mechanical adjustments to the car's engine, which resulted in ''performance levels outside the documented maximums.''

Shank says the team is ''as surprised about this as anyone. We know that the guys will figure out what when wrong and make sure we are not in this position again.''

The No. 60 team, the 2011 Rolex winners, rallied from seven laps down this year and competed for the victory during the final laps of the endurance race.

Taken from AP Sports

Hey Johnny, From the comments I heard several drivers make there seemed to be mixed reviews on some of the rule changes the merger has brought. One in particular is how much easier it was for cars that had lost laps to make them up during full course cautions. That is how they made the laps up. The teams making up laps grudgingly accepted the new rule but will be like the other teams when the shoe is on the other foot and competitors are making up laps on them, they won't like it.

Wonder if the anger Mike Shank showed when they got hit with a penalty during one of the cautions had any thing to do with the post race penalty?

Poor ole AJ Allmendinger just can't get away from the Performance Enhancement discussions, can he?

And, we are surprised that Roush-Yates came up with a cheater Ford motor? Not!!!

Shank Racing Fined, Penalized for Too Much Power at Rolex 24
By Chris Jasurek
Epoch Times Staff Created: February 1, 2013 Last Updated: February 1, 2013

The #60 Shank Racing Riley-Ford finished third in the Rolex 24 but was later fined and penalized for having to much power. (Chris Jasurek/The Epoch Times)

Michael Shank Racings #60 Riley-Ford Daytona Prototype, which finished third at the 51st Grand Am Rolex 24 at Daytona, was subsequently fined and penalized when tech inspection revealed that the cars engine produced too much power.

Grand Am has not specified the nature of the infraction, saying only that The engine was found with mechanical adjustments resulting in performance levels outside the documented maximums.

The team will have to forfeit its third-place prize money of $35,000 and pay another $15,000 to Camp Boggy Creek the official Grand Am charity.

The drivers, Ozz Negri, John Pew, Justin Wilson, Marcos Ambrose and AJ Allmendinger, will each forfeit 30 drivers championship points, and Ford will forfeit 30 manufacturers championship points.

The team has also been penalized one point in the North American Endurance Championship.

We are as surprised about this as anyone, said team owner Mike Shank in a press statement. This was an incredible team effortnot just from John, Justin, Ozz, Marcos, and AJ, but from the entire crew as well as our partners at Roush Yates.

We are very proud to work with Ford Racing, and we know that the guys will figure out what went wrong and make sure we are not in this position again.

After having fought back from so far down to make it to the podium, it is hard to put into words how disappointing this is.

Balance of Performance Problems

Many teams have complained that the wining Telmex-Ganassi Riley-BMWs were allowed too much power by Grand Am officials. Rolex Sports Car Series rules specify specific power and torque output curves for each engine. These rules, called Balance of Performance, are adjusted to allow different engines to compete on a supposedly level playing field

The BMW-powered Telmex-Ganassi cars were slower than other BMW-, Chevrolet-, or Ford-powered cars at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 test session, which prompted series officials to restrict the Ford and Chevy engines.

At the actual race, Telmex-Ganassi suddenly found itself five mph faster than the rest of the field, leading competitors to suspect the team had been holding back during the test to gain a favorable Balance of Performance adjustment (which it got.)

Because of this top-speed advantage, no team could compete with the Telmex-Ganassi cars during the race. Everyone else was racing for second place.

During the race the Telmex-Ganassi cars were half-a-second per lap faster than the Shank cars. Since the series prides itself on close competition, and denies participants the right to try to get more performance from their engines, this performance disparity undermines the spirit of the rules.

Next: Reconsider the Rules

The Telmex-Ganassi Riley-BMWs were allowed to run unrestricted while its opponents were given smaller restrictors and fewer rpms, which made the Telmex-Ganassi cars too fast to catch. (Chris Jasurek/The Epoch Times)

The whole idea of a racing series where teams cannot try to get more power out of the motor is a screamingly unfunny joke. Making the car go faster is the whole basis for racing, and making the engine work better is a huge part of going faster.

NASCAR has shown that it is possible to very tightly regulate engine development and still allow teams to try to build the best possible motor. Grand Am has shown that its system can be gamed by the competitors, and does not produce close or fair racing.

The worst part of all this for Shank Racing and every other team which showed up for the 2013 Rolex 24 but didnt have a real chance at winning is that the Rolex is the most prestigious and most important race on the schedule in terms of racing new fans and new sponsors.

Teams which spend the tremendous amounts of time, money, and energy needed to compete in a 24-hour race depend on that investment paying off for the rest of the season. If those teams start off racing for second Grand Am will become the de facto governing body of the merged North American sports car series which will begin operations at the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona. If sports car fans used to the real and exciting competition found in the American Le mans series come to Daytona and see the sort of badly managed and controlled competition which Grand Am champions, the new series might not see those fans back again in 2015.

The 2013 Grand Am Rolex 24 at Daytona showed the strengths of the series: the GT competition was intensely exciting right down to the waving of the checkered flag.

The race also showed what is wrong with Grand Ams tightly-controlled rules philosophy: the best drivers in the world showed up to race for the best Grand Am teams, and the race was decided by some guys in a corporate board room devising equivalency formulas based on faked information.

The solution is pretty simple: write the rules for engine displacement and let the teams build the best motors they can. Specify which parts and materials the teams can use to prevent hyper-exotic materials and pure racing parts, which drive up costs up. But let the teams race. Dont shackle them with restrictive rules which actually kill competition.

Michael Shank Racing and the rest of the Rolex Sports Car Series teams will be back in action on March 2 in the Grand-Am of the Americas at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas. Tickets are available now through the CotA ticket website.

Handing out penalties LIKE NASCAR. If I'm not mistaken, Grand-Am IS NASCAR now. Right? I think. Dunno exactly. Puzzled. Flummoxed.

Pretty sure it is. And if I'm correct, I find it interesting they don't associate their name / brand with the series. I realize folks with only a passing interest often associate NASCAR only with Cup racing vs. its other series. But its also surprising NASCAR doesn't try to counter that by routinely reminding fans and media of its ownership and rules making and enforcement.

Here's how the Indy paper characterized the ownership back in September:

American LeMans Series will merge with Grand Am, both under NASCAR ownership
7:37 PM, Sep 5, 2012

Written by
Curt Cavin
curt.cavin@indystar.com

North American sports car racing confirmed its unification Wednesday with the acquisition of the American LeMans Series by NASCAR, which owns the Grand Am Road Racing Series.

The sport had been split since ALMS was formed in 1999. Grand Am debuted in 2000 with the 24 Hours of Daytona. Grand Am held its first race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July.

The reaction in the racing industry was decidedly optimistic, particularly as the combined series keeps its association with the governing body in LeMans, France. ...

under one name is composed of various names, almost like american auto makers-- each is different in name,price and how they are presented to the public but they still play by the same general rules .. A Corvette and a GT 40 are both Sports cars but each are different in name of manufacture, so are they really sports cars or are they a hyped up version of a Ford or Chevrolet.

Rolex and Grand Am are what some call Sports cars but are they really? Could they race with authority at LeMans or in Australia with the Supercars?

A name is only what you wish it to be --an organization has the ability to categorize each as it sees fit but after its out from under the umbrella of the organizations name they have to make their own name dominate less they fall by the wayside like other series of the past.

So what Nascar wants is to control what egg is taken out of the basket at what time to be used as such.....!

Even in the days of IMSA and its "owner", John Bishop, the Frances were always VERY close at hand.

Here's a little recap from an "Unofficial" IMSA History web site of what transpired in 1969, 44 years ago... same year Talladega was launched:

After working at the SCCA for many years as chief executive director, John Bishop resigned in 1969. He had been involved in the internal disputes which tore the staff apart. The main point in these quarrels was focused on the way things had to be managed for the future. Most of the staff did not consider moving ahead towards professionalism, John Bishop's view was quite different. He suddenly realized he did not have any other viable option than to resign. He took some weeks off, after his resignation, and thought cautiously about his personal future. At first sight, he felt himself with no perspective at all, but his faith was kind of sealed, as Bill France called him one week later. They already knew each other and John Bishop thought he could get himself a job in NASCAR, but things appeared to be quite different. It was a period of fast growing track construction throughout the US and there was a need for a new sanctioning body that would run a series and award prize money. This new body would be run as a professional organization. Bill France really thought John Bishop was the right man for ruling this kind of organization. So John Bishop and Bill France made the deal, and the new IMSA series was launched.

And in 1972, RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. began to sponsor the IMSA CAMEL GT Series. Gee... wonder who already had their hand in RJR's hip pocket, lol?!

Side note on IMSA Camel sponsorship....

In 1984 I had to be at Charlotte for the IMSA races... (they sucked) and Bruce Jenner of Kardashian and Decathalon fame was driving a Roush Mustang with sponsorship from 7-Eleven. Jenner refused to wear a Camel hat for an RJR promo photo. I had to explain that neither he nor Mr. Roush would be paid their sponsorship if he didn't put on the hat.

On top of that, Jenner had this stupid bicycle and would ride around the CMS infield wearing his Lance Armstrong spandex. He also thought it would be cool not to shave.

Another good reason I never watched any of that Kardashian B.S. - that spoiled brat, Bruce Jenner.

Thanks, Woody (I guess) - at least he's wearing his 7-Eleven shirt.

I can't remember which year - '84 or '85 at Charlotte - IMSA announced in the drivers' meeting that girlfriends would no longer be allowed to attend the driver's meetings in the future. Driver, Doc Bundy asked if that also applied to Hurley Haywood's boyfriend.