24 Hours of Daytona Winners Caught Fudging Data but Retain Trophy

  • Right after successful the prestigious 24 Hrs of Daytona in January, Meyer Shank Racing is being penalized for manipulating tire-pressure knowledge sent to IMSA in the course of the race.
  • The staff is shedding 200 points in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, operator Mike Shank has been set on probation, and a single engineer has been suspended indefinitely.
  • Nevertheless, the crew stays the formal winner of the race and will be authorized to retain the trophy, with the drivers keeping onto the Rolex prize watches.

When the green flag flew for the final restart with 27 minutes left in the 2023 24 Several hours of Daytona, the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 streaked in advance, cruising to victory by just about 4 seconds. But now the team is coming less than fireplace, with IMSA dishing out substantial penalties following Meyer Shank Racing was located to have manipulated tire-stress info during the race.

Marc Urbano|Motor vehicle and Driver

Just after the race, Honda Functionality Progress (HPD)—which operates carefully with groups that operate the major-class Acura GTP race cars—noticed discrepancies in the No. 60’s facts and launched an investigation. They found that Meyer Shank Racing had created “intentional software program offsets” in the tire pressures that have been reported by the monitoring system—basically, the crew was artificially inflating the tire pressure info, so the figures despatched to IMSA were being greater than the pressures they were in fact functioning.

This authorized Meyer Shank Racing to run its pressures down below the prescribed minimums set by Michelin, which supplies the tires for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, which could aid boost traction underneath acceleration or in corners.

no 60 acura arx06 at the 2023 24 hours of daytona

Caleb Miller|Car and Driver

As a consequence of HPD’s discovery, the group and the drivers of the No. 60—Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud—were stripped of 200 of the 350 factors gained in the race to the full-season WeatherTech Championship. They also dropped all points that go towards the Michelin Endurance Cup, which features all races that are at the very least 6 hrs extensive.

The team and drivers are also staying fined $50,000 and will have to return the prize money from winning the 24 Hours of Daytona. Staff proprietor Mike Shank is now on probation by way of June 30, although engineer Ryan McCarthy is on indefinite suspension and has dropped his IMSA credential.

Nonetheless, the formal race effects stand, meaning the No. 60 is however the winner, with the workforce acquiring to retain the trophy and the four motorists retaining the Rolex watches that are specified out as prizes.

In a statement, Meyer Shank Racing mentioned “We accept the series’ determination and have taken obligation.” The team also stated that “the staff member that was liable is no longer with the business” and that they “do not want this mistake to overshadow the remarkable work that our workforce, motorists and all of our companions have set for to build this new LMDh car or truck.” This indicates that McCarthy acted by yourself in manipulating the information, and that it was not a concerted hard work from the staff as a whole to crack the rules in an attempt to get the race.

HPD stated in a statement from president David Salters, “We are incredibly dissatisfied in the misconduct of the Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) staff” and to have the two-year improvement of the ARX-06 “put into dilemma is unacceptable.”

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Caleb Miller started running a blog about cars and trucks at 13 several years aged, and he realized his desire of crafting for a motor vehicle magazine just after graduating from Carnegie Mellon College and becoming a member of the Vehicle and Driver workforce. He enjoys quirky and obscure autos, aiming to a single working day individual something strange like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports enthusiast.