The points standings after Round 2 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 2021 at Sebring International Raceway has a slightly different look, than what it initially looked like, when the cars roared past the chequered flag.
The results were affected in no less than two categories with demotions.
Ally Racing Cadillac #48 was sent to the back of the results in DPi, due to Simon Pagenaud being 50 seconds too long in the car, within a period of 6 hours. The rules state that you can’t be in the car for more than 4 hours in a rolling 6 hours period. And the team calculated that wrong by 50 seconds.
In the LMP2 category, we had United Autosports #22 being demoted to last, since there had been too much wear on the plank, scraping over all the bumps.
Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing Acura #10 with Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque (plus Alexander Rossi) leads the DPi standings, ahead of Mazda Motorsports #55 with Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis (plus Jonathan Bomarito), and Mustang Sampling Cadillac #5 with Loic Duval and Tristan Vautier (plus Sebastien Bourdais).
Photo Courtesy of IMSA / Michael L. Levitt
The LMP2 category had its first point race of the year, so that is very much straight forward – PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports #52 with Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen (plus Scott Huffaker) as leaders, ahead of Dwight Merriman and Kyle Tilley (plus Ryan Dalziel) at Era Motorsport #18, and Tower Motorsport #8 with John Farano, Gabriel Aubry (plus Timothe Buret) in P3.
Photo Courtesy of IMSA / Michael L. Levitt
Core Autosport #54 with Jon Bennett and Colin Braun (plus George Kurtz) leads LMP3, which was the first points-scoring weekend of 2021 as well, ahead of Riley Motorsports #91 with Jeroen Bleekemolen, Jim Cox, and Dylan Murry, and the other Riley Motorsports #74 with Gar Robinson, Spencer Pigot and Scott Andrews. The two latter haven’t revealed their full-season drivers yet.
Photo Courtesy of IMSA / Jake Galstad
The GTLM lead stays with Corvette Racing #3 with Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor (plus Nicky Catsburg), who has a nice gap to Cooper MacNeil in WeatherTech Racing Porsche #79 sitting second, while BMW Team RLL #24 with Jesse Krohn, John Edwards and Augusto Farfus in third. They won’t however do the full IMSA series, so Corvette Racing #4 with Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner (plus Alexander Sims) are effectively in third, but currently sitting fourth.
Photo Courtesy of IMSA / Jake Galstad
Wright Motorsports Porsche #16 with Patrick Long (plus Trent Hindman and Jan Heylen) is leading GTD standings. But it’s still unclear if Hindman and Heylen are going to continue for the full season, since it was originally planned to be Ryan Hardwick alongside Long. Hardwick had a huge crash at Daytona in a support race, so he missed out on both the opening rounds in the WeatherTech series.
Maro Engel is the sole driver in second, after having run for both Sun Energy1 Mercedes #75 and Winward Racing Mercedes #57. He is not expected to return any more this year, other than the endurance rounds in IMSA. Heart Of Racing Team Aston Martin #23 with Ian James and Roman De Angelis (plus Ross Gunn) are currently third, while Pfaff Motorsports Porsche #9 with Laurens Vanthoor and Zacharie Robichon (plus Lars Kern) are fourth.
Photo Courtesy of IMSA / Jake Galstad
The next round will be run at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on 16 May 2021, with DPi, LMP3, and GTD on the track, while LMP2 and GTLM will skip that round since the original plan was for them to be heading to Le Mans at that point.
