As you can probably imagine, not every issue from last weekend’s Pirelli World Challenge penaltyfest was resolved before this weekend’s event at Barber Motorsports Park. Today’s GTS race was a great one, but there’s still a lot of tension behind the scenes. Sportscar365 was there to get the full rundown.
From a distance, this weekend is already looking much better than Long Beach. The GTS race today was a blast, complete with GT-class racer and class clown Ryan Eversley joining in on commentary. Everyone’s hopeful that being back on a purpose-built race track will make for a better show with less yellow-flag time.
However, Sportscar365 unearthed some of the unresolved issues from last weekend in talking with a broad cross-section of racers and officials. Processes for common procedures such as appeals aren’t well defined, leaving some teams confused. Others still bemoan the lack of immediate penalties during the race itself as well as what they believe is an inconsistent application of penalties. DragonSpeed team principal Elton Julian even alleges that series president Scott Bove overrode penalty proposals from competition director Marcus Haselgrove, suggesting an unusual level of micromanagement going on behind the scenes.
Despite the growing pains, many racers are still sticking with the series in hopes that things will work out in time.
Their full report is over here, and is definitely worth the read.
[Screenshot via this promo for this weekend’s races.]
Contact the author at stef.schrader@jalopnik.com.