The 24 Hours of Daytona lasted… 23:58? IMSA explains itself after the arrival imbroglio

Did the intense finale of the 24 Hours of Daytona end too soon? As we approached the fateful hour, and Porsche and Cadillac were fighting for victory, the marshal responsible for the checkered flag waved it… with still two minutes remaining on the clock! Enough to cause total confusion in the garages, and also on the track.

If the No. 7 Porsche crossed the finish line first, Felipe Nasr did not hesitate to continue his effort one more lap, to avoid the slightest disillusionment. Finally, relief and joy invaded the Porsche Penske clan at the end of this last… useless lap. But what happened, and why was the checkered flag waved after “only” 23 hours and 58 minutes of racing?

A human error, says IMSA

In the aftermath of this imbroglio, IMSA wanted to explain the reasons for this malfunction. “Due to an error by the race direction, theIMSA inadvertently announced the white flag (to signify the last lap, Editor's note) and then deployed it less than three minutes from the end of the race. At the end of the lap, the race-leading Porsche #7 took the checkered flag with 1 minute and 35,277 seconds remaining, ending the race one lap behind the 24 hours expected. » 

The IMSA therefore recognizes a human error at the origin of the too hasty deployment of the checkered flag. The governing body also clarified that this incident would have no impact on the final ranking. “In accordance with Article 49 of the IMSA 2024 Sporting Regulations and Specific Regulations, if the checkered flag is inadvertently or otherwise displayed before the leading car has completed the scheduled number of laps or before the prescribed time has elapsed, the race is nevertheless considered finished when the checkered flag is displayed. »

The official classification is therefore taken into account when the No. 7 Porsche crosses the line under the checkered flag for the first time. Did this error have a real impact on the final result of the race? It's very unlikely. The two GTPs still in contention for victory, namely the #7 Porsche and the #31 Cadillac, were separated by more than two seconds and both had enough energy to complete one or more additional laps. But who knows, the science of racing is sometimes uncertain, one more lap could have changed the destiny of these 24 Hours of Daytona... if they had lasted 24 hours!

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