No. 68 Ganassi GTE penalized, still keeps Le Mans win
Chip Ganassi Racing’s win in the GTE-Pro class at Le Mans stands despite two penalties handed down after the race.
The No. 68 car, driven by Dirk Mueller, Joey Hand and IndyCar driver Sebastian Bourdais won the GTE class by approximately a minute at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday morning. But officials penalized the team 70 seconds; 50 seconds for speeding in a local yellow zone and 20 seconds for a violation regarding its wheel speed sensors.
70 seconds is greater than 60 seconds, of course. So how did the team keep the win? Well, the second-place No. 82 Ferrari team was penalized. From SportsCar 365:
The Stewards upheld its ruling to force Risi to repair its car’s broken leader lights, following a protest lodged by Ford Chip Ganassi Racing in the final hour of the race.
The team has been given a 20-second post-race penalty and 5,000 Euro fine as a result of not adhering to the black-and-orange flag.
A Risi team representative told Sportscar365 they will not appeal the ruling.
The site also said a protest that Ganassi’s No. 68 car was outside the speed window of the GTE-Pro class has not been ruled on yet. GTE-Pro cars are required to maintain a 7 percent gap behind the speed of LMP2 class cars.
The win by Ford comes 50 years to the day it swept the podium at the famed 24-hour race. The automaker joined forces with Ganassi in sports car racing this season as Ganassi formed a GT program to compete in IMSA and World Endurance Challenge races. Prior to 2015, Ganassi had fielded a full-time Daytona Prototype team in IMSA.
It also means Ganassi’s decorated resume has another bullet point. With the win at Le Mans, Ganassi now has wins in the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500, Rolex 24 at Daytona, Brickyard 400 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Not bad, eh?
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
