Confusion marks ends of IMSA Detroit qualifying

A confusing end to Prototype qualifying left IMSA in a bit of a tough spot, with the No.5 Action Express Racing Cadillac awarded the pole for Saturday's 1h40m Chevy Sports Car Classic when two separate sections of IMSA's Rule 40.2 on qualifying segments were triggered. 

Ricky Taylor crashed approximately halfway through the session and caused a red flag; he wasn't injured. Although Taylor's No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R held pole at the time of his crash, IMSA's Rule 40.2.5 requires a driver's best time to be erased if they trigger the red flag. So on top of the required deletion of Taylor’s fast time, IMSA employed the second option in Rule 40.2.5 and moved the No. 10 to the back of the Prototype field. Compounding the confusion, IMSA also requires a minimum of 10 minutes of green-flag running in qualifying to set the starting order for each class (40.2.1). If that minimum is not met, the grid – Prototype in this case – is set on the Team's Championship standings.

With Taylor's crash keeping the Prototype field from reaching the minimum time, he managed to lose his fastest lap and pole for creating the stoppage.

IMSA released this statement after qualifying:

IMSA said Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa had been put on pole subsequent to subsections of Rule 40.2, which, after the sections on causing a red flag and meeting the green flag minimum time, reads: 

"In any circumstance, should less than the [green flag minimum time] have been available during any
segment, the starting grid shall be ordered by class in the order P, PC, GTLM, GTD and qualifying for that segment abandoned. The grid order within any abandoned segment is established by “other means” (Art. 40.2.11)."

Article 40.2.11(A) continues that "The Car with the most Team championship points in that same class for the current season shall be gridded first, with other Cars following in descending order." AXR sits second in points, trailing the No.10 team 141-119.

AXR's sister car of Dane Cameron and Eric Curran will start second, with the JDC-Miller Oreca 07 Gibson of Misha Goikhberg and Stephen Simpson starting third. The No. 31 sits third in points with 111, one better than JDC-Miller Motorsports. 

Unfortunately, there’s nothing contained in the Rule 40.2.11, or Section A, that acknowledges the prior use of Rule 40.2.5, nor does it state that a penalty given to a car with Rule 40.2.5 can be carried over to 4.2.11. Rule 40.2.11 and Section A also fails to give instructions on what can or can’t be done with a car like the No. 10 that ran afoul of Rule 40.2.5 when using Team points to set the grid.

Going strictly by what is written in its own rulebook, there’s nothing within 40.2.11, which IMSA used to set the grid, that says the Team’s championship leader can start anywhere other than first in class.

Had 40.2.11 and/or Section A included a passage that said "the Team championship leader cannot start first if it caused a violation of Rule 40.2.1 (minimum qualifying time) or was assessed a penalty with Rule 40.2.5," the pathway to placing the No. 5 AXR Cadillac on pole would be covered. As Section A stands, that latitude is not granted. Although this oversight will surely be addressed in the 2018 rulebook, it remains missing in IMSA’s self-written guide to race governance for the rest of 2017.

"It is a lot easier to drive a racecar than go through all of this rule complication to get a pole position," Fittipaldi said. "I am happy to be starting in the front. I am still a little frustrated the way it happened. We have an extremely competitive car and I wanted to show that in qualifying. Sometimes the rules go in your favor and sometimes they don't - today they did.”

Taylor, who will start 12th (behind all Prototypes and the three PC cars) accepted full responsibility for the wave of confusion that stemmed from a simple meeting with the wall.

"It was my mistake," he said. "I was pushing hard in qualifying like usual. The only regret is that it happened early in the session and we didn't have a back-up qualifying lap. I feel bad for the team. We can still have a good race tomorrow. I am optimistic. We didn't need this, I hate it for the team. The race is a short one and I have a lot of faith in our guys."

James French took his seventh career PC pole and third of 2017 (from four rounds) for the dominant Performance Tech Motorsports team. The Wisconsinite took pole with a lap of 1m28.494s, a full 4.672s ahead of second place in the three-car PC category.

"It's always great to get pole for the team," said French, whose team has won all three PC races held so far this year. "It's been really good so far."

Stevenson Motorsports' Lawson Aschenbach set a new qualifying record on the way to earning GT Daytona pole on Friday. The American's No. 57 Audi R8 LMS GT3 paced the session leading into time trials and used the setup information to record a lap of 1m30.200s, which was well clear of Katherine Legge in the No. 93 Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 (+0.341s) and the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 driven by Bryan Sellers (+0.563s).

"This GTD class is the most competitive in IMSA right now," Aschenbach said. "There are so many good teams and good drivers. Getting pole means something. I really have to say thanks to all the guys for keeping after it the last few months. Just really proud of this pole."

Legge's run to the front row in GTD marked the best to date for the new Acura team, and it came after the sister No. 86 Acura spent most of the day parked under the tent while repairs were being made after a crash by Ozz Negri in the morning. The No. 86 did venture out in qualifying for a shakedown lap with Jeff Segal at the controls, but a hard run was not performed and it is expected to start last in Saturday's 1h40m race.

NEXT UP: Morning warmup, 8:00 a.m. ET