The 62nd running of the 12 Hours of Sebring has been eviscerated by fans, drivers, and the racing media in the wake of IMSA's celebration of incompetence in Central Florida last Saturday.

In case you missed it, more than five hours of the 12-hour race were spent under caution for silly crashes, fires, and bonehead moves that came from on-track maneuvers and from inside the control tower.

Of all the tales to emerge from the second race in the newly unified TUDOR United SportsCar Challenge, the story of how Alex Job Racing's (AJR) No. 22 Porsche 911 GT America was penalized for contact with a rival car that it never touched will go down in Sebring infamy.

The white, WeatherTech-sponsored AJR Porsche runs in the GT Daytona class (GTD), a step below GT Le Mans (GTLM), where the big factory efforts from BMW, Corvette Racing, SRT Viper, Ferrari and, coincidentally, Porsche fight for manufacturer honors.

Porsche's factory team fields a pair of 911 RSRs and won the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona with its No. 911 car. The sister No. 912 car broke and did not finish. As we set up the "who and what" part of the story, note also that in GTD, every car is required to race on spec tires supplied by Continental, and the GTD cars' rear-wing endplates are painted blue to distinguish them from the GTLM cars, which have red endplates. GTLM allows open tire competition, and Porsche, along with most of the teams, runs Michelins.

Marshall Pruett

IMSA, the sanctioning body that runs the TUDOR Championship events, radioed AJR at 6:18 p.m. and ordered the No. 22 car to the pits to serve a penalty for avoidable contact. The No. 49 Ferrari F458 was hit under braking and spun, losing time.

AJR replied to IMSA race directors via an instant messaging system used on pit lane and asked them to review their information, because AJR's driver said no contact was made.

IMSA responded at 6:19 and said, "Negative, he was actually involved with 49 in Turn 7."

At 6:20, AJR replied and asked, "Can you give us some help here, Lap number, etc.? Driver says he didn't hit anyone."

At 6:23, IMSA answered, "Very late overtake, hit 49 in left rear." For accuracy's sake, let's point out here that the No. 49 was actually hit in the right rear.

The back and forth continues until IMSA contacts AJR at 6:25 with a threatening note: "You are out of laps to serve this."

In a span of seven minutes, IMSA decided AJR's No. 22 Porsche, which was running second in the GTD class, was guilty of hitting and spinning the No. 49. AJR pled innocence and asked IMSA to verify its information. With a limited amount of time permitted between being notified of an offense and serving the penalty for said offense, race directors issue a final threat to AJR: pay the price for this crime—a stop-and-hold plus 80 seconds—or IMSA will stop scoring the car.

Tried and convicted in record time with no chance of appeal, Alex Job summoned his car to the pits at 6:25 to visit IMSA's penalty box, where it then sat idle for 80 seconds. The team went from vying for the class win to losing a lap and any chance of victory.

Job, who ranks as one of the most respected men in sports car racing, refused to take this one lying down. With his white Porsche supposedly carrying battle scars from hammering the red Ferrari out of the way, he asked the IMSA official in the penalty box to report back what sort of damage he found on the left front corner. The official found none.

After serving the penalty, Job got an IM at 6:27 asking him to come visit race control to view the video evidence IMSA used to confirm the No. 22's guilt. At this point, you might be wondering how IMSA's judicial system of "Hey, we just convicted you, want to come see the evidence?" makes any sense.

Well, it doesn't.

In a 12-hour race, and with approximately four hours left to run when this incident took place, IMSA had plenty of time to listen to Job, hear both sides, factor in the lack of visual contact marks on the No. 22 car, and review more video until a proper conclusion could made.

Marshall Pruett

Job went up to the tower, asked to see the IMSA's video, and despite rumors to the contrary, he was never shown in-car footage of the clash. Instead, IMSA dialed up trackside footage captured by the TV broadcast on the entrance to Turn 7:

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This is where things spiral into absurdity.

Job immediately saw that the culprit was actually the No. 912 works GTLM Porsche. In fact, both factory Porsches are seen in the video. The No. 911 was ahead of the Ferrari as the No. 912, with its mandatory red GTLM endplates, punted the Prancing Horse.

Let's rewind for just a moment: Job, after being called up by IMSA to see the exact video used by IMSA's race stewards to convict his GTD entry of a crime, was the party who pointed out the No. 912 car's red endplates to IMSA—to the folks who wrote said endplates into the series rules.

Adding further insult, Job also pointed out that his car, with its easily identifiable giant WeatherTech logo, was well clear of this incident. The three IMSA stewards were speechless.

Job then asked how IMSA planned to correct the situation. The reply from race officials? "I don't know."

Job inquired about getting back the 80 seconds and the time his car lost driving down pit lane, but this was met with indifference by race officials. A caution period soon followed, giving IMSA a chance to undo its error while the race was under yellow. The No. 22 had fallen from second to seventh as a result of this fiasco. No response was given despite multiple requests from AJR to get its lap back or receive some other make-good measure to to compensate for IMSA's error.

IMSA resisted Job's repeated requests for some form of time credit right to the end of the race. Thanks to exceptional driving and race strategy, the No. 22 clawed its way back to finish fourth, but that did little to appease the wronged team. The No. 912 Porsche—the guilty party in the Ferrari incident—went on to win the GTLM class.

Marshall Pruett

If the story ended there, it would read like a stupid mistake—a group of officials unable to tell their own classes and cars apart—with unfortunate consequences for the team that was unfairly penalized.

Unfortunately, the epilogue to the debacle is less than confidence-inspiring.

After recognizing its error, thanks to Job's in-person review of their trackside video with a few hours left to run, IMSA was determined to send a message. It was going to get the call right, you see.

Race directors sent word to the factory Porsche team and said that the guilty car needed to stop and serve an 80-second hold.

Like Job, Porsche protested the call and said IMSA got it wrong, but the series wouldn't hear it. Punishment was required, even after so much time had gone by. Porsche eventually complied, producing the exact car IMSA demanded:

The No. 911.

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