Daytona 24 Hour organisers admit to 'officiating error'

Organisers of the IMSA Sports Car Championship have admitted they made a mistake during the ending of the Daytona 24 Hours which resulted in the leaders taking the chequered flag twice.

There was confusion when the white flag, used to signal the final lap, was shown in error with three minutes of the 24 hour still remaining.

The car that was shown it first at the 24 hour mark was the GTD class leader, which is the race time the overall winner should have recorded.

Felipe Nasr, who took outright victory in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport along with Dane Cameron, Matt Campbell and Josef Newgarden, received the chequered flag with 1m35.277s remaining.

IMSA admits mistake

IMSA organisers admitted its error in a statement: “Due to an officiating error in race control, IMSA inadvertently announced and subsequently displayed the white flag with under three minutes remaining in the race.

“At the end of the lap, the race-leading No. 7 GTP car then received the checkered flag with 1 minute, 35.277 seconds still remaining, ending the race short of the planned 24 hours by effectively one lap.

“Based on Article 49 of the 2024 IMSA Sporting Regulations and Standard Supplementary Regulations, should the checkered flag be inadvertently or otherwise displayed before the leading car completes the scheduled number of laps or before the prescribed time has been completed, the race is nevertheless deemed ended when the flag is displayed.”