IMSA enacts sandbagging rule, Lamborghini penalized after Rolex 24

Lamborghini and its customer teams have been hit with a series of penalties following last month’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, IMSA announced Monday.

All five of the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 entries, fielded by Konrad Motorsport, Paul Miller Racing, O’Gara Motorsport and Change Racing, have been given post-race time penalties equivalent to a stop and hold plus 5-minute penalty.

Additionally, Lamborghini has lost all of its GTD championship points from Daytona and has also been given a $25,000 fine.

The ruling comes in the wake of an alleged performance advantage by the Italian manufacturer’s cars in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opener.

The four quickest race laps in GTD were all set by Huracan GT3 teams, with Richard Antinucci’s 1:45.873 time in the No. 11 O’Gara entry more than one second faster than the quickest time set by a non-Lamborghini.

IMSA said the penalties have been applied under Sporting Regulation Attachment 2, Paragraph 2.9, which states the following:

“Competitors and manufacturers are expected to provide valid data upon request to assist IMSA in the BoP process.

“Any competitor or manufacturer who deliberately gives false information, attempts to influence the BoP process, or displays a level of performance beyond the expected result may be issued a penalty prior to, during, or after a race of a minimum stop plus five (5) minutes.

“Penalties assessed after the race are added to the car’s finishing time for the race and may include a lap count penalty."

The ruling follows the completion of dyno testing of each of the Huracan GT3’s engines at NASCAR’s R&D center in Concord, N.C. All five of the engines, plus the GTD class-winning Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS powerplant, were impounded post-race for further inspection.

It is the first time IMSA has enacted its so-called “sandbagging" rule, which has been in the rulebook since the start of the 2014 season.

The revised results sees the fifth-place finishing No. 28 Konrad entry drop to 10th in class, with the O’Gara car losing one position (14th to 15th) and the remaining cars maintaining their finishing positions. Click Here for the revised unofficial results. John Dagys/Fox Sports