Corvette Racing’s Tommy Milner and BMW Motorsport’s Augusto Farfus are both decorated racers with previous class wins in the 24 Hours of Daytona. Neither took home one of the coveted Rolex watches at this weekend’s Rolex 24 after Farfus, who was not in contention for the win, caused Milner, who was in the lead, to crash. As you might imagine, Milner was anxious to share his displeasure.
While racing is conceptually simple – the first one across the line wins – in practice it’s far more complex. This is especially true in car racing, where it would be a dangerous form of chaos if drivers were allowed to just crash into competitors in order to slow them down. This is a grey area, usually, and not everyone can agree on the difference between “defending” and “blocking.”
What happened at this weekend’s Rolex 24 is not really one of those gray areas. Milner, in the Corvette, was in the lead of the GTD Pro class in his Corvette C8 race car. The closest competitor was Connor de Phillippi in a BMW. With just three hours to go, both cars were duking it out for advantage.
If you fast forward to about 35 minutes into the video below you’ll see it gets a bit “argy bargy” as they say:
That’s racing! How Milner and de Phillippi race does involve contact, but both are clearly fighting for position on a track and neither pushes the other person off into the grass. Every series is different in what they allow and, since this is Daytona, I’ll just mention that NASCAR tends to give huge leeway to drivers to work it out on the track. IMSA, like most sports car racing, is a little less forgiving.
Here’s the IMSA rule, if you were curious:
Any Driver who, in the sole opinion of the Race Director, moves in reaction, altering their line based on the actions of pursuing Competitors, may be warned or penalized pursuant to Art. 57 of the RULES, and such decision is Conclusive
Where it breaks down is a little later when Milner and de Phillippi catch up with teammate Augusto Farfus in the other BMW in the GTD Pro class. That #48 BMW was already down a few laps and probably not in contention for the win. Farfus is quick enough to keep Milner behind him for most of the lap, but pushes it coming out of turn 1 and gets called in for a stop-and-go penalty. Milner, perhaps unaware of this, stays on the bumper of the lapped BMW going into the International Horseshoe. This is when Farfus appears to slow down in the corner. Boxed in between de Phillippii and Farfus, Milner collides with one of the BMWs and damages the rear splitter on his Corvette.
His response?
@nbcsports Tommy Milner was NOT HAPPY. ???????? #racing #cars #corvette
A GTD Pro car tops out at around 180 mph and the fastest any GT3-style car is going to go is on the oval (or NASCAR) section of the track. Given the rear damage and the drag created by his arm, it’s possible that Milner wasn’t going the full 180 mph, but he’s probably close enough.
This incident required two stops to repair and ultimately took Milner’s team out of the hunt for a win. The #1 BMW of de Phillippi finished 4th. The Farfus car finished a distant 12th, 55 laps back from the winning Mustang.
After the race, Milner didn’t hold back, explaining to IMSA Radio via Sportscar 365 why he made the gesture:
“That kind of racing is not what IMSA’s about,” Milner told IMSA Radio’s Nick Daman after his stint. “It’s not what sports car racing is about.
“First and foremost, the driver should be embarrassed. The team should be embarrassed. BMW should be embarrassed for that kind of racing.
“It is team racing here, but not like that when the other car that’s laps down, out of the race, whose only job is to basically help the teammate and not like that. Lap after lap after lap. Blocking, blocking, blocking. Waiting for me.
“It’s not how sports car racing should be. It’s disappointing. I don’t have an issue with the [No.] 1 car. Those guys are in their own race.
I have watched a lot of IMSA races, both on TV and in person, and teammates definitely help one another out when they can. This seems a little worse than that. A car that many laps down blocking the leader that far into a race sucks. In hindsight, if Milner had been aware that Farfus had to pit for a penalty I’m sure he’d have just backed off, but in the moment that’s a hard thing to consider.
Here’s what Farfus said after the race:
“The situation with the Corvette and our sister car was very difficult. My intention was to support my teammate in the sister car in the fight for victory. I was aware that it was hard racing. The situation that led to the collision between the Corvette and Connor De Phillippi behind me was very unfortunate – but I had nothing to do with it directly. I stayed on my inside line.”
You can watch the video and make up your own mind. It sure looks to me like he slowed down, though.
Again, racing is tough. Friend and sometimes Autopian contributor Parker Kligerman did his first 24 in the Forte Racing Lamborghini this weekend and went to sleep excited about leading a lot of laps in the non-pro GTD class, only to wake up and discover that an errant Ferrari crashed his car out of the race on a restart.
Screenshots from IMSA/NBC Sports. Bird image via Depositphotos.com
Thats what we call “A Flip and Run”
I know you all care about your job because you picked a bird picture that matched the car’s paint job. It was incredibly well done. Thank you.
I didn’t watch a ton of the race, but I did see that incident live and thought Milner’s anger was entirely justified.
I feel like every BMW race car has been intentionally gigantic since they came out with the M6’s years ago. I stopped following the series at that point because it was just watching cars get stuck behind BMW roadblocks.
IMSA needs blue flags.
Haha! Just like everyday life on public roads!
With about 15 minutes to go in the race, both Corvettes ganged up on the #1 BMW. The #3 did a short pit under caution and came out onto the course in 2nd place just ahead of the #1 BMW. Under green flag racing, the #3 Corvette held up the #1 BMW which allowed the #4 Corvette to catch up and spin the BMW off of the course. What comes around goes around.
Yeah we seem to be glossing over the revenge that was taken. I mean the #4 had a drive-thru penalty from the later action when the tables are turned, so Varrone was definitely guilty of some payback.
It wasn’t broadcast here, so doesn’t count to me
Looks like racing to me though.
If any of them want to stop, I would be happy to take the ride.
It was free on IMSA’d YouTube channel outside of North America.
There should be no team racing. Especially the 4 to 5 car teams. It should be everyone for the win. Maybe even pull off cars that are lapped to make it more exciting. Unless you want to do a race car and a EV Hummer to block and tackle. It is why I no longer watch. The BMW team should be suspended and fined both drivers. Don’t tell me that there was no radio contact going on.
I mean, I get the whole “his teammate blocked me!” angle, but that’s what happens when you decide to try and take the line of “follow this car directly” instead of trying to go around them. So then when the person he was following was slow (which, surprise, they’re many laps down) he just up and turned out into another car that was already on their line.
Yeah, to me that’s all on the Corvette driver.
IMSA needs a “move over” rule for cars that are more than a few laps down. That Beemer was 55 laps down at the time of the altercation. I get why they are still on track, but that’s just not right, being boxed in like that.
A well-deserved salute. Farfus was doing some dirty shit. Playing the team game is one thing, but he took it entirely too far.
I love the WeatherTech ad as a censor bar. Just absurd.
It’s always an awesome race and I always watch far too much of it. This year did not disappoint! Excellent racing down the stretch in the last hour.
The last minute surge by Acura in GTP was pretty sweet (Penske fan that I am), and Ford just barely got that third place in GTD Pro after the Vette was sent in for a penalty.
Yeah, the GTP battle at the end between the Acura and the two Porsches was great! Both GT classes had a nice battle going at the end there as well. I was happy for the privateer Vette that won GTD, always fun to see that.
Milner, after the race: https://i.chzbgr.com/full/3679783680/hF22D898A/do-you-ever-get-so-angry