Corvette’s Tommy Milner was displeased with BMW’s Augusto Farfus, who blocked him in his fight to retain the lead with the #1 BMW late at Daytona.
Speaking after he completed his stint, Milner said: “That’s not what IMSA is about, sports car racing is about.
“First and foremost, the driver should be embarrassed, the team should be embarrassed… with that kind of racing.
“It is team racing here but not like that.
“They have a car that’s laps down out of the race whose only job is basically only to help the teammate, and not like that.
“Lap after lap, blocking, blocking, blocking, waiting for me … It’s disappointing.
GTD Pro class leader in the 22nd racing hour of the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s 24 Hours of Daytona, Milner, fended off the #1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO driven by Connor de Phillippi.
De Phillippi tried to pass the #4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R having used the side-draft and head-on slipstream to keep within distance of the yellow machine.
The pair came across the #48 BMW of Farfus, who was 57 laps down due to earlier misfortune in the race.
Blue flags notified Farfus of the pair behind although he was not obligated to surrender his track position with immediacy as per IMSA etiquette.
Given the existing challenge for a GT driver to overtake another GT car under racing circumstances, race control noted and penalised Farfus with a drive-through penalty for blocking Milner for providing an advantage to their #1 team-mate car.
Milner on the repercussions of his clash
“I don’t have an issue with #1 car. Those guys are in their own race. It’s just the sister car that’s out there just to be a nuisance.
“Poor sportsmanship, poor driving, just embarrassing on their part.
“… In the end what hurt us the most was to continue to stay out after they had a blocking penalty to block more.
“Whoever was in the #48 really slowed me up in (Turn) Three and got me a little bit crossed up and put me into the #1.
“The car isn’t totally right for sure,” he alluded to the rear-end damage to his #4 Corvette, “There’s lasting damage from all of that for sure, not to mention the problems we had with the bumper.
“… It’s a shame for us to work that hard to put us into contention to have a good result and for it to be spoiled like that was pretty pathetic.”
BMW’s statement from Augusto Farfus added: “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.”
Milner and his co-drivers Nico Varrone and Nicky Catsburg finished in seventh place by the end with the sibling #3 Corvette on the GTD Pro podium, splitting the two Mustangs.
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