Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring overall race winner Marino Franchitti has joined the chorus of drivers and fans who see a need for IMSA, sanctioning body for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, to tighten its minimum driving standards.

More than five hours of racing were spent under yellow or red flag conditions during Saturday’s event. A staggering 11 caution periods were produced due to a comedy of driving errors, needless crashes and potentially lethal mistakes made by some who drove into traffic while recovering from crashes and spins.

Franchitti, who shared the victorious No. 01 Ganassi Riley-Ford EcoBoost turbo with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, made an appearance on this week’s episode of Radio Le Mans’ Midweek Motorsport show to share what’s become a common refrain since Saturday’s race.

“The thing that really upset me was some of the driving on track,” said Franchitti. “Some of these guys have no business being in a professional motor race. In fact, I’m amazed they can drive from the hotel to the track without doing themselves some mischief. I think a lot of the incidents we saw early in the race were from – yeah, pros get it wrong, don’t get me wrong – but a lot of these amateur drivers were getting into situations, and pros are coming around the corner, and pros are having to react to something that’s is completely crazy. Or, these guys are trying to react to situations that they’re just not capable of reacting to.”

Some of the most serious accidents that took place this year were created by Pro-Am drivers, but not all, as Franchitti rightly comments, while countless other near hits were reported from the moment practice began.

Franchitti’s teammate – 2013 IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon, who drove the sister No. 02 Riley-Ford – forecasted what ultimately took place in the race when he spoke with RACER after practice Thursday night.

“Racing here is very different to Daytona where you’ve got a lot of straights, a lot of 90- and 180-degree corners, long braking zones, it’s well lit, and passing is easy. Here, it’s a lot different. There’s stuff everywhere. There’s guys on the right side of the track turning into a right-hand corner…,” said the Kiwi, describing a lack of basic apexing being demonstrated.

“Most of the time you hope the guy in front of you knows where he’s going, but you end up most of the time driving defensively because you have no idea what’s going to happen in front of you. And then you get into those halfway moments where you think they left the door open but they didn’t and you’re diving out of the way or trying to stop in time so you don’t get hit. It’s kind of mad out there, especially at night.”

Sebring runner-up David Brabham added his take on the situation in his post-race column on RACER.com.

“Driving standards were also to blame,” he wrote. “There seems to be too many drivers that don’t have the necessary skills to drive in that environment and we had some nasty accidents. I think we were very lucky someone didn’t get hurt. I feel very strongly that things need to be looked at and changed for the better. I hope the series will be prepared to adjust and adapt to something that’s a bit more sustainable.”
Overhauling the current driver rating system that awards Bronze or Silver status to amateurs, and Gold or Platinum to the professionals is a worthy consideration. While many drivers are capable of meeting the minimum standards to receive Bronze or Silver ranking and gain access to race in the TUDOR Championship, a peer review of driving history and general skill level would also seem to be a valuable prerequisite to adopt before participation is allowed.

With some cash-strapped teams willing to rent seats to anyone with a Bronze or Silver rating and cashier’s check in hand, Franchitti questions whether doing business has been allowed to overtake safety as the first priority.

“What people need to look at is the [driver ratings], Bronze and Silver and all this,” Franchitti added. “Because there’s guys sitting on the sidelines that shouldn’t be, and it’s hurting people’s livelihoods, but not only that, you’re putting all of us in harm’s way by making people on track attractive to teams, and you have to have some kind of minimum standards. I said on a tweet the other night that Skip Barber should put [on a driver’s school], and I was almost serious because it was absolutely awful.

“I’ve driven [in the] Nurburgring 24 Hours in the old days when you’ve had 220 cars, everything from a VW Polo to a fire-breathing GT2 car, and I’ve never seen anything like [this].”

The next event on the TUDOR Championship calendar is Long Beach, where a shortened race for the pro categories (Prototype and GT Le Mans) will be held. IMSA has until the May 4 event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to make adjustments to its Pro-Am licensing, although Prototype and GTLM will run a separate two-hour race from the PC and GT Daytona classes.

All four classes will run together for the first time (since Sebring) on June 29 at Watkins Glen, which also counts toward the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup.​