Acura, Lexus driver dramas boil over at VIR

Acura, Lexus driver dramas boil over at VIR

IMSA

Acura, Lexus driver dramas boil over at VIR

By August 28, 2017 7:56 PM

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The on-track exchange between Lexus driver Sage Karam and Acura driver Katherine Legge during Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway has led to escalating tensions between drivers in both camps.

Karam’s 3GT Racing entry and Legge’s Michael Shank Racing car made side-to-side contact on the long run down VIR’s back straight, and twice more at the following corner where the nose of Legge’s NSX GT3 and rear bumper Karam’s RC F GT3 collided.

The final exchange broke the hood latches on Legge’s car, which flipped up and covered the windshield of her Acura (video below). After stopping for bodywork repairs, the MSR entry was eventually retired when a broken steering rack was discovered. IMSA race director Beaux Barfield reviewed the incidents and apportioned blame to Karam, who received a stop-plus-60-second penalty.

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After the incident, Shank offered a frank assessment of Karam’s driving in an interview with FOX Sports 1, and shortly after, Karam visited his pits to discuss and reconcile the matter. Legge’s teammate Andy Lally remained angered after the race-ending contact, and took to Twitter to engage Karam:

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Speaking with RACER on Monday, both drivers were asked whether the incident has been buried or if further discussions would take place.

“There’s no more talk needed,” Lally said. “That won’t get us anywhere. Actions speaks louder than words – he crossed the line, and I’m fed up with it. This is a dangerous sport; we race hard, and in gray areas, but there are certain things a driver can do to put himself out of bounds and be labeled reckless. You can’t drive across a driver’s nose and play chicken on the straights.”

Karam (pictured below) said he would like to speak with Lally, but will continue to refrain from using social media as a platform for interaction.

“I would like to talk to him and I sent him a message with my phone number,” he added. “He took it to Twitter, which I didn’t want to do. I don’t think it needed to be a public matter. I spoke to Mike Shank and we had a really good discussion. He did an interview on TV about me [but] he calmed down after when we spoke. Me and Mike are cool.”

From his vantage point, the initial contact with Legge was a byproduct of hard but fair racing.

“In my honest opinion, I came off the Oak Tree corner and got wheelspin,” he said. “I saw Katherine had a little bit of a run and faded to the left. I’ve watched the overhead camera like 20 times and there was a lane [open for Legge]. It was very tight, but there wasn’t a need for contact. Then she ran me in the grass in the brake zone. I got it slowed down in the corner at a weird place and she got into the back of me. Then she got into me again, which I think was unintentional.”

With Lally and Karam serving as the only two IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers with extensive combat sports training, defusing the situation before the series returns at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Sept. 24 is important. Given the month or so between VIR and Monterey, calmer heads should prevail and, from Karam’s side, moving forward in a clean manner is necessary.

“I didn’t not mean to have contact with her and race her dirty; I wanted to make things hard for her and was doing everything I could to stay in front, but it was hard racing,” he said. “I hate that they say I’m the only one who races like this. At Long Beach, Lally hit me a couple of times in the race so it goes both ways. The Corvette and the Ford were banging the whole way down the straightaway [at VIR], but there was no penalty there and you don’t see them fighting on Twitter.”

IMSA, WeatherTech Sportscar Championship

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