{"id":560738,"date":"2026-03-24T08:39:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T08:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/560738\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T08:39:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T08:39:17","slug":"imsa-team-boss-refuses-rivals-apology-for-idiotic-285000-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/560738\/","title":{"rendered":"IMSA team boss refuses rival\u2019s apology for \u2018idiotic\u2019 $285,000 crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Split-Image-diagonal-imsa-corvette.jpg\" alt=\"IMSA team boss refuses rival\u2019s apology for \u2018idiotic\u2019 $285,000 crash\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLMP2 driver Parker Thompson and GTD driver Henrik Hedman clash during the Sebring 12 Hours.<\/p>\n<p>Driving for Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1\/Mathiasen, LMP2 driver Thomspon sideswiped the GTD class DragonSpeed Corvette Z06 GT3.R driven by Henrik Hedman.<\/p>\n<p>The contact, which happened an hour and 50 minutes into the contest, sent the Corvette into a tyre bundle and caused significant damage.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson was in just his second start in the LMP2 class driving the pole position-winning #52 Oreca 07 Gibson.<\/p>\n<p>He was given a five-minute stop-and-hold penalty for the incident, which took them out of the contest.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with official broadcaster IMSA Radio, the Canadian driver offered an apology for the clash.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s totally my fault,\u201d said Thomspon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw Casper [Stevenson] and Giacomo [Altoe] and I\u2019ve got to go over to the rest of the DragonSpeed guys and apologise but they were busy putting the car together to get it back on track. It was great to see them back on track.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there was one car you didn\u2019t want to hit, it\u2019s those guys. I saw what happened at Daytona. It\u2019s not what you wanted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no excuse. I used to be a GT guy; I saw the monstrosities (sic) that the LMP2 field has committed on the GT group, but I\u2019m not making an excuse for the P2 guys.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou just don\u2019t realise how long of a wheelbase that car (LMP2) has. It caught me out today. I\u2019d like to forget about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">This is Elton. Apologized, Means NOTHING. You should have a race ban. Your car was back on the lead lap a few hours later. \u201cCar is long\u201d Idiot you hit us with your side pod. Chassis damaged, 200k in parts. All for an idiotic under no pressure with all the road available AM move <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/11eUKk0MZh\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/11eUKk0MZh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 DragonSpeed (@DragonSpeedLLC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DragonSpeedLLC\/status\/2036074285194944906?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The DragonSpeed-run Corvette eventually returned to the track after spending nearly a quarter of the race undergoing repairs.<\/p>\n<p>In a response to Thomspon\u2019s comments, Julian unleashed an online tirade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cApologised, Means nothing,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou should have a race ban. Your car was back on the lead lap a few hours later. \u201cCar is long\u201d Idiot you hit us with your side pod.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChassis damaged, 200k in parts. All for an idiotic (sic) under no pressure with all the road available Am[ateur] move.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thompson is an experienced driver with IMSA SportsCar Championship wins in GTD.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old offered some insight into the graduation from GTD to LMP2 and the driving standards between the two classes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe more time you can get behind the wheel of anything, the more perspective you\u2019re going to have \u2013 especially in multi-class racing,\u201d Thompson explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s funny the perspective you take away from it because there\u2019s plenty of GTs that probably deserve to get hit today because they\u2019re turning in on us, they\u2019re doing bad stuff to us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cP2s always take a bad rap but we don\u2019t have ABS. When we chose to brake in a straight line and we fire it in there, we can\u2019t move.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a game you have to play and everybody has to respect each other.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s terrible to see,\u201d he said of the clash with DragonSpeed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s my second [LMP2] race, I can just be better and hopefully\u2026 as I grow up and mature in P2, just remember that incident and never do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/294243\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/294243.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LMP2 driver Parker Thompson and GTD driver Henrik Hedman clash during the Sebring 12 Hours. Driving for Bryan&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,54753,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-560738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-imsa","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}