Full Throttle

Fines have been handed out for the recent “side-by-side” action in this past weekends Grand Prix of Miami. The race was won by Andy Wallace and Milka Duno, who co-drove the #2 CITGO Pontiac Crawford to the first Rolex Sports Car Series win for Howard-Boss Motorsports.

Grand American Road Racing Association has fined Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype drivers Max Papis and Jan Magnussen $5,100 each for “unacceptable driving tactics” following a review of the final stages of last Saturday’s Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

In addition to the fines, each driver will also be required this year to spend a day of community service at one of the U.S.-based Hole in the Wall Camps, the world’s only network of camps for children with life-threatening illnesses founded by actor and racer Paul Newman in 1988. The $10,200 in total driver fines will be paid directly to Camp Boggy Creek, Newman’s Florida camp, to fund six campers for the 2004 summer sessions.

Battling for the lead with less than 10 laps to go in Miami, Papis, driving the CompUSA Chip Ganassi Racing #01 Lexus Riley XI, and Magnussen, behind the wheel of the Doran-Lista Racing #27 Lexus Doran JE4, made repeated contact for nearly an entire lap around the 2.3-mile road course.

The assignment of community service is certainly a novel approach to an on track incident. That in addition to fines being paid to a childrens charity is certainly better than filling the coffers of the sanctioning body.