2024 International GT Open Championship – ICA decision – Hearing 04 09 24 – Torcello s.r.l.

The following hearing of the International Court of Appeal took place on 4 September 2024 in Geneva:

Hearing

Case ICA-2024-07: Appeal lodged on behalf of Torcello s.r.l. (“Barone Rampante”) against Decision No. 4/2024 dated 4 June 2024 of the National Appeal and Disciplinary Court of the Real Federación Española de Automovilismo (“RFEdA”), in the framework of the 2024 International GT Open Championship.

On 11 May 2024, the Stewards issued Decision No. 24 thereby imposing a 5-second penalty on Competitor No. 786 (GetSpeed) for not having respected the track limit at Turn 1 of the Race, which constituted a breach of Article 19 paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Sporting Regulations. After the Race, Competitor No. 786 went to see the Stewards to explain that the track limits considered in the Decision were erroneous and asked them to reconsider it. After having checked the drone pictures of Turn 1 with the Race Control, the Stewards decided to annul Decision No. 24.

On 12 May 2024, Torcello s.r.l. lodged an intention to appeal against the “Race Classification” before the Spanish National Court of Appeal.

On 3 June 2024, the Spanish National Court of Appeal decided that the appeal was inadmissible on the grounds that the Final Classification had been published on the Official Notice Board on 11 May at 19:24 CET and the Appellant had lodged its intention to appeal on 12 May at 09:35 CET, i.e. after the time limit set out in Article 15.4.2.a of the International Sporting Code. This Decision was notified to the Appellant on 4 June 2024.

On 11 June 2024, the Appellant lodged an appeal against the Spanish National Court of Appeal before the ICA.

Decision of the International Court of Appeal

The Court, after having heard the parties and examined their submissions, decided to uphold Decision No. 4/2024 of the Appeal and Disciplinary Court of the Real Federación Española de Automovilismo (RFEdA) issued on 3 June 2024.

The International Court of Appeal was presided over by Mr Laurent NUSS (France), and included, Mr Philip MOSER (United Kingdom), Mr Kyle NOVAK (USA) and Mr Arnas PALIUKENAS (Lithuania).

Full decision is available here.