Spencer Pigot has revealed that he had already congratulated Dragonspeed’s Gustavo Menezes on the LMP2 victory before Menezes was stripped of the win due to a drive time infringement.
Pigot initially finished second on the road in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA 07-Gibson, losing out to the #81 Dragonspeed ORECA of Menezes after a tight on-track battle.
After the race, however, it was revealed that Menezes’ bronze-rated partner Henrik Hedman had been two seconds short of completing his mandatory 45-minute drive time.
The pairing was therefore stripped of the win, which was handed to Pigot and co-driver Patrick Kelly.
“I had already said ‘good job’ to Gustavo,” Pigot said. “We used to race go-karts together. This is the first time we’ve raced against each other in probably 10 years, but it was cool to be back battling with him.
“I got out of the car and thought we finished second, I actually heard over the loudspeaker that they got a penalty.
It was as a surprise to me as it was to all of us.”
Pigot’s outing with the 2019 IMSA LMP2 champions was his debut in the championship’s LMP2 category after previously racing in the top class with Mazda and later Juncos Racing.
The Californian was brought in as a replacement for Simon Trummer, who was unable to fulfill his commitments due to travel issues and a clashing ELMS schedule.
“It’s great to get a win here at Sebring,” Pigot said. “I was close to a podium in the Twelve Hours, but never got to finish the race.
I just got a call from Bobby [Oergel, team owner] last week. I was sitting at home and they said they needed a driver and asked if I’d be interested.
I’m very thankful to them.”
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