Dempsey-Proton Racing stripped of WEC season points

Dempsey-Proton Racing has been stripped of all points scored in the current FIA World Endurance Championship 'super season' after it was found to be using a data logger that altered its recognised refuelling times.

Dempsey-Proton Racing fields two Porsche 911 RSR cars in the GTE-Am class of the WEC, and had been leading the drivers' championship ahead of this weekend's race in Shanghai with Christian Ried, Matt Campbell and Julian Andlauer in the #77 entry.

However, both the #77 and #88 Porsche entries have now been stripped of all points scored this season after a post-race check at the 6 Hours of Fuji in October found a data logger had been "transferring false information" that resulted in a "fradulent process."

Officials confirmed that a line of code had been found in the team's data logger that increased the time of the refuelling sensor signal sent to the FIA's official data logger by two seconds, with modifications made for the WEC rounds at Silverstone and Fuji.

Dempsey-Proton Racing told stewards that the change "was made by an external consultant with whom the team used to work" but refused to reveal the identity of the consultant or why he was allegedly dismissed. The team was advised at this point it was a breach of the FIA's International Sporting Code not to co-operate in an investigation.

The stewards also spoke with Markus Stolzenthaler, Porsche's head of customer service, who informed them "the modifications of the data logger can only have been done by the team concerned."

Dempsey-Proton Racing was then given another chance to co-operate, with the stewards giving the team one hour to consider its position. After just 30 minutes, the team informed the stewards it would stand by its position.

As a result, the stewards decided to penalise the team both for the offence with the data logger and for its failure to co-operate, resulting in the team being disqualified from the Fuji race, and for all its points scored through the super season to be stripped.

The stewards' notice ends with them saying they "consider this case a grave offence."

With this accounted for, fellow customer Porsche team Team Project 1 moves into the lead of both GTE-Am championships, with Jörg Bergmeister, Egidio Perfetti and Patrick Lindsey taking top spot in the drivers' standings.