Mountain Pass Performance made a splash when a video their driver being pulled of a podium went viral. While the disqualification of Mountain Pass Performance due to their use of the Tesla Model 3 has fans of the electric vehicle up in arms, it seems there is a another story to the disqualification.
The story is that the team was pulled from the podium due to another driver's complaint that the Tesla Model 3 was not using an approved fuel type. While the reason for Mountain Pass Performance's disqualification is true, it seems that the Mountain Pass Performance team was well aware of their disqualification prior to the award ceremony
Global Time Attack representative Tony Szirka spoke with Jalopnik about the Tesla Model 3 disqualification scandal. According to Szirka, the Mountain Pass Performance team were already informed about their disqualification prior to the awards ceremony. According to Szirka, the team was fine with the disqualification but had requested to be pulled from the podium for the extra attention.
Mountain Pass Performance confirms that they were disqualified from the event due to the Tesla Model 3 not using a listed approved fuel from the list. The team does also confirm that they were informed of their disqualification with one session left for the second day's events - not at the awards ceremony itself.
The team was offered to move from the Enthusiast class to the Unlimited class where no fuel restrictions were in place that would limit the Tesla Model 3's performance. Instead, Mountain Pass Performance chose to go for the disqualification as their performance ratings - while impressive for an unmodified Tesla Model 3 - would not compare to the performance of vehicles in the Unlimited class.
Despite the disqualification, Mountain Pass Performance's drama during the award ceremony may have payed off. Driver Sasha Anis' video on the Tesla Model 3's performance at Global Time Attack now has at least 90,000 views. This is in contrast to the usual number of views Anis' other videos have which range into a few thousands.
With the uproar over an electric vehicle's disqualification, it looks like auto sport events like Global Time Attack will have to update their rules to include electric vehicles in the future. In the same Jalopnik article, Tony Szirk does note that due to the Tesla Model 3's surprising performance and availability, electric vehicles will be more than welcome to compete in Global Time Attack by next year.
