The following hearing of the International Court of Appeal took place in Paris on Friday 17 October 2014:

 

Appeal brought by the Hong Kong Automobile Association (HKAA) on behalf of its license holder, Team Craft Bamboo AMR, against a decision dated 3 July 2014 of the Japan Automobile Federation about a primary decision of the Race Stewards of the Meeting of Autopolis counting towards the 2014 GT Asia Series by which car n°97 (Driver Richard Lyons) was excluded from the results of race two

 

On 1 June 2014, following the announcement of the provisional results of race n°2 of the Autopolis event, the competitor Clearwater Racing Team lodged a protest against the competitor Team Craft Bamboo AMR, car n°97, on the grounds that this car had contravened the application of the sporting regulations by not respecting a drive through penalty that was imposed on it and by ignoring the black flag that was subsequently shown to it.

 

On the basis of this protest, the Stewards decided to exclude car n°97 from race n°2 of the competition.

 

The competitor Team Craft Bamboo AMR decided to lodge an appeal before the Japanese National Court of Appeal.

 

On 3 July 2014, the Japanese National Court of Appeal decided to confirm the decision of exclusion of car n°97 from race n°2 of the Competition.

On 10 July 2014, the Hong Kong Automobile Association (HKAA) on behalf of its licence-holder, Team Craft Bamboo AMR, decided to appeal this decision before the International Court of Appeal

 

Decision of the International Court of Appeal

 

The Court, after having heard the parties and examined their submissions, decided to:

- quash the decision taken by the Court of Appeal of the JAF for lack of jurisdiction;

- declare that in the circumstance it cannot rule on the substance of the Appeal;

- confirm the definitive nature of Decision n°15 dated 1 June 2014 taken by the Stewards of the competition at Autopolis (Japan) counting towards the international series called GT Asia Series 2014.

 

The International Court of Appeal was presided over by Mr Philippe ROBERTI de WINGHE (Belgium), and included Mr Thierry JULLIARD (Switzerland), Mr Jean LUISI (France) and Mr David MILES (Australia).