Driving for Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen, LMP2 driver Thomspon sideswiped the GTD class DragonSpeed Corvette Z06 GT3.R driven by Henrik Hedman.
The contact, which happened an hour and 50 minutes into the contest, sent the Corvette into a tyre bundle and caused significant damage.
Thompson was in just his second start in the LMP2 class driving the pole position-winning #52 Oreca 07 Gibson.
He was given a five-minute stop-and-hold penalty for the incident, which took them out of the contest.
Speaking with official broadcaster IMSA Radio, the Canadian driver offered an apology for the clash.
“It’s totally my fault,” said Thomspon.
“I saw Casper [Stevenson] and Giacomo [Altoe] and I’ve got to go over to the rest of the DragonSpeed guys and apologise but they were busy putting the car together to get it back on track. It was great to see them back on track.
“If there was one car you didn’t want to hit, it’s those guys. I saw what happened at Daytona. It’s not what you wanted.
“There’s no excuse. I used to be a GT guy; I saw the monstrosities (sic) that the LMP2 field has committed on the GT group, but I’m not making an excuse for the P2 guys.
“You just don’t realise how long of a wheelbase that car (LMP2) has. It caught me out today. I’d like to forget about it.”
This is Elton. Apologized, Means NOTHING. You should have a race ban. Your car was back on the lead lap a few hours later. “Car is long” Idiot you hit us with your side pod. Chassis damaged, 200k in parts. All for an idiotic under no pressure with all the road available AM move pic.twitter.com/11eUKk0MZh
— DragonSpeed (@DragonSpeedLLC) March 23, 2026
The DragonSpeed-run Corvette eventually returned to the track after spending nearly a quarter of the race undergoing repairs.
In a response to Thomspon’s comments, Julian unleashed an online tirade.
“Apologised, Means nothing,” he wrote on X.
“You should have a race ban. Your car was back on the lead lap a few hours later. “Car is long” Idiot you hit us with your side pod.
“Chassis damaged, 200k in parts. All for an idiotic (sic) under no pressure with all the road available Am[ateur] move.”
Thompson is an experienced driver with IMSA SportsCar Championship wins in GTD.
The 28-year-old offered some insight into the graduation from GTD to LMP2 and the driving standards between the two classes.
“The more time you can get behind the wheel of anything, the more perspective you’re going to have – especially in multi-class racing,” Thompson explained.
“It’s funny the perspective you take away from it because there’s plenty of GTs that probably deserve to get hit today because they’re turning in on us, they’re doing bad stuff to us.
“P2s always take a bad rap but we don’t have ABS. When we chose to brake in a straight line and we fire it in there, we can’t move.
“It’s a game you have to play and everybody has to respect each other.
“It’s terrible to see,” he said of the clash with DragonSpeed.
“It’s my second [LMP2] race, I can just be better and hopefully… as I grow up and mature in P2, just remember that incident and never do it again.”
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