On Friday, GM cars were fastest in Practice 1 and Practice 2…in both classes. They backed it up in qualifying by locking out the front row…in both classes. The stage was set for GM to have their cake at their party Saturday in the Chevrolet Detroit Sportscar Classic.

GTP: Finally…

Earl Bamber controlled the start leading the field away from the start line, halfway down the backstretch on Jefferson Street. Going into Turn 3, which was the first turn of the race, Nick Yelloly seized the opportunity to take second position from Louis Deletraz. Meanwhile, further back, Kevin Estre made contact with Tom Blomqvist resulting in bodywork damage on the right rear of the No. 60 Acura.

Wasting No Time

The debris from Blomqvist’s car held on until Lap 3 when it fell off on the middle of the backstretch, resulting in a quick Full Course Yellow. On the restart, Kevin Estre in the No. 6 pounced on the Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque. Estre forced Albuquerque wide allowing he and teammate Felipe Nasr through on the No. 10 for Wayne Taylor Racing. The move, however, did bring damage to the right front of the No. 6 Porsche.

Nice, Solid Rhythm

After the opening yellow, the race was green for over an hour with clean racing. Teams focused on when they were going to make their one pit stop. Some teams decided to go ahead and pit at the first opportunity. Some may have been anticipating potential yellow while some saw looked at their window and pitted at the first opportunity to get to the end of the race.

Four cars – the two Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s, the No. 10 WTR Cadillac and the No. 25 WRT BMW – decided to go longer to attempt the leapfrog those ahead. These cars chose this strategy due to their starting at the rear of the field. Once all four pitted, the results were mixed. The No. 25 was the biggest winner as Phillip Eng returned to action in second after a brilliant drive from teammate Marco Wittman. The No. 6, who had to start last after Estre crashed the car in qualifying, was third after pit stops were complete. Once again, it looked like Porsche Penske Motorsport had delivered a strategic coup as Laurens Vanthoor was now in position to contend.

Overly Agressive

While there was little attrition, there were some aggressive racing. None more so than Laurin Heinrich. The No. 5 JDC-Miller Porsche, fresh off their Laguna Seca win, had a rough Detroit weekend. The car started at the back and while Heinrich was trying to make up position, had a battle with Roman De Angelis. Just before the halfway mark, the two made contact side-by-side in the Turn 3.

The battle continued through Turn 4 and that’s where things got ugly. On the run to Turn 5, Heinrich – already ahead – forced the No. 23 Aston Martin Valkyrie into the wall. The officials did not take kindly to this and the German was handed a Stop and sixty second hold penalty. Any outside chance the team was hoping could go in their favor was gone as the car returned to action two laps down.

The Vanthoor Brothers

We asked for it. We finally got it. The Vanthoor brothers, Laurens and Dries, finally met on track for the first time this season. This was a result of Dries drawing the ire of race control. The younger Vanthoor was given a drive-thru penalty for contact with the No. 14 Lexus. Once the brothers found each other mid-pack, they managed to give this race a little spice. Inside twenty-five minutes remaining, Dries and Laurens was battling for fourth when Dries ran into the back of Laurens going into Turn 3. The No. 6 Porsche suffered damage to the rear wing.

The damage from the collision caused debris from underneath the No. 6 to fall off on course at the exit of Turn 8. The debris resulted in the second full course yellow of the day with only twenty minutes to go. During the yellow, both Vanthoors were given penalties. Laurens was given a penalty due to the damage and had to come to the pits to repair the rear wing. Dries was given a penalty due to the contact with his brother resulting in the damage.

Untroubled

Up front, Jack Aitken was unphased. He was in his own zip code from the moment he took over from Bamber with a little over an hour remaining. The only time the rest of the GTP field got close was when he was lapping GTD PRO cars. On the two late race restarts, he pulled away from Phillip Eng with ease. Aitken’s season started with a third and three seconds, including the heartbreaking last lap at Laguna Seca. There would be no heartbreak today. The No. 31 Whelen Cadillac finished the job emphatically. Aitken took the checkered flag by six seconds to give he and Bamber a long overdue first win of the season. The statement win from Action Express Cadillac Racing moves Aitken into the lead in the driver’s championship.

Behind Aitken and Eng was a second Caddy. Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque rounded out the podium with a much needed third place finish for Wayne Taylor Racing. Let’s just hope they can keep the podium this time.

 

A commanding home win for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R and Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Photo Courtesy: Corvette Racing

GTD PRO: Corvette Dominates Through Late-Race Drama

Alexander Sims in his No. 3 Corvette led off the start and got to Turn 3 in the lead. However, Tommy Milner went wide resulting in the No. 4 Corvette going from second to forth. Under the first full course yellow, AO Racing decided to pit early and replace Harry King with Nick Tandy. Other GTD PRO teams did not wait for long to pit as soon as they hit their pit window to go to the end of the race.

Excursions

Raceday saw its fair share of offs, particularly in the GTD PRO class. Dennis Olsen had a costly off at Turn 8 shortly after taking over the No. 64 Mustang. Near simultaneously, Max Esterson found himself off at Turn 4 in the No. 59 RLL Team McLaren 720. Later on in the race, in a battle between the No. 4 Corvette and the No. 14 Lexus, Nicky Catsburg avoided the runoff. However, he nearly came to a complete stop in an attempt to stay out of the wall. Later, the No. 14 Lexus of Jack Hawksworth was spun by the No. 24 BMW at Turn 5. Little did we know the drama was far from over. In fact, it was just beginning.

Chaos Strikes

Take a deep breath. Here we go. With twelve minutes remaining, Nick Tandy put “Rexy” into the wall at Turn 5 after the restart. The car backed up and kept going without damage, but did bring out the yellow for the third and final time. Simultaneously, Jack Hawksworth made contact with Antonio Garcia on the front stretch. As a body panel fell off on the track, Hawksworth got under Garcia to take the lead going into Turn 1.

However, race control deemed the pass to happen after the yellow was called. Therefore, Hawksworth was asked to redress and give the position back to Garcia. To add insult to injury, Hawksworth was given a drive-thru penalty on the restart for contact with Garcia. Ouch.

With Hawksworth serving his penalty, Nicky Catsburg is fighting to hold off Aaron Telitz for second. With three minutes remaining, Telitz makes his move going into Turn 3. Catsburg defends leaving nowhere for Telitz to go, resulting in a collision and damage to both cars. The next lap at Turn 3, Christopher Mies gets punted by Max Esterson in the McLaren. Concurrently, race control hands Catsburg a penalty for his move on Telitz the lap prior. Speaking of penalties, (before you ask) of course Max Esterson had to serve a drive-thru for his stunt on the Mustang. Finally, for Telitz, the damage was too much and had to bring his wounded No. 15 Lexus in for service.

When The Dust Settled…Third Time’s The Charm

All of this happened behind Antonio Garcia. He and teammate Alexander Sims dominated this race – like the No. 31 in GTP – only giving up the lead during the pit stop cycle. For the defending GTD PRO champions, it’s their first series win since VIR in August. After being fast the last two years and coming up short, Corvette was not to be denied today in Detroit.

Behind the No. 3 Corvette, emerging from the late-race mayhem was the No. 9 Pfaff Lamborghini. Andrea Calderelli and Sandy Mitchell scored a massive second place finish to give the new Temerario its first podium in only its fourth race in IMSA. It’s also the first podium for Pfaff since last year’s Detroit sprint. Rounding out the podium are Daytona winners Connor De Philippi and Neal Verhagen in the No. 1 Paul Miller BMW. On a track that has not been very kind to BMW, a podium – no matter how you earn it – is happily accepted.

Rolling Through The Finger Lakes

IMSA is on hiatus for the next month as the sportscar world turns it focus to France for the 94th running of the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans. But the endurance racing doesn’t stop at Le Mans. When the teams returns from the Le Mans break, the IMSA paddock will reassemble at Watkins Glen International. The third leg of the Michelin Endurance Cup brings us to the historic Sahlen’s Six Hours at The Glen. All four classes will be ready to take on the 3.4-mile road course for the sixth meeting of the IMSA season June 25-28.

Headline Photo: The No. 31 Cadillac under the checkered flag taking victory on the Streets of Detroit Photo Courtesy: Cadillac Racing