Opinion: Is it Time to Move On From Detroit?

Three years of incident-filled races on a less-than-ideal downtown street circuit for sports cars raises questions on whether it could be time for a change of venue...

I never had so many drivers use the phrase “damage limitation” in pre-race interviews for last weekend’s Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Challenge. It appeared that almost half of the 21-car grid, comprised of the two top professional categories in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, were just looking to survive, collect as many points as possible, and move on to the next event.

While it was clear that some entries, perhaps with less-than-favorable Balance of Performance figures or cars not well-suited for temporary circuits, were literally following that mantra in the 100-minute contest, nearly every car left the downtown streets of Detroit with battle scars and a number of drivers and team owners with heated tempers.

The third running of the GTP and GTD Pro-only sprint race on the 1.645-mile, 10-turn circuit proved to be yet another challenging outing for competitors, who were put in a proverbial bullring in a track that’s next-to-impossible to pass on, leading drivers to make optimistic or downright desperate overtaking measures.

While the Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Earl Bamber and Jack Aitken put on one of the most commanding displays in recent GTP history, with Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims earning the win in GTD Pro in a well-executed race, the cars behind them, most notably in the production-based category, appeared to be in a game of pinball, particularly in the closing laps.

IMSA race control issued four drive-through penalties for incident responsibility in the final 12 minutes of the race, which covered nearly 20 percent of the field. And that’s not counting two other sanctions earlier in the running, including a stop-and-hold plus 60-second penalty to then-GTP points leader Laurin Heinrich, who drove the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie of Roman De Angelis into the wall.

To their full credit, race director Beaux Barfield and everyone in race control were on top of nearly every incident and were rapid in issuing penalties, down to the final lap. Yet it brought back shades of last year’s incident-filled Road America race, which served as a major crackdown in driving standards that was strictly enforced for the remainder of the season.