The two-hour blast around Belle Isle Park in Detroit turned out to be a bruising encounter, with two front-running cars out just moments into the race as the unforgiving concrete walls took their toll. But despite the frequent appearance of the safety car, some good racing did manage to break out from time to time.
It was dry and sunny as the race began, but rain was expected at some point of the day and one eye was on the weather radar in the pits. Jordan Taylor led the field around the pace laps and was ready for the green flags; the #10 VelocityWW Corvette already a length clear of Jon Fogarty at the start. But the #99 Bob Stallings Corvette was immediately challenged by the #8 Starworks Riley Ford as the DPs negotiated the fast Turns 1 & 2.
But almost immediately, the yellow flags were out as the #01 Chip Ganassi Riley BMW hit the wall in a big way at T4 after being squeezed out by the #6 Michael Shank Riley Ford of Gustavo Yacaman. The car bounced back across the track and was collected by the second MSR Riley of John Pew causing major damage to both cars and leaving them stranded on track. The following GT field threaded its way through the wreckage, but this was clearly going to be a lengthy caution. Fortunately, both drivers were uninjured.
The race went green with an hour and 39 remaining, with Taylor leading Popow, Ricky Taylor – who had got ahead of the #99 at the first start in the #90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette – Fogarty, Stéphane Sarrazin (#3 8Star Motorsports Corvette) and Yacaman; the last of these heading to the pitlane next time round to serve a 60-second stop/go penalty for causing the shunt. Sarrazin took Fogarty for fourth moments later.
Max Papis had held onto his P1 starting place in the #61 AIM Ferrari. Boris Said was second in the #31 Marsh Racing Corvette and Jeff Westphal third in the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari. Robin Liddell had (unusually) started the #57 Stephenson Camaro and had taken fourth from the #69 AIM Ferrari, and was now at the rear end of a three-way fight for second. The Corvette would lose out in this battle after a couple of laps more and drop to fourth.
Further up the road, the fight for third in DP was a four-way battled between R Taylor, Sarrazin, Fogarty and Christian Fittipaldi in the #5 Action Express Corvette. Fogarty soon retook fifth from Sarrazin, as the DPs came across backmarkers, and began applying pressure to the blue SDR car ahead. Heading the DP field on track at this point was the #8 Starworks Riley, but Brendon Hartley was in reality a lap behind as he had taken over from Scott Mayer a few minutes before.
With an hour and 25 minutes to go we had a new leader, as Alex Popow found a way past Jordan Taylor. The Venezuelan had also put a lap on the #8, which now formed a buffer between it and the second-place Corvette for a short while.
As the fight for third continued unabashed, the SDR Corvette had contact with the #18 Mühlner Porsche while lapping it and suffered damage to its rear-left corner. Both cars continued and Ricky Taylor held on to his position, but it wasn’t going to help his efforts, especially with bodywork trailing; and indeed the tyre started to deflate. Taylor got the car back to the pits and the team got to work. Richard Westbrook was soon behind the wheel and back in the race, but found himself being nerfed into the tyre wall by a certain G Yacaman, who clearly wasn’t making many friends this weekend. The #90 rejoined without the aid of a caution.
Liddell finally got second as the fight for the GT lead found itself simultaneously lapping and being lapped on a busy track, and the Scot tried to sneak through into the class lead as the DP fight for second went by. Papis closed the door, however, and held the lead. Liddell continued to push and on occasion almost found the gap he needed, but all the while had to keep an eye in his mirrors for Westphal, who was still very much in contention in third.
While the top three in GT remained locked together, the rest of the GT field was quite spread out and the action was clearly all at the front at this point in the race.
With 50 minutes of the race run, Popow led by 3.5s from Jordan Taylor, with Fogarty still glued to the back of the Velocity Corvette in third. Further back, Burt Frisselle found himself with front-left suspension damage after the #93 Turner BMW of Michael Marsal turned in on him. The #9 AER Corvette ground to a halt at Turn 5 and a second caution period began.
The second Turner M3 was also in the wars, with rear-left issues – possibly arising from its major shunt during practice the previous day.
With the race at its midpoint, most of the DP field headed for the pits when the pitlane opened to take on new rubber, fuel and a new driver. It wasn’t a good stop for the Red Dragon, however, with Alex Gurney having to wait for a wheel to be reluctantly replaced before rejoining in sixth.
To make things worse, the car was later handed a drive-through for a pitlane infringement during the stop.
It was then the turn of the GT class to do the same, and the Stevenson crew turned the Camaro round quicker than did the Scuderia Corsa team with the #63 and John Edwards now held the lead.
The new DP order was 10, 5, 2, 3, 42, 99, 6, 43, 90, 8, 43 & 9. Dane Cameron had benefitted greatly from the caution and found himself fifth in the #42 Sahlen’s Riley that had been nowhere up to this point and he took fourth from Pedro Lamy, now in the 8Star Corvette, at the restart.
The GT order at the restart, meanwhile, was 57, 63, 61, 44, 31, 69, 73, 93, 18 and 94; while GX was 38, 00 and 70. The fight for fourth in GT was the major on-track duel with 40 minutes to go, with Eric Curran’s #31 Corvette pushing Andy Lally’s #44 Magnus Porsche hard for the place.
The top four DPs were nose-to-tail, while the top three in GT were in the same position. João Barbosa was now in the #5 Corvette and looking aggressive as he sensed an opportunity to take the lead, although the driver ahead was Max Angelelli and he doesn’t yield easily. But before the Portuguese had an opportunity to make his move, Pedro Lamy crashed the #3 8Star Corvette heavily and the Safety Car was out for a third time.
Lamy’s shunt was unaided – the driver having simply lost it on the kerbs – and uninjured, but the impact had pushed the concrete barriers back and they needed to be repositioned, meaning just 9 minutes were left when the race went green for the final time.
Angelelli was ready for the start and made sure that Barbosa had no gaps to aim for when the green flag flew, but Dane Cameron was ready and he took third from Ryan Dalziel at T3 on the restart lap. A lap later, Cameron went for second but lost momentum and the Scot retook the place. Further back, Antonio Pizzonia had a spin in the #6 MSR Riley and dropped to the rear of the DP field.
In GT, the top-three battle picked up where it had left off – Edwards leading Alessandro Balzan leading Jeff Segal – while Lally and Curran were locked in combat for fourth.
As the race entered its final three minutes, the fight for the win was nose-to-tail in both classes – four cars in DP and six in GT. Cameron had a look down the inside of Dalziel, while Lally had a look at Curran, but there just wasn’t enough time left and the wins went to Wayne Taylor Racing and Stevenson Motorsports.
“Winning here today was mandatory, for a Chevrolet team at Detroit,” said Angelelli. “That’s been the topic of many closed-door meetings with the team. I’m happy to say we delivered. The team executed perfectly. Once again, today was a team victory. I was not concerned (racing against Joao Barbosa in the closing laps). I was good in the corners that were important, and it helped that Joao played really fair.”
“It’s nice repeating, winning here for Chevrolet in a Camaro and now a Corvette,” said Jordan Taylor. “I’m proud to be part of Team Chevy. Today was a true street course battle. I don’t think we had the outright fastest car out there, but we jumped them in the pits and that got us the race.”
“Starting the race was weird for me,” said Robin Liddell. “This is only the second time when I won when I didn’t finish – the other time was with Jan Magnussen at Lime Rock. Sitting on the stand with 10 minutes remaining and watching is pretty nerve-wracking – but John did an awesome job out there.”
“We haven’t been dominant, but the team has been perfect,” said John Edwards. “We’re set up to have a good fight for the championship in both series. I’m happy Stevenson Motorsports gave me the opportunity to finish the race. Stevenson is raising our expectations in every race. They’ve given us the lead each time in the last three races either in the pits or on a strategy call. If I had come out of the pits today in second, I probably wouldn’t be sitting up here now.”
The unofficial points standings after five rounds are:
DP: Max Angelelli/Jordan Taylor, 148; Alex Gurney/Jon Fogarty, 146; Ryan Dalziel/Alex Popow, 141; Memo Rojas/Scott Pruett and Ricky Taylor/Richard Westbrook, 128.
GT: Alessandro Balzan, 142; Robin Liddell/John Edwards and Andy Lally/John Potter, 137; Emil Assentato/Anthony Lazzaro, 125; Patrick Lindsey/Patrick Long, 124.
GX: Jim Norman, 169; Joel Miller, 157; Sylvain Tremblay/Tom Long, 150; Tristan Nunez, 122; Spencer Pumpelly, 102.
Next up for the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series is Mid-Ohio on June 15th.
MH
