Detroit... the Motor City, is the site of a street fight for the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. Three of the four classes will be in action. Prototype, Prototype Challenge, and GT Daytona are those classes. The GT Le Mans contenders are in France, for tomorrow's test day for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which you will hear all about in a Sunday post with complete coverage.
Racing on the streets is hand to hand combat in cars. This is round five of the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. Jordan and Ricky Taylor have won four straight races this year. Can they make it five? The Spirit of Detroit statue shows the fighting spirit of the city and this race will be a street fight. The #10 Cadillac DPi has run well until in qualifying, Ricky Taylor crunched the wall in qualifying. The team scrambled to get the car onto the grid. In the absence of GT Le Mans because of the Le Mans test, GT Daytona will be the showcase production car class.
Lawson Aschenbach puts his Stevenson Motorsports #57 Audi R8 on the class pole. Acura and Katherine Legge also qualified well. We are ready for the start and this race is going to be a 100 minute street fight. A 100 minute showdown... is next!
The field is on their warmup lap. James French has pole in the Prototype Challenge class. Action Express is on the front row. Here we go! Green flag, and we are underway! Misha Goikhberg wants to make a move on Eric Curran as they accelerate down to turn three. The Mazda is stasrting to move too. Lawson Aschenbach, Katherine Legge, and Bryan Sellers are top three in GTD. Misha Goikhberg had an off in the morning warmup but is pushing hard. Mazda and Nissan are next in the order through the double apex corner at turns 12 and 13. Every corner is demanding.
Lawson Aschenbach had a stunning qualifying lap. Issues for a car in the pit lane and it's the #75 SunEnergy Mercedes AMG GT3 with a busted wheel rim that is now fixed and they are back in the race with Kenny Habul at the controls. Katherine Legge and Bryan Sellers are in this scrap for position and LKawson Aschenbach is stretching his lead. Ricky Taylor is cutting through this field like a hot knife through butter. But he has to use multiple pit stop strategies, and those will change if he keeps moving forward. Every strategy is based solely on the numbers and has zero to do with gut instincts.
Brake lockup for the #20 Prototype Challenge car. Bryan Sellers is being chased by Corey Lewis in another of the Lamborghini's for Change Racing as Daniel Morad sweeps past Lewis! Wow! Daniel Morad is on the inside and he goes for it in his first race at Detroit. There's argy bargy between a Ferrari and one of the Lexus RC-F GT3's. Patrick Lindsey had a braking issue in qualifying with the #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche. Morad has to push his way past Don Yount in the #20 PC entry. Watch the exit of turn two, going downhill, and there's a big bump.
Can the GT Daytona cars do this whole race on one pit stop? Prototype will have a different strategy as Katherine Legge closes on Lawson Aschenbach in GT Daytona. We watch a scrum for fourth in GT Daytona as there is stunning weather in Detroit. The ambient temperature and the track temperature are perfect as the track temp is just under 100 degrees. Eric Curran tries Misha Goikhberg. Curran passes. Will Eric Curran be able to chase down Christian Fittipaldi in the other Action Express Cadillac? His co-driver Stephen Simpson will get in the car later on.
Simpson gives credit to JDC Miller Motorsports, his team, and Oreca, the manufacturer of the car. JDC Miller stepped up from Prototype Challenge. Simpson spotted for J.R. Hildebrand in the Indy 500 last Sunday. Acura runs second and Katherine Legge is chasing the Audi. Her team mate Andy Lally, is going to take the car over later in the race. The #86 Acura NSX sister car had to have some damage fixed. Oswaldo Negri Jr. and Jeff Segal are going to push. Katherine Legge has been with Mike Shank Racing for a year now.
Ricky Taylor is now up to fifth place in the overall. WTR wants a podium as Jonathan Bomarito is pushing in the #55 Mazda. The GTD cars have good mechanical grip and don't lose too much time to the Prototypes. The minimum base drive time here is different than the last time we raced on na street course. Goikhberg goes for it and Ricky Taylor, after a three wide moment, runs extremely wide! Misha Goikhberg is really pushing hard. Oswaldo Negri Jr. is a passionate, all around driver.
Meanwhile, Bret Curtis in the Turner BMW M6 GT3 is tenth in the overall with a Porsche and the other Acura all over his tail.
Ooh! That was close between Ricky Taylor, Kenny Habul, and Lawson Aschenbach! Wow! This track at Belle Isle is 2.34 miles with 14 turns. Habul takes it in way too deep and crashes into Renger van der Zande in the #90 Visit Florida Racing Riley Prototype! The 30 minute minimum drive time window is about to close and we also have Ben Keating in dire straits with right front damage on the #33 Mercedes AMG GT3. The right front wheel is gone. In replay, the Mercedes would not turn. Renger van der Zande is out of the car and he's fine, but they are i the basement now.
Habul misses his brake point, and crunch! Two cars have hit the wall. Pit stop time, coming up soon. Ricky Taylor saw a gap and wwent for it. One lucky bloke to not crash. Ricky Taylor has some ankle discomfort. As the #10 pits, Jordan Taylor takes over the car. All action as the GTD cars pit. Andrew Davis is at the wheel of #57 abd tgere;s sine stacking up exiting the lane as well. Performance Tech now leads overall with their Prototype Challenge car. French has yet to pit as Dane Cameron has leapfrogged his team mate Joao Barbosa who is now at the controls of the #5 Cadillac.
We remain under yellow as Cadillac runs 1-2-3. Soon, we will go back to green. Three wide into turn one as we go back to green! Dane Cameron is pushing as Joel Miller pushes past Joao Barbosa and so is Tristan Nunez in the sister Mazda. Joel Miller pounced when there was a lapped car in front of Dane Cameron. Jordan Taylor wants by Joao Barbosa, right now. Jordan Taylor wants to get past Joao Barbosa. The Taylor boys are going for it and not just slouching around. The #16 Lamborghini is in the pit lane. They have great speed but haven't had good luck. Andy Lally is now at the wheel of the #93 Acura as the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari has come to second in class. Kenny Habul will be pinged by the stewards with a 60 second penalty after contact with Renger van der Zande.
Less than an hour remains in this race as Barbosa and Taylor are getting into a rhythm. The key thing here is save fuel. The action is between Ferrari and Acura in GT Daytona. Katherine Legge says that the Acura is running very well on these street courses, here, and at Long Beach as well. Lally is being pressurized by Alessandro Balzan right now. These two havce battled each other a lot in recent years. Christina Nielsen is Balzan's co-driver of course. A podium could be in the card for Scuderia Corsa. Andrew Davis and Lawson Aschenvach have been running well.
Patricio O'Ward is at the wheel of the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry. Hit your marks and don't throw it away. Jeff Segal, Madison Snow, and Jens Klingman are all moving up in the GT Daytona class. Acura vs. Lamborghini, vs. BMW. Some of these corners at Belle Isle are very tricky to negotiate. The Audi does not have the torque off the corners, but it has good downforce and is good under braking. The #55 Mazda pits for fuel and also in the lane are the #2 Nissan of Ryan Dalziel and the #5 Cadillac. We now have less than 45 minutes left to run in this contest, ladies and gentlemen.
Back time the races and let the races come back to you. The #85 of Stephen Simpson is in the lane and for fuel only. So, a quick stop. Dane Cameron will have a bit more fuel if he stays out a couple more laps, then he gets more fuel and he can sprint to the finish if he does not catch a yellow. Jordan Taylor is in the lane as well. There will be a fuel fill, but the tires are going to be worn by the end of this one. No tires. Don't get stuck on the road if it's full course yellow and you haven't gotten fuel because the pit lane will be closed.
Joel Miller is quite confident in the speed of the Mazda. #10 runs a 1:23.4 as fastest lap. Mazda in the lane, with the #70. No tires. Fuel only. You need wheel spin to exit the lane. #31 is in. Jordan Taylor takes over the overall lead with the stop for the #31. A train of GTD cars is six or seven cars long as Sage Karam and Gunnar Jeanette push forward for Lexus and Mercedes respectively. Dane Cameron has not pitted yet. We have less than 35 minutes left on the race clock. He won't need a full fuel load, but it will be very close. The gap is 26 seconds. The pit lane delta without a stop is 24 seconds.
Tom Long had a great run when he started the #70 Mazda RT24P. Joel Miller is going for it, and driving a great race as well. They want a podium, and maybe a win. This team has been at it for a long while now. They are very close to a podium. The #10 Cadillac is being balked by lapped traffic. Fuel mileage is the key. #31 is trying to run as long as possible on a fuel load. They want to make a charge at the end and hope to dodge a bullet with zero full course yellows. Whelen Racing wants a repeat of the win they scored here at Belle Isle in 2015. The lead is incrasing for the #31.
60 kilometers an hour (37 miles an hour) is the pit lane speed limit. Put the same amount of fuel in the tank, but there will be less. Fill the tank and know you are good to go. Timing the stoip with a stopwatch can be tricky. Traffic is everything. Track position is everything as Stepen Simpson plays dodge 'em cars with Tristan Nunez. Nunez vs. Simpson, and Simpson is split with the BMW, the Turner Motorsports machine. Less than a half hour to go. Madison Snow very nearly made a pass on Jeff Segal. There's pace in the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghni who is being pursued by Jens Klingman in the #96 BMW M6 GT3.
Andrew Davis is slowing! What could be wrong with the Stevenson Audi? The driveline is busted. No drive in the car. If we go full course yellow, there is no chance to pit. Dane Cameron continues to lead. Will there be a yellow? No. It looks like the green flag conditions will remain. Now Dane Cameron can stretch his lead on a clear road. Stevenson's automobile is blocking the pit lane entrance. The car is in the way of some of the leaders. The Audi is crawling. #31 needs petrol and he only has 28 seconds in hand over Jordan Taylor.
Simpson is trying Joao Barbosa. Barbosa is fifth with Simpson sixth. Johannes van Overbeek is fourth in the Nissan DPi. Cameron will run the tank dry and then, they want to pit the car for half a fuel load which is 12-15 seconds. Jordan Taylor could very well take the race lead if the Whelen team's strategy backfires. Jeff Segal is fending off Madison Snow and Jens Klingman. Lexus is also running vwery well with Sage Karam. Next up is Gunnar Jeanette in one of the Mercedes'. Cameron is in the lane.n Fuel only. Stay on the original tires. Time the stop perfectly.
Eleven seconds worth of fuel. There's been a lead change. Cameron may have fuel, but he has lost the race lead to Jordan Taylor. This is going to be a grandstand finish to the IMSA Chevroler Sports Car Classic! Will the #10 Cadillac win another race? They currently lead by six seconds. They would have five wins this year and have also won here three of the last four yeass. This team is amazing, as they find a way to win these races. We have less than 20 minutes left to race. Anything can happen, but Dane Cameron and company have stumbled here.
A scrum for third in GT Daytona between Mercedes and Lexus continutes as Jordan Taylor and Dane Cameron are in a battle in traffic. Cameron has nothing to lose. He has to take as many risks as possible to pull back into the lead. Mazda still has to wait and see. They don't want Joel Miller throwing caution to the wind yet. The GTD championship points will close up with the troubles for Mercedes today. The #50 Mercedes is slow on the back straightaway.
Drama as Ryan Dalziel in the #2 Nissan is off the road but continues. We also see the #85 of Strephen Simpson getting squeezed into a spin. Trying to move that Cadillac is like trying to move a boulder. That's a big car. The finish of this race is imminent. Eight drivers will head to Le Mans after this race is finished. Joao Barbosa works his way past the GTD battle of Madison Snow vs. Jeff Segal. The fuel envelope is being pushed to the limit in GT Daytona. Will these chaps be on fumes when this race ends?
Five or so minutes now remain in this race. Who will win? Well, Jordan Taylor leads Dane Cameron by half a second and 1:23.107 is Taylor's fastest lap and perhaps the fastest lap of this race overall. Madison Snow isn still hounding Jeff Segal. Acura vs. Lamborghini. Where is the overall leader if he's just in front of you? If you are ahead of the leader, you need to do another lap. Jack Hawksworth in the #15 Lexus RC F GT3 has been running extremely well. Oooh! There was some slight argy bargy and Madison Snow moves to third, passing both Segal and Klingman.
Sage Karam and Jack Hawksworth share a room where they live to be close to the 3GT shops in Lansing, Michigan, less than 100 miles naway from Detroit. Colin Braun and Jon Bennett have Global Rallycross race tonight. Matthieu Jaminet is now at the wheel of the Alegra Motorsports Porsche, as we are set for the white flag. The race will be over this time. A Prototype Challenge car slows. Not a factor. It is the final lap. Cadillac continues to succeed. Andy Lally leads GT Daytona. Whelen has had a fast car but they will be vanquished by the #10 team who also picks up fastest lap.
This will be the third and fourth wins for the Taylor boys in Detroit! Cadillac wins in the Motor City! Number five! Andy Lally is going to win in GT Daytona over Alessandro Balzan. Acura will earn their first win of the year in their debut season in GT Daytona with the new NSX. This will be Katherine Legge's first win in GT Daytona! Acura wins at Detroit! Performance Tech wins Prototype Challenge with Patricio O'Ward and James French.
Overall/Prototype: #10 Taylor/Taylor Cadillac DPi
Prototype
Challenge: #38 O'Ward/French Oreca FLM Chevrolet
GT Daytona: #93 Legge/Lally Acura NSX GT3
Cadillac wins in their own backyard! We now look forward to the 24 Hours of Le Mans coming up two weeks from today, and the next IMSA race will also be an endurance event, the third round of the North American Endurance Cup, the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen, at Watkins Glen International Raceway in upstate New York, coming up next month. So long, for now, everyone.
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