DETROIT — Against the backdrop of its former headquarters and with an armada of its key stakeholders in attendance, both General Motors brands delivered a key double victory in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic.
The No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R of Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber controlled the 100-minute race in Grand Touring Prototype and overall, with the Renaissance Center in the backdrop of the 1.645-mile Detroit Street Circuit that runs along the Detroit Riverwalk.
Meanwhile the Grand Touring Daytona Pro saw Chevrolet join Cadillac atop the Detroit podium. Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims brought it home in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R, while the rest of the GTD PRO field had a chaotic finish behind it.
Cadillac most recently won an IMSA race in Detroit in 2022 (this was its fifth, adding to previous triumphs in 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022). Chevrolet Corvette’s last GT points win in Detroit came in 2008, although the team did win a GT Le Mans non-points race in 2021.
“To do it here at the home of GM and Cadillac with so many friends and family with us, you know, my team absolutely nailed it,” Aitken said.
Garcia added, “Super happy to be on victory lane in Chevrolet land, underneath the towers, I think all the big bosses will be very happy as we are. So fantastic drive by Alex, putting it on pole, opening up a big gap which made driver change was a little bit less stressful, and yeah. Great race overall.”
Both Motul Pole Award winners captured the checkered flag, which was relatively calm and controlled for the first 80 minutes of the race before a pair of late-race cautions jumbled the order and the field as the gloves came off.
The GTP race was largely a strategic battle, with those entries opting to run longer for their first and only scheduled pit stop leaping up the order behind the otherwise dominant No. 31 Cadillac, which also scored its seventh consecutive GTP podium finish.
The No. 25 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 and No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R completed the podium in class, with the fourth-place finishing No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 capturing the IMSA Michelin Sustainability in Racing Award. That marks the second race running where that award was achieved by a car that did not win the race.
In GTD PRO, Garcia nearly lost the lead late when prior to a final yellow flag, Jack Hawksworth attempted a pass into Turn 1 in his No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 but collided with Garcia.
The No. 14 car was assessed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility, one of three GTD PRO cars dinged for the same infraction inside the final 10 minutes.
But Garcia withstood the final restart in order to secure his first Detroit win, adding a new venue to his rolodex of 32 IMSA victories.
With multiple contenders shuffled out, the resulting fracas promoted the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3 to the new car’s first podium finish with Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell second, and Ford Racing’s No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3 of Christopher Mies and Frederic Vervisch to third.
Aitken in the No. 31 Cadillac has unofficially moved into the GTP championship lead while the No. 4 Corvette of Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner retains the GTD PRO lead, albeit by a reduced margin.
