IMSA At Detroit Brings Out the Best and Worst of Street Racing (Again)
This year's version of the Detroit Sports Car Classic came complete yet again with more of the anticipated abject chaos that can only happen when stuffing 20+ prototypes and GT3 cars in a narrow, condensed space for 100 minutes.
The second and final sprint race of the IMSA season was moderately tame all things considered before things really hit in the fan in the later stages of the action. The No. 31 Whelen Cadillac driven by Earl Bamber and Jack Aitken ran off with it and made good on their practice and qualifying pace by taking the overall win, while the No. 3 Corvette piloted by Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia did the exact same, winning in class after starting from pole position and leading for a staggering 75 laps total.
After last year's outing produced plenty of race crime, we were treated to another series of battles between drivers and teams fighting for every last inch of space on the ultra-tight road course layout, with cars in both classes duking it out in multiple instances - oft times illegally.
Not included was the footage of Dries Vanthoor in the No. 24 BMW clipping his brother Laurens in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport which resulted in rear bodywork damage to the Porsche 963, nor is there a clip of Dries also spinning out Jack Hawksworth in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus; two incidents that resulted in two drive through penalties.
All of those previous three instances came with corresponding penalties, with Laurin Heinrich's proving to be the most costly of the day as it produced a Stop + 60 hold from race control, which came right after the team was issued a drive through penalty for personnel over the wall before the car had come to a complete stop in the pits.
Nicky Catsburg's penalty for moving under breaking and wiping out the No. 15 Vasser Sullivan Lexus was also substantial as it eliminated the potential of a Pratt Miller 1-2 finish, and it sent the 15 car spiraling towards a heinous final three minutes where the damage sustained crippled the car, forcing Aaron Telitz to drive into a closed pit lane thus receiving a post-race Stop + 60 penalty and an official classified DNF.
Max Esterson's divebomb into Dennis Olsen in the No. 64 Mustang was absolutely a reckless move and honestly the easiest call of any of the other incidents we saw in the race. Given the lack of experience for the 23-year-old in the series and with the RLL McLaren, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to say he misjudged the braking zone going into the corner/suffered a huge lock-up.
Hawksworth was also handed a drive through penalty with just minutes to go for jumping Sims in the No. 3 right as a yellow flag had come out when Nick Tandy sent Rexy into the tire barriers, which dropped him back in the running order from P2 to P6 and ended their chances of finding a podium or potential race win.
Post race, both Hawksworth and racemate Ben Barnicoat lamented what went down in the late stages, with Barnicoat telling reporters that the penalty handed to Hawksworth was "controversial," with him adding he and the team believe Hawksworth was in the right to make the move he did on the No. 3 when he did it.
In the overall aftermath of the race, fans have issued varying levels of criticisms towards the driving standards that were on display, and as it typically goes in the race game (or any sport for that matter) you'll find opinions split down the middle on what was justified, what was overreach from race control and various degrees of 'how comes this was a penalty and XYZ was not?'
Regardless, just about everyone has continued to agree that this iteration of the Detroit Sports Car Classic, complete with this new track layout relative to the old location on Belle Isle, is just simply more of a headache than maybe its worth for sports car competition. The track layout isn't all that great, it is, again, SUUUUPER tight just about everywhere that isn't the long straightaway, and it results in these kinds of huge race incident/penalty situations when there is so much on the line with drivers fighting for those inches on track.
With next season's schedule already released, we're going to get as least one more iteration of this race weekend in 2027, and due to the obvious scene and setting of having General Motors host a race on their home ground and the influence they have in the series it's easy to imagine that this race isn't going anywhere for a looong time. We know there has to be some 100-minute sprint rounds on the calendar, and let's be real, having just two out of 11 total being in the format isn't that bad at all. With the legendary history that Long Beach has going for it, along with the very positive link-up between IndyCar and IMSA that plays out for both of these races, it does make logistical sense for these two weekends to be on the calendar for both IMSA and IndyCar.
Playing Devil's Advocate even further, if we're being totally honest, we don't mind the kind of carnage that comes out of these sprint rounds as much as some other fans do. It comes with the territory of racing on the streets, and sure, the literal track layout isn't the best, and if we're going the 'No Publicity Is Bad Publicity' route the race incidents that have come out of these last three years at Detroit continue to be some of IMSAs most-watched replays on any social media platform.
Who could forget the battle between Roxy and the Corvette last season?
We're not condoning reckless driving that emulates your average simracing lobby, we simply understand that madness is always going to be an ingredient in the pie, especially on street circuits. The way things go sometimes in racing, given the size of the track, the size of the cars and seeing the kind of aggressiveness from the drivers that we *want* to see in IMSA, things like this are going to happen and whoever can outlast the bareknuckle brawling is going to have seriously earned it.
What do you guys make of all of it? Is it too over the line? Does the Detroit street circuit need to go away forever? Let us know below.
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