Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber delivered the breakthrough victory for Whelen Cadillac in the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic.
After starting on pole, the combo were practically untouchable, at one point holding a 14s lead during the 100-minute sprint round for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Despite multiple late cautions, Aitken remained composed and went on to win by 6.023s around the 1.645-mile, nine-turn street circuit.
“I really wanted a win,” Aitken said. “To do it here at the home of GM and Cadillac, with so many friends and family with us. My team absolutely nailed it on the Whelen Cadillac. Earl put in an awesome lap (in qualifying). We had a good qualifying, good pit stops. It really doesn’t get a lot better than that. We’re going to soak it in, baby.”
It marks the first win of the season for the Whelen Cadillac, which had three second-place finishes and a third in the opening four rounds. Detroit makes it five podiums in five races. As a result, Aitken now sits alone at the top in the championship standings with 1,7760 points, 144 ahead second-place Laurin Heinrich.
Philipp Eng (BMW M Team WRT) finished second, ahead of Ricky Taylor (Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac).
In GTD Pro, Antonio Garcia (Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports) prevailed from a wild finish to take the 32nd win of his career, but first in Detroit, alongside co-driver and polesitter Alexander Sims.
The Race
Pole-sitter Earl Bamber (Whelen Cadillac) led the field to the green flag and got a clean jump from the alternate start line.
Moments later, however, the #60 Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist (Acura Meyer Shank Racing) was on the wrong end of contact by Felipe Nasr (Porsche Penske Motorsports) in Turn 7 and was dealt left-rear damage that handed him a consistent tire rub that left debris on the backstretch. He was black flagged as the debris came after electing not to pit for multiple laps, but the debris also brought out the race’s first caution with 1h36m left. The team gave Blomqvist fresh tires and a new rear clip, with Colin Braun taking over after the minimum drive requirement was reached.
The green flag returned with 1m30s left, with Bamber leading solidly while Kevin Estre (Porsche Penske Motorsport) knocked Filipe Albuquerque (Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing) out of the way into Turn 1 to take over sixth. Estre took fifth from Marco Wittman (BMW M Team WRT) the following lap.
While Bamber built up a 4.2s lead over Yelloly in GTP with 1h15m to go, while GTD Pro class saw Alexander Sims (Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports) hold a 3.8s advantage over Ben Barnicoat (Vasser Sullivan Racing).
Following a run of pit stops and driver changes, Jack Hawksworth took over the #14 Lexus RC F GT3 from Barnicoat. Sims jumped out of the #3 Corvette GT3.R for Antonio Garcia. Supercars superstar Chaz Mostert (Vasser Sullivan Racing) elevated to the GTD Pro class lead in the #15 Lexus sister car.
Bamber pitted with 1h06m left, with the #31 Cadillac V-Series.R receiving new right-side tires as Aitken jumped in. Estre, yet to pit, elevated to the overall race lead.
Mostert pitted with 1h03m to go, handing the GTD Pro lead back to the #3 Corvette of Garcia.
Garcia held a 4.3s gap over the #65 Ford Mustang GT3 of Christopher Mies (Ford Racing).
Estre dove to pit lane with 58m to go, handing off to Laurens Vanthoor, who returned to the track third. Aitken put the Whelen Cadillac back on top, with a strong pit stop and driver change – Wittman for Philipp Eng – in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8.
Aitken held a 7.2s lead over Eng with 48m to go; the gap in GTD Pro saw Garcia with a 1.3s advantage over Mies. However, contact with Nicky Catsburg, Garcia’s teammate, saw Mies end up with slight damage and had to dive to pit lane for service, surrendering his second place spot. As a result, Hawksworth took over second, but 4.1s behind. Moments later, though, Hawksworth was tabbed by Dries Vanthoor’s #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 in Turn 5. Dries Vanthoor was handed a drive-thru penalty, while Hawksworth gathered it back up and continued on in second.
Hawksworth managed to close down to less than a second behind Garcia, who was held up by AO Racing’s Nick Tandy attempting to stay on the lead lap.
With 23m to go, Aitken held a massive 12.8s lead over Eng. Laurens Vanthoor, meanwhile, lost third after an attempted pass for second into Turn 3 resulted in overshooting the corner. Ricky Taylor (Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac) took over third, with the #6 Porsche dropping to fourth.
Garcia widened the gap over Hawkworth in GTD Pro, with a 5.8s advantage with 21m to go. Catsburg remained in third, but 8s behind the class lead.
Despite the massive gap for Aitken, a caution for debris wiped it away with less than 20m to go.
The Vanthoor brothers made contact under caution, with the #6 Porsche getting the worst of it after a bump from behind courtesy of the #24 BMW damaged the rear clip and led to a visit to pit lane.
The restart with 12m30s saw Aitken lead the field into Turn 1, with Eng in pursuit. Dries Vanthoor attempted a dive on Ricky Taylor, but was unsuccessful. The caution returned moments later, however, after Tandy ended up stuffed into Turn 5. He was able to continue on.
Hawksworth, meanwhile, made a late dive on Garcia into Turn 1 to take the GTD Pro class lead. However, Race Control issued the two to swap positions as they deemed the caution out seconds before the pass was made.
Meanwhile, Race Control handed Dries Vanthoor a drive-thru penalty for the earlier contact with his brother.
The caution set up a restart with six minutes to go, with Aitken once more getting a clean jump.
Race Control issued a drive-thru penalty to Hawksworth for the earlier incident on Garcia, which saw contact. He was forced to pit from second, handing the position to Catsburg, with Vasser Sullivan’s best shot Aaron Telitz third in the #15 Lexus.
Aitken quickly established a 3.3s lead over Eng.
Continuing to stay busy, Race Control handed a drive-thru penalty to Catsburg, who moments prior swerved in an attempted block on Telitz that led to the #15 Lexus dealt heavy right-front damage.
Aitken went on to take the overall checkered flag, ahead of Eng and Ricky Taylor. Garcia coasted to a GTD Pro win over Andrea Caldarelli (Pfaff Motorsports) and Mies.
RACE
All Stats
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