As betcha Y’all thought I was talking about the
Oakie Dokey thunder, EH?
Following the Indianapolis 500 a week later on
the bumpy, lumpy, concrete canyon of the series shortest circuit on the
Downtown streets of Detroit. A 1.645-mile, nine turn temporary street circuit
always feels a Wee Bitamyte’ anti-climatic to Mwah. Although Thar was certainly
action ah-Plenty!
Tuning into IMSA Radio Saturday, following
IndyCar qualifying. I was bemused hearing John Hindhaugh announce the Noah’s
Arc two-by-two lineup of the first three rows of the IMSA GTP prototype
machinery. Being under the shadow of General Motors World HQ at the Renaissance
Center, the two Acura’s locked out the front row. Followed by the two BMW’s and
two Porsches. With the highest placed Cadillac being Jack “Achey Breaky”
Aitken’s No. 31 Whelen Engineering mount in seventh. With the two Wayne Taylor
Racing (WTR) Cadd-Oh-laccs’ in formation behind Aitken.
Yet the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic,
the weekend’s first race, the 100 minutes (1hr 40mins) “Sprint” race certainly
was spicy enough! As it looked like Porsche Penske Motorsport had played the
Overcut strategy perfectly to get the GTP prototypes points leading No. 7
tandem of Nick Tandy, who’d handed off to Felipe Nasr once again into the lead.
Seemingly enroute to it’s fourth victory of the series first five races. With
it’s Seester’ No. 6 Posche 963 having won last time out at Laguna Seca…
Yet just south of fifteen minutes remaining,
Ricky Taylor in the WTR Cadillac V-Series.R gave Nasr a solid Hip-check in
Turn-3, the exact same turn Ricky had made the past last year to win aboard
their Acura ARX-06 racecar…
Taylor’s Bump ‘n Run was devastating for Nasr,
relegated to fourth place. With both Mathieu Jaminet’s#6 Porsche 963 and Renger
van der Zande in the pole sitting Meyer Shank Racing’s (MSR) #93 passing the
hapless Brazilian. As race control reviewed Ricky’s Bump ‘n run, but ruled no
further action, with Hindhaugh saying you know that will now be in the back of
Renger’s mind…
With some five minutes remaining, van der Zande
made a brilliantly clean pass upon Taylor into Turn-1 for the lead, and went
onto win! Breaking Porsche’s winning streak, along with being the first pole
sitter, won by Nick Yelloly to win in 16 races. With Taylor coming home second,
and Jaminet and Nasr in third and fourth respectively.
Meanwhile the GTD Pro “supporting” class was
Hammers ‘n Tongs between Roxy, the pink AO Racing Dinosaur Porsche 911 and Pratt
& Miller Corvette Z06 GT3.R swapping paint multiple times. Not to mention
the Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 playing Argie Bargie’.
But it was the pole sitting Multimatic Ford
Mustang No. 64 of Sebastian Priaulx and Mike Rocky’ Rockenfeller winning, not
to mention that the two Ford Darkhorse Mustang’s had locked out the front row
on Chevrolet’s playground. While the No. 3 Factory Corvette of Alex Simms and Antonio
Garcia finished second, with the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan
claiming the podium’s final step.
Sunday’s Headlining Chevrolet Detroit Grand
Prix IndyCar race saw Andretti Global’s #26 Honda of Colton Herta on pole, with
teammate Kyle Kirkwood third. While A.J. Foyt Enterprises David Malukas’s
Dallara Chevrolet was the meat in the Andretti Global sandwich.
And although the race started clean, there was
pitstop strategy, multiple cautions and even one red flag to keep us on the
edge’s of our seats! As the scariest accident was when Louis Foster’s Rahal
Letterman Lanigan Racing’s front right suspension simply folded up upon itself
on the high speed straight! With Foster simply being a passenger, which also
collected Felix Rosenqvist’s MSR Honda.
Meanwhile, runaway points leader Alex Palou was
heard saying sarcastically Great! Over His in-car radio after Malukas had
centerpunched the Spaniard on a race restart! Ultimately seeing Palou listed
P25 and His whopping points lead of 115 markers trimmed to 78-points over
Kirkwood.
And although I was happy for Kirkwood winning,
His fourth IndyCar career win, all coming on street circuits to date. I was
more intrigued over Birthday Boy Santino Ferrucci hanging onto second place,
with both Herta and Will Power giving chase.
Yet the Great Santini held onto the finish to
capture His career best IndyCar result, surpassing His best of third place in
the 2023 Indianapolis 500. Having just turned 27 the day before, which He
celebrated by having a steak dinner…
Thus, since the race has returned to the
Downtown Streets of Detroit in 2023, Honda has won all three IndyCar races.
While their Seester’ luxury brand Acura has swept the Sports Car Classic race.
Seeing Honda Racing winning All five events on GM’s home court!
Now much of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar championship paddock will be off to Circuit de la Sarthe, for the June 14-15 running of this year’s 24 Heurs du Mans, while IndyCar will be hosting its first night oval race at Gateway the same weekend. Meaning that half of the year is already over, Yikes
Update
Although
the IndyCar Radio Network Booth Boyz’ Mark Gravelly’ James and Davey Hamilton
were cornfuzed by apparently two different monitors giving conflicting results.
One with Pato O’Ward second and the other with Kyle Kirkwood P2, they went with
Kirkwood being second 78 markers adrift, which I just took for granted.
Yet now
having looked at IndyCar’s championship standings, it lists the following. Alex
Palou leads with 311 points, followed by O’Ward 90 points behind. (221 points)
Kirkwood sits third, 102 behind. (209 points) Christian Lundgaard is fourth, 106
behind, (205 points( and Will Power rounds out the top five, 136 behind. (175
points)
Also following Detroit, during post race technical inspection, the second place No. 14 of Santino Ferrucci was afoul of the Driver’s minimum weight equivalency of 185lbs, although the chassis was 10lbs over it’s minimum weight requirement. Thus, both Ferrucci and A.J. Foyt enterprises No. 14 entry were docked 25 points, and a $25,000 fine. Along with forfeiting the second place prize money, points and bonus points for leading laps, but get to keep their second place finish.
