Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Renger van der Zande was able to dive inside of Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ricky Taylor entering turn 1 with just under four minutes to go Saturday (May 31). From there, van der Zande was able to hold on to win the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic with teammate Nick Yelloly. It is the team’s first IMSA win since the Motul Petit Le Mans in 2023.
“I struggled a bit after the [final] restart, the tires were old and needed to get back into it,” van der Zande told NBC Sports’ Brian Till after the race. “I saw [Felipe Nasr and Taylor] going after each other. I saw Ricky going for [the lead] and I know Ricky. Ricky goes for it.
“He was going for it and I thought ‘game on,'” van der Zande continued. “We [overtook] the Porsche in [turn 5] and I was really strong into turn 1. [Taylor] had a bit of a weaker exit off of the last turn and boom, went for it. You have to go for it.”
Van der Zande and Yelloly’s margin of victory was .947 seconds over Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet were third, followed by teammates Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy. BMW M Team RLL’s Philipp Eng and Dries Vanthoor were fifth.
Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Nick Yelloly started from pole in his Acura. He was not able to pull out a gap from teammate Tom Blomqvist, but maintained his advantage.
Further back, Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Tommy Milner had contact with AO Racing’s Klaus Bachler. That loosened part of Milner’s rear bumper, which eventually came off. That drew a debris caution so that it could be retrieved.
Passing is not easy in Detroit, but the man trying to make the moves early was Nick Tandy. Starting fifth, he snatched a spot before the first caution came out, then grabbed third on the restart.
From there, he put the pressure on Blomqvist for second. All the way, Yelloly pulled out to nearly a five-second advantage over the pack.
When Yelloly and Blomqvist pitted, Tandy set down a series of quick laps to close down a margin that had already been decreasing prior to Yelloly’s stop.
Tandy pitted 37 minutes into the race in order to give way to Campbell and replenish his energy. Ultimately, Tandy’s quick laps and a great pit stop were good enough for Nasr to get out of the pits ahead of van der Zande. Once the cycle of stops were complete, Campbell ended up with the lead.
Van der Zande was right up on Nasr for a number of laps after he got in the car, but he was not able to stay in front of Ricky Taylor when he came out of the pits. Running on colder tires, van der Zande was held up. That allowed Nasr’s lead to expand up to five seconds.
Nasr continued to expand his lead in lapped traffic. Meanwhile, a battle for fourth in GTD Pro between Pfaff Motorsports’ Marco Mapelli, Paul Miller Racing’s Max Hesse and Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Frederic Vervisch turned physical on Jefferson Street.
The three drivers all had contact on the straight. Hesse and Vervisch then had big contact under braking for turn 3 that resulted in the track being littered with debris. That brought out the race’s second full course caution.
Neither of the three drivers were disabled due to the contact, but Vervisch’s Ford in particular was damaged by the contact. He was forced to make a pit stop for repairs that dropped him down to eighth in class. Hesse was given a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.
Following the restart, Taylor was able to stick with Nasr, seemingly the only person able to do so. On Jefferson Street, Taylor made his move to the inside, which was blocked by Nasr with some contact.
The contact pushed Nasr wide in the hairpin. That allowed Taylor to get a run and dive to the inside at turn 4 to take the lead.
Getting out of the groove meant that losing the lead was the least of Nasr’s problems. In turn 5, van der Zande got to Nasr’s inside and took second away. Shortly afterwards, Jaminet took third.
In the final five minutes, the leaders caught the GTD Pro leaders. Getting through the traffic is difficult at the best of times at Detroit.
Van der Zande was able to get a big run on Taylor exiting turn 9 and managed to make the pass with just under four minutes to go entering turn 1. From there, van der Zande held on for the win.
In GTD Pro, Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Sebastian Priaulx started from pole in his Ford Mustang GT3. Priaulx was able to maintain his lead over Christopher Mies early on.
Minimum drive-time in the race for both classes was only five minutes. As a result, a couple of teams ducked into the pits as soon as the first caution ended to make driver changes.
While the contact with Milner didn’t damage “Roxy,” a second incident just after the restart did. Bachler was hit by Vasser Sullivan’s Jack Hawksworth and spun into the tires shortly after the restart. Hawksworth was given a drive-through penalty for the contact.
Further back, the troubles for DragonSpeed continued. In qualifying Friday, Rasmus Lindh crashed the car, effectively ending the GTD Pro session.
On Saturday, teammate Albert Costa had trouble on Jefferson Street, missing his braking zone and sliding into the tires at the end of the straight. He was able to continue but lost a lap.
Shortly after the Costa incident, Mies was given a mechanical black flag for loose bodywork, the result of contact on the first lap between himself and Paul Miller Racing’s Neil Verhagen. Verhagen then ended up in the runoff at turn 8.
For Verhagen, the mistake resulted in the team switching their pit strategy and bringing Verhagen in to switch to Madison Snow. However, they sped in the pit lane, resulting in a penalty that took the team out of the hunt for a good finish.
Priaulx led without being hassled until he stopped for his one and only pit stop for fuel, tires, and to hand over to Mike Rockenfeller. Hawksworth, still recovering from his earlier penalty, ran long and took over the lead.
When Hawksworth pitted with 41 minutes to go, Rockenfeller took the lead, but had Alexander Sims right on his tail. Hawksworth’s strategy to go long resulted in Aaron Telitz coming out of the pits in third, but a penalty took them out of the hunt.
The second debris caution really helped Sims’ case since the No. 3 Corvette had stopped right after the first caution. That served as the team’s only stop.
Sims ran Rockenfeller hard over the final 15 minutes of the race, but could not prevent Rockenfeller from taking the win with Priaulx. It is the No. 64 team’s first victory. It is the first win for Rockenfeller since 2017, while Priaulx successfully defended his class victory from last year with AO Racing.
Priaulx and Rockenfeller’s margin of victory was 1.623 seconds over Sims and Antonio Garcia. Mapelli and Andrea Caldarelli were third in their Lamborghini, then Hawksworth and Telitz. Bachler and Laurin Heinrich rounded out the top-five.
Heinrich actually finished fourth on the road, but he and Nicky Catsburg were assessed post-race drive-through penalties (converted to time) after they came together in the hairpin on the final lap.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic Unofficial Results
Next up for WeatherTech teams will be the Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen at Watkins Glen International. All four classes will be back in action at the same time for the first time since Sebring in March. Coverage of the six-hour endurance race will begin at noon ET on NBC on June 22. Coverage will be exclusive to Peacock starting at 3 p.m. ET.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.