Action Express Racing’s Earl Bamber and Jack Aitken continued their domination in Detroit Saturday (May 31), leading 73 of 82 laps to win the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic. It is the duo’s first win of the year.
“It was good. No, I mean, 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 after the race. “All at Whelen Cadillac, Earl [Bamber] put in an
awesome lap. We had a good strategy, good pit stop. It really doesn’t get a lot better than that, so we’re going to soak it in, baby!”
Aitken and Bamber’s margin of victory was 6.023 seconds over BMW M Team WRT’s Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann. Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor were third, followed by Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Julien Andlauer and Felipe Nasr were fifth.
Bamber, after leading both practice sessions on Friday, started from pole in his Cadillac. While Bamber got away clean, contact on the first lap resulted in damage to the left rear of Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Acura for Tom Blomqvist.
Blomqvist’s Acura ended up with a significant tire rub that led to a mechanical black flag. Before he could even serve that penalty, the first full course caution flew for debris.
The yellow truly saved Blomqvist since he was able to clear his black flag under the yellow. However, he cleared it in a closed pit, which meant that he had to serve an additional drive-through penalty once the race went back under green.
Minimum drive-time in both classes was pretty minimal at only five minutes. As a result, some of the teams chose to pit here to take a splash of fuel and put their second drivers in.
Once the green came back out, Bamber was able to open up a couple of seconds over Yelloly in the No. 93 Acura. Further back, Kevin Estre had some contact and damaged the right front corner of his Porsche.
The pit stops resulted in a split strategy. Bamber pitted from the overall lead 33 minutes into the race in order to take fuel and hand over to Aitken. Meanwhile, Estre stayed out for an additional 10 minutes and set some quick laps.
Once Estre brought the car in, he got out in favor of Laurens Vanthoor, took fuel and eventually emerged from the pits right behind Aitken. Once the pit sequence finished, he was second overall after starting 10th due to a qualifying crash.
However, Laurens didn’t have all that much for Aitken. Slowly but surely, the Whelen Cadillac continued to pull away.
The second half of the race was marked by a number of penalties. First, JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Laurin Heinrich was given a stop-and-60-second hold penalty for contact with The Heart of Racing’s Roman De Angelis in the hairpin. That put him two laps down and out of the hunt.
Later on, Vasser Sullivan’s Jack Hawksworth was hit from behind by BMW M Team WRT’s Dries Vanthoor and spun into the tires in turn 5. That resulted in a drive-through penalty for Dries.
Any chance for a decent finish ended late in the race when Laurens’ younger brother Dries ran in the back of Laurens in the hairpin. The contact broke the rear diffuser and knocked
The second yellow came out with 19 minutes to go when a piece of debris from Laurens’ Porsche ended up on-track in the turn 3 hairpin. That wiped out a 14-second lead for Aitken. A black flag was given to the No. 6 Porsche to fix the rear wing and diffuser.
The remaining time was run in a start-and-stop motion. Not even a full lap after the restart, AO Racing’s Nick Tandy slid into the tires at turn 5 to draw another caution. He was able to back out of the tires and continue, but he was at the back of the pack.
The green came back out with only seven minutes remaining on the clock. From there, Aitken ran off and hid on his way to victory.
In GTD Pro, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Alexander Sims started on pole. Teammate Tommy Milner started alongside, but went wide at turn 3 on the first lap and dropped to fourth.
After the restart, Sims slowly started to pull away from the pack. Vasser Sullivan’s Ben Barnicoat was able to move up to second on the start and was able to ride there with Frederic Vervisch giving chase.
When it was time for the race’s only pit stop, Sims had a four-second advantage over Barnicoat. He was able to pit, get Antonio Garcia into the car, take fuel and come out with a good lead. That lead held until the debris caution with 19 minutes to go.
As the last caution came out, Hawksworth made a move for the class lead on Garcia. Contact was made on the pit straight. IMSA officials did not take kindly to it and issued Hawksworth a drive-through penalty. That ultimately dropped the No. 14 Lexus to a sixth-place finish.
The penalty to Hawksworth set up a potential Corvette one-two finish. With a couple of minutes to go, Aaron Telitz attempted an aggressive move to the inside of Nicky Catsburg entering the hairpin. Catsburg moved in reaction and hit Telitz.
Telitz then went wide, which allowed Catsburg to get back past. However, the contact resulted in a left rear tire rub for Catsburg. This was yet another instance that the officials looked dimly on. The No. 4 Corvette was forced to serve a drive-through for incident responsibility.
Things weren’t all that rosy for Telitz either. He dropped down the order with damage, then pitted at the beginning of the final lap. As a result, Telitz and Chaz Mostert were credited with 10th in class.
The contact allowed Garcia to open up a comfortable lead. From there, he held on for his first Detroit win.
Garcia and Sims’ margin of victory was 1.935 seconds over the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 of Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell. It is the best finish of the year for the Temerario and a big improvement after some struggles on Friday.
Ford Racing’s Vervisch and Christopher Mies finished third, followed by Paul Miller Racing’s Connor de Phillippi and Neil Verhagen. The second Mustang of Ben Barker and Dennis Olsen was fifth.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic Unofficial Results
Next up for WeatherTech teams is the Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen on June 28. Coverage of the race will begin at Noon ET on Peacock. The green will fly at 12:10 p.m. ET.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email 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 Frontstretch 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.