Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing won Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event from the Belle Isle Street Circuit. In General Motors’ hometown, Cadillac-powered Daytona Prototype Internationals (DPi) led the way in the 100-minute sprint event, finishing 1-2 overall.
Meanwhile, in the GT class, a disqualification swapped the results post-race.
The No. 01 Cadillac DPi turns into the opening corner of the Belle Isle Street Circuit this past weekend. (Picture Credit: Motorsport Week)
DPi
Return to Victory Lane
The factory-backed Cadillac team at Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) celebrated their first victory together Saturday evening. After narrowly missing wins in the first three races of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (WTSC) season, Ganassi’s team was led to victory lane by Renger van der Zande and Kevin Magnussen. Magnussen, who is in his first full-time sports car season after seven seasons in Formula One, won the pole award for the race on Friday and helped the Cadillac team score his first WTSC victory.
A tire failure in the final ten minutes eliminated the team a shot at the win at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona back in January before damage eliminated them from the Sebring 12 Hours in March while holding the lead. Last month at Mid-Ohio, the CGR team missed the fuel number and was forced to refuel in the final minutes from the top spot.
Drought Over for Magnussen
Renger van der Zande (left) and Kevin Magnussen (right) celebrate their first win as teammates in front of the James Scott Memorial Fountain on Belle Isle in the Detroit River. (Picture Credit: Kyle Chura / AutoMobilSport)
The win for 28-year-old Magnussen ended an eight-year winless streak for the second-generation Danish star. The former Haas F1 driver last won a race in the 2013 Renault World Series where he was victorious in the season-ending race from Barcelona.
This season is Magnussen’s first in sports car competition after seeing his father Jan compete in IMSA between 1999 and 2019, winning championships in 2008, 2013, 2017 and 2018.
Podium Finishers
The sister Cadillac at Action Express Racing followed the Ganassi team home Saturday evening. Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr drove the Whelen Engineering No. 31 to second-place, 0.573-seconds behind van der Zande when the checkered flag flew in Detroit on Saturday.
Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor continue to lead the championship standings with another podium performance from Detroit. The No. 10 Acura was 4 seconds behind the Cadillac duo at the conclusion of the shortest race on the 2021 WTSC calendar.
GTLM
Milner, Tandy take Corvette competition
In General Motors’ backyard, the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class was a head-to-head battle between the Corvette Racing factory team.
The No. 4 Corvette C8.R drives into turn one at Detroit. (Picture Credit: Corvette Racing)
With the postponement of the 24 Hours of Le Mans this summer, the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic promoters invited the Chevy Corvette C8.Rs to race around the 2.35-mile Belle Isle circuit. Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy won the Corvette-only competition with their GTEs, beating the reigning class champions by just 0.226-seconds at the conclusion of the 100-minute event.
Because of the rare circumstances of the GTLM class being present in the Detroit River, no championship points were distributed.
GTD
Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic from Detroit was not a championship event for GTD teams, however, points were still distributed in Sprint Cup standings among the GTD competitors.
CarBahn stripped of Class Victory
Jeff Westphal and Richard Heistand celebrated a win in the GT Daytona (GTD) class from Belle Isle post-race. However, as the night came to end, the duo and their CarBahn with Peregrine Racing team were demoted to last-place after IMSA officials conducted post-race inspection.
The No. 39 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo was bumped from top of the podium to 12th in-class after IMSA found an audit that “demonstrated a refueling time faster than the minimum full fill refueling time in the class-specific BoP table.”
Heart of Racing Promoted to Top Step
With the CarBahn entry thrown out of the final results, the Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin was promoted to the victory in-class. Romain De Angelis and Ross Gunn are now credited with the win in the first of two Sprint Cup-only GTD rounds this season.
The Aston Martin Vantage from Heart of Racing Team cuts through the city streets of Belle Isle Park. (Picture Credit: Mike Levitt / Windsor Star)
The win also keeps the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 team of De Angelis and Gunn on top of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup standings. The duo sits 55 points ahead of Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley, who failed to finish the Turner Motorsports No. 96 with a final result of 8th in Detroit Saturday.
Results
DPi Results
Pos.: Drivers (No.) Team – Laps
1: Renger van der Zande / Kevin Magnussen (01) Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing – 66
2: Felipe Nasr / Pipo Derani (31) Whelen Engineering AXR – 66
3: Ricky Taylor / Filipe Albuquerque (10) Wayne Taylor Racing – 66
4: Oliver Jarvis / Harry Tincknell (55) Mazda Motorsports – 66
5: Tristan Vautier / Loic Duval (5) JDC-Miller MotorSports – 66
6: Dane Cameron / Olivier Pla (60) Meyer Shank Racing – 66
GTLM Results (Non-Points)
Pos.: Drivers (No.) Team – Laps
1: Tommy Milner / Nick Tandy (4) Corvette Racing – 63
2: Antonio Garcia / Jordan Taylor (3) Corvette Racing – 63
GTLM Results (Sprint Cup Round)
Pos.: Drivers (No.) Team – Laps
1: Romain De Angelis / Ross Gunn (23) Heart of Racing Team – 62
2: Misha Goikhberg / Marco Mapelli (19) GRT Grasser Racing – 62
3: Till Bechtolsheimer / Marc Miller (66) Gradient Racing – 62
4: Aaron Telitz / Jack Hawksworth (14) Vasser Sullivan – 62
5: Frankie Montecalvo / Townsend Bell (12) Vasser Sullivan – 62
6: Bryan Sellers / Madison Snow (1) Paul Miller Racing – 62
7: Kenny Habul / Mikael Grenier (75) Sun Energy 1 Racing – 62
8: Bill Auberlen / Robby Foley (96) Turner Motorsport – 55
9: Jeff Kingsley / Mario Farnbacher (76) Richard Millie Compass Racing – 50
10: Daniel Morad / Michael de Quesada (28) Alegra Motorsports – 28
11: Rob Ferriol / Katherine Legge (88) Team Hardpoint EBM – 3
12: Richard Heistand / Jeff Westphal (39) CarBahn w/ Peregrine Racing – 62 (DQ)
Official Chevrolet Sports Classic Results – June 12, 2021 (PDF).
