In the category’s premiere on Detroit’s tight and twisty street circuit, Ricky Taylor beat out Mathieu Jaminet with a Great overtaking in the last 25 minutes in GTP modewhile Seb Priaulx and Loren Heinrich won the GTD Pro race with their Porsche 911.
After the two factory Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s took the front row in qualifying, Nick Tandy’s No. 6 car led Dane Cameron’s No. 7 car to the green flag. Meanwhile, Filipe Albuquerque’s No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Andretti Acura ARX-06 braked late and the cautious Dane passed Cameron at the first corner to take second, while Sébastien Bourdais passed him on the inside to take third.
At the end of the first lap, Harry Tincknell’s Ford Mustang GTD stopped near the first corner. At the start of the second half, Nick Tandy was ahead of Felipe Albuquerque, Sebastien Bourdais, Dane Cameron and the two BMW M Hybrid V8s of Philipp Eng and Nick Yelloly, but the first of the German vehicles was soon penalized for overtaking, leaving him in the lead. He lost his fifth position due to a lane change before the start.
Nick Tandy walked away, despite his struggle with a non-working radio, Leaving Felipe Albuquerque, Sebastien Bourdais and Dane Cameron competing for second place. Pipo Derani, who had an accident in qualifying, handed the No. 31 Action Express Cadillac over to Jack Aitken in a bold strategy ten minutes later.
25 minutes later, after anticipating traffic problems with the GTDs before the race, Nick Tandy over-braked in the third corner and collided with Daniel Serra’s Conquest Racing 296, causing injury. It caused a spin and resulted in the car leading the race leader.
“I didn’t realize when they were checking, I apologize,” he said, also explaining that he was playing with his radio cables because he could not clearly hear it passing through the potholes.
This left Felipe Albuquerque ahead of Sebastien Bourdais and Dane CameronAlthough the Frenchman entered the pits after half an hour, giving the place to Ringer van der Zande. However, the call was made late and the Frenchman did not release his seatbelts, causing a slow driver change.
The Portuguese pitted to hand the place to Ricky Taylor later, rejoining with a wide lead, while Dane Cameron took another lap before stopping to hand the place to Felipe Nasr, who rejoined ahead of the Acura ARX-06.
Nick Yelloly spent more time up front and entered the pits after 37 minutes, then passed the ball to Connor De Phillippi, who quickly took the car to the third corner protection on his lap. This put Nick Tandy, who had been penalized, back in the lead, and he put together a series of fast laps.
He entered the pits, to make way for Mathieu Jaminet, before the second dangerous period, When Connor De Phillippi crashed his BMW againThe rear left corner hit the wall of the second turn.
Mathieu Jaminet returned to the lead ahead of his teammateRicky Taylor, Ringer van der Zande and Jesse Krohn were in the remaining #24 BMW, but Felipe Nasr had to go under yellow to change a flat tyre, dropping him from second to eighth.
The race resumed with 47 minutes remaining, and the Brazilian immediately gained three places by passing the outside of Richard Westbrook’s JDC-Miller Porsche 963, Gianmaria Bruni’s Proton, and Jesse Krohn’s BMW in the third corner, then passed the No. 40 car. Acura Lewis. Deletraz, but the race was neutralized again, when Richard Westbrook collided with Jack Aitken and closed the track.
The race turned green again after the hour mark, with Mathieu Jaminet escaping Ricky Taylor, Ringer van der Zande and Felipe Nasr.Although the chaser remained one second behind the leaders, he took the lead into the third corner with 25 minutes remaining, launching himself around the hairpin on the inside, after the lead driver suffered a slight obstruction when starting the GTD Mustang.
The yellow flag came out again 20 minutes before the end of the race to deal with some debris that was accumulating on the main straight. Mathieu Jaminet wanted revenge on Ricky Taylor, while Felipe Nasr attacked Ranger van der Zande.
Gianmaria Bruni passed Jesse Krohn and took sixth place, followed by Jack Aitken, but when the Italian Louis Deletraz attacked, the Anglo-Korean overtook him and hit the wall as he reached the fourth corner. This caused another yellow flag, the fifth, however Ricky Taylor survived the final restart seven minutes after the checkered flag to give the No. 10 Acura its first win since Road America in 2022..
Disaster for Corvette and defeat for Porsche Lexus in GTD Pro
In GTD Pro, under the shadow of the massive towers of GM’s Renaissance Center dominating the city skyline, the pressure was on the Corvette. After scoring a double in qualifying, the No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R driven by Antonio Garcia Leading into the No. 4 car was Tommy Milner who started at the front, ahead of Jack Hawksworth and Seb Priaulx in the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R.
but, Things went wrong almost immediately for the Spaniard, who pitted at the end of the first lap with an alternator problem.. New captain Tommy Milner took over for Nicky Catsburg after 40 minutes, and they only changed one tire during the pit stop, while Ben Barnicoat replaced Jack Hawksworth in the Lexus, and Loren Heinrich replaced Sepp Priaulx in the Porsche ‘Rexy’.
Immediately after the mid-race restart, the leaders collided in Turn 3, with the Lexus colliding with the Corvette, which spun after hitting the inside wall. This is what brought Lauren Heinrich to the topbut had to stop to avoid a Richard Westbrook spin, and Ben Barnicoat nearly caught him.
He suffered understeer and a loose bonnet to chase Loren Heinrich to the finish, while Marvin Kirchhofer’s Pfaff McLaren 720S was on the verge of taking third place when Alex Ripras collided with him at the third corner near the end.
both | no. | pilot | Equipment/vehicle | Rolls | time | Delay/withdrawal |
1 | 10 | Ricky Taylor F. Albuquerque |
Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura |
75 | 1:40’02.133 | |
2 | 6 | Nick Tandy Matthieu Jaminet |
Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche |
75 | 1:40’03.265 | 1,132 |
3 | 01 | R. Van der Zande S. Bordis |
Cadillac racing Cadillac |
75 | 1:40’06.331 | 4,198 |
4 | 7 | Daniel Cameron Felipe Nasr |
Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche |
75 | 1:40’07.275 | 5,142 |
5 | 40 | Jordan Taylor Louis Deletraz |
Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura |
75 | 1:40’12,253 | 10,120 |
6 | 31 | Bebo Dirani Jack Aitken |
Whelen Cadillac Racing Cadillac |
75 | 1:40’12,492 | 10,359 |
7 | 24 | Jesse Krohn Philip the engineer |
BMW M Team RLL BMW |
75 | 1:40’12,926 | 10,793 |
8 | 85 | T van der Helm R. Westbrook |
JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche |
74 | 1:40’16.425 | 1 roll/14,292 |
9 | 77 | Lauren Heinrich Seb Priolux |
Race AO Porsche |
74 | 1:40’28,354 | 1 roll/26,221 |
10 | 14 | Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat |
Vasser Sullivan Lexus |
74 | 1:40’31,239 | 1 roll/29,106 |
Eleven | 23 | Ross Gunn Alex Ripras |
Heart of the racing team Aston Martin |
74 | 1:40’33,223 | One roll / 31,090 |
12 | fifteen | Parker Thompson F. Montecalvo |
Vasser Sullivan Lexus |
74 | 1:40’33,819 | 1 roll/31,686 |
13 | 1 | Brian Sellers Snow Madison |
Paul Miller Racing BMW |
74 | 1:40’44,260 | 1 roll /42,127 |
14 | 65 | Joey Hand Dirk Müller |
Ford Multimatic Motorsport stronghold |
73 | 1:40’47,978 | 2 rolls / 45,845 |
fifteen | 35 | Daniel Serra Albert Costa |
Conquest race Ferrari |
72 | 1:38’11000 | Without operation |
16 | 9 | M. Kirchhofer Oliver Jarvis |
Pfaff Motorsport McLaren |
71 | 1:36’57,349 | Without operation |
17 | 4 | Tommy Milner Nikki Catsburg |
Corvette Racing from Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet |
69 | 1:40’48,643 | 6 rolls/46,510 |
18 | 5 | Gianmaria Bruni Fiscal’s daughter |
Proton competition Porsche |
65 | 1:27’07,954 | Without operation |
19 | 3 | Antonio Garcia Alexander Sims |
Corvette Racing from Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet |
59 | 1:40’47,282 | 16 rolls / 45,149 |
twenty | 64 | Harry Tincknell M. Rockenfeller |
Ford Multimatic Motorsport stronghold |
51 | 1:40’49,244 | 24 rolls / 47,111 |
Twenty one | 25 | C. De Filippi Nick Yelloly |
BMW M Team RLL BMW |
33 | 39’49,265 | Without operation |
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