This weekend both the NTT IndyCar Series and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship are in action at the same venue. The Raceway at Belle Isle, a 2.3-mile road course that overlooks the Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, Canada skylines plays hosts to both series, together with INDYCAR’s top rung of the Road to Indy, the Indy Lights Championship.
The two series have long participated in this race weekend as partners; this year IMSA is adding the GTLM category, which normally doesn’t race in this fourth contest of the season as participants prepare for Le Mans. With that 24-hour contest postponed to late summer rather than occurring at the Summer Solstice, the two Corvette Racing C8.R racecars will compete amongst themselves for bragging honors, as nary a Porsche, Ferrari or BMW consented to appear. Neither LMP2 nor LMP3 are on the docket.
There are 20 cars preparing for one of IMSA’s shortest races of the year – 100 minutes – that takes place near sunset on Saturday. Of the six DPi entries in this Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, three are Cadillacs (Chip Ganassi Racing, Mustang Sampling/JDC-Miller Motorsports and Whelen Engineering Racing). Two Acura ARX-05 entries are from the Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing team and Meyer Shank Racing, while Mazda Motorsports’ single car entry is scheduled for this race.
The balance of the IMSA WeatherTech fieldworker is made up of GTD machinery, a competitive group of Lamborghini Huracan, Lexus RC F, Aston Martin Vantage, Mercedes-AMG, Audi R8, Acura NSX and a lone Porsche 911 and BMW M6 GT3 machinery. Don’t call them “field-fillers” as the GTD cars are exceptionally competitive and have championship-caliber drivers entered like Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow, former Andretti Autosport racers Zach Veach and Jack Hawksworth, Katherine Legge and Bill Auberlen.
The IMSA race is scheduled for Saturday after the first of two INDYCAR races; as this weekend is expected to be quite hot – especially on Saturday – that later start could be beneficial to both drivers and their engines. Acura is the defending race winner from 2019; most bets are withTaylor’s team, although it would be tough to discount the momentum of Meyer Shank coming off their magnificent Indianapolis 500 victory.
Just two days before the weekend began, Lexus Racing and Vasser/Sullivan Racing announced Zach Veach tested positive for COVID-19 and would not be able to compete.Michelin Endurance Cup racer and broadcaster Townsend Bell assumes his seat for this event.
The NTT IndyCar Series has had about a week and a half to recover from the rigors of the 105th Indy 500 but, unlike most years, the race’s winner will not be part of the succeeding race, as four-time winner Helio Castroneves is contracted to race the debut of the Camping World SRX Series, to which he’s committed for all six races.
This weekend’s entry list had a late addition as Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Santino Ferrucci will make his second and third INDYCAR starts at Belle Isle in the No. 45 Honda-powered Dallara, giving the series a total of 25 starters for both Saturday and Sunday’s races. The addition gives Honda 14 entries to Chevrolet’s 11, but numbers, as they say, don’t tell the whole story.
This weekend marks the return of road-course specialists Jimmie Johnson and Romain Grosjean after the duo sat out Indy. Both are rethinking their vows not to race ovals and 2022 could see both the NASCAR 7-time champ and the former F1 racer try out Indy cars on left-turn tracks next year.
Scott Dixon ceded the points lead to teammate Alex Palou, who finished second at Indy, but the Spaniard doesn’t have an easy ride this weekend, as he was penalized by the series for an unapproved engine change at Indy, performed prior to the start of the 500. The rule (16.5.4.) states: Once an Indianapolis500 engine is fitted to the car, removal of the engine prior to the Indianapolis 500 Race is an unapproved engine change-out, unless it is for repair. Palou will have a six grid-spot penalty for the No.10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. It will definitely be fun watching Palou attempt to make his way forward on track where passing is treacherous and difficult.
A late look at the weather forecast calls for late afternoon thunderstorms on Saturday, which could affect IMSA’s race-or not.Since INDYCAR’s two races are being held earlier in the day both Saturday and Sunday, it’s not likely they will be affected by the storm – but you never know!
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