#TBT: Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix
- Vickie Miller
- Jun 4, 2015
- 4 min read
Last weekend I attended my 6th trip to the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix event, with this being the 5th consecutive year with TUDOR and one prior visit when Indy raced with American Le Mans Series (ALMS) many years ago.
The event weekend held racing from IndyCar, IMSA Tudor Championship, Pirelli World Challenge (PWC), and Stadium Super Trucks (SST). Due to several series racing over the weekend, only the Grand Touring (GT) and the GTA (driver classification part of GT class for professional drivers who do not make their primarily living from racing) classes of PWC attended. While TUDOR brought three classes P (Prototype), PC (Prototype Challenge), and GTD (GT Daytona).
The weekend event was billed the ”Dual at Detroit” with an official race held Saturday and a second official race held on Sunday…or at least this was the original plan. If you are familiar with Detroit, you know the weather can play a big part in the weekends’ events, and this year the weather was headlining the show!
The Indy Race 1 ended Saturday after 47 laps of a 70 lap scheduled race due to the rain. Carlos Munoz earned his first win as a result of the early finish. Indy does have rain tires, but I can tell you from being at the track, the storm clouds were not rolling out anytime soon and with the down pour, the track was sprinkled with deep water puddles which would have resulted in hydroplaning. While fans were not treated to a full race, I agreed with IndyCar's decision.
On Sunday, with the PWC race canceled, the Indy Race 2 held enough excitement for two races. The Belle Isle track is 2.36 miles in length with 14 turns which results in varying weather conditions along the course. Sunday the weather would provide just enough sprinkles to keep part of the track wet while some turns were dry. If teams chose to put on wet tires, the “line” or single-line path the race cars drove would be dry even in the wet part of the track, and just eat up the tread. Okay, I will be honest, I was pulling for Conor Daly….who lost the lead when he pitted to remove the rain tires. Sebastien Bourdais took over and was the Race 2 winner.
As with any race weekend, changes in the schedule will occur, which makes a track event coordinator scramble as to how to notify the fans in attendance. The public address system (track speakers) are basically useless as either no one can hear over any track noise or no one is paying attention. Which leaves myself, along with many fans, turning to social media for news. For me, that’s Twitter. Whether it’s your favorite race series or race driver twitter account to follow, the changes came fast and furious.
While the TUDOR held an autograph session, the PWC session was moved to Sunday and evidently canceled. On the social media side, I experienced during the event's twitter account @DetroitGP is very responsive to questions and comments.
On a side note, my thoughts and prayers go out to the safety workers injured at the end of the TUDOR race on Saturday. I will not speculate as to progression of events which lead to the incident, however twice I have taken hot laps around Detroit and it’s is very narrow and only one short part of the track where a driver can see ahead. Communication between team, driver, track officials and safety workers is critical as to what cars are on track and what color flag should be displayed. Detroit as with many street courses requires full focus, concentration and making quick decisions.
At the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix event, I had the pleasure of chatting with the man, the myth, the legend Ryan Eversley. Ryan is driver of the #43 Honda Acura TLX-GT car in the PWC GT Class. Unless you live under a rock, you have heard of this young racing talent. I sat down with Ryan to ask a few unique questions.
Q: Do you have any plans to return to TUSC or only racing in PWC?
Ryan would drive every weekend in something if he could. While Ryan has no confirmed plans right now, he is happy knowing Honda is approachable and flexible in working with Ryan to help him advance his racing career.
Q: Last year at Detroit when Ryan saw the Stadium Super Trucks, he thought they were cool because the trucks “jump stuff”? Would Ryan ever want to drive one of the trucks?
YES!!! No question. Ryan did get a chance to meet Robbie Gordon and finds him a very cool dude.
Q: Favorite Food: His mom’s baked ziti and a close second is sushi. Ryan’s favorite is the Rainbow Roll. While at Belle Isle for the race weekend, Ryan and his teammate, Peter, attended a local sushi place but did not try the house “Detroit Roll”.
Q: Favorite Movie: Tie between Big Lebowski and any Star Wars
Q: Favorite TV show: Discovery network, SurvivorMan
Q: Favorite non-social media app: Pandora
Q: If you could spend the afternoon with one person (driver, famous, politician, etc.) who would it be and what would you do?
Spend the afternoon at the Interlagos Sao Paulo Brazil karting track and go-kart with Ayrton Senna.
Please follow on Twitter: Ryan @RyanEversley and Ryan’s Team @RealTimeAcura
An organization which is very personal and dear to Ryan is Children’s Tumor Foundation and Ryan’s been using the hashtag #EndNF, I strongly encourage you to read more www.ctf.org
I have donated several times to END NF and receive their quarterly newsletter which provides information regarding how your donation dollars are spent and an update on the Racing for Research program which is partnered with Compass 360 race team.
Please check to see if there is an END NF walk in your area, and participate!
Thank you all for reading and I welcome your comments. I have no affiliation with PWC, Detroit, Indy, etc. just a fan. There are many blogs and websites where you will find statistics, results, and scoring from the race; this is “just the way I see it”.
Got a response? Follow and tweet me @viclovesracing
And look for future “Vickie’s Trackside Reports” coming to a track near you!
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