2021 Detroit Sports Car Classic Explained

The 2021 Detroit SportsCar Classic was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at The Raceway on Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan on June 12, 2021. This race was the fourth round of the 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship, and the second round of the 2021 WeatherTech Sprint Cup.

Background

International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president John Doonan confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in September 2020. It was the seventh year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the eleventh annual running of the race, counting the period between 2007 and 2013 when it was a round of the Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series respectively.^[1] The 2021 Detroit Sports Car Classic was the fourth of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2021 by IMSA, the shortest in terms of time, and was the second round of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup.^[2] The race was held at the fourteen-turn 2.35miles Belle Isle Park in Detroit, Michigan.^[3]

Unlike its predecessors, the race was initially scheduled to be a standalone event, relinquishing its traditional joint weekend with the IndyCar Series in an attempt to avoid conflict with the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans.^[4] However, with the postponement of the Le Mans race to August, the race weekend was pushed back a week, allowing it to run in conjunction with the IndyCar double-header.^[5] While the reschedule alleviated a conflict with the Nürburgring 24 Hours, it fell on the same weekend as the WEC race at Portimão, leading to a further conflict for WeatherTech Racing.^[5] The classes competing at the event were also shuffled, as the LMP2 class was replaced with GTLM, which wouldn't score points towards the overall championship.^[5] The DPi and GTD classes remained on the entry list from the initial date, with the latter still only scoring points towards the WeatherTech Sprint Cup.

The race also marked the first event since the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic that fans would be allowed paddock access, in accordance with the lifting of outdoor venue gathering restrictions in the state of Michigan.^[6]

Before the race, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 1070 points, ahead of Oliver Jarvis and Harry Tincknell in second with 1015 points.^[7] Nicky Catsburg, Antonio García, and Jordan Taylor led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 697 points, 41 points ahead of Cooper MacNeil. With 920 points, the GTD Drivers' Championship was led by Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley. Acura, Chevrolet, and BMW were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while WTR-Konica Minolta Acura, Corvette Racing, and Turner Motorsport each led their own Teams' Championships.

Entries

A total of 20 cars took part in the event, split across three classes. 6 cars were entered in DPi, 2 in GTLM, and 12 in GTD. Although no notable changes occurred in the DPi class, a handful of GTD competitors elected to forego the round due to its championship point output only counting for the WeatherTech Sprint Cup; namely Magnus Racing, Wright Motorsports, and Pfaff Motorsports. Buoying the GTD numbers, however, was SunEnergy1 Racing, who returned after skipping the Mid-Ohio round. In GTLM, the lone competitors were the two Corvettes, in line with WeatherTech Racing's expected absence.^[8]

After the initial entry list was released, a pair of driver changes were made prior to the race weekend. Marco Mapelli joined Misha Goikhberg in the Grasser Racing Team entry,^[9] while Townsend Bell subbed for Zach Veach, who missed the round after testing positive for COVID-19, in the Vasser Sullivan Racing No. 12.^[10]

Practice

here were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, both on Friday. The first session lasted 90 minutes on Friday morning while the second session lasted 100 minutes on Friday afternoon.^[11]

Practice 1

The first practice session took place at 8:00 am ET on Friday and ended with Tristan Vautier topping the charts for JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing, with a lap time of 1:21.588, ahead of the No. 10 Acura of Ricky Taylor.^[12] Nick Tandy set the fastest time in GTLM.^[13] The GTD class was topped by the No. 76 Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo of Mario Farnbacher with a time of 1:30.932. Richard Heistand was second fastest in the No. 39 Audi followed by Jack Hawksworth in the No. 14 Lexus.^[14] The session was stopped for 8 minutes when the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo of Madison Snow stopped at turn three.

	Class		Team	Driver	Time
1	DPi	5	JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing	Tristan Vautier	1:21.588	_
2	DPi	10	WTR-Konica Minolta Acura	Ricky Taylor	1:21.684	+0.096
3	DPi	01	Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing	Kevin Magnussen	1:21.775	+0.187
Sources:^[15]

Practice 2

The second and final practice session took place at 12:00 pm ET on Friday and ended with Kevin Magnussen topping the charts for Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing, with a lap time of 1:20.068. Pipo Derani's No. 31 Cadillac was second fastest followed by Loïc Duval in the No. 5 Cadillac.^[16] Tommy Milner set the fastest time in GTLM.^[17] The GTD class was topped by the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth with a time of 1:30.495, ahead of Richard Heistand in the No. 39 Audi.^[18]

	Class		Team	Driver	Time
1	DPi	01	Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing	Kevin Magnussen	1:20.068	_
2	DPi	31	Whelen Engineering Racing	Pipo Derani	1:20.226	+0.158
3	DPi	5	JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing	Loïc Duval	1:20.281	+0.213
Sources:^[19] ^[20]

Qualifying

Qualifying was broken into three sessions. The first was for cars in the GTD class. Richard Heinstand qualified on pole for the class driving the No. 39 car for CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing, beating Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing entry by less than one-tenth of a second. Roman De Angelis was third fastest followed by Robby Foley in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport entry.^[21]

The second session was for cars in the GTLM and GTD classes. Nick Tandy qualified on pole in GTLM driving the No. 4 car for Corvette Racing, besting teammate Jordan Taylor in the sister No. 3 Corvette Racing entry by more than three-tenths of a second.^[22] Mario Farnbacher set the fastest time in the GTD points paying session and earned 35 WeatherTech Sprint Cup points. The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing entry did not set a time after Aaron Telitz hit the wall at turn 2 in the first session.

The final session of qualifying was for cars in the DPi class. Kevin Magnussen qualified on pole driving the No. 01 car for Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing, beating Harry Tincknell in the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports entry by 0.021 seconds.^[23] The session was shortened after Tristan Vautier, driving the No. 5 JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac, crashed at turn 4. For causing a red flag, Vauiter had his best two laps from the session deleted.

Qualifying results

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by .

	Class		Team	Driver	Time
1	DPi	01	Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing	Kevin Magnussen	1:20.031	_	1
2	DPi	55	Mazda Motorsports	Harry Tincknell	1:20.052	+0.021	2
3	DPi	31	Whelen Engineering Racing	Pipo Derani	1:20.161	+0.130	3
4	DPi	10	WTR-Konica Minolta Acura	Ricky Taylor	1:20.299	+0.268	4
5	DPi	5	JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing	Tristan Vautier	1:20.532	+0.501	5
6	DPi	60	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	Olivier Pla	1:21.455	+1.424	6
7	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Nick Tandy	1:27.283	+7.231	7
8	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Jordan Taylor	1:27.606	+7.554	8
9	GTD	39	CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing	Richard Heistand	1:30.529	+10.498	9
10	GTD	12	Vasser Sullivan Racing	Frankie Montecalvo	1:30.617	+10.586	10
11	GTD	23	Heart Of Racing Team	Roman De Angelis	1:30.671	+10.640	11
12	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Robby Foley	1:30.861	+10.830	12
13	GTD	14	Vasser Sullivan Racing	Aaron Telitz	1:30.865	+10.834	19
14	GTD	1	Paul Miller Racing	Madison Snow	1:30.879	+10.848	13
15	GTD	76	Compass Racing	Jeff Kingsley	1:30.977	+10.946	14
16	GTD	66	Gradient Racing	Till Bechtolsheimer	1:31.582	+11.551	15
17	GTD	28	Alegra Motorsports	Michael de Quesada	1:31.660	+11.629	16
18	GTD	75	SunEnergy1 Racing	Kenny Habul	1:31.784	+11.753	17
19	GTD	88	Team Hardpoint EBM	Rob Ferriol	1:31.841	+11.810	20
20	GTD	19	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Misha Goikhberg	1:32.211	+12.180	18
Sources:^[24] ^[25] ^[26] ^[27]

• The No. 5 JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing entry had its two fastest laps deleted as penalty for causing a red flag during its qualifying session.
• The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing entry initially qualified fifth in the GTD class. However, the car did not participate in the second GTD qualifying session. By IMSA rules, the entry was moved to the rear of the GTD field on the starting grid.^[28]
• The No. 88 Team Hardpoint EBM entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).^[29]

Post-race

As a result of winning the race, van der Zande and Magnussen advanced from sixth to fourth in the DPi Drivers' Championship. Derani and Nasr jumped from fourth to third while Duval and Vautier dropped from third to fifth.^[30] GTLM drivers, teams, and manufactures did not score full season points due to the event not counting for the overall championship. GTD drivers, teams, and manufactures did not score full season points due to the event only counting towards the WeatherTech Sprint Cup. Cadillac took the lead of the DPi Manufactures' Championship while WTR-Konica Minolta Acura continued to top the DPi Teams' Championship with eight rounds remaining.

Race results

Class winners are denoted in bold and .

Pos	Class		Team	Drivers	Chassis	Laps	Time/Retired
					Engine
1	DPi	01	Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing	Renger van der Zande Kevin Magnussen	Cadillac DPi-V.R	66	1:40:03.247
					Cadillac 5.5L V8
2	DPi	31	Whelen Engineering Racing	Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani	Cadillac DPi-V.R	66	+0.573
					Cadillac 5.5L V8
3	DPi	10	Konica Minolta Acura	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	Acura ARX-05	66	+4.028
					Acura AR35TT 3.5L Turbo V6
4	DPi	55	Mazda Motorsports	Oliver Jarvis Harry Tincknell	Mazda RT24-P	66	+4.876
					Mazda MZ-2.0T 2.0L Turbo I4
5	DPi	5	JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing	Tristan Vautier Loïc Duval	Cadillac DPi-V.R	66	+5.182
					Cadillac 5.5L V8
6	DPi	60	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	Dane Cameron Olivier Pla	Acura ARX-05	66	+5.425
					Acura AR35TT 3.5L Turbo V6
7	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	63	+3 Laps
					Chevrolet 5.5L V8
8	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Antonio García Jordan Taylor	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	63	+3 Laps
					Chevrolet 5.5L V8
9	GTD	23	Heart of Racing Team	Roman De Angelis Ross Gunn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3	62	+4 Laps
					Mercedes-Benz M177 4.0L Turbo V8
10	GTD	19	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Misha Goikhberg Marco Mapelli	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	62	+4 Laps
					Lamborghini 5.2L V10
11	GTD	66	Gradient Racing	Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller	Acura NSX GT3 Evo	62	+4 Laps
					Acura 3.5L Turbo V6
12	GTD	14	Vasser Sullivan Racing	Aaron Telitz Jack Hawksworth	Lexus RC F GT3	62	+4 Laps
					Lexus 5.0L V8
13	GTD	12	Vasser Sullivan Racing	Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell	Lexus RC F GT3	62	+4 Laps
					Lexus 5.0L V8
14	GTD	1	Paul Miller Racing	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	62	+4 Laps
					Lamborghini 5.2L V10
15	GTD	75	SunEnergy1 Racing	Kenny Habul Mikaël Grenier	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	62	+4 Laps
					Mercedes-AMG M159 6.2L V8
16	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley	BMW M6 GT3	55	Transmission
					BMW 4.4L Turbo V8
17DNF	GTD	76	Compass Racing	Jeff Kingsley Mario Farnbacher	Acura NSX GT3 Evo	50	Brakes
					Acura 3.5L Turbo V6
18DNF	GTD	28	Alegra Motorsports	Daniel Morad Michael de Quesada	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	28	Crash damage
					Mercedes-AMG M159 6.2L V8
19DNF	GTD	88	Team Hardpoint EBM	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge	Porsche 911 GT3 R	3	Accident
					Porsche 4.0L Flat-6
20	GTD	39	CarBahn with Peregrine Racing	Richard Heistand Jeff Westphal	Audi R8 LMS Evo	62	+4 Laps
					Audi 5.2L V10
Sources:^[31] ^[32]

Standings after the race

+DPi Drivers' Championship standings		+/–	Driver	Points
1		Filipe Albuquerque Ricky Taylor	1398
2		Oliver Jarvis Harry Tincknell	1327
3	1	Pipo Derani Felipe Nasr	1270
4	2	Kevin Magnussen Renger van der Zande	1219
5	2	Loïc Duval Tristan Vautier	1211

+LMP2 Drivers' Championship standings		+/–	Driver	Points
1		Scott Huffaker Mikkel Jensen Ben Keating	382
2		Ryan Dalziel Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley	350
3		Gabriel Aubry Timothé Buret John Farano	326
4		Thomas Merrill Tristan Nunez Steven Thomas	315
5		Wayne Boyd James McGuire Guy Smith	388

+LMP3 Drivers' Championship standings		+/–	Driver	Points
1		Gar Robinson	715
2		Jon Bennett Colin Braun	690
3		Jim Cox Dylan Murry	646
4		Rasmus Lindh Dan Goldburg	620
5		Oliver Askew	592

+GTLM Drivers' Championship standings		+/–	Driver	Points
1		Nicky Catsburg Antonio García Jordan Taylor	697‡
2		Cooper MacNeil	656‡
3		John Edwards Augusto Farfus Jesse Krohn	653‡
4		Tommy Milner Alexander Sims Nick Tandy	647‡
5		Connor De Phillippi Philipp Eng Bruno Spengler	636‡

+GTD Drivers' Championship standings		+/–	Driver	Points
1		Bill Auberlen Robby Foley	920‡
2		Roman De Angelis Ross Gunn	913‡
3		Patrick Long	874‡
4		Zacharie Robichon Laurens Vanthoor	872‡
5		Madison Snow Bryan Sellers	854‡

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.
• ‡: Non-points event
• ‡: Points count towards WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship only.

+DPi Teams' Championship standings		+/–	Team	Points
1		#10 WTR-Konica Minolta Acura	1070
2		#55 Mazda Motorsports	1015
3	1	#31 Whelen Engineering Racing	925
4	2	#01 Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing	920
5	2	#5 JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing	920

+LMP2 Teams' Championship standings		+/–	Team	Points
1		#52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports	382
2		#18 Era Motorsport	350
3		#8 Tower Motorsport	326
4		#11 WIN Autosport	315
5		#22 United Autosports	288

+LMP3 Teams' Championship standings		+/–	Team	Points
1		#74 Riley Motorsports	715
2		#54 CORE Autosport	690
3		#91 Riley Motorsports	646
4		#38 Performance Tech Motorsports	620
5		#33 Sean Creech Motorsport	571

+GTLM Teams' Championship standings		+/–	Team	Points
1		#3 Corvette Racing	697‡
2		#79 WeatherTech Racing	656‡
3		#24 BMW Team RLL	653‡
4		#4 Corvette Racing	647‡
5		#25 BMW Team RLL	636‡

+GTD Teams' Championship standings		+/–	Team	Points
1		#96 Turner Motorsport	920‡
2		#23 Heart of Racing Team	913‡
3		#16 Wright Motorsports	874‡
4		#9 Pfaff Motorsports	872‡
5		#1 Paul Miller Racing	854‡

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.
• ‡: Non-points event
• ‡: Points count towards WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship only.

+DPi Manufacturers' Championship standings		+/–	Manufacturer	Points
1	1	Cadillac	1475
2	1	Acura	1444
3		Mazda	1349

+GTLM Manufacturers' Championship standings		+/–	Manufacturer	Points
1		Chevrolet	720‡
2		BMW	700‡
3		Porsche	692‡
4		Ferrari	330‡

+GTD Manufacturers' Championship standings		+/–	Manufacturer	Points
1		Porsche	999‡
2		BMW	963‡
3		Aston Martin	957‡
4		Lamborghini	938‡
5		Lexus	925‡

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.
• ‡: Non-points event
• ‡: Points count towards WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship only.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Pruett . Marshall . September 9, 2020 . IMSA reveals 2021 WeatherTech Championship calendar . October 9, 2023 . racer.com.
2. Web site: September 9, 2020 . 2021 WeatherTech Championship Schedule Published . October 9, 2023 . dailysportscar.com.
3. Web site: Malsher-Lopez . David . September 9, 2020 . IMSA reveals 2021 schedule, LMP3 to join WeatherTech series . October 9, 2023 . us.motorsport.com.
4. Web site: IMSA will return to Detroit Grand Prix as standalone event for first time. Ryan. Nate. October 1, 2020. motorsports.nbcsports.com. May 20, 2021.
5. Web site: Detroit Round Moves to IndyCar Weekend; GTLM Added. Dagys. John. March 25, 2021. sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. May 20, 2021.
6. Web site: Fans to Return to IMSA Paddock at Detroit. Lloyd. Daniel. May 25, 2021. sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. May 26, 2021.
7. Web site: May 19, 2021 . 00_Championship Points - Official.pdf . August 26, 2023 . results.imsa.com.
8. Web site: Magnus, Wright, Pfaff Opt Out of Sprint Cup; 20 Cars for Detroit. Dagys. John. June 2, 2021. sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. June 2, 2021.
9. Web site: Mapelli Rejoins Grasser Lamborghini Squad for Detroit. Dagys. John. June 9, 2021. sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. June 9, 2021.
10. Web site: Bell to Sub for COVID-19 Positive Veach in Detroit. Dagys. John. June 9, 2021. sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. June 9, 2021.
11. Web site: 2021 IMSA Official Schedule and SR Detroit 060221 V1 . August 3, 2023 . results.imsa.com/noticeBoard.php.
12. Web site: June 11, 2021 . 03_Results_Practice 1.PDF . August 2, 2023 . results.imsa.com.
13. Web site: Malsher-Lopez . David . June 11, 2021 . Detroit IMSA: Vautier puts JDC-Miller Cadillac on top in FP1 . October 7, 2023 . motorsport.com.
14. Web site: Dagys . John . June 11, 2021 . Vautier Tops Opening Detroit Practice . October 7, 2023 . sportscar365.com.
15. Web site: June 11, 2021 . 06_Fastest Lap By Driver_Practice 1.PDF . August 2, 2023 . results.imsa.com.
16. Web site: O'Malley . J.J. . June 11, 2021 . Magnussen and GM prevail in Detroit practice 2 . October 7, 2023 . racer.com.
17. Web site: Malsher-Lopez . David . June 11, 2021 . Detroit IMSA: Magnussen heads Cadillac 1-2-3 in FP2 . October 7, 2023 . motorsport.com.
18. Web site: Dagys . John . June 11, 2021 . Magnussen Leads Cadillac Sweep in Second Practice . October 7, 2023 . sportscar365.com.
19. Web site: June 11, 2021 . 03_Results_Practice 2.PDF . August 2, 2023 . results.imsa.com.
20. Web site: June 11, 2021 . 06_Fastest Lap By Driver_Practice 2.PDF . August 2, 2023 . results.imsa.com.
21. Web site: Malsher-Lopez . David . June 11, 2021 . Detroit IMSA: Magnussen beats Tincknell to pole by 0.021s . October 9, 2023 . motorsport.com.
22. Web site: O'Malley . J.J. . June 11, 2021 . Magnussen prevails in sizzling Detroit qualifying with CGR Cadillac . October 9, 2023 . racer.com.
23. Web site: Dagys . John . June 11, 2021 . Magnussen Scores First IMSA Pole in Detroit . June 12, 2021 . sportscar365.com . John Dagys Media.
24. Web site: 03_Results_Qualifying - DPi Position - Points .PDF. results.imsa.com. June 12, 2021.
25. Web site: 03_Results_Qualifying - GTD Points - GTLM Position.PDF. results.imsa.com. June 12, 2021.
26. Web site: 03_Results_Qualifying - GTD Position.PDF. results.imsa.com. June 12, 2021.
27. Web site: June 12, 2021 . 01_Grid_Race_Official.PDF . October 9, 2023 . results.imsa.com.
28. Web site: June 12, 2021 . Magnussen Scores Pole At Belle Isle In Ganassi Cadillac . October 9, 2023 . dailysportscar.com.
29. Web site: 2021-IMSA-SPORTING-REGULATIONS-and-SSR-IWSC-Blackline-082621-V1.pdf . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20231111203332/https://www.imsa.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2021/08/26/2021-IMSA-SPORTING-REGULATIONS-and-SSR-IWSC-Blackline-082621-V1.pdf . 2023-11-11 . November 11, 2023.
30. Web site: June 15, 2021 . 00_Championship Points - Official.pdf . August 26, 2023 . results.imsa.com.
31. Web site: 03_Results_Race_Provisional.PDF. June 12, 2021. June 14, 2021.
32. Web site: 2021 CHEVROLET DETROIT GRAND PRIX . August 26, 2023 . racing-reference.info.