For the first time ever, VSCA and the VSCA SportsCar Championship circuit paid a visit to Detroit, Michigan and The Raceway on Belle Isle - the second street course race of the 2023 season after Long Beach back in April.
In an exciting VR7UAL Pole Qualifying edition, 24 Hours of Daytona champions Mayer Simspeed Performance and their No. 3 BMW M V8 Hybrid with Kyle Birnie took pole by an ultra-close margin of 0.038 seconds over Marc Freixa in the No. 10 BMW of Race4Cat Motorsport.
A big wreck in turn one, right after the race start, triggered the first full course caution of the race.
On the restart that followed on lap four, Kyle Birnie maintained the lead in the No. 3 car, followed by Freixa in the No. 10 car.
By lap 28, it looked like Mayer Simspeed Performance were going to possibly capture their second win of the season, as the No. 3 BMW continued to hold the lead even after completing its lone driver swap pit stop.
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| Lap 39: While leading, Niclas Pedersen crashes his No. 3 Mayer Simspeed Performance BMW into the wall in turn seven - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
However on lap 39, Danish driver Niclas Pedersen locked up the brakes going into turn seven and crashed into the wall, handing over the lead to the No. 88 BMW of DS Racing eSports and David Miguel Ferreira. Mayer Simspeed meanwhile wound up four laps down and finished fifth.
Running a flawless remainder of the race, the No. 88 BMW of DS Racing eSports took the checkered flag to capture the team’s first ever VSCA SportsCar Championship victory, one lap ahead of the No. 7 machine of Grizzly Motorsports.
DS Racing eSports led a total of 24 laps en route to their win. Needless to say, the team and Ferreira were excited in victory lane:
“Man, what a race! It was challenging to have a good pace but at the same time just focus on surviving around these streets!”
“We started just thinking about reaching the checkered flag, everything else was a bonus. Nelson did a great job in qualifying and at the start of the race. We just wanted to survive until a FCY came, so that we can pit and do our driver swap.”
Just as most competitors, the No. 88 team also was surprised about the lap one caution period, after a huge wreck occurred in turn one.
“We were surprised by the first FCY so early on in the race, but besides that Nelson's job was perfect and when the next FCY came with one hour still to go, we had our car ready to fight, so he pitted P5 and did our driver swap.”
“For me, my goal was to try and go as far as i could go, trying to get at least a podium. Then P1 crashed and even though that sucks for them, we grabbed the lead with both hands.”, said Ferreira.
“To get our first win in VSCA feels really good, finally our hard work paid off. We knew it was coming someday and finally we did it!”
Championship leaders Grizzly Motorsports take second place
For the No. 7 BMW second place was not half bad, as the entry from Grizzly Motorsports continues to extend its championship lead in the SportsCar Championship, with four races remaining.
A gap of 56 points means that the championship leaders have a cushion, but still need to do well, in order to stay in position to capture the series title come October.
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| Lap 39: Turn seven proved to see a lot of trouble in the Detroit Sports Car Classic, including this crash between the No. 10 Race4Cat Motorsport and No. 99 JO Motorsports BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh class cars - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
Detroit Belle Isle was the No. 7 BMW’s fourth consecutive top-five finish, including a win at Watkins Glen in June.
World of SimRacing Team and their No. 51 BMW completed the podium finishers as the picks up a second straight top-five finish and climbs one spot in the championship standings, to sixth.
Champion Motorsports was running in second position three laps before the checkered flag when disaster struck.
In a carbon copy of the previous incident involving the No. 3 car, Cameron Barker missed the braking point into turn seven and put his No. 79 Champion Motorsports BMW LMDh car into the tire barriers, resulting in damage that the team had to repair, losing three whole laps and dropping from second to P4 in the end.
In the championship, the No. 78 BMW remains in a very competitive spot, only 95 points out of the lead.
The No. 3 Mayer Simspeed Performance, No. 99 JO Motorsports and No. 10 Race4Cat Motorsport machines rounded out the LMDh class in the Detroit Sports Car Classic.
Laguna Seca winners, the No. 10 BMW of Race4Cat Motorsport ran into trouble on lap 39 in turn seven, when the No. 99 JO Motorsports BMW of Jonathan Oshalim attempted a pass on Race4Cat Motorsport driver Alex Rourera, resulting in contact between the two cars, that forced the latter to come to the pits for extensive repairs.
Road America up next
The VSCA SportsCar Championship now travels to Road America for Round 8 on August 5th. The race distance will be one hour longer than at Detroit Belle Isle, standing at two hours and 40 minutes. The famous track in Wisconsin was the sight of Element SimRacing clinching the VSCA Sprint Cup one year ago.
This time around, with three more Sprint Cup rounds remaining this year, including Road America, no championship clinching scenarios factor into the race just yet, but fans and teams alike will expect another exciting round of VSCA racing.
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