GT racing in the VSCA SportsCar Championship is a contact sport. Add a street circuit such as the Raceway on Belle Isle with its narrow corners and many concrete walls - and you end up with the perfect recipe for a true action-packed experience of a race.
The Detroit Sports Car Classic on Saturday marked Round 7 on the 2023 season calendar, but the first time ever that VSCA visited the legendary street circuit located in Detroit, Michigan.
Fans and teams in the paddock alike were wondering, going into this event: Can Kinetic Racing make their return to victory lane? The No. 67 Porsche won the first three races of the season, right out of the gate, with their most recent trip to victory lane coming at this season’s other street circuit, at Long Beach back in April.
A lot has changed since. Not only has the team out of Auckland, New Zealand lost the championship lead to archrivals Screeching Moose Motorsports and the No. 5 Mercedes, whom they infamously tangled with at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in a big crash, but the team is also currently experiencing its second-longest winless streak (4 races) since entering VSCA competition last year - which tells you all you need to know, how strong the No. 67 Porsche has been, historically.
MAD Sim Racing earns first-ever VR7UAL Pole Position
VR7UAL Pole Qualifying turned out to be another nail biter. At the end of the session, it was a mere 0.134 seconds separating Patrick Fogel in the No. 393 Mercedes of MAD Sim Racing (Pole) and Jay Van Meppelen in the No. 84 Porsche of Fischer Motorsport.
Big wreck on race start takes out No. 84 Porsche
Earning the outside pole was meant to help secure Fischer Motorsport and Van Meppelen a safe, clean race at the race, which was expected to be a wild one.
However, turn one on the race start quickly proved, qualifying upfront does not guarantee a clean race, let alone a clean first lap. Going into the first corner, the Fischer Motorsport machine made contact with the No. 4 BMW of Delta Racing’s Joao Vitor Delgado, as the two cars were vying for the same real estate, that there is so very precious little of at this track.
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| Contact between the No. 84 Fischer Motorsport Porsche and No. 4 Delta Racing BMW in turn one on the race start, triggered the biggest incident of the race - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
What ensued was the biggest crash of the race, with Van Meppelen seeing his car all but completely destroyed in the outside retaining wall and several other GTD class cars getting collected in the big pileup in turn one.
Race control quickly triggered the first full-course yellow of the race, neutralizing the racing action on the entire 14-turn street circuit as track workers cleaned up the scene.
The No. 84 Fischer Motorsport Porsche had to be towed to the pits for extensive repairs, but three-time season race winners Kinetic Racing and their No. 67 Porsche also sustained heavy front-end damage in the pileup, after getting hit from behind.
On the restart on lap four, Patrick Fogel kept a safe distance from the LMP2 field directly ahead, but at the same time maintained the lead over the No. 4 Delta Racing BMW and Niklas Solle in the No. 85 Fischer Motorsport Porsche.
A very odd and scary moment in the race occurred on lap 8, when MoneyHouse Racing driver Nolan Hodgson went off the racing line and crashed his No. 54 BMW M4 GT3 into the tire barriers in turn twelve, while closely following his team-mate Alexandra Butters in the No. 32 BMW.
On lap 14 things changed up near the front of the GTD class, as the No. 4 BMW came in for a one lap stop & hold penalty for the lap one and turn one incident, dropping the Delta Racing machine to P18 in class.
Just two laps later, the 19-year old driver out of Le Mars, Iowa had to bring the car down pit road for repairs, as the team’s hopes for a quick caution period were unanswered. Consequently the team dropped to the back in class and lost several laps, as the race stayed green.
It wasn’t until about 34 minutes into the race, that the second full-course caution came out.
Taking full advantage of the timing, race leaders, the No. 393 MAD Sim Racing Mercedes completed their lone pit stop of the race and changed drivers in the process, as David Keane now took over the car from team-mate Patrick Fogel.
Running in second position, the No. 85 Porsche of Fischer Motorsport followed suit and also changed drivers under the same caution, as Niklas Solle handed over the car to team-mate, Great Britain’s Stephen Nobes.
Running a different strategy, the No. 221 Lamborghini of Olympus eSports stayed out under yellow and took the lead, with Christopher Stephenson behind the wheel.
Following suit, Carl Felver in the No. 94 Full Send Racing BMW stayed out as well, to take second place. However, the team was later disqualified for failing to change drivers in the race.
Making it the third car to stay out under the yellow flag, Matthew Routon and the No. 112 HAC Racing Lamborghini took over third position, heading to the restart.
Long-time race leaders No. 393 Mercedes of MAD Sim Racing, restarted in fourth position with the No. 85 Porsche of Fischer Motorsport right behind.
Restart with forty minutes remaining sets up sprint to finish
Fans held their breath as the race restarted, wondering if all cars would make it through the green flag lap cleanly and without incident.
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| In a bit of a stunner, after not pitting under the second caution period of the race and taking the lad, the No. 221 Olympus eSports Lamborghini pitted on the restart lap, falling all the way to the back end of the field - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
The answer was given in turn three, when three LMP2 class cars attempted to squeeze into the narrow corner - a feat ultimately destined to fail.
Besides a little contact between the No. 4 BMW of Delta Racing and No. 151 BMW of World Of SimRacing, all GTD class cars were able to navigate the scene safely without issue.
But further back, Aaron Beaver found himself under fire in his No. 974 Nerd Herd Racing Ferrari 488 GT3, trying to defend his position against hard charging Mark Romaninsky in the No. 16 Dangler Performance Mercedes AMG GT3.
Two cars made contact and Beaver almost spun out, but eventually was able to stay ahead, albeit with a now banged-up race car.
In a stunning development, GTD race leader No. 221 Lamborghini of Olympus eSports pitted on the first lap after the restart, to surrender the lead and to complete a full stop and driver swap under green flag conditions.
The move dropped the No. 221 car from the lead all the way to P20 and the tail end of the lead lap. In the end, the team finished 12th.
New GTD class race leaders, the No. 94 BMW of Full Send Racing and driver Carl Felver pitted under green and retired from the race just three laps later.
So it was now the No. 393 Mercedes of MAD Sim Racing back to the lead, with just a little over 30 minutes remaining in the race.
Dramatic closing stages of race with several incidents
In a big scare, a multi-car incident directly unfolded in turn seven with just over 30 minutes to go, directly in front of startled Michael Garrone in the No. 83 BMW M4 GT3 of Off in the Esses Racing.
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| Lap 41: The No. 312 BMW of Real Pixel Motorsport and No. 32 BMW of MoneyHouse Racing make contact, setting off another major incident in turn one - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
The Woodbridge, New Jersey driver, using his reflexes, was able to avoid the worst and escaped the scary scene without damage to his BMW race car and was able to maintain his seventh position at the time. In the end, the No. 83 car wound up ninth.
Further back, Julian Madore in the No. 119 Trading Paints Racing Lamborghini wasn’t as fortunate and made contact with one of the wrecked LMDh class cars, as track workers waved local yellows.
But things got a lot worse for Madore and his team just a couple of laps and one corner later. Racing side by side through turn eight, battling with the No. 312 BMW of Real Pixel Motorsport, the two cars made contact, sending the Trading Paints Racing machine into a spin and into the concrete barrier.
Unable to react in time, No. 11 Dallara LMP2 of Vision 1 Motorsports and driver Will Coffey crashed into Madore’s GT3 race car. Ultimately, both cars had to come into the pits for extensive repairs. The No. 119 Lamborghini finished 16th in the end, six laps down from the leaders, adding to the team’s disappointing summer that started with a 15th-place finish after leading at Watkins Glen in June.
The intensity of the race, especially so in GTD class competition, kept on rising with every lap. On lap 40 eventually, things got to a boiling point between the No. 312 BMW of Real Pixel Motorsport’s Wolfgang Wildenauer and Austen Storey in the No. 32 BMW of MoneyHouse Racing.
Heading into turn one, the two cars made, sending the No. 312 BMW of Wildenauer into a wild spin and hard crash into the concrete wall, all but completely destroying the German team’s car. For Real Pixel Motorsport, the crash and following extensive repair stop made for a disappointing 15th-place finish, marking the team’s fifth straight finish of 15th or worse.
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| The closing stages of the race were marked by several incidents, including a lap 41 contact between the No. 67 Kinetic Racing Porsche and the No. 4 Delta Racing BMW, which sent the former into a spin that cost the team from Brazil several positions - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
As if this wasn’t enough drama, another incident occurred on lap 42. Battling hard for position, the No. 4 Delta Racing BMW and No. 67 Kinetic Racing Porsche touched heading into the slowest corner of the circuit - turn eleven, sending the former into a spin. Both cars appeared to escape the incident without damage, but Marcos Adami in the Delta Racing machine lost valuable ground, as he was forced to turn his car around, since it was pointing in the wrong direction.
Once Adami was able to get going again, he was hit from behind by the No. 974 Ferrari 488 GT3 of Nerd Herd Racing and Aaron Beaver, resulting in a broken suspension and rear axle on Adami’s BMW, which ended the team’s race. Officially, the team out of Brazil wound up 19th, 15 laps down - a bitter disappointment after starting the race from third place on the grid.
The result was the No. 4 BMW team’s worst result since a P24 finish at Daytona back in January.
Brutal disappointment for No. 111 Lamborghini in closing minutes
Running in second position at the time, the No. 111 HAC Racing Lamborghini looked primed for its best result of the season, when disaster struck on lap 48.
Making a daring, optimistic late dive into turn seven, Jonathan Oshalim in the No. 99 JO Motorsports BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh sent the HAC Racing machine into a spin.
While both cars were able to avoid damage at first, the fast-approaching No. 17 Dallara LMP2 car of Agee Motorsports’ Robert Cancian couldn’t react in time and hit the rear of the HAC Racing machine.
In total disbelief of what just happened, the HAC Racing team had to tow the damaged race car and instead of celebrating a second-place finish, ended up 13th - the team’s fourth straight finish outside the top ten.
MAD Sim Racing seals the deal, delivers first win in VSCA
Despite all drama, the one hour and 40 minute-long race stayed green the rest of the way and Daniel Keane kept a cool head, maintaining a solid lead over the No. 151 BMW of World Of SimRacing Team, to finally deliver the first-ever VSCA victory for MAD Sim Racing.
Putting together an impressive drive from the tail end of the field, following a lap 3 pit stop, World Of SimRacing Team took the second step on the podium, ahead of the No. 85 Porsche of Fischer Motorsport that finished third.
Championship leaders Screeching Moose Motorsports and their No. 5 Mercedes AMG GT3 took P4, taking home a solid points day and finishing ahead of archrivals Kinetic Racing and their No. 67 Porsche, that finished P7.
The No. 32 MoneyHouse Racing BMW of Austen Storey and Alexandra Butters finished fifth, earning the organization’s first-ever top-five result in VSCA SportsCar Championship competition.
Taking sixth place was the No. 9 BMW of Grizzly Motorsports with American drivers duo Zack Krueger and David Baker.
Rounding out the top ten were Laguna Seca race winners, the No. 6 Lamborghini of Torque Freak Racing, the No. 83 Off in the Esses Racing BMW, the No. 127 Mercedes of EastSide Motorsport and the No. 78 BMW of Champion Motorsports.
No. 5 Mercedes solidifies championship lead, Kinetic Racing falters
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| Running a somewhat quiet race, Screeching Moose Motorsports and their No. 5 Mercedes AMG GT3 were able to extend their championship lead, with a good solid points haul by finishing fourth - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
Torque Freak Racing and their No. 6 Lamborghini entry climbed one spot in the GTD class championship standings following Detroit Belle Isle, now trailing old and new championship leaders, the No. 5 Mercedes of Screeching Moose Motorsports by exactly 100 points.
The No. 67 Kinetic Racing Porsche loses one spot in the standings, to third, now 108 points back.
The No. 78 BMW of Champion Motorsports sits in fourth, 166 points behind, with a bit of a gap opening up behind and two-time race winners No. 151 BMW of World Of SimRacing Team in fifth, at a points deficit of 245 points.
Road America up next, as 2023 season enters final quarter
With three quarters of the season in the books, the 2023 VSCA SportsCar Championship enters “crunch time” and looks at Road America coming up next on the schedule on August 5th.
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