2019 Chevrolet Sports Car Classic
The 2019 Chevrolet Sports Car 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 1, 2019. This race was the fifth round of the 2019 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the second round of the 2019 WeatherTech Sprint Cup.
Background
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Similar to the Grand Prix of Long Beach, this event ran in conjunction with the Detroit Grand Prix in the IndyCar Series, with one event held on the same day as the IMSA event, and another held a day after as a double-header.
The Detroit Sports Car Classic is a unique event in the GT Daytona (GTD) class, due to not counting towards the overall championship. It instead only counts toward the GTD support championship, the WeatherTech Sprint Cup, in an attempt to cut costs for the class.[1]
Entries
On May 22, 2019, the entry list for the event was released, featuring 23 cars in total. There were 11 cars in the Daytona Prototype International class and 12 entries in the GTD class. The Le Mans Prototype (LMP2) and GT Le Mans (GTLM) classes would not be participating in the event. Due to only counting towards the WeatherTech Sprint Cup, full-season GTD entries Riley Motorsports, Pfaff Motorsports, and Moorespeed decided to forego the Detroit event in favor of pursuing the full-season championship. Meyer-Shank Racing were initially among the teams that decided to miss the Detroit event, until confirming at the eleventh hour a full-time program in both the full-time and sprint championships with both of their cars.[2][3]
Pfaff Motorsports driver Zach Robichon, who was initially due to miss the event, filled a vacant spot at Park Place Motorsports, replacing Patrick Lindsey, who was preparing for the official test sessions for the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans.[4]
Practice and qualifying
Qualifying Results
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DPi | 6 | Acura Team Penske | Juan Pablo Montoya | 1:19.373 | _ | 1‡ |
| 2 | DPi | 7 | Acura Team Penske | Hélio Castroneves | 1:19.580 | +0.207 | 2 |
| 3 | DPi | 55 | Mazda Team Joest | Jonathan Bomarito | 1:19.960 | +0.587 | 3 |
| 4 | DPi | 31 | Whelen Engineering Racing | Pipo Derani | 1:19.991 | +0.618 | 4 |
| 5 | DPi | 5 | Mustang Sampling Racing | João Barbosa | 1:20.239 | +0.866 | 5 |
| 6 | DPi | 10 | Konica Minolta Cadillac | Renger van der Zande | 1:20.448 | +1.075 | 6 |
| 7 | DPi | 77 | Mazda Team Joest | Tristan Nunez | 1:20.508 | +1.135 | 7 |
| 8 | DPi | 84 | JDC-Miller Motorsports | Simon Trummer | 1:20.663 | +1.290 | 8 |
| 9 | DPi | 50 | Juncos Racing | Victor Franzoni | 1:21.075 | +1.702 | 9 |
| 10 | DPi | 85 | JDC-Miller Motorsports | Misha Goikhberg | 1:23.313 | +3.940 | 10 |
| 11 | DPi | 54 | CORE Autosport | Jonathan Bennett | 1:24.631 | +5.258 | 11 |
| 12 | GTD | 96 | Turner Motorsport | Robby Foley | 1:29.704 | +10.331 | 12‡ |
| 13 | GTD | 73 | Park Place Motorsports | Zacharie Robichon | 1:29.735 | +10.362 | 13 |
| 14 | GTD | 57 | Heinricher Racing with Meyer-Shank | Christina Nielsen | 1:30.126 | +10.753 | 14 |
| 15 | GTD | 86 | Meyer-Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Trent Hindman | 1:30.242 | +10.869 | 15 |
| 16 | GTD | 14 | AIM Vasser Sullivan | Richard Heistand | 1:30.453 | +11.080 | 16 |
| 17 | GTD | 12 | AIM Vasser Sullivan | Frankie Montecalvo | 1:30.505 | +11.132 | 17 |
| 18 | GTD | 48 | Paul Miller Racing | Ryan Hardwick | 1:30.763 | +11.390 | 18 |
| 19 | GTD | 76 | Compass Racing | Matt Plumb | 1:30.814 | +11.441 | 19 |
| 20 | GTD | 44 | Magnus Racing | John Potter | 1:30.926 | +11.553 | 20 |
| 21 | GTD | 63 | Scuderia Corsa | Cooper MacNeil | 1:31.953 | +12.580 | 21 |
| 21 | GTD | 74 | Lone Star Racing | Gar Robinson | 1:31.970 | +12.597 | 21 |
| 22 | GTD | 8 | Starworks Motorsport | None | None | N/A | 22 |
| Source:[5] | |||||||
Results
Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.
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Standings after the race
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- Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.
- ‡: Points count towards WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship only.
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- Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.
- ‡: Points count towards WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship only.
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- Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.
- ‡: Points count towards WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship only.
References
- Dagys, John (3 August 2018). "IMSA Launches Sprint Cup for GTD". sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
- Dagys, John (21 May 2019). "Riley, Pfaff Among GTD Teams Set to Forgo Detroit". sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
- Dagys, John (21 May 2019). "MSR Commits to Detroit, Sprint Cup With Both Acura NSX GT3s". sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
- Dagys, John (22 May 2019). "Robichon Joins Park Place for Detroit in Sprint Cup Bid". sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
- "05/31-06/01 Chevrolet Sports Car Classic--03 Results Qualifying" (PDF). 31 May 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
- "00_Championship Points - Official.pdf" (PDF). results.imsa.com. Retrieved July 6, 2023.