This weekend I went to the Belle Isle Grand Prix in Detroit. This was the first year which they have raced on Saturday and Sunday. There were two races each day, one with the Grand Am Rolex/Continental Tire series and the other with the Izod Indycar series. Both racing leagues are completely different. My seat was in grandstand 3, so I could see the cars at the start/finish line, pits, turns 1 and two, and turn 13, the final turn, which means I had some pretty good views. There was plenty of other stuff to do at the event. With my tickets I also bought the garage pass so I could go see the cars as they were being worked on. The event also had a pit event so everyone could go see the cars in the pit and saw one of the teams do some mock pit runs. I also was able to get my hat signed by all the Indycar drivers on Sunday, I would've liked to get the Grand Am divers as well but I missed it on Saturday and had to pick with Indy or Grand Am on Sunday.
GM headquarters
View along the Detroit River
Bridge leading to Belle Isle
Although I took the ferry to the island (which is actually manmade)
This is Windsor, Canada. I never went across the border though.
This is an 8 rotor helicopter of sorts. They're used to fly camera around
This guy is the Firehawk from Firestone
Autograph session with the Indycar drivers
I got my hat signed by all 25 drivers
View of the backside of the pits
View from my seat in grandstand 3. To the right to left you com out of turn 13, the start/finish, the pits in the middle, then turns one and two.
A few shots I took when I was able to cross the track
One of the drivers
US/Canadian flags
The showgirls
I liked this guys steering wheel. I think it was in one of the Ferraris. He has the map of the course with labeled corners on his steering wheel as a cheat sheet. Good idea.
61 Cadillac racer
Cadillac LMP Prototype car from the American Le Mans Rolex Racing Series. This car doesn't run in Grand Am, but in Le Mans which is an endurance series, which is merging with Gram Am next year. Most races are 6-24 hours. They are extremely fast cars.
In Grand Am the cars are really highly modified street cars that use the same motor and drivetrain configuration that the model comes with and then there are the Daytona Prototype cars which are purpose built racecars. For the regular cars for example the Acura is still a FWD 4 cylinder and the Ferraris are still mid engine V8. The prototypes on the other hand are racecars plain and simple with a mid mounted V8.
This is the new C7 Corvette that was used at the pace car for the race, I'm not sure how much I like it yet.
Acura
BMW
Cadillac CTS-VR
Chevy Camaro
Chevy Corvette
Ferrari 458 Italia
Nissan 370Z
Nissan GTR
Kia
Lotus
Mazda
The Mazda team is actually running a diesel motor, which I think is really neat.
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
This one is my favorite car. They're a gorgeous car and besides the green paint the car is chrome.
Ford Mustang
Pontiac Solstice
I was really surprised to see this car considering that Pontiacs haven't been made for a few years now
Porsche
Audi R8
Volvo
Shots of cars parked and on the course
There were a couple of crashes that I could see from my seats
Repair crew fixing the barriers
Daytona Prototypes
The Indycars look real similar to F1 cars in their design. They're open wheel, open cockpit, and very nimble. They use a twin turbo charged OHC V6 making some 500 horsepower. They've got front spoilers to direct the air up over the tires and to the huge rear wing. Indycars are kind of ruled like the Grand Am Prototypes, more or less all the same car.
Tires for the Indycars
wet vs dry tires
front vs rears (rears are the big ones)
Here are a few videos I managed to shoot during the race
Mock pit stop
Indycars
Indycar in the garage getting the engine checked over
Grand Am cars
I would've had another real good video for the last race (Indycar) of the day, but the food at the track wasn't the best and I went back to the hotel not feeling to great. I figured I'd miss something really good and of course I did while I was watching it at the hotel. There was a 10 car pile up right in front of my seats, a crash this big doesn't happen very often in Indy car, it's mostly a single or two cars.
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