Chevrolet dominated in its hometown, powering the top two finishers in the Grand Am Rolex Chevrolet Grand Am Detroit 200. A Chevy Corvette won the GT class as well. When ccidents eliminated some of the top contenders in both classes, other teams stepped and made the race exciting.
Joao Barbosa and Terry Borcheller took the win in the #9 Action Express Coyote-Corvette, with teammates Darren Law and David Donahue right behind in the #5 Coyote Corvette-Action Express
Action Express switched its driver lineup for the race—David Donahue and Darren Law were split up after 108 races together (the pair had been teammates at Brumos Racing before Action Express ever formed.) Apparently this was a move long overdue, as it led to the first one-two finish in the team’s history.
The new lineup seemed to create fierce inter-team competition. Barbosa bumped his teammate a bit squeezing by when Donahue was slightly balked by the ESM Ferrari. Donahue wasn’t pleased, but no damage was done, and the team still took the top two steps of the podium.
Barbosa’s drive was all the more impressive because he came from well back in the pack to take the win.
The drama started when co-driver terry Borcheller earned a drive-through penalty for colliding with the TRG Porsche driven by Steve Bertheau on lap nine. Borcheller made up some of the time; the rest of the gap was erased with good pit work during the first full-course caution on lap
Barbosa had fought back to second place when more pit stop confusion set him back. The Action Express driver had just passed pit-in when the signal was given that the pits were open following the crash of Joe Nonnemaker in the #43 Sahlen Mazda on lap 35. This cost the Action Express driver six places, as he had to lap the track while his competitors pitted.
Some of his competitors—a miscommunication by Grand Am officials led to the Gainsco Riley-Corvette pitting then leaving, thinking pits were not yet open. The #99 Gainsco car had to pit with the GTs, losing three places.
Barbosa and Gurney both left the pits hungry for revenge—revenge made easier when Ricky Taylor in the #10 SunTrust Dallara-Corvette inexplicably slammed the pit wall while exiting the pits under yellow. The SunTrust car had been leading the race, looking for its third win in a row. This uncharacteristic error cost the team its win streak and its place in the standings.
With SunTrust out of the way, David Donahue in the #5 Action Express car took the lead when racing resumed. Barbosa exploded forward when the green flag waved, going from eighth to third in four laps.
Richard Westbrook in the #90 Spirit of Daytona Coyote-Corvette pinned Donahue behind a GT car and took the lead on lap 49, but only held it for a lap. On lap 50 Westbrook tried to cut inside the Dempsey Mazda, which had already committed. The ensuing collision broke the SDR’s left rear suspension, removing on more challenger to Action Express’s domination.
Barbosa only waited four laps before making an aggressive move on his teammate to take the lead. The Action Express pair pulled away; third-placed Scott Pruett’s #01 Telmex-Ganassi Riley-BMW never got close.
Pruett probably should earn drive of the day for his third-place finish. The Telmex car was rotten all day—it understeered in slow corners, lacked traction exiting fast corners, and the rev limiter shut down the engine every time the car hit a bump. Pruett adapted; he short-shifted to keep the car off the rev limiter, adjusted to the bad handling, and earned a place in the podium through hard work.
Pruett’s car not cooperating; the Gainsco car was mired in traffic after losing time in the pit stop fiasco. Both the SunTrust and Spirit of Daytona cars were wrecked, and the Starworks and Shank Racing Riley-Fords were suffering from aerodynamic problems—apparently the new Corvette bodywork generates more downforce, which is essential for tracks like Belle Isle (and Mid-Ohio, where Grand Am, races next weekend.)
This left no one able to challenge the Action Express duo. These two raced each other hard for the win; Barbosa came home only .44 seconds ahead of David Donahue. Prett was four seconds back, Alex Gurney in the Gainsco Red Dragon, two-tenths behind him. Had the race gone three more laps, Gurney probably would have had a podium.
Jordan Taylor and Paul Edwards took the GT win in the #88 Autohaus Camaro, keeping up the Chevrolet theme on the Belle Isle track which runs in the shadow of Chevrolet’s international headquarters.
Taylor had a good fight with the#70 SpeedSource Mazda of Jon Bomarito, but once he got past, Taylor drove away, winning by nearly five seconds.
The #69 Aim/FXDD Ferrari, which, like the SunTrust car, had been looking to go three-in-a-row at Belle Isle, never found its pace. A spin into the tires by co-driver Emil Assentato cost the team even the limited practice time the GTs got between rain showers. Jeff Segal managed to work his way up to fourth by the end of the race, but the win streak was over.
Robin Liddell tried hard to give Chevrolet a Camaro one-two, but couldn’t catch the SpeedSource Mazda, and had to settle for third.
The Extreme Motorsports Ferrari started from the pole and was very fast early, but a slow pit stop and a drive- through for passing under yellow set the car back into the pack.
The Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series will be back in action next Saturday on the 2.26-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio road course in the EMCO Gears Classic, starting at 4:30 p.m. EDT on June 9. Tickets are available through the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course website.
The race will be televised live on Speed-TV.
