The 2025 Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic was a sports car race held at the Detroit street circuit in Detroit, Michigan, on May 31, 2025. It was the fifth round of the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship.
The 2025 Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic was a sports car race held at the Detroit street circuit in Detroit, Michigan, on May 31, 2025. It was the fifth round of the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship.
International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president John Doonan confirmed the race was part of the schedule of the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in March 2024. [1] It was the tenth time the IMSA SCC hosted a race in Detroit, and the second consecutive time the race was hosted at the Detroit street circuit. The 2025 Detroit Sports Car Classic was the fifth of eleven scheduled sports car races of 2025 by IMSA. [2] The race was held at the ten-turn 1.645 mi (2.647 km) Detroit street circuit on May 31, 2025. [2]
Prior to the race, Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy led the GTP Drivers' Championship with 1490 points, 91 points ahead of Porsche team-mates Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet. Philipp Eng and Dries Vanthoor sat in third, 280 points behind Nasr and Tandy. [3] The GTD Pro Drivers' Championship was led by Klaus Bachler and Laurin Heinrich with 1014 points, 70 points ahead of second-placed Antonio García and Alexander Sims. [3] Porsche Penske Motorsport and AO Racing led their respective Teams' Championships, with Porsche leading the Manufacturers' Championship in both the GTP and GTD Pro classes. [3]
The entry list was published on May 21, 2025, and featured 22 entries: 11 in both GTP and GTD Pro. [4] Giacomo Altoè was originally listed to compete for DragonSpeed in the No. 81 entry, but was replaced last minute by Rasmus Lindh. [5]
There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes on Friday morning, the second session lasted 120 minutes on Friday afternoon. The final practice session lasted 20 minutes on Saturday morning. [8]
The first practice session took place at 8:00 am ET on Friday and ended with Jack Aitken topping the charts for Cadillac Whelen, with a lap time of 1:07.254, ahead of the No. 93 Acura of Renger van der Zande. [9] GTD Pro was topped by Alexander Sims with a time of 1:10.818, ahead of the sister Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg. [10] The session was stopped once when the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R and the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 went off at turn 1. [11]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GTP | 31 |  Cadillac Whelen |  Jack Aitken | 1:07.254 | — |
| 2 | GTP | 93 | Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian |  Renger van der Zande | 1:07.605 | +0.351 |
| 3 | GTP | 7 |  Porsche Penske Motorsport | Nick Tandy | 1:07.651 | +0.397 |
| Sources: [12] [13] | ||||||
The second practice session took place at 11:30 pm ET on Friday and ended with Sheldon van der Linde topping the charts for BMW M Team RLL, with a lap time of 1:06.427. Nick Tandy in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 set the second fastest time of 1:06.720. [14] Antonio García led the way in GTD Pro with a time of 1:10.565 in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R followed closely by his teammate, Tommy Milner, in the No. 4 Corvette Racing Corvette with a time of 1:10.575. [15] There were three red flags in this session, two for debris and one for an incident by the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing of Filipe Albuquerque. [16]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GTP | 25 | BMW M Team RLL |  Sheldon van der Linde | 1:06.427 | — |
| 2 | GTP | 7 | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Nick Tandy | 1:06.720 | +0.293 |
| 3 | GTP | 24 | BMW M Team RLL |  Dries Vanthoor | 1:06.765 | +0.338 |
| Sources: [17] [18] | ||||||
The third and final practice session took place at 10:35 pm ET on Saturday and ended with Nick Tandy fastest of the session with a time of 1:08.552 followed by Dries Vanthoor in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 in second. Marco Mapelli, in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 led the way in GTD Pro with a lap time of 1:11.116. [19]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GTP | 7 | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Nick Tandy | 1:08.552 | — |
| 2 | GTP | 24 | BMW M Team RLL | Dries Vanthoor | 1:08.598 | +0.046 |
| 3 | GTP | 6 | Porsche Penske Motorsport |  Mathieu Jaminet | 1:08.720 | +0.168 |
| Sources: [20] [21] | ||||||
Friday's afternoon qualifying was broken into two sessions, with one session for both the GTP and GTD classes each. [22] The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put GTP cars ahead of the GTD cars. [23]
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and with ‡.
Class winners are in bold and ‡.
