2017 Chevrolet Sports Car Classic

The 2017 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 3, 2017. The race was the fifth round of the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship.

Similar to the Grand Prix of Long Beach, this event was held 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.

IMSA's president Scott Atherton confirmed the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic was part of the series' schedule for the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship at Road America's victory lane in August 2016.^[1] It was the fourth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the eighth annual running of the race, counting the period between 2007 and 2013 when it was a round of the Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series respectively.^[2] The 2017 Chevrolet Sports Car Classic was the fifth of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2017 by IMSA, the shortest in terms of time, and was the third round not held on the held as part of the North American Endurance Cup.^[3] The race was held at the fourteen-turn 2.350 mi (3.782 km) Belle Isle Park on June 3, 2017.^[3] After the Advance Auto Parts Sportscar Showdown four weeks earlier, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 141 points, ahead of João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi with 119 points, and Dane Cameron and Eric Curran with 111 points.^[4] With 108 points, PC was led by James French and Patricio O'Ward with a twenty-point advantage over Don Yount and Buddy Rice.^[4] In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen with 133 points, ahead of Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen with 109 points.^[4] Cadillac and Mercedes-AMG were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Wayne Taylor Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports, and Riley Motorsports Team AMG each led their own Teams' Championships.^[4]

On May 25, 2017, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the event.^[5] In P, the Cadillac DPi-V.R received a 0.6 mm smaller air restrictor as well as a fuel capacity reduction of 2 liters and changes to the cars rear wing angle. The Mazda RT24-P received a fuel capacity increase of 1 liter and an increase in turbo boost. The Nissan Onroak DPi received a 0.5 mm reduction of refueling restriction and gained 1 liter of fuel capacity. In GTD, Mercedes-AMG GT3 received a 20 kilogram weight increase and an air restrictor reduction of 0.5 millimeters. The Porsche 911 GT3 R received a 10 kilogram weight increase. The Lamborghini Huracán GT3 and Audi R8 LMS were given fuel capacity increases of 2 and 1 liters, respectively.^[6]

With the absence of the GTLM class from the field, only three racing classes were represented in Belle Isle.^[7] A total of 28 cars took part in the event split across 3 classes. 10 cars were entered in P, 3 in PC, and 15 in GTD.^[8] In P, Kenton Koch and Ryan Lewis shared the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry. In PC, Ryan Lewis joined Don Yount in the No. 20 BAR1 Motorsports entry. Tomy Drissi joined Bruno Junqueira in the No. 26 BAR1 Motorsports entry. In GTD, Lone Star Racing and TRG skipped the event.

There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, two on Friday. The first ninety-minute session was on Friday morning. The second on Friday afternoon lasted 90 minutes.^[9]

The first practice session took place at 8:30 am ET on Friday and ended with Christian Fittipaldi topping the charts for Mustang Sampling Racing, with a lap time of 1:23.750.^[10] The PC class was topped by the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 of Patricio O'Ward with a time of 1:27.851.^[11] Jeroen Mul set the fastest time in GTD.^[11]

The second and final practice session took place at 1:00 pm ET on Friday and ended with Dane Cameron topping the charts for Whelen Engineering Racing, with a lap time of 1:23.058.^[14] Patricio O'Ward set the fastest time in PC.^[15] Lawson Aschenbach was fastest in GTD.^[15]

Friday afternoon's 65-minute three-group qualifying, each category had separate 15-minute sessions. Regulations stipulated that teams nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each class' starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put Prototypes ahead of the PC and GTD cars.^[18][9]

The first was for cars in GTD class. Lawson Aschenbach qualified on pole for the class driving the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports entry, besting Katherine Legge in the No. 93 Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian entry.^[19]

The second session of qualifying was for cars in the PC class. James French set the fastest time driving the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry.^[20]

The final session of qualifying was for the P class. Renger van der Zande's No. 30 Riley was fastest overall, lapping at 1 minute, 24.693 seconds.^[19] Jonathan Bomarito set the second fastest time before Ricky Taylor, driving the No. 10 Cadillac, crashed at turn four. The red flag was thrown and caused the session to be abandoned. Christian Fittipaldi was handed pole position as the session did not reach minimum time to be declared official and Starting positions were set by Teams' Championship standings. For causing the red flag, Taylor had his time from the session deleted.^[21][20]

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.

• ¹ The No. 90 VisitFlorida Racing entry was moved to the back of the P field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).^[18]
• ² The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing entry entry had its fastest lap deleted as penalty for causing a red flag during its qualifying session.
• ³ The No. 26 BAR1 Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the PC field after failing post qualifying technical inspection.^[20]
• ⁴ The No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry moved to the back of the P field as per Article 40.2.10 of the Sporting regulations (car did not participate in qualifying and no starting driver was nominated).^[18]
• ⁵ The No. 73 Park Place Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).^[18]
• ⁶ The No. 86 Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Articles 43.5 and 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting driver) and (Change of starting tires).^[18]

With a total of 177 points, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor's victory allowed him to increase their advantage over Fittipaldi and Barbosa in the Prototype Drivers' Championship to 30 points.^[24] With a total of 144 points, French and O'Ward's victory allowed him to increase their advantage over Yount in the PC Drivers' Championship to 26 points.^[24] The result kept Bleekemolen and Keating atop the GTD Drivers' Championship while Negri Jr. and Segal advanced from seventh to fifth.^[24] Cadillac and Mercedes-AMG continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Wayne Taylor Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports, and Riley Motorsports kept their respective advantages in the trio of Teams' Championships with seven races left in the season.^[24]

Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.