Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber converted the pole of the Cadillac No. 31 into an unchallenged victory on the streets of Detroit, and the afternoon also gave them the lead in the IMSA GTP championship. Laurin Heinrich arrived at the fifth round as the points leader with three wins in four races, but the distribution of his campaign is a watershed: the endurance races he runs with Porsche Penske Motorsport and the sprints with JDC-Miller MotorSports. In Detroit, his second short outing of the year with the privateer team, a pile‑up of penalties and a brush against the wall sent the Porsche 963 No. 5 to the back of the field, and Aitken left Michigan with a 21‑point advantage over the German.

Photo By IMSA

Bamber started from the pole he had taken on Friday, 322 thousandths ahead of the Cadillac No. 40 of Wayne Taylor Racing, and in the early laps opened a gap that no one could close. The team decided to fit new Michelin tyres on the right side at the mid‑race stop, an adjustment that allowed Aitken to keep the lead during the second stint while Philipp Eng, in the BMW M Hybrid V8 No. 25, could not get closer than six seconds.

Heinrich had beaten Bamber on the last lap at Laguna Seca with an inside pass at Turn 5, but in Detroit the Porsche No. 5 accumulated everything that could go wrong. Race control handed him a stop‑and‑hold plus 60 seconds penalty for boxing the Aston Martin Valkyrie No. 23 of Roman De Angelis against the wall, a manoeuvre that left the Heart of Racing car damaged and that the stewards punished harshly. Tijmen van der Helm shared the car with Heinrich, and together they finished 11th, last in GTP and two laps down. Laurens Vanthoor, in the Porsche No. 6 of Penske, was running second when he tried to pass Eng at Turn 3 with 26 minutes left, braked too late and immediately touched his brother Dries in the BMW No. 24, breaking the Porsche’s rear wing and diffuser. Race control showed him the mechanical black flag, dropping him to eighth, while Dries received a drive‑through for his part in the contact and fell to ninth.

Photo By IMSA

Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque put the Cadillac No. 10 into third place without getting tangled in the incidents of the others, the best result for Wayne Taylor Racing this season, with Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly placing the Acura No. 93 fourth. Felipe Nasr and Julien Andlauer recovered with the Porsche No. 7 to fifth, despite a touch from Nasr with Tom Blomqvist in the opening laps that brought out the first yellow flag.

In GTD Pro, Antonio García and Alexander Sims drove the Corvette Z06 GT3.R No. 3 giving nobody a chance over the 79 laps, but the parade of penalties produced the real show behind. Jack Hawksworth was running second in the Lexus No. 14 and passed García under yellow, a prohibited move that cost him a drive‑through, and Nicky Catsburg was momentarily second in the Corvette No. 4 until he slowed on track and was hit by the Lexus No. 15 of Aaron Telitz. The latter had damage to the right‑front and later received a 60‑second post‑race penalty for leaving the pits under a red light, making the Lexus No. 15 the only car that did not finish the race.

Photo By IMSA

All that chaos handed second place to Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell in the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 No. 9 of Pfaff Motorsports, the first top‑three finish for the new 2026 car that arrived without anyone expecting it, and Chris Mies together with Frederic Vervisch pushed hard at the end in the Ford Mustang GT3 No. 65 to take third place ahead of the Paul Miller Racing BMW.

Photo By IMSA

The GTP championship now has Aitken in front and Heinrich forced to chip away at a 21‑point deficit in the remaining rounds with JDC‑Miller before returning to the Penske Porsche for the next endurance event.

Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic 2026 — Race

Pos	Pos. class	class	#	drivers	team	car	Gap
1	1	GTP	#31	Jack Aitken Earl Bamber	Cadillac Whelen	Cadillac V-Series.R	-
2	2	GTP	#25	Philipp Eng Marco Wittmann	BMW M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	+6.023
3	3	GTP	#10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	+6.758
4	4	GTP	#93	Renger van der Zande Nick Yelloly	Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian	Acura ARX-06	+7.341
5	5	GTP	#7	Felipe Nasr Julien Andlauer	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	+8.269
6	6	GTP	#40	Jordan Taylor Louis Deletraz	Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	+9.871
7	7	GTP	#60	Tom Blomqvist Colin Braun	Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian	Acura ARX-06	+10.215
8	8	GTP	#6	Laurens Vanthoor Kevin Estre	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	+10.735
9	9	GTP	#24	Sheldon van der Linde Dries Vanthoor	BMW M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	+11.418
10	10	GTP	#23	Ross Gunn Roman De Angelis	ASTON MARTIN THOR Team	Aston Martin Valkyrie	+12.558
11	11	GTP	#5	Tijmen van der Helm Laurin Heinrich	JDC-Miller MotorSports	Porsche 963	2 Laps
12	1	GTDPRO	#3	Antonio Garcia Alexander Sims	Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	3 Laps
13	2	GTDPRO	#9	Andrea Caldarelli Sandy Mitchell	Pfaff Motorsports	Lamborghini Temerario GT3	3 Laps
14	3	GTDPRO	#65	Christopher Mies Frederic Vervisch	Ford Racing	Ford Mustang GT3	3 Laps
15	4	GTDPRO	#1	Neil Verhagen Connor De Phillippi	Paul Miller Racing	BMW M4 GT3 EVO	3 Laps
16	5	GTDPRO	#64	Ben Barker Dennis Olsen	Ford Racing	Ford Mustang GT3	3 Laps
17	6	GTDPRO	#14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat	Vasser Sullivan Racing	Lexus RC F GT3	3 Laps
18	7	GTDPRO	#4	Tommy Milner Nicky Catsburg	Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	3 Laps
19	8	GTDPRO	#59	Max Esterson Nikita Johnson	RLL Team McLaren	McLaren 720S GT3 EVO	3 Laps
20	9	GTDPRO	#77	Nick Tandy Harry King	AO Racing	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	4 Laps