Indycar looks to close out Belle Isle’s run with a bang
Helio Castroneves won his first race on Belle Isle, in his seventh start for Team Penske, and basically boss Roger Penske’s backyard.
Castroneves celebrated that victory by exiting his car and climbing one of the fences surrounding the temporary street course. The Spider-man climb became his signature and Castroneves has scaled the fencing at the Detroit Grand Prix three different times.
As the Detroit Grand Prix prepares to exit Belle Isle following Sunday’s race, Castroneves wants to replicate that inaugural 2000 fence climb one final time.
“It might be the same fence,” Castroneves said. “This place, I’ve been coming here a long time. But things change. I’m glad that at least I’m here for the last race. I would love to win my first win here and win the last one, too.”
The Detroit Grand Prix began as a downtown street race for Formula One in 1982 and closed its seven-year run with three consecutive victories by Ayrton Senna. But the F1 sanctioning fees were exorbitant and promoters rebranded the race for CART, which was the U.s.-based openwheel series at the time.
That three-year run ended in 1991 and the event shifted the next year to the 2.35-mile temporary course called Belle Isle Raceway. The circuit is located on a 982-acre island park in the Detroit River and even though it’s a narrow and bumpy course, drivers love it.
“I’m going to miss Belle Isle. It’s a place that has a lot of character,”
said Pato O’ward, who is second in the Indycar standings and earned his first career Indycar victory at Belle Isle last year.
“If you were to describe the Indycar Series, I think this track describes it the best. It’s very old school, very raw. Lots of commitment has to come from the driver’s side to extract a lap from this place.”
Penske lives in suburban Detroit and the race is promoted by his group. They decided last year that Sunday will be the final race on Belle Isle and the Detroit Grand Prix will move to
a new downtown street course that will utilize elements of the original F1 layout.
Belle Isle will become a public park again following Sunday’s race.
Chevrolet milestone
Josef Newgarden won the pole for Sunday’s race and can give manufacturer Chevrolet a milestone victory in his backyard.
Chevrolet is the title sponsor for the Detroit Grand Prix and the race is run in the shadow of its offices inside GM’S Detroit
Renaissance Center Global HQ. A win by Newgarden or any Chevy driver would give the bowtie brand its 100th victory since it returned to Indycar competition in 2012.
“Obviously it is a special race for Chevrolet and we’d like to do a great job for them,” Newgarden said. “I think they’ve done tremendous for us already. If you look at the performance we’ve had across the board, it’s hard to ask for much more. We need to keep that up not just for this weekend. but for the rest of the year.”