GTD PRO title race heating up as IMSA hits Motown

In contrast to the utter dominance of IMSA's premier GTP class by Porsche Penske Motorsport, the GTD PRO category has a fairly close title race on offer heading into Saturday's Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic.

GTD PRO has only run three races so far this season, but four teams from four different manufacturers enter Detroit covered by 107 points, with as many as 385 points available during qualifying and the 100-minute sprint race. This is in contrast to the 280-point gap from the leading No. 7 Penske Porsche and the top non-Porsche entry in the GTP standings.

And while the inclusion of the current 1.7-mile Detroit street circuit has been seen as a room splitter among IMSA fans who either prefer the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's selection of permanent road courses, or who were turned off by the high volume of accidents in last year's race, there are at least two European drivers who are looking forward to the challenge of navigating their GT3 cars through perhaps the most treacherous street circuit in America for the very first time.

Klaus Bachler of AO Racing heads to Detroit as the points leader alongside co-driver Laurin Heinrich. AO and Heinrich won last year's race while narrowly avoiding catastrophe: Heinrich slipped past a Turn 3 collision between Nicky Catsburg and Ben Barnicoat, but "Rexy" took some damage after hitting the stopped Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Catsburg.

Now leading the championship after back-to-back wins at Sebring and Laguna Seca, Bachler said ahead of Saturday's race: "I mean, first of all, I really love street circuits. I wish there would be more races on the streets. And it's my first time in Detroit. Of course, I will work a lot on the simulator. The good thing is that my teammate Laurin, he drove there, and the team was also there last year with the victory.

"For sure, I'm feeling special to come back there. The only thing you can do is try for the same, and have a look at the things the team did last year," the Austrian driver said.

"We also know that it’s a short weekend – Friday is really busy with two free practices and qualifying. You need to bring it at some point, because there's no room for any mistakes. Otherwise, the weekend can be over quite early. It will be difficult because I think qualifying and starting position is very important and it's half of the race, maybe.”

Bachler's affinity for the punishing street races began more than a decade ago ago, during his time racing in Porsche one-make series whose events supported the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix and DTM's annual trip to the Norisring in Germany.

“My first street race was Norisring 2012 in Porsche Carrera Cup Germany," Bachler explained. "It's not like Detroit, but in the end, one small mistake destroys your weekend or at least the race. Every lap you get closer and closer to the limit, and at one point, you touch the wall.

"Honestly, I fell in love with it when I went to Monaco for Porsche Supercup. I have to say, the race itself – it's difficult to pass there. Qualifying is the most important part of the weekend. If you do a solid start in the race, if you don’t hit the wall, everything is normally sorted."

This weekend, AO Racing will bring Rexy's sister, Roxy, back into action after her first win at Laguna Seca. To celebrate Roxy's first win, the pink No. 77 Porsche 911 "GT3 Rawr" will have gold-painted nails and additional sponsorship signage from Mobil 1.

On the other side of the current GTD PRO battle, Ford Multimatic Motorsports' Christopher Mies hopes that the No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3 can at least stabilize its margin to AO Racing. Mies expected Laguna Seca to be a difficult race for the Mustangs, and so it came to pass: Mies and Frederic Vervisch finished eighth, and dropped from first to fourth in the standings.

"If you look at our car, it has a long wheelbase – the same as some other front-engined cars – so it's a difficult track where I would say, a mid- or rear-engined car has some benefits. Same for Detroit," Mies said in Monterey. "Watkins Glen, Road America, and those kinds of tracks should suit our car better. You know, not every track is made for every car, so therefore you have some good races, some not-so-good races. I think it's all about maximizing it."

The long wheelbase of his Mustang might not be ideally suited to the Detroit street circuit, but Mies knows that doesn't mean he can't be in the mix. Brett Farmer/IMSA

After their Rolex 24 At Daytona victory, Mies and Vervisch's No. 65 Ford now sits behind not only AO Racing, but also the No. 3 Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette of Antonio Garcia and Alex Sims, and the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 led by Albert Costa.

Like Bachler, Mies is racing at the Detroit street circuit for the first time. And also like his title rival, Mies has prior experience on street circuits that has him looking forward to this weekend's race, even if the long wheelbase of the Mustang GT3 could be a problem around Detroit's tighter corners.

"I raced a lot in Australia and obviously they race a lot on street tracks, and I'm a big fan of it," said Mies, a two-time Bathurst 12 Hour race winner and a past GT World Challenge Australia champion who's won on the streets of Adelaide. "I know it's going to be a challenge, because everyone else in the paddock has done it last year, so they have the experience and the memory from last year while Fred and I don't. So for us, it's all about learning as quick as possible, and getting as close as possible to the walls."

Though Mies has tempered expectations for Detroit on paper, he enjoys IMSA's entertainment-driven racing, where he feels that with good strategy, or a fortunate safety car intervention, his team still has a chance to win – which for Ford, racing at the doorstep of General Motors' headquarters, would be especially sweet.

"This is what I like about IMSA: Even if you think you can't win without strategy, you can still have a shot – by pure pace, by sure not, but nothing is impossible!" he said.