{"id":27467,"date":"2021-06-13T09:03:40","date_gmt":"2021-06-13T13:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=27467"},"modified":"2021-06-13T09:03:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-13T13:03:40","slug":"payne-walking-the-belle-isle-race-track-with-cadillacs-ace-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2021\/06\/payne-walking-the-belle-isle-race-track-with-cadillacs-ace-drivers","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Walking the Belle Isle race track with Cadillac’s ace drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belle Isle<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 You have to walk before you can run.<\/p>\n

Before an engine was started at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear, drivers took to the track Thursday afternoon by foot for their ritual \u201ctrack walk \u201cahead of the June 11-13 race weekend. Accompanied by team engineers, strategists, managers\u00a0and crew, they walked the 2.35-mile circuit on foot, in golf carts, on bicycles \u2014 scouring the surface for imperfections, changes, and generally re-familiarizing themselves with one of the most demanding circuits in auto racing.<\/p>\n

But first, a little fun. Driving onto the track in golf carts for the first time in two years (the Grand Prix weekend was canceled in 2020 due to COVID concerns), Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R team drivers Felipe \u201cPipo\u201d Derani and Felipe Nasr floor their carts in a mock drag race. \u201cMy cart\u2019s slow,\u201d laughs Derani as Nasr opens a gap. Boys will be boys.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Track<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Team manager Chris Mitchum, 44, calls after his hot shoes, noting the \u201cblend line\u201d at Turn 2\u2019s exit where race cars leaving the pits rejoin the hot track. \u201cRemember to keep to the right of the line,” he says, lest the team be disastrously penalized in Saturday\u2019s short, 100-minute race.<\/em><\/p>\n

Derani, 27, and fellow Brazilian Nasr, 28, pilot the #31 Cadillac and are strong contenders to win the IMSA Weathertech sportscar race. IMSA Weathertech is one of two support races \u2014 the other is Indy Lights \u2014 to the main feature Dual in Detroit IndyCar doubleheader.<\/p>\n

The Brazilians just missed out on a win in 2019, falling 0.8 seconds short to Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya in an Acura DPi prototype.<\/p>\n

The Whelen Enginering-sponsored team, managed by Action Express Racing out of North Carolina, has\u00a0been a fixture at the front of the sportscar series, winning four championships since 2014 \u2014 including in 2018 with their current weapon, the wicked-looking, 580-horsepower, V-8-powered Cadillac.<\/p>\n

With a carbon-fiber chassis, slick tires, and high-downforce, the state-of-the-art, 2,050-pound Cadillac sports similar technology to open-wheel, 1,700-pound IndyCars. In 2019, Derani qualified the DPi-V.R at 1 minute, 19.9 seconds \u2014 just five seconds slower than Josef Newgarden\u2019s IndyCar pole that weekend.<\/p>\n

\"Derani<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Turn 3\u2019s 90-degree right-hander at the end of a long straight is the circuit\u2019s first passing opportunity. It\u2019s also the likeliest place racers will go down an escape road if they leave their braking maneuver too late.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cCheck out the escape road to make sure you can get turned around,\u201d says Whelen team strategist Tim Keene as Derani and Nasr explored the run-off area. Back on the main track, IndyCar racer James Hinchcliffe and his crew race by in a golf cart on their own track tour.<\/em><\/p>\n

Keene, Mitchum\u00a0and Chief Engineer Iain Watt from Scotland are racing veterans with years of top-shelf racing experience. Watt has been stateside for 25 years applying his engineering expertise in IndyCar, NASCAR and other series. The 56-year old Keene has collected five Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona wins in his storied career.<\/p>\n

Keene will be the voice in the ear of Derani and Nasr as they negotiate this very physical race track. The race is the shortest on the IMSA calendar and will require quick-thinking by strategist Keene to keep his charges in position to tin. The race requires only two pit stops \u2014 perhaps only one if there is a long yellow flag period \u2014 so timing is crucial. Any delay could be disastrous, since opportunities to make up lost time are few compared to longer, 24-hour races like Daytona.<\/p>\n

The pace will be relentless \u2014 a 100-minute sprint to the finish \u2014 and the drivers say there\u2019s an urgency to be perfect every lap that is different from other races.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to touch this curb,\u201d says Nasr, walking around the steep, candy-striped blue curb on the inside of Turn 5. \u201cIt can unsettle the car.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Turn 4-6 complex are Derani\u2019s favorite turns on Belle Isle. The highly-technical, 100-mph section is crucial to carrying speed out on to the back straight (which parallels the Detroit River) where the Cadillac will hit top speeds of 170 mph before braking hard into Turn 7 \u2014 another key passing opportunity before the track narrows into the spectator-friendly \u201cCarousel\u201d complex behind Scott Fountain.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"derani<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Narrow is a relative term because the entire course is encased in concrete walls that anchor safety fencing. There is no room for error. The crowned, concrete public road (normal peed limit: 35) makes for tricky traction as the cars wash out in some turns,\u00a0coming perilously close to the barriers at 100 mph.<\/p>\n

On higher-speed turns \u2014 think, ahem, 130 mph through Turns 1-2 \u2014 the walls have been \u201csoftened\u201d with tire barriers wrapped by conveyer belts.<\/p>\n

The Whelen team is satisfied that much of the track has remained unchanged since 2019. There are new patches here and there \u2014 a concrete strip to cover new timing cables on the back straight, for example \u2014 but there is only so much you can do to an undulating public road.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe track is very green because this is the only race on it all year,\u201d says Derani, pointing to the clean\u00a0asphalt surface. \u201cIt will change a lot over the race weekend as it gets sticky with black rubber. Lap times could come down as much as 2-3 seconds.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He and Nasr planned to spend a lot of time together during Friday practice and qualifying discussing how they want to set the car\u2019s handling so it\u2019s to both of their liking.<\/p>\n

The team has war-gamed much of the Belle Isle\u00a0race on simulators. Derani and Nasr spent a day on a simulator in Indianapolis this month \u2014 racing laps in dry and wet conditions, passing GT-class backmarkers, executing pit stops.<\/p>\n

But there is nothing like being back at Belle Isle. In June. In Cadillac\u2019s home city.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won this race in 2018,\u201d says Nasr, whose co-pilot then was Eric Curran. \u201cIf we win again, maybe we\u2019ll all jump in the fountain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Belle Isle\u00a0\u2014 You have to walk before you can run. Before an engine was started at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear, drivers took to the track Thursday afternoon by foot for their ritual \u201ctrack walk \u201cahead of the June 11-13 race weekend. Accompanied by team engineers, strategists, managers\u00a0and crew, they walked the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27468,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27467\/revisions\/27468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}