The Detroit Grand Prix will relocate from its current home on Belle Isle to a downtown venue after next year’s IndyCar race at the circuit.
The race was originally held on a waterfront track in the city when it was part of the Formula 1 calendar between 1982 and 1988. After F1 left Detroit CART took over the race, and moved it to its current venue in 1992.It held its final CART race in 2001, but was revived by Roger Penske as part of the rival Indy Racing League in 2007. The economic slump which followed led to the race’s cancellation again after just two years, but from 2012 it became a fixture on the reunified IndyCar schedule again.
Since 2013 the event has been a double-header and that year the layout was also extended from 3.3 kilometres to 3.7km. After being dropped from the schedule again last year due to the pandemic, the track held another double-header this year, with Chevrolet continuing as its title sponsor.
Next year’s event will feature a single race for the first time since 2012, before it relocates back to the city. The move was approved by the Detroit City Council today.
“Over the last five weeks, grand prix representatives have participated in numerous listening sessions and information sharing meetings with Detroit residents, business leaders, community groups and individual district representatives on the idea of returning the race to its roots on the streets of Detroit,” said the council in a statement.
“The positive reaction and the excitement that we have seen from the community about the Grand Prix coming back downtown reinforces our belief that this relocation will provide a significant benefit to the City, its residents and our local businesses for the future.”
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some racing fan
4th November 2021, 1:57
That is a terrible idea. The Belle Isle street track is one of the more interesting street tracks on the IndyCar calendar. The last time IndyCar raced in downtown Detroit on the Renaissance Center street circuit in 1991 Mario Andretti crashed into a stationary tow truck that was trying to move his son Michael’s car. It was super unpopular when F1 was there in the 80s and was even less popular when CART/IndyCar was there for 3 years after F1.
Red Pill (@redpill)
4th November 2021, 7:28
+1
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
4th November 2021, 8:37
I was really disappointed when the rumours first surfaced a couple of months back, so not at all surprised by this news.
I think it’s a terrible idea. We’ve had some great races at Belle Isle and the track doesn’t feel like an after thought like some street tracks. If it ain’t broke…
some racing fan
4th November 2021, 22:01
They released the layout of this new street circuit. It looks like one of the worst circuits ever.
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
4th November 2021, 10:14
oh the irony on the second picture…
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
4th November 2021, 10:15
oh the irony of the non-editable comment system