(9 June 2021) – Mooresville, NC: Multimatic Motorsports heads back to Detroit for the first time in two years, ready for the super sprint 100-minute race on the Belle Isle Street Circuit. Last year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race in Detroit had to be cancelled due to the pandemic but the highly popular event is back for 2021!
Held alongside the IndyCar Series, the sportscar race at Detroit will also welcome fans back after the restrictions on outdoor venues were lifted in the state of Michigan so it is set to be a busy and exciting weekend of racing.
Currently sitting in second place in the DPi Drivers’ Championship, Harry Tincknell is looking forward to getting out on track at Belle Isle.
“Although Detroit is a tough circuit, it is one of the best on the IMSA calendar,” said Tincknell. “We missed this race last year so it will be good to take the RT24-P back out onto a street circuit. I remember when I first went there, everyone had told me it was a tricky track but I really enjoy the challenge. The first corner and the last two corners are very quick for a tight, twisty and bumpy track like Detroit and that makes it extremely satisfying when you hook it up and get it right. It’s a bumpy track but we have the Multimatic DSSV dampers to cope with that.
“It’s going to be an interesting weekend,” he continued. “We’re the first cars on track on Friday and we do a lot of running that day before going straight into the race on Saturday. It’s essential that we hit the ground running but we have the team and the car to do that. We are targeting pole position and we want to be at the front throughout the weekend. We have a 100% podium strike rate this year so we want to continue that and hopefully get our first win of the year. We want to go and get a headline result for the Mazda on a street circuit so we’ll give it everything we’ve got.”
Tincknell’s team mate in the #55 Mazda, Oliver Jarvis, is also keen to get started at Detroit this coming weekend.
“We head to Detroit in a strong position in the Championship,” said Jarvis. “Detroit is a hard event but we have made so many improvements to the car since we last raced there and with the level that the team is operating at now, I think we can get a good result this time out. As always it will be extremely competitive throughout the field and I expect the Cadillacs to be quick but I am hopeful that we can take the race to them. We are all feeling confident so I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Larry Holt, Executive Vice President – Multimatic Special Vehicle Operations, said: “We’ve had mixed results on the street circuits with the Mazda’s in the past but the cars have always shown good pace, and with the improvements made in the last two years I am confident that we will be fully in the mix. It is important to come off the trailer with a good set-up as there is very little track time before qualifying and the race. The track surface will be totally green when we go out for FP1 at 8:00am on Friday morning, so there will be little opportunity to learn anything. As always, we’re going for a win but constantly being cognizant of the dangers of the walls that line a street circuit, the margins are small and the penalty for error is normally catastrophic. In 2019 Harry was on for a strong finish but got pushed into the wall by an overzealous competitor, which ended his day; with a focus on the championship we will need to be vigilant.”
The 100-minute race at the Belle Isle Street Course gets underway on Saturday 12 June at 17:10 EDT / 22:10 BST.
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