Detroit Grand Prix brings the noise back downtown and fans love it
Francis X. DonnellyDetroit — It was hot, it was noisy and it was a blur.
If that is your idea of fun, and for tens of thousands of people it is, you’re going to love the Detroit Grand Prix.
The three-day racing event began Friday, but Belle Isle was nowhere to be found. In the bring-the-mountain-to-Mohammad department, the race returned to downtown Detroit for the first time in 32 years.
Attendees liked the proximity even if it was a struggle to reach the 1.7-mile-long fortress-like track encircling General Motors Co.’s Renaissance Center.
“It’s great to have it here,” said Patti O’Sullivan of Roseville. “You don’t have to walk far for a restaurant."
Friday was just for qualifying and practice sessions but it featured Trans Am Series sports cars that were moving fast through the street circuit — and that’s all fans needed.
On a day when temperatures reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit, hats and fluids were treasured items. Cotton also was a luxury, not for clothing but for the ears. Conversation was impossible as the cars roared by.
John Robinson of Detroit had none of it, no hat, no water, no suntan lotion, no earmuffs. He allowed it to be his first race.
“I’m OK,” he said in the shade of the Millender Center. “I’m a little tired, but it’s fun.”
Fast cars in one part of downtown Detroit equaled slow cars in other parts. With Jefferson Avenue walled off, and access points limited, a long queue of cars backed up on Interstate 375.
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Motorists prowled side streets, but there were no shortcuts. Parking also was a challenge.
Despite all the challenges, fans were giddy with the plethora of race cars in their midst.
The candy-colored cars sounded like gunshots as they changed gears to turn corners. At Beaubien and Atwater streets, Wendy Lewis of Franklin marveled at how tightly a string of cars cut the corner.
“It’s a lot harder than it looks,” she said. “They’re amazing athletes.”
Unlike Robinson the neophyte, Lewis is an old pro with the Grand Prix. She’s been coming for 20 years when part of Belle Isle morphed into a race track. But this is her first one in the shadow of the Renaissance Center. She loves the scenery.
“You have everything you need. It’s great for the city and for the people,” she said.
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Besides changing the locale, organizers also made the event more accessible by opening half the course to the public.
Along those lines, the event opened Grandstands One and Nine for free Friday. The two grandstands held 300 people. By contrast, two nearby grandstands for paying customers held just 65 people.
The freebie seats sported T-shirts while the ticketed crowd at Grandstands 8A and 8B boasted knit shirts.
On the other side of the track from 8A and 8B was a banner hanging from a parking garage. “We live in the D. Work in the D. Play in the D,” read an ad for Pet Supplies Plus.
Alas, there were no ads for the hoi polloi in One and Nine.
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One similarity among all the seats was that the back rows were more popular than the front. Claude Grace of Petoskey, sitting in the last row of Grandstand One, explained why.
“It’s too loud,” he said about the vehicles racing by. He also said something else, but it was lost in the drone.
The choicest viewing spots of all were the suites, where the gentry was treated to cushioned seats, white tablecloths and ice cream.
Several blocks from the racetrack, workers prepared Cadillac Square to host several dozen pop-up businesses over the weekend. They filled the block-long downtown park with hundreds of tables under a white tent. Large video screens were erected to show the race.
The park’s ancient fountain gurgled a soft stream of water. “For the people,” read an inscription above it.
With inclusion as the theme for this year’s race, the new-old location will undoubtedly attract more non-racing fans like Robinson.
He said he didn’t know the name of a single driver but didn’t mind. He loved the sheer spectacle of the whole thing.
“It’s bringing people to Detroit. That’s a good thing,” he said.
Will he and his sunburn return this weekend? He’s thinking about it, and, if he does, he’s bringing a hat.
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Twitter: @prima_donnelly