Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber delivered Cadillac a commanding victory at the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic, and in doing so vaulted Aitken to the top of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship standings on a transformative weekend in the Motor City.
Starting from an all-Cadillac front row, the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac controlled the GTP class around the tight, unforgiving Detroit street circuit. A slick driver change and a sharp right-side-only tyre strategy gave the car track position it never relinquished, Aitken stretching the gap to more than four seconds over Philipp Eng's BMW in the closing minutes despite a late safety car that briefly threatened to wipe out his advantage.
For Bamber, who had been frank all weekend that he was prioritising the championship, the win meant more than points. "I was kidding — I really wanted a win," he admitted afterwards. "To do it here at the home of GM and Cadillac, with so many friends and family with us. My team absolutely nailed it. We had a good strategy, a good pit stop. It really doesn't get a lot better than that. So we're going to soak it in."
The result reshaped the title picture. Laurin Heinrich arrived as the hottest driver in the series, with three wins from four races and a 21-point lead, but the championship leader's afternoon unravelled when he was judged responsible for contact and handed a stop-plus-60-second penalty. On a circuit where overtaking is at a premium, the sanction was terminal, ending any hope of a fourth win and blowing the points race wide open. Because Bamber missed the Long Beach round earlier in the year due to a clash with his World Endurance Championship commitments, he and Aitken now score separately — and it is Aitken who emerges as the new championship leader.
In GTD Pro, Antonio Garcia finally claimed a victory that had eluded him for his entire career. Sharing the Pratt Miller-run Corvette with Alex Sims, the Spaniard converted Sims's pole and early gap into the first Detroit win of his decorated career. "We really wanted this one," Garcia said. "The last two years we've been super competitive. Super happy to be in victory lane on Chevrolet land. Underneath the towers, I think all the big bosses will be very happy — as are we." Asked about completing the set of IMSA wins, he grinned that there was still one box left to tick: "I'm still missing Petit, though."
The race was typical Detroit fare — fast, frantic and physical. Nick Tandy was pitched into the wall in a heavy GTD Pro incident, and several drivers fell foul of the runoff areas, with reversing back onto the racing line a constant hazard the stewards had warned about in the morning drivers' meeting. A penalty for contact involving Nicky Catsburg narrowed what could have been a runaway championship lead in another class, leaving the title fights tightly poised as the series heads for the road course at Watkins Glen.
For Cadillac, victory in the shadows of the Renaissance Center carried obvious symbolism. For Garcia and Corvette, it was a long-awaited gap on the résumé finally filled. And for the championship, Detroit may prove to be the weekend everything changed.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/cadillac-detroit-imsa-aitken-points-lead-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
