Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix set to open more than half its viewing areas to fans for free

Penske Corp. is moving the event back to Downtown Detroit for the first time since 1991Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix

The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix will make more than half of its viewing areas accessible to fans for free as it moves back downtown, a civic-minded move by Roger Penske but one that ensures the IndyCar event will be in the red this year. Penske Corp. is moving the event back to Downtown Detroit for the first time since 1991, after spending the last 30 years (consecutively since 2012) holding it on Belle Isle. Now, the race will be held June 2-4 with a new 1.7-mile, 10-turn street circuit that runs along streets like Jefferson Avenue near General Motors’ HQ. The Autotrader Winner’s Circle is an example of one of the areas that will be open to everyone regardless of if they bought a ticket; it will be located at the Riverwalk on the Detroit Riverfront. The buildout for the event started this month. Penske Corp. execs had the epiphany to move the Detroit race back downtown after helping oversee IndyCar’s Nashville street race that is now entering its third year around Nissan Stadium. While precise financials weren’t provided, event President Bud Denker told SBJ that having half of the course open like that for free has “never been done before,” and he confirmed that the grand prix will not turn a profit this year. Denker added: “This has never been a profit-maker for us; it’s always been about giving back to the city we live in. … It’s not going to make money and that hasn’t been our mission. Our mission is to continue to give back to Detroit, so I’m sure when we said that we’re going to have more than half of the area open for free it raised some eyebrows of others who run events, but our mission is very different. Inclusiveness is the word.” After facing pushback on an annual basis on Belle Isle, a relieved Denker says so far he’s “received zero pushback from this idea.” He added: “I was waiting for it because we heard so much on Belle Isle. But there’s been nothing but positive comments about bringing it to Detroit and for that I’m grateful.”

CITY BENEFITS: The expected attendance for the race weekend is not yet clear, though officials hope to top 100,000, which ticket sales are tracking ahead of. Denker said: “I don’t know if we’ll have 100,000 people a day or 30,000 people a day or 50,000 a day because when you open it up for free, there’s a lot more access and inclusiveness.” The grand prix is one week after IndyCar’s biggest race, the Indianapolis 500. GM owns Chevrolet, which is one of two car manufacturers in IndyCar alongside, Honda, so this is a home race of sorts for the automotive giant and the race will now be right outside its HQ. As with most street races, some maintenance work needs to be done to the streets on which the race will be run. To that end, Denker said that some roads have already been freshly re-paved and that there’s been 45,000 square feet of concrete poured for a new pit lane. With the goal of making this event inclusive to the community, other civic-minded elements will include Penske Corp. setting aside an area of the circuit for neighborhood businesses from all of Detroit’s seven districts where they can have pop-up tents to sell various products. The event also had nine 1/16th-scale model Indy car statues sent to area high schools to let students design them. The event then showed them off to the local media and city council and is working to now have them auctioned off to benefit the City of Detroit office of Arts, Culture and Entrepreneurship. Penske is able to afford running a race at a loss because he is one of the foremost titans of the American automotive industry with businesses like Penske Automotive Group, a Fortune 500 company that is of the largest car dealers in the U.S., and Penske Truck Rentals.

MORE SPACE: The move to downtown is also going to give Penske Corp. more room to operate than it had on Belle Isle; Denker expects there to be 70 corporate suites at this year’s race versus 23 last year. That includes a two-story hospitality structure that will be 13 feet off the ground and resemble the infamously rowdy scene at the PGA Tour’s Waste Management Open, Denker said. The presenting sponsor of the event is Lear Corp., a car seat manufacturer based in Southfield, another suburb of Detroit, and the event had 60 total sponsors last year including Comerica Bank, Deloitte, Firestone, Jack Daniel’s, Delta and Allstate’s dealer services division. That includes 26 who have been part of the race since it returned in 2012. Other elements of the race that will be unique include a pit lane that will be on two different sides of the road because it was “impossible” to fit a normal single-lane pit lane onto the city streets. This is believed to be a first in racing history. Denker said that this event should help revitalize the Downtown area of Detroit which has been hurt by the pandemic by decreasing foot traffic and occupancy rates as workers do their job remotely more often now. The race started as an F1 event in 1982 before turning into a CART event in 1989; CART was a fore-runner to what’s now known as the NTT IndyCar Series The 2023 NTT IndyCar season continues this weekend with another street race: The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.