DETROIT (WWJ) – After a 30-year run on Belle Isle, the Detroit Grand Prix is making its return to the downtown streets this weekend.
Race fans will have their eyes on not only a race that has changed, but a Downtown Detroit that has changed as well.
On a new Daily J podcast, WWJ’s Zach Clark finds out what moving the Grand Prix back to the mainland says about the city itself.
“It was a huge street party,” WWJ AutoBeat Reporter Jeff Gilbert said of the race prior to moving to the island in 1992. “Even with a different course, that one thing will remain.”
While the original downtown track shutdown a much larger portion of the city, this weekend’s festivities will mostly be contained to Jefferson Avenue and the Detroit Riverfront, though fans will be roaming around the rest of downtown – which has seen a renaissance in recent years.
With the track just miles away from where Henry Ford “put the world on wheels,” Detroit Grand Prix Chair Bud Denker says there’s no better way to honor the Motor City’s history.
“Those cars thundering down Jefferson Avenue at 100+ mph is just gonna be so cool for the Motor City,” he said.
Denker says this weekend's race will be more inclusive than it was on Belle Isle, as more than half of the track will be accessible for free.
A full schedule of races and events and other information about the festivities can be found on the Detroit Grand Prix website.
“Just like it is for the NFL Draft next spring, the Detroit Grand Prix is another chance to remind people, Detroit is not what they think it is, no matter what people say,” Clark says on the podcast.
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