Fans at the Detroit Grand Prix found a new place to watch Saturday’s racing: the rooftops of downtown parking garages opened to the public for the first time, giving them premium views over the 1.7-mile street circuit. On a day built around the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic, the garages turned into makeshift grandstands above the city.
Bob Whelan brought a foldable lawn chair to the Port Atwater Parking Garage and settled in above one of the track’s nine turns. From there, he could look across the river toward Windsor and sweep his eyes over the course. “It’s pretty cool. You can see Canada, too,” he said. “I can see all over the track.”
Saturday was the middle day of the weekend event, which ran Friday through Sunday in downtown Detroit and featured three car races circling General Motors Renaissance Center. The rooftop viewing areas on four downtown garages were the biggest new fan access change this year, expanding the ways people could follow cars reaching speeds of 185 mph on straights and slowing to 35 mph in the tight sections.
The new vantage points did not make the race easy to follow. Even from the best seats, the cars came through in a blur, and the noise carried hard across the rooftops. Pat Schultz, who attended her first Detroit Grand Prix in 2018, said the added access mattered. “It makes a big difference,” she said. “It’s loud. Really loud. You can’t hear yourself think.”
For some fans, that was part of the appeal. Linda Schmidt said she had been waiting for the weekend to begin and called the race her happy place. “I couldn’t wait. This is my happy place,” she said. “I love everything about it.”
The garages were only one piece of the weekend’s setup. Fans could also watch for free from the northern side of Jefferson Avenue, while Hart Plaza and Spirit of Detroit Plaza offered music, games and food vendors. But the first-year rooftop areas gave the downtown race a different feel, and the question now is how many fans will decide those elevated spots are worth coming back for when the event continues through Sunday.
