IndyCar: Detroit organizers happy with weekend despite restricted capacity

When the dust settled on Belle Isle Detroit GP IndyCar race, Bud Denker and Michael Montri were proud of their handiwork. They spoke to the Detroit Free Press.

“(Going) back a little bit and in the last few six months and see the journey to where we are now. It’s been amazing,” said Denker, chairman of the Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear. ”Coming to this weekend just shows you that with a great product you can deliver some excellent entertainment.”

“There was excitement here. My whole hope was that excitement will carry over here and it certainly did. People are excited to be here,” said Montri, president of the Detroit Grand Prix. “They’re excited to get out and experience the event. The weather cooperated beautifully. It was a good move.”

“One thing I would have done differently or might want to talk about was we cut off Free Prix day. When they require them to bring in a ticket, it was a mistake,” Denker said. “We should have (had people bring) anybody who wanted to come, not to require the ticket. So we had no shows and as a result of having a no-show that it’s somebody else who wanted to be here couldn’t be here.”

“So certainly next year we want to have more off-track attractions. We need more entertainment, not just the race, which means the kids need to have things to do,” Denker said. “The race covered up some of those things we weren’t able to do this time. But for what we were able to do and where we ended up, I’m thrilled. We’ll start our planning for next year on Tuesday.”