Cameron: “Detroit is a Great Opportunity”

Dane Cameron is ready for IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s return to Detroit.

The 27-year-old Californian teamed up with Eric Curran to win on the streets of Belle Isle a season ago, and the duo is riding a streak of three-consecutive podium finishes into the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic this weekend.

The 2015 triumph in Detroit was the first overall win in Cameron’s sports car racing career, and he is eager to hit the streets again in search of a second-consecutive win at the event.

“If there’s one race that I’ve been looking forward to all season, it’s been getting back to Detroit and Belle Isle,” Cameron told Sportscar365.

“It’s been a pretty good place to me the last couple of years and it’s such an incredible feeling to get that overall victory that I’d been chasing for quite a long time.

“It was a big weekend being in a Chevrolet, in a Corvette. To [win] in Detroit has pretty significant repercussions with the GM headquarters right there.

“Our Action Express Corvettes are great on the street courses, great over the big bumps there, and we’re looking forward to getting back there and try to go back-to-back.”

The three-straight podium finishes have put Cameron and Curran atop the Prototype Championship standings, three points over the sister No. 5 AXR machine of Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi.

Cameron said that while podium finishes are great, he and Curran need to get back to victory lane if they are going to accomplish their ultimate goal.

“When you compare [the start of the year] to last season, we were quite consistent but we were more like fourth or fifth,” he said.

“Now to have a run of seconds and thirds at the same part of the year, it’s a good boost and obviously more points going towards the championship.

“That’s what you’d expect in year two. But at the same time, we really need to win some races if we’re going to win this championship.

“Seconds and thirds aren’t going to be good enough. We’ve got to get some wins in there to hopefully push this thing over the top. Detroit is a great opportunity for that.”

He added that consistency from within the team from year to year has been a boon.

“Last year was a good building year for Eric and I to get to know each other, to come to grips with the car as a team, so to come back with an unchanged package for year two was really great,” Cameron said.

“It moved the goals forward. Last year the goal was to win a couple of races and figure out how this all works.

“This year, now that we’ve accomplished that, the goal is to win more races and try to win this championship.

“It’s good to have that benchmark and we know we have cars capable of winning every weekend and cars capable of winning a championship. And that’s all you can really ask for.”

Strong pace and a third-place finish in Long Beach at the only previous street course race on the calendar has Cameron’s confidence high.

“We had the fastest car at Long Beach the last few years, obviously we won last year in Detroit, so we’re confident in our package as far as Action Express goes,” he said.

“We know how we’re going to run, we know how we’re going to start, we know what knobs to go to for changes over the weekend to keep a handle on the track progression, we know what to do so it’s going to be a matter of execution and doing everything to the best of our ability.”