Park Place Motorsports team principal/driver Patrick Lindsey will be the pilot in command for a host of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers heading to Le Mans this weekend following the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Belle Isle.
Lindsey, who is racing full-time in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Team Project 1, will fly a Gulfstream IV jet on the 3,800-mile trans Atlantic journey to France for Sunday’s Le Mans Test Day.
The plane is supplied by Los Angeles-based Mira Visa Aviation, a boutique jet management and charter company owned by Lindsey, who became a GIV captain in 2016 as a strategic business move.
Among the drivers joining Lindsey on-board include fellow Porsche drivers Patrick Long and Christina Nielsen as well as Ben Keating and Renger Van der Zande.
More than a dozen IMSA drivers in total will be flying from Detroit to Le Mans in time for the mandatory single-day test, which gets underway at 9 a.m. local time on Sunday.
“Many logistics go into flying just like there are a lot of logistics to racing,” Lindsey said. “Flying private is a huge advantage when we’re talking about the movement schedule between Detroit and the Le Mans test.
“It allows you to fly into an FBO (Fixed Base Operator) that is directly next to the track and saves you from being in the mercy of the airlines in Detroit. Everyone arrives fresh for a day of testing.
“Honestly, I don’t know that there is a commercial flight out of Detroit that works as well as a private trip. There’s space to relax and to move about the cabin.
“The flight also becomes more affordable as the cost is split between drivers.
“It would work out to a similar cost to a first-class airline ticket, possibly cheaper because you won’t need transportation to the track.”
While not driving this weekend in Detroit, Lindsey will get behind the wheel of Project 1’s Porsche 911 RSR once he lands in Le Mans on early Sunday, in his Le Mans debut.
His co-drivers Joerg Bergmeister and Egidio Perfetti, however, will already be in France undergoing preparations ahead of the single-day test.