The season opener for the Alpha Touring Challenge couldn’t have started any better. After a full hour of intense racing around the tight Belle Isle street circuit in Detroit, Jérôme Bajulaz brought home victory in the first race of the new season. Bajulaz ended last season 3rd in the championship standings. He had a chance to be champion, but poor performances in the last two events of the season resulted in disappointment. Now at the start of season four, Bajulaz has shown he is unshaken by last season and demonstrated that he should be considered a championship favorite.

Bajulaz started 4th but immediately jumped ahead of two-time champion Logan McKinzie at the start, and ran in 3rd behind Wojciech Swirydowicz and Francois Shink for the first portion of the race. Swirydowicz appeared to be in position to execute his usual style of total race domination, but a sudden onslaught of mechanical issues ended his race early, and left Bajulaz and Shink to battle for the win.

Swirydowicz led the field from pole at the green flag, but ended up retiring from the race soon after.

Bajulaz led Shink after pitstops, and from there he held off the former champion to win the first race of the year. The final margin of victory was just 0.53 seconds.

Rob Abrams rounded out the podium after a relatively uneventful drive that saw him come across the line in 3rd without issue. His teammate at Yellow Flag Motorsports, defending champion Logan McKinzie, was able to salvage 4th despite struggling with understeer all day. He navigated traffic and held off a hard-charging Matthew Rzepka to do so. Rzepka was forced to settle for a career-best 5th place finish in the Alpha Touring Challenge.

The best drive of the day undoubtedly goes to Jon Lauzon. Lauzon started in 32nd, but through skill, strategy, and a very close brush with a four-car accident early on, he managed to bring home a 9th place finish. It was a great first race for the Beaver Buzz team all-around, with Lauzon’s incredible recovery and the win by Bajulaz.

Nobody left Belle Isle with all of their paint still on the car.

Despite the 36 car field being one of the largest in Alpha Touring Challenge history, and the danger posed by the Belle Isle circuit, a full seven drivers came to the finish with 0x incidents.

The Alpha Touring Challenge head to Sebring next week for the 1.2 Hours of Sebring.