The roar of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix is returning to downtown Detroit, bringing race fans, visitors, and exciting event activity to the heart of the city. During Grand Prix weekend, the Detroi...

Detroit — Next month, race cars will zoom and zip by unique colorful banners made by the city's students as the Grand Prix takes to the streets of downtown Detroit. On Tuesday afternoon, Detroit Grand Prix officials unveiled the banners made by students from the Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Michigan and College of Creative Studies at a press conference near the race circuit on Atwater and Beaubien streets, which started being constructed Monday. Four high school students and one college student will have their digitally designed art posted on the barrier walls of race circuit for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear from May 30 through June 1. Bud Denker, long-time chairman of the event, said the event preview and press conference celebrated the inclusion of youth in the three-day experience as well as its economic and philanthropic benefits. "The word inclusion is so important for us because ... after being gone 31 years, we were not in downtown Detroit, it was all about making it an inclusive event and I think we're still the only sporting event in the U.S. where over half of our circuit is available to the public for free," Denker said. Free access to the race event downtown allows over 150,000 people to see the students' banners too. Eli Archer, a sophomore from Indiana at the College for Creative Studies, is responsible for the Chevrolet Grand Prix's official 2025 poster. His work shows a woman skating through the race track holding a checkered flag; her skates the form of IndyCar and IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship racers.  "I didn't know about the Grand Prix beforehand and I was really inspired to learn about the history and learn about what it meant to Detroit," Archer said. "I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this and make something meaningful to people." And Ari'onna Harrell is $3,000 richer after having four of her murals selected for showcasing at the Grand Prix. She's a student at Detroit School of Arts and used blue flowers she drew, teddy bears and other designs she describes as "cute and serious" to get her art spotlighted. "We had a trip where we walked downtown to take pictures and I got some inspiration from that," said Harrell, 15. Christian Young, a student at Westfield Preparatory High School, used his banner to showcase the ways people can get to the summer event. His poster combines pictures of the People Mover, rentable scooters, the QLine and downtown landmarks. Young, 14, won $750 for the creation. Also present at the event preview was Santino Ferrucci, driver of the No. 14 Chevrolet for AJ Foyt Racing in the NTT IndyCar Series, and Myles Rowe, driver of the No. 99 car for ABEL Motorsports with Force Indy in the Indy NXT by Firestone series. Rowe is the first Black driver to win an IndyCar-sanctioned race at New Jersey Motorsports Park in his first season in USF2000, according to the IndyCar website. Rowe said as Black man, it was a privilege to be an example for the youths and to break barriers in motorsports, media, engineering and other fields. "For those who don't even want to be drivers, for those who want to be engineers and part of the media and such, it's a privilege to be able to drive that forward and make that easier," he said. "It wasn't easy for me at all, to a point that I had to leave the motorsport community due to budget and funding ... hopefully the next person doesn't have to go through that struggle." mjohnson@detroitnews.com @_myeshajohnson This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit Grand Prix unveils student-made banners for race circuit

It's been back-tp-back race weekends for IndyCar and the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix made sure to keep the action going.