Yahoo Autos Cadillac Triumphs at IMSA Laguna Seca Ahead of Le Mans Spectacular
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Race day is the day that counts, as the old adage goes. Cadillac Racing proved that once again Sunday at the Motul Course de Monterey Powered By Hyundai N at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
After a slow start to the weekend with Sebastien Bourdais suffering a braking issue that sent the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R into a crash at Turn 6 during Friday’s practice session, Bourdais, co-driver Renger van der Zande and their Chip Ganassi Racing crew regrouped and put together a perfect race day to take their first win of the 2023 season in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition.
Van der Zande ran second when racing resumed with 41 minutes remaining following the final full-course caution of the two-hour, 40-minute contest. He powered to the outside of the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac driven by Alexander Sims through Turns 3 and 4 before edging ahead up the hill leading to the Rahal Straight.
The bright yellow No. 01 Cadillac was never again headed as the final segment of the race ran green to the finish. Van der Zande built a lead as large as 5.5 seconds before Nick Tandy in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 cut it in half as the two GTP class prototypes negotiated traffic. But he was never seriously challenged, crossing the line 3.882 seconds ahead of the Porsche shared by Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet.
The win culminated a tumultuous start to the ’23 campaign for Bourdais and van der Zande. After opening the season on the podium at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the duo failed to finish the last two races in the WeatherTech Championship. In addition, van der Zande’s Cadillac suffered a heavy crash on April 29 at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium during an FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) event that Cadillac Racing was using as a warm-up in preparation for participation in next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
So, it’s no surprise that the Ganassi crew erupted with joy as the No. 01 claimed its first top-class IMSA race win in nearly eleven months.
“Coming from a big shunt in Spa to win this race, that’s what you call highs and lows, or lows and highs,” said van der Zande after his 19th career victory in IMSA competition. “Our guys have been putting in so much effort. It’s days and nights – they’re not sleeping much.
“It’s amazing to pay it off with a win like this.”
LMP2
Sometimes, two wrongs can make a right. TDS Racing made it work out to capture the team’s first WeatherTech Championship victory in Sunday’s Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) portion of the Motul Course de Monterey.
Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen overcame a pair of pit stop miscues in the No. 11 ORECA LMP2 07 to win and take the LMP2 championship lead in the process. They finished 5.095 seconds ahead of Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA, but not without drama leading to the checkered flag.
“It shows what IMSA is; it’s never finished,” Jensen said. “I was shouting on the radio when we were in seventh (place), I thought it’s over. The team told me to stay calm and just do my job, and all of a sudden I was in first. … It was a crazy race for us.”
Running third when a full-course caution came out 20 minutes into the race, Thomas lost track position when he entered pit lane before it was open. He escaped penalty by driving through without stopping but the No. 11 lost valuable track position.
