Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac Cashes In on Crash and Learn in IMSA

Chip Ganassi says the main ingredient to having a winning sports car racing team is to hire people who are highly motivated.

His drivers Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais, drivers of the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R, have been so highly motivated they’ve been crashing left and right. From Long Beach to Spa and the hills of the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, they’ve been tearing up cars. But the pace they’ve developed by overdoing it gave them the speed to handle anything thrown at them by the other GTP series teams in the sprint race at Laguna.

At Laguna Seca on Sunday, despite starting sixth after a crash in practice, the duo’s Cadillac finished 3.882 seconds ahead of the No. 6 Penske Porsche Motorsport 963 to claim their first GTP victory of IMSA’s WeatherTech Championship season.

“The car was starting to come alive and the track gripped up,” said Bourdais of his opening stint, which came after a crashing heavily in practice at Turn 6 and after crashing out before the first corner at Long Beach. At the Laguna start, the car “felt good and I could start to push and run the two leaders down. Then the yellow came out and it put us all the way back to seventh. Renger came out and did it again!”

The Dutchman had a horrendous crash at the exit of Eau Rouge in the World Endurance Championship race at Spa in April, but walked away from the shunt at the top of the hill. The elevation changes of Laguna, where he scored his third victory at the track, did not seem to phase him as he passed the leading Cadillac of Action Express Racing, then held off the oncoming Porsche in the final stint of green with apparent ease.

“Chip Ganassi Racing and Cadillac with all the effort they are putting in, it's days and nights of work,” said van der Zande. “They aren't sleeping much. So, it's amazing to pay it off with a win like this. Like Seb said, we cycled a few times to the front and the back. I love this place.”

"Everyone knows how challenging the last couple of months have been since our Sebring retirement,” said Bourdais referencing the 12-hour where the team’s Cadillac caught fire. “It's never fun to go through those phases, but it's part of racing. It's something you have to pull through. I think the whole group was starting to lose a little bit of their spirit, I'd say. So, it's really good that we've gotten our head out of it with a win today.”

There’s no rest for the weary. “This team has been pushing really hard, long hours, dealing with the ups and downs of racing, so congratulations on a great race victory,” said Laura Wontrop Klauser, GM sports car racing program manager. “I hope they enjoy every second of this win and they take a minute to relax because we have to get ready for the next race.”

That race, of course, will be in Le Mans, where the winning car is due to be shipped to prepare for the centenary 24-hour in June.

Double Time Paying Dividends

Is it any surprise that the Cadillac and Porsche teams had the field covered in the season’s fourth GTP round at Laguna? The two GTP factory participants have also run the first three races in the World Endurance Championship. That translates into more seat time, more on-track data and better pace.

The two Porsche Penske Motorsport cars started on the front row and then came back from brake problems due to their pace. “We had some issues at the start,” said Mathieu Jaminet, the pole winner who locked up his brakes into the Andretti Hairpin at the start. “After that, we started (working on adjusting) the brakes. The team did a good job.”

The No. 7 Porsche was still in the hunt despite a penalty for Matt Campbell’s contact with a GTD Aston Martin of Jarett Andretti. Although co-driver Felipe Nasr crashed out in the No. 7 car, possibly due to the tricky brake-by-wire system used with the LMDh hybrids, he liked his pace. “We had the pace to fight for victory,” said Nasr. “That was obvious in the qualifying and race. I’m sorry that I crashed. After the restart, I saw the chance to grab two positions at once. I gave it everything, the rear of my car got away from me. I had no chance of catching the car.”

Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani double-stinted his Michelin tires, taking fuel only for his Cadillac V-Series.R during the day’s second caution. He made it work, leading until the second pit stop and the trade to Alexander Sims, who finished third.