Bourdais, van der Zande Take IMSA Laguna Seca Win

Race day is the day that counts, as the old adage goes. Cadillac Racing proved that once again Sunday 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.”

Bourdais admitted that Cadillac Racing and all of the competing manufacturers in the GTP class are still learning about the high-tech, hybrid-powered prototypes. That led to his Friday accident.

But the 11-time winner in IMSA competition had confidence in his team. The Laguna Seca win lifted Bourdais and van der Zande from sixth to fourth in the championship standings, 72 points behind leaders Jaminet and Tandy.

“I think everybody knows how challenging the last couple of months have been,” Bourdais said. “It’s never fun to go through those phases, but opportunity is part of racing. It’s something you have to pull through, and obviously the whole group was starting to lose a little bit of spirit.

“So, it’s really good that we finally get our head out of it with a win like this today.”

After locking up the front row in qualifying, the Porsche team immediately lost that advantage when both Jaminet in the No. 6 and Motul Pole Award winner Matt Campbell in the No. 7 car locked their brakes into the Andretti Hairpin at the start, falling to third and seventh respectively. The No. 7 car never recovered, eventually finishing eight laps down and last in the GTP class.

Tandy took the final restart in fourth place, and at that juncture, he thought he could take the second consecutive race win for the No. 6. But van der Zande immediately passed Sims and built a cushion.

“Renger just drove well,” said Tandy. “He got the track position early and built a gap whilst I was getting past the other guys. But I think the two cars leading at the end were clearly the fastest in the field.

“Another great GTP race,” he continued. “Another different winner, but through all this, we’re consistently scoring points with the No. 6 car, which I’m really proud of. We’re getting the most out of our package every week, and whether we’re slow or we’re fast, we seem to be scoring points.”

Added Jaminet: “All in all it was a pretty eventful day, but when you come home P2 and extend the lead in the championship, it’s a great day.”

Sims and Pipo Derani finished third in the No. 31 Cadillac, while Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque (No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06) and Phillipp Eng and Augusto Farfus (No. 24 BMW Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8) rounded out the top five.

TDS Racing Overcomes Pit Miscues to Win LMP2 Race

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.

Another pit-stop miscommunication during the final caution set the No. 11 back again. Jensen was the LMP2 leader but didn’t come to the pits when they were first opened for prototypes. Forced to stop two laps later, Jensen sat seventh in class when racing resumed with 41 minutes remaining.

The Dutchman’s charge to the front was aided when three LMP2 cars ahead had to serve drive-through penalties for various pit-lane infringements. He punctuated a race-long battle of car-to-car contact by muscling the No. 11 past Keating’s No. 52 and Ben Hanley’s No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA on the same lap with 25 minutes to go. From there, Jensen pulled away to earn his seventh WeatherTech Championship win and second at WeatherTech Raceway.

“There was just fights going on and you had to go for the gap when it was there,” Jensen said. “It’s a sprint race, you don’t have a huge amount of time to do your job, so every time you see a gap, you go for it. It worked out well today.”

Thomas picked up his second career win. The 55-year-old said he was in awe watching Jensen carve his way through the field to the finish.

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” he said. “We had a good car and I tried to hold it on the track. We put this guy (Jensen) in and he drove through the entire field. I mean, he drove through the entire field to win the race. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen on a racetrack.”

Patience Puts Porsche In GTD Victory Lane With van Berlo and Metni

Kay van Berlo used patience to his advantage Sunday.

Van Berlo caught and passed Andy Lally for the lead with 23 minutes remaining and went on to win the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class Sunday in the fourth race of the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

With 45 minutes remaining in the two-hour, 40-minute race, van Berlo and the No. 91 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) he co-drove with Alan Metni emerged from the pits behind Lally in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 he shared with John Potter.

Shortly after that, van Berlo passed Lally for the lead.

“With one hour to go, everything settled and I was like, ‘Oh, we’re in P2 and the car in front of us is on slightly older tires,’” van Berlo said. “I thought we could actually go and win here. … I was just waiting and waiting and waiting while defending the car behind me. I had one opportunity and went for it.”

Bill Auberlen eventually passed Lally to finish second in the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 he co-drove with Chandler Hull.

“We’re on a little bit of a roll,” Auberlen said. “The Porsches had us, but at least I could race somebody. I could get in there and get close. I wasn’t just getting dropped.”

The Kellymoss with Riley sister car, the pole-winning No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) co-driven by Alec Udell and Julien Andlauer, rallied to finish third, securing a banner weekend for a team that expanded into the WeatherTech Championship this season from the Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America.

“It’s just amazing,” van Berlo said. “I’ve had probably the roughest three months of my racing career ever. Setback after setback above everything else. I said before the weekend, I would be happy with a podium at this stage, and then we saw we were quick.”

Lally and Potter wound up fourth in GTD, while Brendan Iribe and Frederik Schandorff completed the top five in the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO. No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 co-drivers Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow saw their GTD class winning streak snapped at two but retain the lead in the WeatherTech Championship point standings. They have a 62-point advantage over Iribe and Schandorff.

Sunday’s race was also the second in the IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup for GTD. By finishing eighth, Roman De Angelis, Marco Sorensen and the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 pulled into a one-point lead over Sellers, Snow and the No. 1 Paul Miller BMW.

WeatherTech Mercedes Wins GTD PRO

Jules Gounon took advantage of others’ missteps to claim victory in GTD PRO.

Gounon moved into first place with 37 minutes left when Ross Gunn in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Corvette C8.R GTD were issued penalties of stop plus two minutes and 50 seconds for taking improper wave-bys during the race’s final full-course caution period.

The penalties pushed Gounon and the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 he co-drove with Daniel Juncadella into the lead.

“We knew we would have difficulty on pace this weekend,” Gounon said. “We know we were not the fastest car, so we focused on what we could control. It was not one fast lap, but the entire race.

“The WeatherTech and Proton (Competition) guys did a great job with strategy and car prep. I am proud of the team. We had a tough race at Long Beach and were able to come back and get the win today. I think we just drove and took the mistakes of our competition and were able to get the win.”

Ben Barnicoat held on for second place with co-driver Jack Hawksworth, keeping the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 atop the GTD PRO standings with its 14th consecutive podium finish. The No. 79 Mercedes teammates are second, 41 points behind the leaders.

The pole-winning No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) co-driven by Klaus Bachler and Patrick Pilet rallied from an early penalty to finish third.

The next round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, June 22-25. The 6-hour contest at Watkins Glen International is the third of four races in the 2023 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.