Laguna Seca: Cadillac wins
Cadillac Racing finishes first and third at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
📷 © Courtesy of Cadillac Racing. Bourdais and van der Zande with the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R ahead of Sims and Derani with #31 Cadillac V-Series.R.
Despite qualifying sixth, Bourdais and van der Zande won the 2 hours 40’ race in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca after taking the lead in lap 71 for the 32 remaining laps.
📷 © Courtesy of Cadillac Racing. Bourdais and van der Zande won the 2 hours 40’ race in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R
Sebastien Bourdais: "Everyone knows how challenging the last couple of months have been since our Sebring retirement. 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 spirits, I'd say. So it's really good that we've gotten our head out of it with a win today. The weekend started really bad again with a crash on Friday that compromised the amount of testing we had and data we got for long runs. It trickled down to Saturday because we didn't get a qualifying sim, so the effort wasn't that great to get sixth. The start was kind of chaotic and we ended up buried in seventh or eighth. The guys did a really good call on strategy and cycled us to third. Things were starting to look up at that point. The car was starting to come alive and the track gripped up. It 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! I couldn't ask for a better teammate. When he's put in those positions, I don't think there is anybody better than him. He made some pretty critical passes to get us to the front and managed from there. I'm super happy for Cadillac. You could see the emotions running through everyone, and this sets up as best as possible going to Le Mans. We'll try to carry that momentum."
Renger van der Zande: "Thanks to Seb for the nice words. We are a good team and are fantastic teammates with everyone. Chip Ganassi Racing and Cadillac with all the effort they are putting in, it's days and nights of work. 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. Laguna Seca is one of the best racetracks. It's a very interesting track for setup. The tire wear is high, and you need to set up the car for it. From a driver's perspective, you need to manage it as well. Coming from a big shunt at Spa to win this race is what you call lows and highs! This is our Le Mans car. It's going to Le Mans and it's a winner. It's a winning car that will get flown over to Le Mans and fight for the big one. Today, we're going to celebrate a bit. There's not much time to Le Mans to put everything in perspective that we learned today about the car, the engine, the hybrid, the braking and all the systems that in there. It's so nice when we get a win like this. One of the tricks they gave me in the car gave me this win with braking. I'm really proud of the whole team. I was testing Tuesday at Portimao and then Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Laguna Seca. It's been a good day and a good week.”
📷 © Courtesy of Porsche. #6 Porsche 963 driven by Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet
Porsche Penske Motorsport has achieved another podium result in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. At the wheel of the #6 Porsche 963, Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet secured second place at round four in Laguna Seca. After their win at Long Beach, the tandem increases its lead in the drivers’ championship.
Nick Tandy (Porsche 963 #6): “It was an exciting race; I thoroughly enjoyed it and we scored a lot of points. It was interesting that the different GTP cars had very different paces after the restarts. That made for some spectacular action. I would’ve preferred a more uneventful race, but it was still a lot of fun. We got the most out of it. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about, because we certainly won’t be able to win every race. Now we’ve been on the podium three times in four races – that’s something to be proud of!”
📷 © Courtesy of Cadillac Racing. #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R, co-driven by Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims.
The #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R, co-driven by Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims lead during 46% (47 laps out of 102) until van der Zande overtook Sims with 41 minutes left.
Pipo Derani: "It was a good race. Happy for Cadillac with a win and on our side happy with my stint. IMSA racing is so unpredictable and there are so many things that can go into account. It was a good points day for us with the Whelen Engineering Cadillac. The whole team did a fantastic job and happy to go away with a podium. We continue to push this fight forward.”
Alexander Sims: "Pipo was doing a fantastic job and had really good pace. I was given everything I could have been given to do the job, but ultimately I didn’t have the same pace as Pipo and I made two costly errors in terms of the restart and getting my tires up to temperature properly and Renger driving on the outside of me and then just being too cautious in traffic and Nick (Tandy) got around me. Good points day and nice to be on the podium.”
📷 © Courtesy of Acura.
The #10 driven by Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque Acura ran as high as third during the event, following a fantastic pit stop by the team, but would cross the line in just fourth place.
Filipe Albuquerque (#10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06) 4th in GTP: "What a crazy race! Up and down a lot. When I got in the car we were like P8, almost last. We recovered well, at one point we were P3 and I was really, really comfortable with the car that we had. I was catching everybody and I was like 'oh we're going!' So, I was super motivated because when you're going forward it's cool. But then in the last stint I think maybe behind the Porsche and the BMW my tire pressures went sky-high and I was just a passenger at that point. I couldn't really do anything about it, I was sliding all over the surface. We learned a lot again about the car and the setup. It's still a positive to finish P4, Ricky did an amazing start and a good job in qualifying. So, we keep going forward."
📷 © Courtesy of Porsche. #7 Porsche 963 leads the pack of GTPs but not for long.
#7 pole-setting car suffered several setbacks starting with Matt Campbell missing the braking point falling back to sixth place. After 20 minutes, Campbell made contact with a GT car, the Australian was handed a drive-through penalty, which relegated him to the back of the GTP field. he slid off the track and crashed into the barriers.
Felipe Nasr (Porsche 963 #7): “Obviously, that wasn’t what we had hoped for. Our number 7 crew deserved better. We had the pace to fight for victory. 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 - that was it. I had no chance of catching the car. Now I’m looking ahead to Le Mans and the next IMSA race at Watkins Glen.”
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📷 © Courtesy of Porsche. Laguna Seca: Porsche tops qualifying.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona. Ben Keating at laguna Seca.
📷 © Courtesy of Acura. Preview IMSA at Laguna Seca.
