From Le Mans to Watkins Glen’s 6 Hours of The Glen

IMSA

Jun 20

Three GTPs, one LMP2 and one GTD who participated to the 24 Hours of Le Mans are flying back to Watkins Glen for the third of five rounds of IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup after mixed results in France. Two of the five didn’t cross the checkered flag, the #19 Lamborghini SC63 ending 13th, the #311 Whelen engineering Cadillac V-Series.R ending 29th overall behind the LMP2s and #70 Inception Racing McLaren ended 40th overall!

Iron Lynx #19 Lamborghini SC63

The #19 car, raced by Matteo Cairoli, Andrea Caldarelli and Romain Grosjean ended up in P13, two laps down compared to the winners. Andrea Caldarelli and Matteo Cairoli will drive the IMSA-spec SC63 at Watkins Glen.

Matteo Cairoli: “It's always great to be back at Le Mans. This is my eighth time but the first with the hypercar and it was interesting to get it underway. We worked to be prepared for the race, and still have things to work on, but we are looking forward to the week and to the progress we will make.”
Andrea Caldarelli: “I think it was a positive day. We used it to try different things on the cars and it was great for us to have two cars on track at the same time. We maximised the track time we had, as there were some red flags and Safety Cars, but for me, driving at Le Mans for the first time with a prototype was quite a good discovery and I enjoyed it. We will analyse the test and bring the outcome to the first Practice on Wednesday.”

Whelen Engineering Cadillac in P29

The #311 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, the reigning IMSA Grand Touring Prototype team champion, was running in and out of the top 10 until Pipo Derani lost control of the car in the Indianapolis Curve and made contact with the tire barrier with 5 hours, 24 minutes left. He was able to limp the car back to pit lane, where the Action Express Racing team immediately began assessing what would be needed to get back out and finish the race. Derani was uninjured in the incident.

The team systematically completed repairs and returned to the track with 3 hours, 14 minutes left. The #311 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, with Derani, Jack Aitken and 2022 F2 champion Felipe Drugovich making his Le Mans debut co-driving, finished 29th overall and 15th in class.

Pipo Derani: "Unfortunately, we don’t know if it was water running across the track from the cars that went by before me or debris, but I did lose the car suddenly and had no time to react. I had a big impact but fortunately everything is OK with me. It’s a shame because we were trying to fight our way back onto the lead lap. Racing at Le Mans sometimes can be cruel, you live and learn and try to be better next time.”

Jack Aitken: "It was another tough Le Mans similar to last year with really difficult weather conditions for everybody. Everyone made a few mistakes in terms of putting on the right tire at the right time. We were fighting to stay on the lead lap but it was slightly on the back foot for a lot of the race. Then, unfortunately, we had an accident this morning but amazingly got the car running and back out. It was a great job by the crew and we managed to finish with two Caddys. Encouraging but ultimately a frustrating experience for everyone. That’s Le Mans, it’s tough.”

Felipe Drugovich: "It’s been an amazing experience. We got here 10 days ago and it started with a festival. I really enjoyed every activity we got to do. The race was complicated since the beginning. We started already on the back foot with the track position, trying to move forward with the rain didn’t work out. It didn’t go our way, but from my side I’m really happy and thankful as well to Cadillac and all the GM people.” Source: Cadillac Racing

DNF for #3 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R

The #3 Cadillac V-Series.R, with IMSA teammates Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande complemented by six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon was running in the top 10 most of the race before the discovery of an oil tank puncture with 5 hours, 45 minutes left that caused the entry to retire.

Sebastien Bourdais: “It’s a shame we’ve had DNFs in the two biggest races of the year, but it’s part of racing. We tried to fight as much as we could and did the best we could. Now we’re going to go back to the States and tackle the six hours (Watkins Glen) – another tough event. We have work to do because we weren’t very good there last year and we didn’t have the luxury to go testing with the tight schedule. We hopefully made some good progress on the hard tire and the set-up for Watkins and we’ll keep pushing. We’re second in the championship so we’ll try to maximize the results.”

Renger van der Zande: “I think we would have been up there at the end. We lost all the time with the rain tires in the first two hours. Then we stayed in there and kept the gap to the leaders the same for almost 15 hours and then we finally got the break with the Safety Car with the merge and that’s when the issue arose with the car. It’s a lot of hard work from everyone at Cadillac, GM, Chip Ganassi Racing, the drivers and everybody involved and an amazing experience to do Le Mans with this group, but it’s really a shame we had to end it this way.”

Scott Dixon: “It was definitely an eventful race. I think conditions alone created a lot of strange things. The sad part is we were back in it on the lead lap. We had the Safety Car pack-up and were going to restart seventh or eighth. All would had been on for a decent finish. That’s how racing goes. It was a lot of fun to be here again with Cadillac.” Source: Cadillac Racing

DNF for #45 CrowdStrike Racing by APR

George Kurtz secured an automatic invite to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for winning IMSA’s Jim Trueman Award. Kurtz teamed with Ben Hanley and Nolan Siegel in #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR to win the 2023 LMP2 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship..

2023 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Nicky Catsburg joined George Kurtz and Colin Braun in #45 CrowdStrike-sponsored LMP2 Oreca. Starting last in the LMP2 class grid, the #45 CrowdStrike Oreca was never in the forefront and retired after 11 hours.

P13 in class for Inception Racing

Brendan Iribe secured an automatic invite to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for winning IMSA Bob Akin Award. Iribe drove the #70 Inception Racing McLaren with Frederik Shandorff and Ollie Millroy to win the 2023 GTD WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Inception Racing took pole position for the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMGT3 category thanks to Brendan Iribe in the #70 McLaren. It was the first class pole position at Le Mans for McLaren. After dominating the LMGT3 pack during the first part of the race, the Inception Racing McLaren had to stay in the garage for mechanical repair losing 6 laps to the leader ending 13th in LM GT3 class.