SOURCE: RACER MAGAZINE - By Richard S. James | May 14, 2023  

In the fourth IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race of the season, GTP has its fourth different winner and first repeat victory for a manufacturer as Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande yo-yoed through the field to claim victory for the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R and Chip Ganassi Racing.

Through a rough start and ill-timed yellows, both Bourdais and van der Zande ended up deep in the field and had to work their way forward while completing 100 laps around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca during the 2h40m Motul Course de Monterey. On the final restart, with 40 minutes left and Alexander Sims freshly installed in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac in the lead, van der Zande drove around the outside of Sims in Turn 3 to take the point. Sims hung on for a while, but would eventually also fall victim to Nick Tandy in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963.

“I felt sorry for the guy because I’ve been in that situation, in Ohio last year, where you’re coming cold into the car and into a restart,” said van der Zande of the pass on Sims. “It’s so easy to lock up your front tires in Turn 1. It’s really easily done and those cold tires are not easy at all. So for him to do that restart, after basically he woke up this morning, then he was mine. So I’ve been in this situation and I feel sorry for Alex because it’s not how good I was, it was a bad situation for him to get that restart. He followed me really well after that. He was on the pace doing a lot of pressuring me in traffic as well.”

It was generally not a good day to be a polesitter, as the best any of them could manage was third. Overall pole winner Matt Campbell had a major brake lockup into Turn 1 at the very start, and almost everybody joined him, but Campbell in the No. 7 PPM Porsche got the worst of it, sliding well wide and dropping back into the field. Colin Braun assumed the lead in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06. The No. 60 was looking strong, but putting a second stint on the Michelin tires early in the race left the MSR Acura sliding backward through the field and into a position from which Braun and Tom Blomqvist could never really recover.

Campbell continued to be his own worst enemy, as after having mostly passed Jarrett Andretti in the new Andretti Autosport GTD Aston Martin Vantage, he moved over to try to get inside the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura heading into Turn 11. But having not cleared the Aston, he hit it, sending Andretti into the tires that protected the beginning of the pit wall and crashing into pit lane. Andretti was uninjured in the incident. Campbell was given a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility. Felipe Nasr would later exit the course in Turn 9 and make impact with the wall, requiring some rear bodywork changes for the No. 7 and effectively ending any opportunity for a good result.

Throughout the middle of the race, the No. 31 AXR Cadillac looked unbeatable and the team clearly had the best tire strategy for that point in the race as Derani drove away from the field. When during a yellow he handed over to Sims with fresh tires, though, Sims had no luck holding off the hard charging van der Zande, who had belted into the No. 01 earlier in the race.

“Pipo was doing a fantastic job; he had really good pace,” said Sims. “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 pretty costly errors in terms of the restart not getting my tires up to temperature properly. Renger just drove around the outside of me. Then I was just being too cautious in traffic and Nick got past me. Still, we didn’t do any stupid mistakes. So good points today and nice to be on the podium.”

Tandy was charging forward at the end, but couldn’t get up to the No. 01 to mount any challenge for victory. He and Mathieu Jaminet came into the race with a one-point lead over the AXR squad, and they still left Monterey at the head of the championship.

TOP 5 RESULTS

The Cadillac V-LMDh is a sports prototype racing car designed by Cadillac and built by Dallara. It is designed to the Le Mans Daytona h regulations, and made its debut in the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship at the season opening 24 Hours of Daytona.

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA   
SOURCE:  Sportscar365  AUTHOR: Daniel Lloyd

Chip Ganassi Racing and Action Express Racing were encouraged by the reliability of their new Cadillac V-LMDh prototypes during the Rolex 24 at Daytona despite missing out on the win.

Both Ganassi cars and the sole Action Express machine completed the race without significant car-related delays, unlike entries from the other three LMDh manufacturers.

External factors played the biggest part in affecting Cadillac’s race. Setbacks included the No. 01 car being struck from behind by an LMP3 car in hour five, later followed by a drive-through penalty for leaving the pits when its fuel hose was still attached.

The No. 31 Action Express Cadillac dropped out of contention after contact with a GTD car at the Le Mans Chicane.

There was also an electrical problem resulting in a steering wheel change for the No. 01, however it spent less total time on pit road than the winning Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, which battled gearbox dramas.

“We were flat-out the entire time,” Chip Ganassi Racing’s global director of operations Mike O’Gara told Sportscar365.

“The only issue a Cadillac had was from contact. None of them went in the garage, nothing fell off, and [there were] no major issues. We were impressed with that.

“We’ve got to find a little bit of speed. I’m a racer and I don’t like losing, but deep down I’m happy with what we accomplished over the last few months.”

O’Gara said it wasn’t easy to pinpoint a reason why the CGR Cadillacs ultimately lacked the pace to challenge the Acuras that finished first and second.

“I feel like our reliability is probably better, looking at how many times they were in the pit lane working on things,” O’Gara reckoned.

“I don’t think the speed is one thing: it’s probably ten little things that we’ve got to figure out.

“That’s why we work with Dallara and the GM folks. Each of us puts in our own little bit and hopefully we can figure out how to beat those guys.”

Action Express team manager Gary Nelson told Sportscar365 that the suspension damage caused by Derani’s unseen contact with an unidentified GTD car interrupted a clear mechanical run for the No. 31 crew.

“Based on all the testing that we did, all the work Dallara and General Motors did, I had a good feeling coming into the race that we would be able to contend and be competitive,” he said.

“I really felt like we would be there at the end. Unfortunately, at 4 a.m., we had contact that damaged our suspension and it took 17 laps to repair it.”

Nelson explained that the contact resulted in a broken suspension bracket.

“It actually didn’t break right during the contact,” he noted. “Pipo said he felt a bump and a few laps later it got worse.

“There were several bolts holding the suspension and they were breaking, so we had to go in the garage. At that point, it was not our day.”

Despite the setback damaging Action Express Racing’s chances of a podium, Nelson indicated that the experience will be useful considering such an incident can only occur in a racing situation.

“All of our tests went without much chance to have contact: we were just running laps,” he said.

“The GT cars and the differences in speed, the tire warmup time… all of those things we had to learn in traffic during the race. Fortunately for everybody, the weather was ideal for a 24-hour.

“We did a 24-hour test at Sebring and we felt quite confident. The unknown is always something to worry about. But once we got going and all the systems were working correctly, our plan was to hang around the top five and race at the end.

“We were doing just that, keeping the leaders in sight. Unfortunately, we had that contact but we got five laps back.

“If this had been a 12-hour race, we would have been aiming for the win. Sebring is a 12-hour race, so we’re excited and we’re going there to win it.”

GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser added: “We brought three Cadillacs, which was the most of any brand, and all three took the checkered flag.

“I’d say everyone who has worked on this project, whether it be the engineers at Cadillac, the designers at Cadillac, the engineers at Dallara, Chip Ganassi Racing, Action Express Racing – everyone – should be so proud of everything we’ve accomplished.”

Cadillac Racing revealed the liveries for the three cars it will field this year: the No. 01 Cadillac Racing and No. 31 Whelen Engineering V-LMDh cars in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-LMDh in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The No. 2 Cadillac will compete as the No. 02 in the Rolex 24 before moving on to the WEC season.

The Cadillac liveries share a V-Series graphic-and-color theme. Each car wears one of the primary colors of the V-Series logo, including No. 01 in gold, No. 02 in blue and red on the No. 31. Co-developed by Cadillac Racing, Cadillac Design and Dallara, the final car design was informed by the Project GTP Hypercar that debuted last summer and incorporates distinctive Cadillac design elements such as vertical lighting and floating blades.

“From an aesthetic point of view, the LMDh regulations allowed us to create a vision for the car that is clearly Cadillac,” said Chris Mikalauskas, lead exterior creative designer, Cadillac. “And that’s really exciting for fans and for people who are true enthusiasts, every car is unique.”

The Cadillac V-Club will have over 50 members who will witness from the Cadillac V-Corral suite the premier of Cadillac's new V-LMDh entry in the GTP class at the 60th Rolex 24 at Daytona---IMSA's 2023 season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

SOURCE: IMSA.com by Jeff Olson

At first look, it steals your breath. Sleek yet aggressive, bold yet elegant. Undeniably a Cadillac, yet an altogether different kind of Cadillac.

Meet Cadillac’s Project GTP Hypercar, which previews the manufacturer’s third-generation prototype race car.

What went behind the design of the new car was complicated and layered, an in-depth project involving dozens of people from several areas, melding the success of the Cadillac DPi-V.R that’s been winning races and championships in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class since 2017 with the unlimited possibilities of the new car and the new-for-2023 Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class.

“It’s exciting to start a new chapter,” said Chris Mikalauskas, Cadillac’s lead exterior creative designer. “We’ve proven ourselves in IMSA and we want to continue to prove ourselves, but we really just want to prove ourselves now on an even higher level of vehicle.”

Mikalauskas and his design team brought the car from idea to reality in just 15 months. Thursday’s Project GTP Hypercar preview was the “wow” part. Now it’s time to see how the race car develops as the new car and class prepare to begin racing in January at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. On-track testing is set to begin later this summer.

“It’s a cool canvas to be able to show people the fact that we’re going to continue to make performance products in the future and this is a sample of what they might look like,” Mikalauskas said. “I just want people to realize that we’re not done making cars that are going to perform extremely well. It’s something we very much want to be a part of, and this design previews that.”

The trick for Mikalauskas and his team of engineers was to carry the success of Cadillac’s DPi V.R – which won two titles and four consecutive Rolex 24s in its six years in the WeatherTech Championship – to the new car.

“We know certain things work,” Mikalauskas said. “Whenever you radically change the proportions of a vehicle, not everything translates. While we have the experience and the winning pedigree, we definitely had to do some invention and discovery on this new program.

“We’re super excited and super happy about where we ended up, but it wasn’t as easy as saying, ‘OK, take the DPi and stretch it this way and stretch it that way.’ It was a ground-up build.”

The new car will be powered by a 5.5-liter V-8 engine paired with the LMDh single-source hybrid powertrain. Cadillac intends to compete in both the WeatherTech Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), including next year’s 24 Hour of Le Mans.



“Cadillac will be competing again on the world racing stage, and we are all thrilled to return to Le Mans after 22 years,” said Rory Harvey, Vice President Global Cadillac. “By competing in both the 2023 IMSA and WEC championships, Cadillac Racing has the opportunity to demonstrate its capability, craftsmanship and technology.”

The manufacturer has been demonstrating those attributes in North America since 2017, winning three WeatherTech Championship titles, four IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup championships and the Rolex 24 At Daytona four times in a row. Last weekend’s victory at the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic on Detroit’s Belle Isle by the No. 01 Cadillac driving duo of Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais was the manufacturer’s 26th in IMSA competition over the past five-and-a-half seasons.

Cadillac’s success with the DPi car played into the design of the new car.

“Knowing why it worked is really the important thing to take away,” Mikalauskas said. “In certain situations on the new car – again, with it being so different and having different tracks to run on – the objectives changed.”

So it was up to Mikalauskas and a team of engineers at Cadillac Racing, Cadillac Design and Dallara to create something artful yet functional, meeting the specifics of the LMDh platform while maintaining Cadillac design cues like the brand’s distinct vertical headlamps and taillights.

“We love it from a design side and an aesthetic side because the car is lower and wider and has great proportions,” Mikalauskas said. “But all of those proportions came from performance needs. While the car did change quite a bit, all of those changes were necessary to run the new power plant.”

Five manufacturers – Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche in 2023 and Lamborghini in 2024 – have announced plans to compete with LMDh cars in the GTP class, which replaces DPi as the top prototype class in the WeatherTech Championship in 2023. Those cars are also eligible to race in the WEC Hypercar class.

SOURCE: autoweek.com by Mike Pryson

If Sebastien Bourdais is missing Indy cars, he certainly doesn't act like it.
Bourdais added another trophy to the trophy case on Saturday when he teamed with Renger van der Zande for the overall win at the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Presented by Lear.

Bourdais, who won the pole on Friday evening, led every lap of his first stint on Saturday afternoon to set the pace, and van der Zande held off a charge by race runner-up Oliver Jarvis of the Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura DPi to seal the win.

Bourdais' pole was his fourth in five races this season for the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi, and the win was his second of 2022. Not bad for a guy many thought was too old, or at least didn't have enough left in the tank, for a ride in the NTT IndyCar Series.

All Bourdais did in his Indy car career—a career that started with CART way back in 2003—was win four championships and 37 races. His four titles are tied for third all-time in with Mario Andretti and Dario Franchitti. His win total is seventh on the all-time list.

"For or me, a guy from Le Mans, my IndyCar years for me were winding down," the 43-year-old Bourdais told Autoweek. "The opportunities were wearing off. I had been fighting my way through IndyCar with smaller teams, and timing was everything.

"We were trying to do something with Chip Ganassi for a few years, but I was contracted to Dale Coyne and so they didn’t materialize. When the opportunity to race with Chip came about last year, I didn’t have anything else solid to say no. At that point, how could I even think about saying no? I gotta go.

"You miss the boat on those programs if you’re not in at the beginning, then it’s very difficult to get in. I think it was right for me. I’m 43 years old and I’m not getting any younger. You've got to recognize your chances, and for me it was clear that was the right thing to do."

Bourdais' racing plate is not only IMSA. On Saturday, just hours after the finish of the IMSA race on Belle Isle, both winning drivers were on a plane to France and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, June 11-12. There, Bourdais will team with Nico Mueller and Ryan Cullen for British-based Vector Sport in the LMP2 class. Van der Zande will race in GTE AM in a Ferrari 488 with JMW Motorsports American drivers Mark Kvamme and Jason Hart.

Next year, Bourdais plans to be in the middle of a sports car renaissance in IMSA and the World Endurance Champion and back at Le Mans, where the new Le Mans Hypercar class will include LMDh cars from the GTP class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

"Next year is gong to be 20 cars, at least, racing for the win at Le Mans," Bourdais said. "Then another five or six more cars in ’24. I don’t think the cars will be as exciting for the drivers because they're heavier, more power, but less downforce. But the formula is obviously bringing in all that interest from everywhere, between the OEMs, the press, the public, and that’s what we drive for. When you feel the buzz around the series, for us even if the cars are a little less fun to drive, it’s going to be the golden age of endurance racing."

"If those new programs have a three-, four-year lifespan, and if it goes as well as it seems like it’s going for the interest and the support from the manufacturers, it could go on until the end of my professional career. So, that’s really the way I’m looking at it."

No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R finishes third for the fourth year in a row

MONTERREY, Calif. (May 1, 2022) – Pipo Derani is in a rut at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Derani, splitting seat time with first-year teammate Tristan Nunez in the 2-hour, 40-minute race slowed by one full-course caution for 18 minutes, led the Cadillac DPi contingent in the fourth round of the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship.

The reigning IMSA DPi champion has finished third, co-driving the No 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R, in the race on the 2.238-mile, 11-turn natural-terrain road course for four years in a row. But, for accruing championship points anyway, he’ll take it and move on.

SOURCE: Speedway Media... Read More

No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac races to third place in twice-around-the-clock event

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 30, 2022) – Taped front and center in the JDC-Miller MotorSports hauler is a big, bold and inspirational message for the four drivers of the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R and crew. Believe.

It is a reflection of the passion of the entire organization, which in the 60th Rolex 24 At Daytona – and every IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race – lives by the credo of when you all pull together, you move as one.

With Tristan Vautier, Richard Westbrook, Luic Duval and Ben Keating sharing the seat of the powerful and nimble Cadillac DPi-V.R, the little team that could placed third by a mere 4.420 seconds in the twice-around-the-clock race to lead the five-car Cadillac contingent.

The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R, with reigning IMSA DPi driver champion Pipo Derani, Tristan Nunez and Mike Conway behind the wheel, finished fourth for defending IMSA DPi team champion Action Express Racing.

SOURCE: Speedway Media - Read More...

SOURCE: IMSA.com

BRASELTON, Ga. – The route to the championship was straightforward: The top finisher among the two contenders at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta would be the champion.

The finish, of course, was anything but straightforward.

Felipe Nasr held on as Ricky Taylor tried to pass him on the final lap Saturday night, recovering after Taylor bounced through a gravel trap and back on track in front of him, to claim the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Daytona Prototype international (DPi) title by finishing second in the Motul Petit Le Mans.

Nasr was chasing eventual race winner Harry Tincknell but leading the championship battle when Taylor tried to pass Nasr heading into Turn 10A on the final lap. The two cars made contact, and Taylor’s No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 bounced off course and returned to the track ahead.

But Nasr’s No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R passed Taylor heading into Turn 11 and held on for second place in the race – and the championship – through the final turn of the final race of 2021 to prevail by 0.405 seconds.

“I knew he was going to try to make a last-minute move, but that was a little too wild,” Nasr said. “All the way to the gravel and then coming across the track. If there was grass there, he could have just continued. He had to go through the gravel, and then I had to drive to take the position back.

“There are many ifs. If I was behind and I had to do something, for sure you’ve got to try it. Maybe it was a little too much, but I get it. He’s a racer, too. He’s got to try something.”

While Nasr was going out as a champion, Tincknell, Oliver Jarvis and Jonathan Bomarito were helping Mazda go out as a Motul Petit Le Mans winner in its final race in DPi. Tincknell drove the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports Mazda RT24-P past Nasr for the lead in Turn 7 with 22 minutes remaining in the 10-hour race and held it to the finish.

“To be honest, I just had a feeling the whole race that the opportunity was going to open up through (Turn) 6 into 7,” Tincknell said. “It’s not really a normal passing place, but I also knew in the back of (Nasr’s) head, he had a championship to think about as well.”

Nasr’s championship run came in his final race with Action Express Racing, which announced last month that Tristan Nunez will replace him in the No. 31 car next season. Nasr’s co-champion, fellow Brazilian Pipo Derani, spoke of the emotion behind the championship.

“For me personally, it was very emotional to look back and slowly start to realize that I’m a champion,” Derani said. “I’ve learned from the mistakes I’ve made and I’ve grown so much as a person over the last year. To finish this chapter with Felipe was great.”

Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Alexander Rossi had the same mission as their rivals – keep the No. 10 Acura ahead of Nasr, Derani and Mike Conway in the No. 31 Cadillac. That mission was in reach for almost all of the race’s 410 laps.

“The championship literally came down to the last corner,” Taylor said. “I just have to say I gave it everything I had. There’s going to be a lot of nightmares before Daytona (the 2022 season opener) just thinking about what I could have done differently.”

While Nasr and Derani shared the drivers’ championship, Action Express claimed the DPi team championship – its fifth since 2014 – and Cadillac claimed the DPi manufacturer title.

But at times, Nasr’s final stint was difficult for his teammates to watch.

“It kept us on the edge of our seats all the way to the end there,” Conway said. “It was hard to watch. I had to walk off a couple of times from the TV and catch my breath. This is what this championship is like. The IMSA series is really tough. It always goes down to the wire.”

At one point in the race, the Mazda was three laps behind with various mechanical issues, but the driver trio regained the distance in a matter of two hours and charged into the lead. The victorious farewell was an upbeat sendoff to the car’s four-year run in IMSA’s top class.

“At the start of the program, we were spraying fire extinguishers at it,” Tincknell said. “Now we’re spraying champagne at it after one of the biggest races in the world.”

They weren’t the only ones spraying champagne into the chilly Georgia night. Nasr, Derani and Conway held an emotional celebration of their own.

“It came down to the last corner after 10 hours of racing,” Nasr said. “I said to the team, ‘Why does it have to be so hard? What a day. What a day!”


Image Credit: Tony Roma