Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais, Scott Dixon celebrate their Petit Le Mans victory (IMSA/Michael L. Levitt/LAT Images).

SOURCE: SportsCar365

Chip Ganassi Racing overcame an early race sensor-related infraction to take a dramatic victory in Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans, while Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron claimed the GTP drivers’ championship with a third place finish.

Renger van der Zande made a bold pass around the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 of Nick Tandy into Turn 1 with 15 minutes remaining to take the lead in the ten-hour contest, which included a nearly five-hour run of green flag racing.

The No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac, which dropped off the lead lap in the opening hour due to a mechanical black flag for a sensor-related issue, came back into contention following a multi-car accident involving the then-second placed Ricky Taylor in the final hour.

It set up a 35-minute shootout to the finish that saw six GTP cars restart on the lead lap.

Van der Zande, who also overcame a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility with the No. 20 High Class Racing Oreca 07 Gibson in the third hour as well as a spin on his out-lap with two hours to go triggered by a GTD car, shared the win with Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon in the team’s final WeatherTech Championship race with Cadillac.

Monday, September 2, 2024

The Cadillac V-Club Car Corral & Suite was at full capacity this past weekend at the Circuit of Americas track in Austin, Texas.   Suite access included VIP parking in front of the main grandstands, paddock access both days and a pit walk on Sunday.  

On Saturday afternoon Cadillac Racing drivers Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn visited the suite to sign autographs and participate in a photograph session.

On Sunday morning, Tony Roma, GM Executive Chief Engineer of Corvette & Cadillac V-Series vehicles hosted an open Q&A session with Cadillac V-Club members. 

AF Corse Ferrari capped off a monumental day for Ferrari by taking the win in the World Endurance Championship’s Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday. After Charles Leclerc gave Ferrari a home victory in the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix earlier in the day, the team of Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman gave the No. 83 its first win of the WEC season.

The No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari placed third and the No. 2 Cadillac Racing entry had its best finish of the season with a fourth-place effort in the team’s Ganassi-run V-Series.R LMDh Hypercar.

“I think it was a really good day,” said Earl Bamber. “We managed to execute the race well and did the most we could. It would have been great to get on the podium, but we came home with a solid result.”

Click here to view an album of photos from this event on our Flickr page.

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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."