Sebastien Bourdais is set to join Tower Motorsports for the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Bourdais will partner 2022 LMP2 champion John Farano for the full season in the No. 8 ORECA, with Sebastian Alvarez joining for the Michelin …
Sebastien Bourdais is set to join Tower Motorsports for the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Bourdais will partner 2022 LMP2 champion John Farano for the full season in the No. 8 ORECA, with Sebastian Alvarez joining for the Michelin Endurance Cup and Dutch driver Job van Uitert in the car for the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Bourdais is coming off a long run partnering with Renger van der Zande at the Chip Ganassi Racing arm of Cadillac Racing, winning in his final outing with the team at Motul Petit Le Mans last month (pictured). With CGR leaving the series for the moment, the four-time Champ Car champion found himself a free agent looking to continue his success in sports car racing, which includes victories in all the major endurance events.
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“I am really happy to be joining Tower Motorsports,” Bourdais said. “It’s a proven team with a history of success, and I am thrilled to continue racing in America in such a high-level program. I’ve never had the pleasure of driving the LMP2 with higher downforce and Michelin tires, so it’s going to be an interesting experience. I’m really looking forward to racing this season with John, Sebastian, and Job. We’re going to have a ton of fun and achieve a great amount of success.”
“The driver line-up we’ve assembled combines the experience, skill, and determination needed to be competitive at every race,” said Farano. “Racing alongside Sebastien, and having Sebastian and Job for the endurance events, will elevate the team’s performance to new heights. We’re aiming to fight at the front and claim the Jim Trueman Award once again.”
Mexican driver Alvarez comes to Tower with a wide range of LMP2 experience, including competing at both the 2024 Rolex 24 and Petit Le Mans with Tower. He was second in the European Le Mans Series LMP2 standings for 2024.
“I’m thrilled to be joining Tower Motorsports for the Endurance Cup races in 2025,” said Alvarez. “Driving for the team at Petit Le Mans this year was an incredible experience, and I enjoyed every moment working with this group. Competing alongside John and Sebastien is a fantastic opportunity, and I’m ready to contribute to a strong lineup as we push to battle at the front.”
Van Uitert is no stranger to Tower Motorsports as he has previously drover to victory with the team at Motul Petit Le Mans in 2020. He’s been doing solid work in ELMS P2 for several years.
The announcement continues Canadian Farano’s legacy of bringing high-profile talent to the LMP2 field. This year he had Charlie Eastwood with him in the No. 8 for most of the season, and notable drivers such as Louis Delétraz, Ferdinand Habsburg and Kyffin Simpson have race the Tower ORECA. Both Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin made their Rolex 24 debuts with Farano and Tower.
The team will continue to be led by team manager Rick Capone as Farano seeks to regain the championship and the Jim Trueman Award along with the 24 Hours of Le Mans invite that accompanies it.
Sebastien Bourdais has been confirmed for his third FIA WEC Hypercar outing of the season, placed in joining Cadillac Racing’s Hypercar line-up for the 8 Hours of Bahrain on Nov. 2. The Frenchman, who won IMSA’s Petit Le Mans season finale last …
Sebastien Bourdais has been confirmed for his third FIA WEC Hypercar outing of the season, placed in joining Cadillac Racing’s Hypercar line-up for the 8 Hours of Bahrain on Nov. 2.
The Frenchman, who won IMSA’s Petit Le Mans season finale last weekend, will share the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R with Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn next month, adding to his WEC appearances with the team at Qatar and Le Mans earlier in the season.
“It’s good to get back in the car with Alex and Earl,” said Bourdais, who competed with Cadillac Racing full time in the Ganassi-run V-Series.R in IMSA’s GTP class. “We started off the season really well [in Qatar] and while we ultimately didn’t get the result because of circumstances [a post-race disqualification], the car was very competitive in the race and we certainly deserved a good finish.
“Unfortunately, it’s been a bit of a tough season in terms of results — there has always been something getting in the way — but performance-wise, it seems like the car is in a really good window. It’s pretty light, good on power and competitive, so there is definitely something to play for and if we could send it off on a high, that would be pretty cool.”
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Bourdais, who has four Champ Car titles on his resume, has previous experience at the Bahrain International Circuit to draw from via previous starts in both Formula 1 and WEC’s LMP2 category.
“Bahrain is a really big challenge,” he said. “It’s an extremely abrasive racetrack. Tire degradation is very high and using the tire the right way to make it function without making it slide is critical. You have to do it with setup, dampers, traction control, you name it, but we’ll try to find some recipes that work and hopefully, we’ll wind up in a good spot.”
The Frenchman’s return to the grid is one of a number of changes to the 36-car entry for the eight-hour finale. Elsewhere in the top class, Alpine Endurance Team has mixed up its crews following Nicolas Lapierre’s appointment as sporting director, with Paul Loup Chatin back in the No. 35 A424 prototype to race with Ferdinand Habsburg and Jules Gounon after skipping Fuji, and Charles Milesi moving across to the No. 36.
In LMGT3, Danish youngster Conrad Laursen, who will fight for the European Le Mans Series LMGT3 title this weekend in Portimao, replaces Clemens Schmid aboard Akkodis ASP Team’s No. 78 Lexus RC F LMGT3.
There is also a double substitution in the No. 88 Proton Competition Mustang. Mikkel Pedersen and Christian Ried make way for 2018 European Le Mans Series LMGTE champion Giorgio Roda — returning to WEC for the first time since Le Mans back in June – and countryman Giammarco Levorato, himself a multiple ELMS race winner.
Iron Lynx’s Lamborghini Huracan will have factory driver Matteo Cairoli taking over from Franck Perera, making for an all-Italian line-up in the No. 60. It will be Cairoli’s first WEC start since Le Mans, where he formed part of the Lamborghini Iron Lynx Hypercar driver crew for its two-car effort.
Click here for the full entry list for the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain.
In a storybook ending for Chip Ganassi Racing, the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon came back from a miserable early race to win Petit Le Mans. With a dramatic dive to the inside of Nick …
In a storybook ending for Chip Ganassi Racing, the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon came back from a miserable early race to win Petit Le Mans. With a dramatic dive to the inside of Nick Tandy in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 in Turn 1 with 15m left in the 10-hour race, Renger van der Zande turned around what had looked like a hopeless day to win the last race before CGR exits the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for the time being.
To add a bit of last-second drama, the Cadillac, which had run much of the evening with only one headlight, lost it’s headlights completely with under 5m to go. That would have surely earned a mechanical black flag, but the lights came back on shortly thereafter. They continued to go off intermittently, but were on enough to finish the race.
Porsche Penske Motorsports finished second and third, the No. 6 963 finishing ahead of the No. 7. The third-place finish earned the No. 7 squad of Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr, aided by Matt Campbell in the endurance races, the GTP championship and the Michelin Endurance Cup. Cadillac Racing closed the gap to the No. 6 team, but in the end fell short of breaking up the PPM one-two in the championship.
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The No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA and drivers Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen and Hunter McElrea dominated LMP2 after the polesitting No. 2 United Autosports ORECA exited the fight in an early-race crash. TDS denying the Riley Motorsports squad their first victory, as the No. 74 of Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga and Josh Burdon finished second, also preserved the championship lead for Nick Boulle, Tom Dillmann and Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports.
Jordan Pepper in the No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 held off a charge by Daniel Serra in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 to take the GTD PRO victory for himself, Frank Perera and Mirko Bortolotti. The No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Ross Gunn, Alex Riberas and Roman De Angelis finished third, which wasn’t enough to wrest the title from Laurin Heinrich and AO Racing.
The No. 77 AO Racing Porche 911 GT3R had a rough race, encountering an electrical issue that affected shifting. Fixing the problem put the car down six laps and Heinrich, with Michael Christensen and Julien Andlauer, finished 11th. Had Gunn been able to take second in the race, the championship would have been his. In the end, the points from Saturday’s qualifying where Heinrich scored pole made the difference.
Conquest Racing was a surprise winner in GTD, Albert Costa Balboa taking advantage of a late caution to get the No. 34 Ferrari 296 into position to attack Loris Spinelli in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan and earn victory for himself, Manny Franco and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli. Winward Racing took the championship with Russell Ward and Philip Ellis and, along with Indy Dontje, the Michelin Endurance Cup, with a ninth-place finish.
With 2024 Motul Petit Le Mans qualifying concluded, RACER’s Marshall Pruett and Cadillac Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais finish off the day with the last Hamburger and French Fry show of the year. Presented by RACER’s Trackside Report is presented by …
With 2024 Motul Petit Le Mans qualifying concluded, RACER’s Marshall Pruett and Cadillac Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais finish off the day with the last Hamburger and French Fry show of the year.
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After being far from the top in this morning’s practice, Sebastien Bourdais turned a surprise flyer on his sixth lap to claim the Motul Pole Award for the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R and will lead the field to the green for tomorrow’s six-hour …
After being far from the top in this morning’s practice, Sebastien Bourdais turned a surprise flyer on his sixth lap to claim the Motul Pole Award for the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R and will lead the field to the green for tomorrow’s six-hour TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks, the penultimate round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Bourdais put in a stunner to take the pole over Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti’s Louis Delétraz by 0.225s with a 1m14.592s lap, good for an average of 117.71mph around the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Surprisingly, its Bourdais’ first pole position at the Brickyard in 22 attempts through sports cars and IndyCar. The pole, combined with less stellar performances by the Porsche Penske Motorsport squad, is a good start to keeping Bourdais and Renger van der Zande in the championship fight.
“We live to fight another day, and that’s very much the spirit we’re into until the end of season,” saidBourdais. “It seems like it’s going to be a bit of a tough day tomorrow, maybe with the with weather coming, so starting in front might not be the worst idea that we’ve had this weekend. Although quite insignificant for a six-hour race, it’s always very pleasing for personal matters, and also for the team, because everybody’s been working really hard to give us the best car and and that Cadillac was definitely quite good today. So I’m very, very happy with the performance, but also very focused for what’s coming ahead and seemingly a very grueling six-hour race.”
Delétraz had been quickest driver of the weekend so far, but his 1m14.817s lap in the No. 40 Acura ARX-06 was only enough for the outside of the front row. In contrast to last year’s front-row lockout, the best Porsche Penske Motorsports could do was the inside of the second row for the No. 6 963, courtesy of Mathieu Jaminet’s 1m14.848s time. Jack Aitken made it two Cadillacs in the top four with a 1m14.936 in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R.
The two BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8s started the fast laps four laps in, and Connor De Phillippi and Philip Eng traded quick times before Jaminet moved ahead. De Phillippi and the No. 25 BMW ended up the better of the two in fifth. Ricky Taylor will start outside the third row in the No. 10 WTRAndretti Acura. The championship-leading No. 7 PPM 963 could do no better than seventh in the hands of Felipe Nasr, with the No. 24 BMW alongside.
Nick Boulle and Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports have been on a roll in LMP2 since the victory for Boulle and Tom Dillmann at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park that propelled them into the championship lead. Boulle continued that by not only setting the quickest lap, but also the next two quickest laps. Boulle was the only driver into the 1m17s range in the No. 52 ORECA, his best being a 1m17.618s (113.12mph) lap.
“To be perfectly honest, I think we’ve struggled in in qualifying through the year, just in terms of finding that magic lap and for getting the tires in the right window,” he said. “And we found it. So it was certainly a special lap, and one I’ll remember for a long time.”
Defending Indianapolis winner Steven Thomas will start alongside Boulle after posting a 1m18.079s lap in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA. The second row of LMP2 will be Ben Keating with a 1m18.091s in the No. 2 United Autosports entry on the inside, PJ Hyett in the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA outside. Dan Goldburg (No. 22 United Autosports) and Luis Perez-Companc (No. 88 AF Corse) were fifth and sixth.
In an extremely tight battle for the GTD PRO championship, every point is going to count, and that could include qualifying points. Laurin Heinrich would have had the prime track position for the start of the race tomorrow after a 1m23.150s lap in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, but the Porsche was found to have insufficient ground clearance in post-race technical inspection and was moved to the back of the field.
Instead, Nicky Catsburg’s 1m23.209s (105.52mph) time in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R earned him the inside front-row start position.
“It’s nice to be on pole for tomorrow. It’s a shame for the 77, but at the same time it’s a nice little surprise for me and the team,” said Catsburg. “Qualifying is a little irrelevant when it comes to these long races, but it is good to be there. It proves that we’ve done good work in practice and what we are doing is working. We can build on that for the race, and I’m very pleased with where we are starting.”
It was another step forward for Ford Multimatic Motorsports and the Mustang GT3 after Mike Rockenfeller qualified the No. 64 in second at 1m23.245s, and he’ll start outside the front row. Neil Verhagen in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 claimed the inside of the second row with a 1m23.261s lap. The No. 1’s full-season drivers, Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow, are third in the championship, although a good bit back from second. The No. 3 Corvette (Alexander Sims) will start alongside Verhagen.
With the penalty for AO Racing, Alex Riberas’ No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo will start fifth. Riberas’s co-driver, Ross Gunn, started the qualifying session 17 points behind Heinrich, but the two are now in a dead heat. The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of Daniel Serra will occupy the outside of the third row.
The first of the GTD qualifiers will start eighth overall. Mikael Grenier took his second pole in three races and the second of his IMSA WeatherTech Championship career for Korthoff Preston Motorsports, turning a 1m23.537s in the No. 32 Mercedes AMG, fresh off its first victory at VIRginia International Raceway. Grenier will start outside Roman De Angelis in the No. 027 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, in the GTD PRO class for this race, in the fourth row.
“We did good job, because in practice, we were quite lost,” said Grenier. “We had some issues with the car, so I didn’t know what to expect in qualifying. Still not feeling that great, but at least we improved a lot. I think we know which direction to move for tomorrow, so it’s a good starting spot. My teammates are also on the pace, so it should be stay out of trouble, try to go through the rain if there’s some rain, and be there in the last hour.”
Gianmarco Levorato put the No. 55 Proton Competition Mustang GT3 in second, 0.262s back of Grenier. Grenier and Levorato will have a nice buffer to their competition at the start with four GTD PRO cars behind them before the next GTD cars in 14th and 15th overall. Parker Thompson was the third-quickest qualifier for Vasser Sullivan Racing, but the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 was also found to not meet the minimum ground clearance requirements. Thus, Patrick Gallagher in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 will start third in GTD, 15th overall. Defending race winner and championship leader Russell Ward qualified fourth in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG to start outside Gallagher.
The green flag for tomorrow’s six-hour race is scheduled for 11:40am ET.
Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande finished a close second to the No, 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen. It was a solid day for championship points, even if the gap to Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr grew by …
Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande finished a close second to the No, 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen. It was a solid day for championship points, even if the gap to Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr grew by another 30.
However, Bourdais and van der Zande want the wins, and believe their No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R doesn’t have the ability to propel them to victory at the moment.
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“At the end when the track dried up, we all came for slicks,” said van der Zande after giving it all in trying to get a run on Nasr in the final 16-minute sprint. “It was very clear from the get-go that every time I went to power, there was just not enough power to attack. Third gear, fourth gear, fifth gear, the gap was always increasing on every straight.”
He went on to clarify that in terms of pace over a lap, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship has the four manufacturers pretty equal. Qualifying on Saturday produced a Grand Touring Prototype grid where every car was within three-quarters of a second. But the way the four different cars in GTP make lap time doesn’t always produce an equal opportunity when it comes to racing.
“I have to say hats off for this championship to get to where it is. It’s super equal, lap-time-wise, very equal. Big compliment for that. We would like to race a bit more. We would have a bit more racy car to go into the final. Otherwise you make a small wiggle, as you saw on my restart, into Turn 1, they just blow by on the straights. We’re fast enough in the corners, but not on the straight.”
The Cadillac’s pace has been demonstrated well this season, with Cadillac Racing having the top qualifying time in the first four races of the year. Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R took pole for the first three races of the season; Bourdais took the fourth at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. But only one of those produced a victory, with van der Zande and Bourdais taking victory over Derani and Jack Aitken on a tire strategy call at Long Beach. In six races, Porsche has three wins, and Acura two, to Cadillac’s one.
Both Cadillacs had the lead at a point during the race, van der Zande seizing the point at the start before ceding it to a charging Phil Hanson in the JDC-Miller MotorSports 963. In the second hour, Jack Aitken made an impressive move around the outside of Turn 7 on then-leader Philipp Eng in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 to take the lead, although he gave it back with a half-spin later.
For the final restart at Watkins Glen, van der Zande was third behind Louis Delétraz in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 and Nasr. The Acura seemed to have struggled on starts and restarts all day, and both Nasr and van der Zande were by quickly. But while the gap ebbed and flowed through traffic, van der Zande could never get enough of a run on Nasr to make a solid attempt at a pass. Conversely, Mathieu Jaminet, who pushed the No. 6 PPM 963 past Delétraz into third a short time later, couldn’t seem to close the gap to van der Zande.
As for the Balance of Performance, on paper the difference is pretty small. For Watkins Glen, Cadillac’s minimum weight was 1kg more than the Porsche, 1047kg to 1046kg. The heavier Porsche had 1 more kW in the power department, 511 for the Cadillac to 512kW for the Porsche. Of course, there’s a lot more to top speed than just power-to-weight ratio, and nobody but the manufacturers’ and teams’ respective engineers know how setup choices such as downforce and rake affect the drag coefficient.
Whatever the cause, it’s enough to push the No. 01 Cadillac drivers to voice their concern.
“I think I’ll just echo what Renger is saying,” added Bourdais. “Pretty much for the third weekend in a row – Detroit, Le Mans and this one – we don’t have any top speed to allow us to race and fight. I’m tired of it. We’re not asking for lap time or performance, but we need something to be done here. It’s just not a fair fight.”
Marshall Pruett talks with Sebastien Bourdais and Chris Wheeler, Car Strategist for the No. 4 Chip Ganassi Racing entry of Kyffin Simpson, on Carb Day. They discuss the action on track, race strategy, and the possibility of wet weather on Sunday. …
Marshall Pruett talks with Sebastien Bourdais and Chris Wheeler, Car Strategist for the No. 4 Chip Ganassi Racing entry of Kyffin Simpson, on Carb Day. They discuss the action on track, race strategy, and the possibility of wet weather on Sunday.
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Pipo Derani’s streak of pole positions in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship was halted at three, but it will still be an all-Cadillac front row for Sunday’s Motul Course de Monterey Powered by Hyundai N. Sebastien Bourdais posted a …
Pipo Derani’s streak of pole positions in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship was halted at three, but it will still be an all-Cadillac front row for Sunday’s Motul Course de Monterey Powered by Hyundai N. Sebastien Bourdais posted a new-track-record time of 1m12.445 (111.21mph) in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R to pip Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing entry by 0.112s.
“It definitely wasn’t that easy,” Bourdais said. “Quite a few mistakes, which is pretty typical of this place when you’re trying to hustle around big cars like that with banking, compressions, a fairly narrow line and high speed and big commitment. It’s always pretty rewarding when you put it together and you make it work.
“I wouldn’t say it was the cleanest lap, but it was good enough, so really happy for everybody at Cadillac and Ganassi Racing because we’ve been very close this year, but so far we have not been able to put it up top and it feels great.”
Bourdais said he locked up at the top of the Corkscrew on his best lap, citing one of his mistakes.
“I almost didn’t make the Corkscrew. When you just kind of miss the apex after that lockup, you lose the steering over the hump, so at that point you’re along for the ride. Thankfully it was not all the way over. Then you lose time because the [traction control] comes in and you’ve got a pretty tight right to make, but it all worked out,” he said.
Philip Eng, who posted the quick time in the second practice, put the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 on the inside of the second row with a 1m12.649s lap. The No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 will start alongside thanks to Mathieu Jaminet’s 1m12.664s time. The third row will look very much like the second, with the No. 25 BMW (Connor De Phillippi) on the inside and the No. 7 PPM Porsche (Dane Cameron) on the outside.
The two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06s will start on row four, ahead of the two privateer Porsche 963s from JDC-Miller MotorSports and Proton Competition. The entire GTP field qualified with a spread of 0.869s.
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Nicky Catsburg not only obliterated the GTD PRO track record, he put a three-tenths gap on the rest of the field as the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.Rs locked out the front row of the GT field. Catsburg, in his first qualifying session since joining Corvette Racing, posted a 1m19.727s (101.05mph) to claim the GTD PRO and overall GTD pole in the No. 4 Corvette, 0.311s better than Antonio Garcia in the No. 3.
“It was my first first qualifying in IMSA and I must say I was a little bit nervous before the session, so it was very nice to to come back with with a good result,” said Catsburg. “The guys had a very difficult day; they had to change the engine after practice for qualifying, so they did an amazing job. We made some small changes to the to the setup as well, trying to get it dialed in for qualifying. We knew that track position is going to be very, very important here because it’s not so much of a drop off anymore. The track is much faster and the tires will last a lot longer, so it was important to us to to do that.”
Pfaff Motorsports, which had been the only team to score a GTD PRO pole at Laguna Seca, will start on the inside of the second row courtesy of Marvin Kirchhofer’s 1m20.244s in the No. 9 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO. Jack Hawksworth put the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 alongside the McLaren on the outside of the second row. Seb Priaulx (No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R) and Mario Farnbacher (No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo) will occupy the third row, and the last GTD PRO cars before the quickest of the GTD qualifiers.
Shortly before he was to head to the green on the outside of the front row for the first Lamborghini Super Trofeo race of the weekend, Danny Formal scored his first WeatherTech Championship pole position for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti in the No. 45 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. He also has a new track record to go with the pole position at 1m20.866s. Formal will start the Lamborghini on the inside of the fourth row of the GT field.
“Today was a great day,” Formal declared. “Practice two, we kind of prepared for this qualifying – we had decided that I was going to qualify the car and the car felt extremely good. It was a little cooler out and [it] kind of benefitted our car. I had difficulties getting a good lap in qualifying – it was quite dusty, and I just couldn’t get the rear tires activated. So yeah, the last lap was kind of [to] cool it off and I pushed pretty hard in the last sector to start the lap and so my tire pressure was an ideal number and I was able to get 0.2s in the last lap and get that pole position that my team truly deserves.”
Patrick Gallagher briefly held the fast time in GTD in the No. 557 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3, but will have to settle for starting alongside Formal’s Lamborghini after falling 0.129s short.
Russell Ward was third in GTD for Winward Racing and will start the No. 57 Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo next to GTD PRO seventh-place qualifier Madison Snow’s No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3. Ward’s 1m21.019 was 0.032s better than Spencer Pumpelly, who put the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage on the inside of the sixth row, with Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 on the outside.
The 2h40m race, the fourth round of the WeatherTech Championship, kicks off at 12:10pm local time, 3:10 ET.
Drivers and teams seemed to be in universal agreement that it couldn’t be done – that nobody could go the full race on a single set of tires as Porsche Penske Motorsports did last year to win in Long Beach. The No. 01 Cadillac Racing crew was of a …
Drivers and teams seemed to be in universal agreement that it couldn’t be done – that nobody could go the full race on a single set of tires as Porsche Penske Motorsports did last year to win in Long Beach. The No. 01 Cadillac Racing crew was of a different mind.
Aided by three full-course cautions in the 1h40m IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach, the No. 01 crew only added fuel when Sebastien Bourdais handed the Cadillac V-Series.R over to Renger van der Zande with an hour left in the race. Through a pair of restarts and a pileup in the hairpin, van der Zande held off Jack Aitken in the Whelen Cadillac Racing No. 31 V-Series.R to win the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. It was the 66th IMSA victory for Chip Ganassi Racing, the 20th for van der Zande and 12th for Bourdais.
The No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Lexus led the entire race from pole to claim the GT Daytona victory.
Polesitter Pipo Derani got the holeshot at the start as Bourdais slotted into second from his inside-second-row starting spot. Derani controlled the race at the front for the first half, and through the first full-course caution brought out when Brendan Iribe put the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 into the wall exiting Turn 5 and rebounded into the path of Adam Adelson’s Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, taking both cars out of the race.
Most of the GTP runners pitted around 30m into the race, giving them sufficient energy to make it to the end. Bourdais was the last of the bunch, after all the other cars had taken either four tires or left-side tires. Electing not to take tires as Bourdais exited and van der Zande entered moved the No. 01 out in front of the No. 31, a track position they would never relinquish.
“When we woke up this morning, it was quite cold,” explained van der Zande. “And the sun came out at one point and it started to warm up, so we really left it until the last minute to decide. I think that’s the best you can do in racing. If you plan a start or where to go at the start, it never turns out the same way. So in this case, as well, and with tires it’s something to make the decision right at the spot. They made the right choice for sure.”
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Of course, that meant that at the end of the race, van der Zande had much older tires under him than Aitken did since the No. 31 took left-side tires. Aitken said he could see van der Zande struggling, but Long Beach is a tough place to pass under any circumstances, and the difference in grip wasn’t great enough.
“It was a handful – especially easy to look up the fronts, which at a street track I think is the end of the race most of the time. So taking it easy. When I got in the car I knew I had to keep the tires alive. So keeping control of the race and just don’t over push it, don’t over drive those tires so I have some some rubber left at the end of the race, was the key for me to how I managed the tires and it worked out that way. And traffic got really hairy at one point because the Lamborghini and the Aston Martin were fighting into … I think it was Turn 8, and we almost wrecked right there. I think those yellows always help for tire degradation, so that was nice,” van der Zande added.
BMW M Team RLL had high hopes for a good finish after Nick Yelloly qualified the No. 25 M Hybrid V8 in second, only 0.009s off Derani’s pole. But it was one misfortune after another for Yelloly and De Phillippi, starting with getting passed by Nick Tandy in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 10 minutes into the race for third position. It went downhill from there. The No. 25 hadn’t pitted as the second caution came out when Lous Deletraz put the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura into the wall in Turn 1, and ended up losing another position in the pit stop.
Chasing Nasr, De Phillippi tagged him in the back heading into Turn 9. The No. 25 suffered further damage to the nose in a pileup at the hairpin, started by Loris Spinelli in the No. 78 Forte Racing by USRT Lamborghini Huracan making contact with Mathieu Jaminet’s No. 6 PPM 963 and spinning the Porsche. After a nose change, De Phillippi buried the car into the tires at at Turn 6, bringing out the race’s third and final full-course caution with 16 minutes to go.
The No. 25 BMW’s troubles, along with the assisted spin for Jaminet, elevated the No. 7 PPM 963, giving third to Nasr and Dane Cameron. As a result, Cameron and Nasr took sole position of the points lead they had shared with the No. 40 WTRAndretti squad with 1082 points. Bourdais and van der Zande moved into second at 974, and Aitken and Derani are third, ahead of Jordan Taylor and Delétraz, with 955 points.
Jaminet and Tandy’s No. 6 Porsche was fourth, followed the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 of Mike Rockenfeller and Gianmaria Bruni.
Vasser Sullivan Lexus came to Long Beach with another ace up their sleeve — a second GTD entry. Jake Galstad/Lumen
With GTD PRO sitting this one out in favor of Detroit next month, Vasser Sullivan Racing took the opportunity to do as it has in the past and run a second car in GTD. Splitting the two regular drivers in the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3, Frankie Montecalvo and Parker Thompson, and pairing them with the GTD PRO drivers, Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat, respectively, the team doubled its chances. They locked out the front row, Thompson claiming his second pole of the season.
The No. 12 of Montecalvo and Hawksworth had a miserable race, with Montecalvo receiving a drive-through penalty for changing lanes at the start. Later, Hawksworth had contact with the wall, breaking the suspension and retiring the car. For the No. 89, though, it was smooth sailing, and Thompson took his second victory in the WeatherTech Championship (the first came as the endurance addition in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen in 2023), and Barnicoat a second consecutive Long Beach win after he and Hawksworth won GTD PRO last year.
“It’s tough when you know execution is the only thing between you and winning the race,” said Thompson. “There was a lot of pros that qualified, so I was up against a pretty tough field at the start but controlled the race from the start, got a good jump, got into Turn 1, handled a couple of restarts and just saved our Lexus RC F to make sure that Mr. Platinum himself beside me can bring it home. So it was good. It’s really cool that 89 … the message behind that is 1989 was the first time that Lexus came stateside to the U.S., so it’s awesome to honor them, get the win for them. Back to back at Long Beach is fantastic.”
Several of the would-be frontrunners in GTD struck trouble, such as Spencer Pumpelly in his Heart of Racing debut getting tagged and spun out of fourth place by Anders Fjordbach in Turn 6. The No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage Evo Pumpelly shared with Roman De Angelis had been having a good run to that point.
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The No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 had been having a solid race as well in the hands of Albert Costa Balboa, which continued with Manny Franco, but both drivers had minor incidents of contact that left the car struggling at the end. And winner of the first two races, Winward Racing, lost any hope at victory when they were issued a drive through for too many crew members over the wall.
At the end, it was a three-way battle between cars that had started well back in the field for second. The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 emerged in good position after the round of pit stops, and Robby Foley kept the car started by Patrick Gallagher in second.
Korthoff/Preston Motorsports had a rough start to their weekend, Mikael Grenier plastering the No. 32 Mercedes AMG into the wall in the first practice session and thus missing the second. With little practice, Grenier qualified the car in sixth and kept the car clean before handing over to Mike Skeen in fourth. Skeen benefitted from Pumpelly’s problems to get to third and proceeded to hound Foley, but could never get by.
The drive of the race, though, would likely go to the drivers that finished fourth. The No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 skipped qualifying to change an engine and started at the back. Sheena Monk moved up a few positions to 11th. After pit stops, Stevan McAleer, in his first stint as full-time partner to Monk, moved the car from 12th to fourth, and was on Skeen’s tail at the checker.
The No. 55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 of Giammarco Levorato and Corey Lewis finished fifth, followed by Orey Fidany and Matthew Bell in the No. 13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
Russell Ward and Philip Ellis retain the GTD points lead for Winward despite a seventh-place finish with 987 points. Gallagher and Foley moved into second with 802 and Thompson is third in the points at 792 as the series heads next to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on May 10-12.
Cadillac Racing has announced that Sebastien Bourdais will join the team’s full-season FIA World Endurance Championship pairing of Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn in the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R for the season opener at Qatar on March 2. Bourdais, …
Cadillac Racing has announced that Sebastien Bourdais will join the team’s full-season FIA World Endurance Championship pairing of Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn in the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R for the season opener at Qatar on March 2.
Bourdais, who competes with the Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac Racing team as a full-season driver in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, is set to be the first of multiple guesting drivers for the WEC effort drawn from the Ganassi stable. The opening in the car alongside Bamber and Lynn follows the departure of Richard Westbrook from the lineup at the end of last season.
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While the announcement confirming Bourdais for Qatar gives no further specific details on which races will see a third driver, RACER believes that in most, if not all of the 6-hour events, the car will compete with just Lynn and Bamber.
Renger van der Zande is also confirmed as part of Ganassi’s plans for the WEC this season, although there is no indication of where the team’s other IMSA full-season driver will race. Neither Imola nor Spa will be possible due to clashes with his IMSA role.
Beyond that, the team’s announcement referred to “Bourdais, van der Zande and select CGT teammates” being involved in the WEC.
Ganassi’s pair of IndyCar champions, Alex Palou and Scott Dixon, were both part of the Cadillac driving team at the Rolex 24 last month. Asked at Daytona whether he would be making additional outings for Cadillac this season, Palou responded that he would like to “compete in as many races as possible” but admitted that any further races would be subject to his priority commitments with his IndyCar race and test schedule.
“When a team is fortunate enough to have such a strong stable of drivers to pull from, it just makes sense to utilize the talent when you have the opportunity,” said CGR director of operations Mike O’Gara. “Chip Ganassi Racing proved that in Daytona when we put Alex Palou in the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R. Putting Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 2 for the Qatar events is going to give him a chance to refamiliarize himself with the WEC rules and regulations.
“It is also going to allow us to strengthen the bond between the U.S.-based IMSA team and the Germany-based WEC team. We know it is going to strengthen both programs and better prepare us for our 2024 attack on the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”
“The driver line-up we’ve assembled combines the experience, skill, and determination needed to be competitive at every race,” said Farano. “Racing alongside Sebastien, and having Sebastian and Job for the endurance events, will elevate the team’s performance to new heights. We’re aiming to fight at the front and claim the Jim Trueman Award once again.”
