It was the sort of thing that could have ended a championship – a snap spin on cold tires in the morning warmup that sent the No. 31 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R backwards into the wall driver’s left at Road America’s Turn 13. Alexander Sims, the driver who lost the car on the second lap of the warmup, was dejected, but fortunately unhurt. The car though, was loaded onto the flatbed with a hook, not rolled. That was the first sign that it was bad.
On a weekend with a typical Sunday schedule, it would be a herculean effort to get the car ready for the race. But the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America didn’t have a normal schedule. Instead of a typical start time in the early afternoon, the race was scheduled for a green flag at 10:10 a.m. – less than two hours after the car arrived back in Action Express Racing’s paddock spot at 8:22.
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One thing was sure, that the car would not be starting on pole despite Pipo Derani setting the fast time in qualifying the day before. At best, it would start last in the GTP field. Worse, Derani might have to start from pit lane and then serve a drive-through penalty should the car not be ready to roll off the grid with the rest of the cars. The worst scenario? The car doesn’t make the race at all, and instead of just losing their championship lead, AXR is thrown into a points hole too deep to climb from.
The list of needs was long – it wasn’t just rear wing and bodywork, but a broken undertray, a lot of bent and broken suspension bits and a gearbox case with a big chunk missing. Plus, the hybrid components have to be replaced if they are exposed to g-forces above a certain level, and the crash exceeded that G-load.
The crew went to work. They had done a similar operation in 90 minutes at Le Mans, so they knew it was possible. Bodywork was pulled off, the broken gearbox/suspension assembly was removed as were the parts of the hybrid that aren’t contained within the gearbox housing, and installation of the new one began. In less than 30 minutes from the car arriving in the paddock, the new assembly had been mated to the car and the new hybrid components had been installed.
Then, simultaneously, bolts were being tightened in the rear, hoses reconnected and tied up with zip ties, and the brakes were being bled. Then the new undertray was going into place. At 9:42 a.m., the engine was fired, the gearbox run through the gears, and then rolled out of the paddock to the grid to cheers of spectators who had gathered to watch the odyssey.
“It was a great effort by the entire team, including Pipo handing off wrenches and being fully engaged, to get the car on the grid for the warmup laps and take the green flag with no mechanical issues,” said AXR Team Manager Gary Nelson. “The crew worked systematically and, as always, professionally. We are appreciative of the crew of the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R checking if we needed any parts or assistance. Cadillac Racing works as one team. We’ll soldier on.”
The No. 31 no longer had quite the pace it had exhibited during the weekend, and Nelson’s use of the word “soldier” is an apt description. Survive 2h40m of racing, collect some points for sixth place, and move on to Indianapolis.
“We take the positives from what the crew and team did to get the car into the race after what happened in warmup to Alex on cold tires,” said Derani. “Just to have gone into the race to score some points is great. Obviously, a difficult situation with the tires being too cold in warmup and getting Alex off-guard. We’ve being seeing that happen a lot this year. It was us today and could be someone else tomorrow.
“We leave here without the lead in the championship, but it’s one of those things that are out of your control. But the positive is we finished the race and scored points in the championship.”