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IMSA Laguna Seca: Ganassi Cadillac holds off Tandy Porsche for victory

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais won an engrossing fourth round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship at Laguna Seca after holding off Nick Tandy's Porsche.

#01: Chip Ganassi Racing, Cadillac V-LMDh, GTP: Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais

#01: Chip Ganassi Racing, Cadillac V-LMDh, GTP: Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais

Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Cadillac became the first manufacturer to win twice in IMSA's new GTP era, as the Ganassi squad followed up Action Express's victory after late carnage at Sebring by just 3.8s over the second of the Porsche Penske Motorsports 963s that started on the front row in the hands of Mathieu Jaminet.

Bourdais had started sixth, losing two places at the start before moving up to third following the first round of stops. Van der Zande then rejoined seventh after a safety car caused by a crash for LMP2 driver John Farano, but the Dutchman made crucial passes to move into second and nailed the crucial pass for the win around the outside of Alexander Sims at Turn 3 following a final restart.

The polesitting Porsche of Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr had an eventful day as a drive-through penalty for contact and a crash exiting the Corkscrew left the car eight laps down in 32nd overall.

At the start, both Campbell and Jaminet locked up and ran wide at Turn 2, allowing the fast-starting Colin Braun (Meyer Shank Racing Acura) to get into the lead ahead of Pipo Derani's Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.

Jaminet recovered to claim third ahead of the two BMW M Hybrid V8s of Connor De Phillippi and Philipp Eng, and Ricky Taylor's Wayne Taylor Racing Acura. Campbell fell to seventh ahead of Bourdais and Tijmen van der Helm in the new JDC-Miller MotorSport Porsche 963.

After Campbell nudged Jarett Andretti’s Aston Martin into an accident at pitlane entry, for which he would later be penalised, all nine GTP cars pitted, and leader Braun dropped to seventh having taken both fuel and tyres. Derani now led De Phillippi, Bourdais, Eng and van der Helm as Taylor handed over to Filipe Albuquerque.

Eng's hold on fourth was short-lived though, as Braun, Albuquerque and Jaminet also levered past to demote the #24 BMW to seventh.

Farano's Turn 5 crash with 102 minutes to go prompted all GTP cars to pit, and a fuel-only stop for Braun gave him the lead ahead of Derani and Albuquerque. Nick Tandy took over the #6 Porsche to emerge fourth, ahead of Nick Yelloly (in for De Phillippi), Nasr, van der Zande, Augusto Farfus (in for Eng) and Mike Rockenfeller’s JDC-Miller Porsche.

#01: Cadillac Racing, Cadillac V-LMDh, GTP: Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais

#01: Cadillac Racing, Cadillac V-LMDh, GTP: Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

As Derani took the lead from Braun at Turn 3, Nasr's off sent him to the pits for repairs. Van der Zande meanwhile was making progress and having passed Yelloly soon moved ahead of Tandy. 

Albuquerque was unable to resist the Dutchman's advances either as he moved up to third before pouncing on Braun, who in turn lost out to Albuquerque.

Derani had a 14s advantage over the charging van der Zande and Albuquerque with 70 minutes remaining, as behind Tandy moved into fourth ahead of Braun. The MSR driver continued to fall back behind the BMWs, while Yelloly then usurped Tandy.

Sims finally took over from Derani, while Tom Blomqvist replaced Braun, in the final round of stops which were completed just before IMSA threw the fourth full course caution for Aaron Telitz parking the Lexus RC F in the wall on the outside of the final corner.

For the restart with 41 minutes remaining to go, Sims led van der Zande, Yelloly, Tandy, Albuquerque and Farfus. But van der Zande wasted no time in making a move on Sims for the lead, as Tandy then prised third place from Yelloly, who also lost out to Albuquerque and tumbled back down the order.

Tandy passed Sims for second with 15 minutes remaining, but couldn't catch the Cadillac as Sims brought the Action Express Caddy home seven seconds adrift of the Porsche.

Albuquerque and Taylor finished fourth ahead of Eng and Farfus, with Braun and Blomqvist sixth ahead of the new JDC Miller Porsche that claimed seventh on debut.

In eighth overall at the finish Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen claimed the LMP2 class victory in their TDS Racing ORECA. 

#11: TDS Racing, ORECA LMP2 07, LMP2: Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen

#11: TDS Racing, ORECA LMP2 07, LMP2: Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen

Photo by: Perry Nelson / Motorsport Images

Thomas ran third in the opening stages behind Ben Keating (PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports) and George Kurtz’s Crowdstrike Racing by APR entry.

But Jensen moved into the top spot with 25 minutes remaining when Kurtz’s co-driver Ben Hanley tipped Ryan Dalziel’s Era Motorsports car into a half-spin on the front straight after the Scot had attempted a move to the outside of the final corner. 

Keating's co-driver Paul-Loup Chatin just fended off Hanley for second as Giedo van der Garde in the second TDS machine took fourth in the car started by Francois Heriau.

GTD battlers beat GTD Pro runners home

Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella claimed a second GTD Pro victory of the season in their WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, but were only the eighth GT class machine at the finish as multiple class rivals were hit by penalties. 

Kay van Berlo and Alan Metni took the spoils in the pro-am GTD class in their Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R, beating the Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 of Bill Auberlen and Chandler Hull as the top seven pro-am class runners finished ahead of the WeatherTech Merc.

GTD Pro poleman Klaus Bachler’s Pfaff Motorsports Porsche led at the start from top GTD runner Roman de Angelis's Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage.

But Bachler dropped down the order after jumping a red light at pit exit, earning a 60-second stop-go penalty which promoted Jordan Taylor's Corvette to the lead ahead of Jack Hawksworth’s Vasser Sullivan Lexus.

Pitting just before the race's third yellow meant Kellymoss with Riley team-mates Alec Udell and van Berlo headed the pack for the restart, with Auberlen and his team-mate Robbie Foley giving chase. In GTD Pro, Alex Riberas’ HoR Aston led ahead of Corvette's Antonio Garcia (in for Taylor).

#91: Kellymoss with Riley, Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), GTD: Alan Metni, Kay van Berlo

#91: Kellymoss with Riley, Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), GTD: Alan Metni, Kay van Berlo

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

After the final round of stops, Andy Lally had moved into the GTD lead aboard Magnus Racing's Aston Martin started by John Potter, ahead of van Berlo and Auberlen. But Lally couldn't hold off an Berlo, who made it through after a slightly physical confrontation with 20 minutes to go. He soon had to give up second to Auberlen too, and lost third to Julian Andlauer (in for Udell) in the closing minutes.

Having taken over from Riberas, Ross Gunn led GTD Pro ahead of Garcia, but both had blown the wave-by rules under yellow so received stop-and-hold penalties of their own.

That left Gounon leading GTD Pro, ahead of the earlier penalised Pfaff Porsche of Patrick Pilet and Ben Barnicoat in the Lexus, who nipped Pilet at the line for second by a mere 0.2s.

IMSA Laguna Seca Race Results (102 laps):

Cla Class Num Driver Chassis Laps Time
1 GTP 01 France Sébastien Bourdais
Netherlands Renger van der Zande
Cadillac V-Series.R 102 -
2 GTP 6 United Kingdom Nick Tandy
France Mathieu Jaminet
Porsche 963 102 3.882
3 GTP 31 Brazil Pipo Derani
United Kingdom Alexander Sims
Cadillac V-Series.R 102 10.636
4 GTP 10 United States Ricky Taylor
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Acura ARX-06 102 21.041
5 GTP 24 Austria Philipp Eng
Brazil Augusto Farfus
BMW M Hybrid V8 102 22.818
6 GTP 60 United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
United States Colin Braun
Acura ARX-06 102 23.109
7 GTP 5 Netherlands Tijmen van der Helm
Germany Mike Rockenfeller
Porsche 963 102 23.818
8 LMP2 11 United States Thomas Steven
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
ORECA LMP2 07 102 43.809
9 GTP 25 United States Connor de Phillippi
United Kingdom Nick Yelloly
BMW M Hybrid V8 102 45.677
10 LMP2 52 United States Ben Keating
France Paul-Loup Chatin
ORECA LMP2 07 102 48.904
11 LMP2 04 United States George Kurtz
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
ORECA LMP2 07 102 49.158
12 LMP2 35 France François Heriau
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
ORECA LMP2 07 102 50.003
13 LMP2 51 United States Eric Lux
Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
ORECA LMP2 07 102 1'03.324
14 LMP2 20 Denmark Dennis Andersen
United Arab Emirates Ed Jones
ORECA LMP2 07 102 1'04.674
15 LMP2 18 United States Dwight Merriman
United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel
ORECA LMP2 07 100 2 laps
16 GTD 91 Alan Metni
Netherlands Kay van Berlo
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 97 5 laps
17 GTD 97 United States Bill Auberlen
Chandler Hull
BMW M4 GT3 97 5 laps
18 GTD 92 United States Alec Udell
France Julien Andlauer
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 97 5 laps
19 GTD 44 United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 97 5 laps
20 GTD 70 United States Brendan Iribe
Switzerland Frederik Schandorff
McLaren 720S GT3 EVO 97 5 laps
21 GTD 77 United States Alan Brynjolfsson
United States Trent Hindman
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 97 5 laps
22 GTD 96 United States Patrick Gallagher
United States Robby Foley
BMW M4 GT3 97 5 laps
23 GTD PRO 79 Spain Daniel Juncadella
France Jules Gounon
Mercedes AMG GT3 97 5 laps
24 GTD 27 Canada Roman De Angelis
Denmark Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 97 5 laps
25 GTD 78 Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
Italy Loris Spinelli
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 97 5 laps
26 GTD 1 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
BMW M4 GT3 97 5 laps
27 GTD PRO 14 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
Lexus RC F GT3 97 5 laps
28 GTD PRO 9 Austria Klaus Bachler
France Patrick Pilet
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 97 5 laps
29 GTD 80 PJ Hyett
Seb Priaulx
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 97 5 laps
30 GTD PRO 3 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
Corvette C8.R GTD 95 7 laps
31 GTD PRO 23 United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Spain Alex Riberas
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 95 7 laps
32 GTP 7 Australia Matt Campbell
Brazil Felipe Nasr
Porsche 963 94 8 laps
33 GTD 57 United States Russell Ward
Switzerland Philip Ellis
Mercedes AMG GT3 86 16 laps
34 GTD 66 Sheena Monk
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
Acura NSX GT3 75 27 laps
35 GTD 12 United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Aaron Telitz
Lexus RC F GT3 58 44 laps
36 GTD 32 United States Mike Skeen
Canada Mikael Grenier
Mercedes AMG GT3 37 65 laps
37 LMP2 8 Canada John Farano
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
ORECA LMP2 07 34 68 laps
38 GTD 94 United States Jarett Andretti
Colombia Gabby Chaves
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 9 93 laps

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