Fifteen years have handed for the reason that Dutchman was a thorn within the facet of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo in Formulation 3, but Renger van der Zande nonetheless performs on a excessive degree and was arguably the 12 months’s excellent IMSA SportsCar driver.
The 38-year-old’s shining second was a spectacular cross on Nick Tandy to secure victory in a thrilling ending to Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, to conclude his seven-year Cadillac profession on a excessive. He was persistently the quickest Caddy driver all through the second half of the season and made only a few errors. JS
How van der Zande received Petit Le Mans
Renger van der Zande has made a behavior of being in the proper place on the proper time to win the normal IMSA season finale.
In 2018, he profited from Filipe Albuquerque operating out of gasoline on the ultimate lap to grab a last-gasp victory within the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R he shared with Jordan Taylor and Ryan Hunter-Reay. And in 2020, when essential calendar rejigging meant the 10-hour race grew to become the seventh spherical of 9, he once more profited when Ricky Taylor and Felipe Nasr tangled to ship the products for WTR alongside Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon.
However as van der Zande accurately factors out when assessing this 12 months’s victory alongside Sebastien Bourdais and Dixon because the decide of the bunch, this time it was determined “on pure tempo”. “The nicest win in Petit Le Mans for positive, the one I’ll keep in mind for a very long time,” is his evaluation.
Van der Zande needed to seek out Tandy after which survive glitchy headlights to log out on his Cadillac profession with victory at Petit
Picture by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Photos
There are many different elements at play too for a driver that may swap to Meyer Shank Racing’s Acura group subsequent 12 months. It was additionally his Chip Ganassi Racing group’s Cadillac swansong earlier than WTR takes over because the manufacturing facility squad subsequent 12 months, whereas van der Zande factors out that the slim probability of sneaking second within the factors meant victory was the only focus. That turned the affair into “an all-in race”, which wasn’t about to vary when his headlights periodically glitched out within the closing laps…
“I had a few occasions the place I may see our automobile was very sturdy going into Flip 1,” he remembers. “I overtook two GTP vehicles into Flip 1 already, which for me was the indication.
“The time is true when the time is true and that is precisely what occurred. I used to be very near [Nick] Tandy [in the Porsche Penske Motorsport 963] and I used to be taking good care of my tyres very nicely, particularly the entrance tyres. I stayed out of the slipstream for fairly some time, as a result of I in any other case would scrub them.
“With quarter-hour to go, I requested on the radio, ‘is there visitors coming within the subsequent couple of laps’ as a result of that is after I needed to shut the hole to Tandy and look ahead to the chance. And the chance got here as a result of he was clearly in visitors a bit of bit.
“It slowed him down and that is after I went all-in, into Flip 1. It turned out very well!” JN
Van der Zande’s last-gasp transfer to win Petit Le Mans cemented the Dutch ace’s place within the High 50 for the primary time
Picture by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Photos
On this article
Jeremy Shaw
Basic
IMSA
Renger van der Zande
Cadillac Racing
Be the primary to know and subscribe for real-time information electronic mail updates on these matters
Subscribe to news alerts