Fifteen years have handed for the reason that Dutchman was a thorn within the aspect of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo in Components 3, but Renger van der Zande nonetheless performs on a excessive stage and was arguably the yr’s excellent IMSA SportsCar driver.
The 38-year-old’s shining second was a spectacular move 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 best place on the proper time to win the normal IMSA season finale.
In 2018, he profited from Filipe Albuquerque working 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 mandatory calendar rejigging meant the 10-hour race turned 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 yr’s victory alongside Sebastien Bourdais and Dixon because the choose of the bunch, this time it was determined “on pure tempo”. “The nicest win in Petit Le Mans for positive, the one I’ll bear in mind for a very long time,” is his evaluation.
Van der Zande needed to search 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 components at play too for a driver that can change to Meyer Shank Racing’s Acura crew subsequent yr. It was additionally his Chip Ganassi Racing crew’s Cadillac swansong earlier than WTR takes over because the manufacturing facility squad subsequent yr, whereas van der Zande factors out that the slim likelihood of sneaking second within the factors meant victory was the only real focus. That turned the affair into “an all-in race”, which wasn’t about to alter when his headlights periodically glitched out within the closing laps…
“I had a few occasions the place I might see our automotive was very sturdy going into Flip 1,” he remembers. “I overtook two GTP automobiles into Flip 1 already, which for me was the indication.
“The time is correct when the time is correct 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 properly, 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 wished 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 slightly bit.
“It slowed him down and that is after I went all-in, into Flip 1. It turned out rather 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
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