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Autosport
Autosport
Sport
Jeremy Shaw

IMSA Mosport: Bourdais, van der Zande earn victory in Ganassi Cadillac

The North American sportscar series’ first event north of the border since 2019 fully lived up to expectations as Van der Zande grasped at the merest suggestion of an opportunity amid traffic entering Turn 3 with 10 minutes remaining in the two-hours-and-40-minute race.

The Dutchman's bold move consigned Meyer Shank Racing Acura pair Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis to a fifth consecutive runner-up finish. The good news for the British pair is that it was enough to move them back into the points lead with just two races remaining on the schedule for the prototype cars.

For the second week in a row, Blomqvist produced another stunning lap in qualifying to secure pole position, this time at a series track record average speed of 137.472 mph.

Blomqvist lost no time in also bettering the race lap record as he pulled out to a 2.3-second lead over the similar Ricky Taylor-driven Wayne Taylor Racing Acura inside the first seven laps before being pegged back by a couple of brief full-course cautions. One of them was due to a delaminated tyre on Taylor’s car, which put his team on the back foot for the remainder of the afternoon.

Tristan Vautier’s JDC Miller Motorsports Cadillac was the only car not to make an early pit stop, which bottled up the small but immensely competitive prototype field until the Frenchman ducked in for service after 37 laps. Alex Lynn took up the running in the second of the Ganassi Cadillacs, until Blomqvist made a move in traffic immediately before his next pit stop. That released Jarvis into the lead once the cycle of stops had been completed.

Jarvis, though, remained under intense pressure from Taylor/Filipe Albuquerque and the two Ganassi Cadillacs.

#01: Cadillac Racing, Cadillac DPi, DPi: Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais (Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images)

One of the pivotal moments occurred on lap 96, with around a half-hour remaining, when an ill-timed lunge by Lynn's co-driver Earl Bamber nerfed Taylor into a spin at Turn 5. Taylor resumed at the rear, later to be involved in another incident with the Action Express Racing Cadillac of Pipo Derani, while a drive-through penalty for Bamber restricted the Sebring-winning crew to a fourth-place finish behind Derani and Olivier Pla.

But van der Zande remained firmly in the mix, setting the scene for his magnificent pass after Bourdais, on his first visit to the track, had struggled both in practice and qualifying.

“He was just impressive in traffic,” explained Bourdais. “He made it work. Man, I have no idea what he did there but hats off. It was really impressive.”

Jon Bennett/Colin Braun combined for their second straight LMP3 class win for Core Autosport, while Porsche factory drivers Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell narrowly maintained control of the GTD Pro category for the locally based Pfaff Motorsports team over the leading Corvette Racing entry of Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor.

Canada’s Roman De Angelis and Belgian Maxime Martin also scored their second straight win in GTD for the Heart of Racing Aston Martin team.

IMSA Mosport race result (123 laps):

Cla Class Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap
1 DPi Netherlands Renger van der Zande
France Sébastien Bourdais
Cadillac DPi 123 2:40'31.158  
2 DPi United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
Acura DPi 123 2:40'34.667 3.509
3 DPi France Olivier Pla
Brazil Pipo Derani
Cadillac DPi 123 2:40'35.430 4.272
4 DPi New Zealand Earl Bamber
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
Cadillac DPi 123 2:40'35.862 4.704
5 DPi France Tristan Vautier
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
Cadillac DPi 123 2:40'36.943 5.785
6 DPi United States Ricky Taylor
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Acura DPi 123 2:40'46.183 15.025
7 LMP3 United States Jon Bennett
United States Colin Braun
Ligier JS P320 115 2:40'57.801 8 Laps
8 LMP3 United States Jarett Andretti
Colombia Gabby Chaves
Ligier JS P320 115 2:41'00.554 8 Laps
9 LMP3 United States Ari Balogh
Canada Garett Grist
Ligier JS P320 115 2:41'00.888 8 Laps
10 LMP3 Canada Orey Fidani
Canada Kyle Marcelli
Duqueine D08 114 2:41'05.351 9 Laps
11 GTD PRO Australia Matt Campbell
France Mathieu Jaminet
Porsche 911 GT3 R 111 2:40'42.521 12 Laps
12 GTD PRO Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
Corvette C8.R GTD 111 2:40'43.636 12 Laps
13 GTD PRO United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Spain Alex Riberas
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 111 2:40'47.424 12 Laps
14 GTD Canada Roman De Angelis
Belgium Maxime Martin
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 111 2:40'48.233 12 Laps
15 GTD United States Russell Ward
Switzerland Philip Ellis
Mercedes AMG GT3 111 2:40'48.726 12 Laps
16 GTD PRO United States Cooper MacNeil
Spain Daniel Juncadella
Mercedes AMG GT3 111 2:40'49.265 12 Laps
17 GTD PRO United States Connor de Phillippi
United States John Edwards
BMW M4 GT3 111 2:40'50.308 12 Laps
18 GTD United States Ryan Eversley
Australia Aidan Read
Acura NSX GT3 111 2:40'57.369 12 Laps
19 GTD PRO United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Lexus RC F GT3 111 2:40'58.789 12 Laps
20 GTD United States Robby Foley
United States Bill Auberlen
BMW M4 GT3 111 2:41'00.170 12 Laps
21 GTD United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
BMW M4 GT3 111 2:41'02.372 12 Laps
22 GTD United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Aaron Telitz
Lexus RC F GT3 80 2:22'59.240 43 Laps
23 LMP3 United States Gar Robinson
Australia Scott Andrews
Ligier JS P320 74 1:40'54.634 49 Laps
24 LMP3 Portugal Joao Barbosa
United States Lance Willsey
Ligier JS P320 32 1:07'38.019 91 Laps
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