Bourdais, Van der Zande Take Controlling Belle Isle Win

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande claimed a controlling win in Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Belle Isle, taking Chip Ganassi Racing back to victory lane in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition.

Van der Zande drove the No. 01 Cadillac DPi-V.R to a narrow 0.398-second win over the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 of Oliver Jarvis in the 100-minute contest that ran caution-free.

Having started from pole, Bourdais stretched out into an early lead, with the No. 01 Cadillac untouchable until a frantic closing stages that saw the top four DPis separated by less than two seconds at the line.

A single-stop strategy for both the Nos. 01 and 60 cars initially appeared to pay dividends until a late-race charge for the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Pipo Derani, which pitted twice.

Olivier Pla, in his first race with the reigning DPi championship-winning team, came in on Lap 11 to hand over to the Brazilian, who made the car’s second stop with 44 minutes left on the clock.

Derani recovered nearly 30 seconds in his final stint, getting around the No. 02 CGR Cadillac of Earl Bamber for third with 18 minutes remaining before Bamber retook the position with less than five minutes to go in dramatic fashion.

The two rival Cadillacs made slight contact, with race control deeming no further action.

While Bamber and co-driver Alex Lynn completed the podium in third, Derani and Pla were forced to settle for fourth in their Whelen Engineering-sponsored Cadillac.

The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura DPi of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque completed the top-five after missing out on strategy although Albuquerque managed to overtake the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac of Richard Westbrook in the closing stages.

MSR’s Jarvis and Blomqvist provisionally take over the DPi points lead as a result of WTR’s misfortunes.

Vasser Sullivan Lexus Wins GTD

GTD class honors went to the No. 17 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Kyle Kirkwood and Ben Barnicoat in an equally controlling second half of the race run in the production-based class.

Barnicoat held off the No. 27 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Ross Gunn, which had the early class lead in the hands of co-driver Roman De Angelis.

However, an overcut strategy for the Lexus during the single round of pit stops got Barnicoat out ahead of the Aston.

Both cars took only two Michelin tires during the stops.

It marked the first WeatherTech Championship win of the season for Vasser Sullivan and Lexus, coming in the team’s guest GTD entry.

The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow completed the class podium in third, ahead of the GTD season-long No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus pairing of Aaron Telitz and Frankie Montecalvo.

Mike Skeen and Stevan McAleer came home fifth in the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

RESULTS: Chevrolet Sports Car Classic

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John