Van der Zande, Magnussen Win Detroit Street Fight

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Renger van der Zande held off a hard-charging Felipe Nasr to give Chip Ganassi Racing its first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory with Cadillac in Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in Detroit’s Belle Isle.

The Dutchman survived a late-race caution and restart with three minutes to go to edge out the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R by 0.573 seconds.

Having led from green, the No. 01 Cadillac held control of the 100-minute race, which was appearing to come down to a fuel mileage race until a full course caution with nine minutes to go for the stopped No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 of Bill Auberlen.

It marked a Saturday sweep in Belle Isle for Ganassi, which won the first NTT IndyCar Series of the weekend with Marcus Ericsson, while Magnussen claimed his first-ever sports car racing win in only his fourth start.

Filipe Albuquerque limped the DPi championship-leading Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 home in third with an apparent issue in the closing stages of the race.

Co-driver Ricky Taylor battled handling issues in his opening stint but capitalized on pit strategy to jump from fifth to third.

The No. 55 Mazda RT24-P of Oliver Jarvis and Harry Tincknell was fourth, marking the pairing’s first finish off the podium this season, while the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac faded to fifth in the end.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Dane Cameron and Olivier Pla was sixth after another challenging run.

Westphal, Heistand Break Through in GTD

CarBahn with Peregrine Racing scored a breakthrough victory in GT Daytona with Jeff Westpahl and Richard Heistand.

Westphal took the team’s No. 39 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo to a 5.713-second class win ahead of the No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Ross Gunn in second.

It came after Auberlen lost power and stopped on track in the final ten minutes after running second in class at the time.

While having started from pole, Heistand jumped ahead of the two GT Le Mans class Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs prior to the green flag, although race control decided no further action.

Heistand held the class lead through his stint prior to the mid-race pit stop and driver change to Westphal, who maintained the advantage.

The Audi completed the entire race on the same set of Michelin Pilot Sport S9M tires.

It marked the team’s first WeatherTech Championship class win in only its second start, which came last month at Mid-Ohio.

Gunn and co-driver Roman De Angelis recorded a season-best second place result, with the No. 19 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Marco Mapelli and Misha Goikhberg completing the podium in third.

The pairing capitalized on issues for both of the Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3s as well as the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini, which served a drive-through penalty early on for Madison Snow due to incident responsibility with the No. 12 Lexus of Frankie Montecalvo.

The No. 14 Lexus of Jack Hawksworth, which took left-side tires only during its stop, suffered a right-front puncture with 49 minutes to go, meanwhile.

Hawksworth rebounded to finish fifth in class, behind the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo.

GTLM saw the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy come out ahead of teammates Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia.

It came despite radio issues for Milner during his closing stint.

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