Van der Zande Aiming to “Go Out With a Bang” With Cadillac

Renger van der Zande views this weekend’s Motul Petit Le Mans as an opportunity to “go out on a bang” at the end of a seven-year tenure with Cadillac in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The two-time Rolex 24 at Daytona winner revealed in the build-up to the ten-hour race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta that it will be his final start with the GM brand.

Van der Zande has been a constant in Cadillac’s driver pack since he joined Wayne Taylor Racing in 2018, going on to complete three seasons with the Indiana-based squad before moving to Chip Ganassi Racing in 2021.

Highlights of the Dutchman’s tenure with Cadillac include back-to-back overall victories at Daytona in 2019 and 2020, as well as a pair of wins at Petit Le Mans.

“I think with Cadillac it’s been always a very, very good understanding of what we’re here for,” Van der Zande told Sportscar365.

“It’s a racing brand, they really want to race and at the same time, being part of a team like Ganassi has been an honor as well.

“So two big brands out of the sport and being connected with them has been a really cool adventure.”

Van der Zande and co-driver Sebastien Bourdais hold a slim chance of winning the GTP title in Saturday’s finale, trailing points leaders Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron by 164 points.

By his own admission, Van der Zande is not focused on an outside title shot, instead preferring to view Petit Le Mans as the opportunity to close his chapter with Cadillac and Ganassi on a high.

“To finish at Petit is already an achievement,” Van der Zande said.

“It’s a rough race. It’s so easy to get caught out [when] something goes bad. But at the same time, Petit Le Mans is an opportunity to go out with a bang with Ganassi for myself as a driver.

“But also, winning the championship is not realistic. Second place in the championship is realistic. Is that something that I really fight for? Not really.

“I wanted to win the championship really bad. It didn’t work out that way, so I really want to win this last one.”

Van der Zande came close to championship success with Cadillac a number of times,  most notably losing out to Acura Team Penske duo Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor by a single point in 2020.

“I think we won a lot,” he said. “I would have liked to win more.

“If you look back at the championship we had, we had quite some trouble. And I think every year if we had one trouble less we would have won a championship.

“So it’s been a little unfortunate in a way and I would have liked to have won more, especially in the last four years with Ganassi but it’s the way it is.

“Winning a championship is the ultimate goal if you are entering into a championship and we didn’t win it. So that’s something for sure that I’m not happy about.”

When asked about some of his fondest memories about the time with Cadillac, he expressed a willingness to look beyond the “big picture” and ‘wins you brag about at the bar.’

“I think for the outside world, the people who are in racing and also outside racing, it’s always the two-time Daytona winner,” Van der Zande said.

“But at the same time, what I like so much about this championship, is the races like Sebring, the races like Petit Le Mans, the races like even Mid-Ohio where we went a couple years.

“Some of those races the big crowd doesn’t watch, but if you look at the fun we have on track and the amount of dogfights that we have to put on the line to win a race, [that] is something that I will remember.

“If you look at the big picture, for sure the big wins are the ones that you can brag about in the bar or brag about on tv or what you get remembered for.

“But my personal proud moments are also in races that nobody saw.”