CGR Hitting “Goals” Ahead of Two-Car Cadillac WEC Debut

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Chip Ganassi Racing has continued to hit its “goals” as part of a ramped up Cadillac program for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which will include the first two-car Hypercar class appearance in the FIA World Endurance Championship next weekend in Spa.

The factory Cadillac operation will field a second Cadillac V-Series.R in the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps for its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driver pairing of Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais.

The No. 3 Cadillac will then remain in Europe for Le Mans, where Scott Dixon will complete the car’s lineup alongside the WEC full season entry of Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook.

“The second car is already in Germany,” CGR’s director of global operations Mike O’Gara told Sportscar365. “It started in Indy and went to Dallara.

“It was our wind tunnel homologation homologation car. It’s been around for a while, it was one of the early chassis.

“It’s been at Dallara for a while as it needed some updates and stuff and was just a wind tunnel mule so it wasn’t a functioning race car.

“Some of our WEC crew went to Dallara and helped build it a couple of weeks ago.

“It needs some finishing up so we’re sending some guys early for the Spa race to finish it up in Germany and then it will go to Belgium with the other WEC car.”

O’Gara said they’re hoping to complete a shakedown of the car in Germany prior to next weekend’s third round of the WEC season.

With the WeatherTech Championship round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in between Spa and Le Mans, and the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen just two weeks after the French endurance classic, O’Gara said having a dedicated chassis for the expanded two-race WEC program is “less pressure” to flying a car back and forth.

“It’s still insane money shipping cars,” he said. “But if we can leave this one here [in the States], we have three sets of equipment now, three sets of setup pads and stuff.

“Hopefully it will be fairly painless from the Le Mans to Watkins Glen transition.”

The two-car effort comes after last weekend’s multi-continent program that saw a single Cadillac entered in both the 6 Hours of Portimao and Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach by the team.

“Doing IMSA for so long, in the past I always saw Long Beach as the first weekend to relax, it’d be a short race, things sort of slow down,” O’Gara explained. “But that’s not the case right now.

“The WEC car was running at 2 a.m., so I was trying to follow it on Discord, our telemetry and timing and scoring. It’s been pretty hectic but exciting as well.

“I think once we get over racing both cars at Spa, that’s our next [target]. You’ve just got to keeping setting mini goals and getting past them.

“[Last] weekend was the goal of running two cars on two different continents successfully.

“The next goal is two cars at Spa in WEC trim with WEC rules and I feel that’s going to set us up for Le Mans for sure.”

Van der Zande: Spa Being Treated as “Shakedown” for Le Mans

Considered as a ‘wild card’ entry that will not be eligible to score points, van der Zande hopes the Spa outing will serve as a productive outing for the IMSA-based team.

“Spa is going to be like a shakedown, I would say,” he told Sportscar365. “But we’re not there just to hang around. We’re going to try and win it.

“There will be a lot of new things and it’s very much prep for Le Mans to get settled in. We’re going to learn a lot.

“To say we’re ready, it doesn’t feel like we’re ready, but it feels like we’re going to learn a lot to get ready for Le Mans.”

The Dutchman is also excited to be racing near his home for the first time with the team that he drives for in the WeatherTech Championship.

“It’s amazing,” van der Zande said. “I’ve been racing in the U.S. for ten years now and this is my third year with Ganassi. It feels like a family here.

“To be bringing my American family to my European grounds is really, really cool. It’s only three hours away from Amsterdam, where I live.

“Unfortunately I had to send a big list of guests for the first time in my life!

“There’s no freebees in the WEC so it’s going to be an expensive weekend for me but at the same time I’m very much looking forward to having everyone meet.”

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