The new GTP era has seen the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship embrace the LMDh rules, attracting BMW and Porsche to join Cadillac and Acura in the top class of U.S. sportscar racing.
However, the introduction of a spec hybrid unit has inevitably caused teething problems for all the OEMs, so debuting the technology in IMSA’s longest race of the season has caused worries over reliability.
Although yesterday’s fight for Rolex 24 pole position around Daytona’s 3.56-mile 12-turn sportscar course was principally between the twin-turbocharged cars – the Porsche 963s and the Acura ARX-06 – Cadillac’s normally aspirated 5.5-liter V8 Dallara-built LMDh showed well.
The two Chip Ganassi Racing entries will line up fourth and fifth, with Bourdais just 0.231sec from pole, while the Action Express Racing example will start sixth.
Bourdais might have been closer still, but a red flag for a crashed Porsche late in the GTP class qualifying left drivers barely able to warm their tires before their final flying lap.
More relevant than one-lap pace, and highly encouraging for the race, is that according to Cadillac’s press release, the three Cadillac V-LMDhs ran 366 laps in six free practice sessions “without incident or protracted time on pit lane as they gathered data about mechanical and aerodynamic setups, tire wear and the hybrid system’s performance contributions.”
Bourdais, who will share his Caddy with fulltime teammate Renger van der Zande and Ganassi legend Scott Dixon, said: "I think that from the 15 minutes [extra practice preceding qualifying] to the end of qualifying when we did our lap, the grip on the track was up significantly and we've never run that fast and the car felt amazing. Really happy for the Cadillac team and I think it's a strong start.
“Obviously, not the goal but as close as we can get without getting it.
“I think it bodes well for the race so now it's just about executing and making no mistakes and hoping that the gods of electronics are with us for 24 hours."
Teammate Alex Lynn qualified the #02 CGR Cadillac that he – along with Richard Westbrook and Earl Bamber – will race for the balance of the year in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
He said: "I'm pretty happy to be honest. We made a lot of improvements on the car over the last couple of days and I think where we ended up with the balance was really great. I'm very happy and we'll see what next week brings.
“I'm really enjoying driving this Cadillac V-LMDh and it's giving me really good feedback, and we're improving it so much. It's an enjoyable job when you just start making huge strides and improving this brand new vehicle."
Cadillac has a great deal of honor to uphold with the V-LMDh, since its predecessor, the DPi-V.R, proved so successful in IMSA’s DPi era. Among its 27 victories were four straight Rolex 24 at Daytona triumphs, 2017-’20.
