IMSA Mosport: Bourdais, van der Zande earn victory in Ganassi Cadillac

The North American sportscar series’ first event north of the border since 2019 fully lived up to expectations as Van der Zande grasped at the merest suggestion of an opportunity amid traffic entering Turn 3 with 10 minutes remaining in the two-hours-and-40-minute race.

The Dutchman's bold move consigned Meyer Shank Racing Acura pair Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis to a fifth consecutive runner-up finish. The good news for the British pair is that it was enough to move them back into the points lead with just two races remaining on the schedule for the prototype cars.

For the second week in a row, Blomqvist produced another stunning lap in qualifying to secure pole position, this time at a series track record average speed of 137.472 mph.

Blomqvist lost no time in also bettering the race lap record as he pulled out to a 2.3-second lead over the similar Ricky Taylor-driven Wayne Taylor Racing Acura inside the first seven laps before being pegged back by a couple of brief full-course cautions. One of them was due to a delaminated tyre on Taylor’s car, which put his team on the back foot for the remainder of the afternoon.

Tristan Vautier’s JDC Miller Motorsports Cadillac was the only car not to make an early pit stop, which bottled up the small but immensely competitive prototype field until the Frenchman ducked in for service after 37 laps. Alex Lynn took up the running in the second of the Ganassi Cadillacs, until Blomqvist made a move in traffic immediately before his next pit stop. That released Jarvis into the lead once the cycle of stops had been completed.

Jarvis, though, remained under intense pressure from Taylor/Filipe Albuquerque and the two Ganassi Cadillacs.

#01: Cadillac Racing, Cadillac DPi, DPi: Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais (Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images)

One of the pivotal moments occurred on lap 96, with around a half-hour remaining, when an ill-timed lunge by Lynn's co-driver Earl Bamber nerfed Taylor into a spin at Turn 5. Taylor resumed at the rear, later to be involved in another incident with the Action Express Racing Cadillac of Pipo Derani, while a drive-through penalty for Bamber restricted the Sebring-winning crew to a fourth-place finish behind Derani and Olivier Pla.

But van der Zande remained firmly in the mix, setting the scene for his magnificent pass after Bourdais, on his first visit to the track, had struggled both in practice and qualifying.

“He was just impressive in traffic,” explained Bourdais. “He made it work. Man, I have no idea what he did there but hats off. It was really impressive.”

Jon Bennett/Colin Braun combined for their second straight LMP3 class win for Core Autosport, while Porsche factory drivers Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell narrowly maintained control of the GTD Pro category for the locally based Pfaff Motorsports team over the leading Corvette Racing entry of Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor.

Canada’s Roman De Angelis and Belgian Maxime Martin also scored their second straight win in GTD for the Heart of Racing Aston Martin team.

IMSA Mosport race result (123 laps):

Cla	Class	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	DPi	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais	Cadillac DPi	123	2:40'31.158
2	DPi	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist	Acura DPi	123	2:40'34.667	3.509
3	DPi	Olivier Pla Pipo Derani	Cadillac DPi	123	2:40'35.430	4.272
4	DPi	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn	Cadillac DPi	123	2:40'35.862	4.704
5	DPi	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook	Cadillac DPi	123	2:40'36.943	5.785
6	DPi	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	Acura DPi	123	2:40'46.183	15.025
7	LMP3	Jon Bennett Colin Braun	Ligier JS P320	115	2:40'57.801	8 Laps
8	LMP3	Jarett Andretti Gabby Chaves	Ligier JS P320	115	2:41'00.554	8 Laps
9	LMP3	Ari Balogh Garett Grist	Ligier JS P320	115	2:41'00.888	8 Laps
10	LMP3	Orey Fidani Kyle Marcelli	Duqueine D08	114	2:41'05.351	9 Laps
11	GTD PRO	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet	Porsche 911 GT3 R	111	2:40'42.521	12 Laps
12	GTD PRO	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	Corvette C8.R GTD	111	2:40'43.636	12 Laps
13	GTD PRO	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	111	2:40'47.424	12 Laps
14	GTD	Roman De Angelis Maxime Martin	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	111	2:40'48.233	12 Laps
15	GTD	Russell Ward Philip Ellis	Mercedes AMG GT3	111	2:40'48.726	12 Laps
16	GTD PRO	Cooper MacNeil Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes AMG GT3	111	2:40'49.265	12 Laps
17	GTD PRO	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards	BMW M4 GT3	111	2:40'50.308	12 Laps
18	GTD	Ryan Eversley Aidan Read	Acura NSX GT3	111	2:40'57.369	12 Laps
19	GTD PRO	Ben Barnicoat Kamui Kobayashi	Lexus RC F GT3	111	2:40'58.789	12 Laps
20	GTD	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen	BMW M4 GT3	111	2:41'00.170	12 Laps
21	GTD	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	BMW M4 GT3	111	2:41'02.372	12 Laps
22	GTD	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz	Lexus RC F GT3	80	2:22'59.240	43 Laps
23	LMP3	Gar Robinson Scott Andrews	Ligier JS P320	74	1:40'54.634	49 Laps
24	LMP3	Joao Barbosa Lance Willsey	Ligier JS P320	32	1:07'38.019	91 Laps
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