Cadillac wins in Detroit with Bourdais and van der Zande

Starting from pole position for the fourth time this season, Sébastien Bourdais retained the lead of the race at the start ahead of Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura DPi and Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura. We had to wait for the pit stops to see the situation evolve. Using an offbeat strategy, the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi of Pipo Derani and the returning Olivier Pla took the lead for a while thanks to an early change of driver.

ALSO READ > Detroit – Qualifying: A new pole position for Bourdais

The Brazilian returned first position during a second stop less than 45 minutes from time, with Renger van der Zande taking back the lead for the No. 01 Cadillac. Unleashed in the Belle Isle park, Derani caught up with the leading trio where Wayne Taylor Racing had disappeared following a second trip to the pits in a short time. With 20 minutes to go, van der Zande (Cadillac), Jarvis (Meyer Shank Racing), Bamber (Cadillac) and Derani (Action Express Racing) found themselves in a tight spot for a finale that looked to be grandiose in the middle. traffic generated by the only other category competing this weekend, the GTD. Derani took advantage of this to dispossess Bamber of third place and climb onto the podium. The New Zealander took his revenge three minutes from the finish in a maneuver where the two drivers made contact. 

At the front, van der Zande was ultimately never worried and offered victory to Sébastien Bourdais and the No. 01 Cadillac. Meyer Shank Racing (Blomqvist, Jarvis) and the No. 02 Cadillac (Bamber, Lynn) completed the podium. Despite an aggressive strategy, to the point of running out of fuel on the deceleration lap, and Action Express Racing above the rest in speed, Pipo Derani and Olivier Pla finished just off the podium.

In GTD, Roman De Angelis got the better of Kyle Kirkwood to take first position in the category from the start of the event with theAston Martin GT3 n°27 from the Heart of Racing Team. Here too, the situation would change during the pit stops, since Ben Banicoat, Kirkwood's teammate, took first place for VasserSullivan and would not relinquish it until the end of the event.