A frustrating race for Cadillac at Road America

Came with the aim of putting pressure on Porsche in the championship, the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R lost big on the bucolic Elkhart Lake track. The yellow prototype was the subject of contact and left the road which required an unscheduled stop to change the nose of the car and the right front tire. Renger van der Zande and Sébastien Bourdais, who started third, finished ninth after a stop to change tires two minutes from the end of the race.

« The Porsche GT (n°120. Editor’s note) who got in touch with me on didn't give me a chance, commented Sébastien Bourdais after the race. I was on the inside, he knew I was going to pass him on the straight, and I understeered just a little bit, but he turned and hit me. »

It was definitely not Sunday at Le Manceau, who also made a mistake in the wake of the #25 BMW. “ After that, I experienced a fairly significant exit from the road behind (nick) Yelloly in the Carousel. When I found myself in the cloud of dust, I no longer knew where I was and I lost control. That's when our fate was sealed. The rear tires were damaged and the car was very difficult to drive. The situation went from bad to worse at that point. We delaminated a tire three laps from the finish. »

The No. 31 Cadillac came back after a complicated start to the race

The race also started badly for the No. 31 Cadillac, hit at the first corner and sent into a spin by a Porsche. Starting last, Pipo Derani handed over the wheel to Jack Aitken after 25 minutes of racing.

Aitken, racing for the first time at Road America, squeezed through the 47-car field to find himself in third position with 37 minutes left in the race when a Full Course Yellow appeared. He moved up to second place at the restart, 16 minutes and 20 seconds from the end of the race, and seemed to want to take on the race leader No. 963 Porsche 6.

In the final 8 minutes, however, the #963 Porsche 7 overtook Aitken for second place and the #06 Acura AXR-10 overtook the #31 Cadillac V-Series.R in traffic at the time of the white flag for the last place on the podium.

« The first lap was difficult, but we did what we had to do to get back into the race, Aitken commented. For most of the race we kept it simple and worked our way through the peloton with a good strategy, which put us in a position to win the race in the end. »

« It was an interesting race with the fuel, the different tire strategies, continues the old pilot Williams F1. I tried to take the lead, but I was too wide in Canada Corner, which caused me to lose second place to the other Porsche. They were very strong today, so I take my hat off to them. Then, I couldn't get back to them in fairly heavy traffic. I made a small mistake and Ricky Taylor managed to pass me as well. It's a bit frustrating because we came here to win. »

Next meeting for the Cadillacs and other cars in the GTP category is in Indianapolis on September 22 for a six-hour race.

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