Renger van der Zande has been winning races in IMSA for 11 straight years. Sebastien Bourdais has been winning races and championships in Indy cars and multiple races in IMSA. Together they are teammates in the Cadillac VSeries.R IMSA GTP car for Chip Ganassi Racing. We caught up with the champagne soaked duo just after their 2024 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach winning post-race press conference. The two share what the key to victory was, how their team dynamic works and what happened here last year at the start. Bourdais also talks about the future of the program and also seeing his McDonald’s Indy car that he won with here years ago. Honest, straightforward and humorously entertaining. Enjoy!
Note: Cadillac announced that this year will be the last for their IMSA GTP program.
By Larry Mason
Copyright © 2024 Larry Mason
Renger van der Zande (L holding trophy) and Sebastien Bourdais (middle) tell Larry Mason and the raceschool.com listeners all about their success at Long Beach!–Photo by Brad Bernstein
Sebastien Bourdais is happy with the news from Adam Trojanek, (GM lead propulsion engineer) as he was quickest in the second practice session.
All thumbs up from the fire and rescue crew for Sebastien Bourdais just prior to the start of the race. After starting third, he and his teammate would wind up in Victory Lane!
Early in the 100-minute race, Bourdais is hounded by the Penske Porsche of Nick Tandy in the sweeping Turn 10 of the Long Beach street circuit.
These are big and long cars to navigate through the tight Turn 11 hairpin at Long Beach. Bourdais, stuffed it into the wall exiting here in 2022 but charged back to win. No such drama like that this year!
Renger van der Zande holds off a hungry Jack Aitken in a similar Cadillac as well as Matthew Jaminet in the #6 Penske Porsche through the fountain. He certainly had his hands full without having changed tires during his pit stop. The only difference in the finishing order was the #7 Porsche taking the final step on the podium with Felipe Nasr.
Interview and photos Copyright © by Larry Mason (unless otherwise noted)