Derani eclipses prototype track record by nearly a second; Bourdais qualifies third
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (Aug. 5, 2023) – The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R was first and a close second to the sister Cadillac in the two practice sessions Friday on the recently resurfaced 4-mile, 14-turn road course.
The quickness carried over Saturday in the 20-minute qualifying session for the IMSA Sports Car Weekend at Road America.
Pipo Derani’s lap of 1 minute, 47.730 seconds (135.271 mph) eclipsed the 2019 DPi track record by nearly a full second and the 2021 DPi champion secured his ninth career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole and second for Cadillac Racing in the inaugural season of the Grand Touring Prototype class.
“The 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R was perfect today and all week and I’m happy to put the lap together that earned the pole for the 2-hour, 40-minute race. Everyone involved has done a fantastic job this year and I have to thank all my guys,” said Derani, who earned the pole at Sebring International Raceway and teamed with Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken to win the race.
Sebastien Bourdais drove the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R to third on the grid with a lap of 1:48.036 – its sixth top-four start in seven races – and will share the seat with Renger van der Zande. Bourdais was .306 of a second short from earning second front-row start of the season.
A day earlier, the Cadillac Racing hybrid racecars swapped the top of the time chart in the two free practice sessions.
Derani and Sims, who enter the race as the GTP championship leaders, picked up 35 qualifying points for the pole for a 19-point advantage. Cadillac leads the GTP Manufacturer Championship standings.
Cadillac Racing posted eight podium finishes at Road America in the DPi era, including victory in 2021 (Derani, Felipe Nasr).
Bourdais and van der Zande earned a podium result at Road America in 2022 – one place behind the runner-up finish of the sister Cadillac DPi-V.R driven by Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn. Van der Zande has also driven to third place in 2021 and second in 2020 in the Cadillac DPi-V.R at Road America.
The live USA Network telecast and Peacock streaming of the race starts at 11 a.m. ET Sunday, Aug. 6. Outside the U.S., streaming will be available at IMSA.com/TVLive. IMSA Radio at IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com plus SiriusXM live (XM 207, Web/App 992) broadcast of the race also starts at 11 a.m.
No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R
Sebastien Bourdais drove in the 20-minute qualifying session with best lap of 1:48.036 for third on grid: “Hats off to Pipo (Derani); he did it again. I didn’t put together the lap I wanted. We tried to optimize everything and it should have been quite a bit faster but it couldn’t carry the speed. The guys did a better job than that, but good day overall for Cadillac and we’ll go racing from there.”
No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R
Pipo Derani drove in the 20-minute qualifying session with best lap of 1:47.730 for pole: “The 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R was perfect today and all week and I’m happy to put the lap together that earned the pole for the 2-hour, 40-minute race. Everyone involved has done a fantastic job this year and I have to thank all my guys. It’s not done yet. Qualifying doesn’t mean much except for a few qualifying points that could count in the end. Anything you can do to try to extend a championship points lead is good for us. Coming into this race with a new tarmac you want to be ahead because it’s hard to overtake the GTs, so you can perhaps control the race a bit better. A lot can happen in the race; we know that in IMSA with the yellows and everything. We try to go session by session and I think we’ve been doing that quite well. The competition is very close, including the sister Cadillac V-Series.R, so there’s a lot we have to do to bring home a win tomorrow. I knew everything had to be nailed for qualifying to be able to start out front. We still have to execute perfectly despite starting out front.”
