The two Cadillac Racing teams walked away from their stint on the Indy Road Course on Sunday, September 17th, 2023 without much to show for their efforts, enduring adversity during the Battle on the Brick.
Things got off to a poor start for the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R, driven by Sebastian Bourdais at the time. He went side-by-side with the No. 7 Porsche of Matt Campbell and the No. 6 Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet for the lead. However, Bourdais overshot a turn and swung wide, allowing both Porsches to slip past him and setting him up for contact from the No. 60 Acura.
Bourdais spun out, incurring front-end damage to the No. 01 V-Series.R. Bourdais was forced to bring the race car to the attention of his crew multiple times throughout the race, putting him 10 laps off the pace. Ultimately, he finished seventh in the GTP class – dead last – while crossing the line in 41st overall.
The No. 31 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims had marginally better luck than the No. 01 V-Series.R. Derani put the No. 31 Caddy to the point after a round of pit stops, although he couldn’t fend off a charge from the No. 7 Porsche, then driven by Felipe Nasr. Much like Bourdais early in the race, Derani hit Turn 1 at the wrong angle, drifting high and opening the lowermost lane for Nasr to slip by. He was freight-trained by the two Porsche entries, falling to third in the rankings, and then he was further demoted and finished fourth in the GTP class, unable to find the speed to get back to the front.
The good news is that the No. 31 V-Series.R maintains the points lead heading into the final race of the 2023 IMSA season. Derani and Sims have five points over the second-best No. 7 Porsche team of Jaminet and Nick Tandy heading into Petit Le Mans on October 11th through 14th.
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