Cadillac Racing showed strength out of the gate during the six-hour Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on September 22nd, 2024. The No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R, driven by Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande, started on the pole, while the No. 31 V-Series.R of Jack Aitken and Pipo Derani qualified fourth; both ran with the frontrunners until separate mechanical issues killed both race cars in the back half of the race.
Rain drenched the track during the first part of the race, causing a full-course yellow flag that kept the field neutral for almost an hour before the weather finally let up. At the time, both the No. 01 V-Series.R and the No. 31 V-Series.R were contending for a podium spot.
However, the No. 31 V-Series.R was the first to fall. The race car abruptly lost oil pressure just after the three-hour mark, prompting the team to pull it behind the wall to inspect it for damage. It was deemed hopeless, and Aitken and Derani were pulled from the race. It was the first DNF for the No. 31 Cadillac Racing team since the GTP class was formed.
“The first stint went great for us,” said Aitken. “The car was working really well and managed to move up from P4 to second and even were closing in on the No. 6 Porsche. Then the rain started to come and we managed that pretty well, too, getting out of the pits in first place. But a bit of bad luck and the race unraveled for us. It was an encouraging race start and we’ll take that to Petit Le Mans.”
Meanwhile, with just under an hour and a half left, the No. 01 V-Series.R suffered a bizarre tire failure. Van der Zande pulled into the pits to swap the controls to Bourdais, but the right-rear tire went flat just a lap later. Bourdais had to nurse the race car around the full course before returning to the pits, and by the time he had, the tire cord had unraveled and wrapped itself around the driveshaft. Three laps down, the No. 01 Cadillac Racing team persisted, finishing eighth overall.
“I’m very disappointed with where we ended up because we had good speed in the car, we worked really hard on the setup and to get it done,” van der Zande said. “The team did a fantastic job. I think we extracted everything we could out of the car. Seb did a good job; I did a good job. At the end, a blown tire ended our fight today. I’m not happy, but we’ll move forward from here, and we’ll see what we can do at Petit Le Mans and hopefully win that race.”
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