Successful weekend for Cadillac in California with a 1-3 finish
MONTEREY, Calif. (May 14, 2023) – Alexander Sims drove the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R to third place in the MOTUL Course de Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday.
Having started the race from fourth, Sims’ co-pilot Pipo Derani set a searing pace in the first half of the race, leading for a number of laps and opening a large gap to the chasing pack before handing over to Sims.
Despite turning a succession of consistent laps, Sims couldn’t unlock that same pace however and having been passed by the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R of Renger van der Zande on a re-start, ultimately had to settle for third after the Porsche of Nick Tandy also took the Brit late on in the race.
The third-place finish was a second podium of the season for Sims after the win at Sebring, and was enough to take he and Derani back to the top of the Championship standings.
“It was a great weekend for Cadillac Racing with the No. 01 Cadillac leading the field home at Laguna Seca and the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac also getting a podium,” Cadillac Global Vice President Rory Harvey said.
Alexander Sims: “Pipo was doing a fantastic job and had really good pace. I was given everything I could have been given to do the job, but ultimately I didn’t have the same pace as Pipo and I made two costly errors in terms of the restart and getting my tires up to temperature properly and Renger driving on the outside of me and then just being too cautious in traffic and Nick (Tandy) got around me. Good points day and nice to be on the podium though.”
The next race for Sims is the Nurburgring 24, before he and Derani are joined by endurance driver Jack Aitken for the centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 10-11. The next IMSA race is June 23-25 at Watkins Glen International in New York.
