Will the Acura switch give Van der Zande IMSA glory?

The GTP paddock will look different when the IMSA SportsCar Championship reconvenes for its season-opening 24 Hours of Daytona later this month.

Felipe Nasr After Penske parted ways with Porsche Motorsport, he will have a new team-mate to defend his title dane cameron, nick tandy #7 joins the roster to become Nasr’s third co-driver in as many seasons matt campbell Returned from the World Endurance Championships to resume its partnership with Mathieu Jaminet Which resulted in the crown of 2022 GTD Pro.

For the first time since 2018, action express racingWill not be powered by cadillac pipo deraniAs Earl Bamber teamed up with Jack AitkenWhereas Philipp Eng is the only driver left on the BMW roster From 2024 onwards. Vanthoor dries up Partner will replace engineer jesse crohnWhereas Marco Wittmann And Sheldon Van Der Linde Parachuted into an already powered sister car connor de phillippi And Nick Yellowlee,

then this is a small matter Wayne Taylor Racing takes over from Chip Ganassi Racing as the factory caddy squadWTR’s position as Acura’s work organization Taken by the returning Meyer Shank Racing team – Back after sitting out 2023 and with an expanded two-car roster.

That whole carousel round explains why ranger van der zande Will race an Acura in 2025 – not a Cadillac, as they have done since 2018. The Dutchman explains that “I was not planning on going anywhere else”, but once it became clear that Caddy would give his partner team the final decision on drivers, WTR ultimately maintained the unchanged line-up. ricky taylor,philip albuquerque And jordan taylor,Louis DelétrazHis options to remain in IMSA dwindled.

“I wanted to stay in IMSA, it’s the best championship for me,” Van der Zande told Autosport. Negotiations with other brands were progressing quickly but MSR – an organization he describes as a “powerhouse” – won the race for your signature,

Van der Zande, who revealed his decision was made in August, will be paired with Yellowlee in the ARX-06 which will be engineered by HRC USA. They will join the returning full-season #60 pair tom blomquist And Colin Braunwho won On their last start together at the 2023 Petit Le MansGanassi with IndyCar Champion alex palou And Super Formula race winner Kakunoshin Ohta completes the roster for Daytona in the #93 car. scott dixonThe presence with Blomqvist and Brawn for the enduros also ensures the Ganassi link to the other side of the garage.

“Acura is very competitively driven to win races,” says Van der Zande. “They are investing more than ever in the factory program. MSR is a team that I’ve always looked at as pure racers, so I think the combination between MSR and Honda is really good for winning races in North America.

Winning races was a lot of what he did during his seven years at Cadillac. Van der Zande finished that chapter on a high with his third victory at Petit Le Mans, which helped him secure a place in Autosport’s Top 50 Drivers of 2024. The back-to-back Daytona winner with WTR in 2019-20 before joining Ganassi for 2021, he has almost every accolade apart from a title in the top class on his IMSA CV – and as he is quick to point out, A win at the Sebring 12 Hours, where he finished second in 2018, 2019 and 2024.

To make it better, he needs to quickly become familiar with a car that is very different than his recent home. Where the Cadillac V-Series.R is powered by a 5.5l normally aspirated V8 and based on the Dallara chassis, the ORECA-based Acura is equipped with a 2.4-litre V6 turbo. Based on his experiences testing at Daytona and Sebring, Van der Zande calls the Acura “very refined”.

“MSR is a team that I’ve always seen as pure racers, so I think the combination between MSR and Honda is really good for winning races in North America” ranger van der zande

“The technology side of Acura is very, very interesting,” he said. “From a driver’s point of view, there is a lot more work to do. I think it could be a really good package to fight.”

After Action Express Cadillac and PPM Porsche delivered the goods over the past two years, the fresh perspectives that Van der Zande and Yellowlee can bring will help Acura’s bid for its first title of the GTP era. Although the influx of Acura talent into Cadillac will mean that the benefits are not unique to the Honda brand, Van der Zande is confident that their knowledge will “help make Acura stronger”.

“It’s good to go in with really fresh minds,” reflects Van der Zande, who has plied his trade in IMSA since the merging of the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am for 2014, when he will be driving the one-make LMPC class. Joined Starworks in . , which he won in 2016 alex popo,

“This is also the time when all the drivers move to other brands, so the information through the paddock is going to be stronger everywhere. I don’t see any huge advantage there, but it’s fun to see how every manufacturer has their own approach and how drivers can make a difference in different ways.

“Colin Brawn, I’ve been racing a lot in the LMPC (days). We were fierce competitors at the time, which was a fun time to look back on and it’s great to work together with him. Obviously, Tom is very experienced and very sharp too; Also, Alex Palou and Scott Dixon I know very well from the Ganassi era, so it seems like it’s a group of drivers that are very strong.

Will this be the year their wait for a title ends? Van der Zande knows more than anyone else that just winning races won’t suffice. In 2022, he and Sébastien Bourdais won three times more than the MSR’s two champions, Blomqvist and Sébastien Bourdais. oliver jarvisAnd their win tally in 2023-24 was the same as that of champions Derani/Alexander Sims and Nasr/Cameroon.

While it is realistic that it may take time to incorporate “a lot of new people” into the HRC and MSR organizations, a process he considers his “main goal” for the year, Van der Zande sees no reason why the content should not be perfect. Why shouldn’t you come to the place? After all, it was only because of Points lost due to tire pressure error at Daytona That Blomqvist and Braun miss out on the title in 2023.

“We had very bad luck in Championship matches; Always very close or having the most wins in the championship but not winning the title,” Van der Zande concluded. “The team is a bit new, so the only thing we can do is not make big mistakes and settle into the season and win some races, and that’s how you win titles.”

If the affable 38-year-old accomplishes his mission, you’ll be hard-pressed to find people who will be angry with him.