Action Express, Cadillac Reflect On 2023 IMSA Title Win

There was only one opportunity to be the first champion of the new GTP class in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship. While the way it was decided was far from ideal, Cadillac emerged from the 26th annual Motul Petit Le Mans, the final race of the season, with every major accolade in the inaugural 2023 season for the new LMDh category of prototypes.

And Laura Wontrop Klauser, the sports car racing programme manager at General Motors, overseeing both Cadillac Racing and Corvette Racing – couldn’t have been happier to play an important role in every chapter of this memorable first chapter in the story.

“I can say that for me, the feeling right now is pride! I’m pretty sure it’s bursting out of my chest,” Klauser remarked after Cadillac team Action Express Racing won the 2023 IMSA GTP drivers’ and teams’ championships, leading Cadillac to the manufacturers’ championship – for both the complete 2023 season titles and the Michelin Endurance Cup titles. “Because of the amount of work that went into this programme, starting from day one when the car was just a picture on a computer screen, and how it grew into becoming something that we were testing physically and then hit ground back in July.

“Do you realize, this car has only been on the ground since July of last year? Which is crazy!

“And the two championships we ran this year, bringing all three cars to Le Mans, having all three at Rolex (Daytona), and to walk away with the IMSA championship, I think, is just something where all those long hours, those nights, those lack of sleeps – it came down to being able to walk away from here with our heads held high, and really feel proud of what we did.

“We were going to be proud no matter what happened today. But to come off with the champion win for the manufacturers, and for the team with the #31 is just an experience that will obviously be with me for the rest of my life.”

Along with the immense joy of Cadillac’s own accomplishment, Klauser also expressed her joy, to see such a competitive first season in a new category that was expected to be the catalyst for substantial audience interest and growth in endurance sports car racing, and delivered on virtually every promise.

“If you just look at this year, it summarises what incredible things are to come. To come down to the last race – pretty much the last hour – for the championship, and honestly, the last lap, because nothing was done until that chequered flag flew tonight.

“With four brand-new cars, with the manufacturers – all of us have won, all of us have had downs throughout the season. And then we have even more friends next year to play with us as well! It is an incredible class to be racing in right now. The fan engagement – the fact that this place is packed, and I think every race has been either a (attendance) record, or close to it, shows how excited the world is for these cars, and what we’re doing.

“So I think there’s nothing but goodness to come. And I know next year is going to be even harder. We’re very excited for this year, but we’re ready – because we know it’s going to be a tougher challenge when we start in January next year.”

Since the 2017 debut of the previous Cadillac DPi-V.R which immediately became the standard bearer of the previous Daytona Prototype international (DPi) category, GM’s premier brand has now won four sets of drivers’, teams’ and manufacturers’ championships in IMSA – despite fierce competition from Acura, 2023 newcomers Porsche and BMW, and even past DPi challengers, Mazda and Nissan.

In this first year of the new Cadillac V-Series.R, Action Express and Chip Ganassi Racing (the latter competing under the Cadillac Racing banner in IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship) pulled together to compete as one cohesive unit, beginning at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona in January when all three cars – including the blue #2 that was earmarked for WEC – made their debuts.

“This is the first championship that we’ve won when really our family took on a different look this year,” said Chris Mitchum, director of team operations at Action Express Racing. “And I have to say a huge thank you and congratulations to Chip Ganassi Racing and the #01 and the #2 because truly, they sacrificed and helped us as a team as much as we could have ever helped them. It truly was one unified team.

“Which, in the beginning, I think was a little bit more challenging than, being on our own. And not for the reasons you would think. I think competition is healthy. And I think what GM saw in our team, and what they saw in CGR, to bring together was incredibly special. And we’ve proven it now.

There’s absolute commitment for this entire group to come back in ’24

“We learned a lot of lessons along the way. Have to say, it’s almost surreal. The pride is there. I know how hard everyone’s worked, and I know the effort, but I also knew the job ahead. And there’s absolute commitment for this entire group to come back in ’24. This lights the fire,” Mitchum said.

But of course, there was a thick tension in the air from the moment the championship-winning drivers and representatives stepped into the room for their closing remarks.

It had been less than two hours since a Turn 1 collision between AXR’s Pipo Derani and WTRAndretti’s Filipe Albuquerque, two of IMSA’s most tenacious competitors with a glowing resume of accolades to back it up, decided the championship with an hour still left in the race. Albuquerque crashed into the tyre barriers, and Derani emerged unscathed from what many watching and listening to the race felt was an unfair move from the Brazilian that should have warranted a penalty.

Derani explained the incident from his perspective, saying: “I think Filipe was a little bit too optimistic there with still an hour and 30 minutes to go. We’ve seen that going through the outside of Turn 1 never really works. It happened last year with the two Cadillacs, unfortunately.

“But over and over again, if you try and go to the outside, you just lose grip. Obviously, he tried, and he came in very aggressively, trying to cut me off to the inside, obviously trying to search for grip…but I was there, and we touched, and he went off.

“That’s unfortunate for him. I hope he’s feeling okay, obviously, that’s most important. But my point of view, with an hour and 30 minutes to go – still a lot of race to go – he was too optimistic to go on the outside of Turn 1.”

Thankfully Albuquerque was seen and released from the hospital with relatively minor pain in his back, and he graciously attended Sunday’s IMSA Awards banquet to accept another bittersweet championship runners-up trophy. And it wasn’t the first time that AXR and WTRAndretti have clashed at Road Atlanta with the championship on the line, as those who’ll recall Ricky Taylor’s last-lap lunge on Felipe Nasr (now of Porsche Penske Motorsports) in 2021 will attest to.

“It always has flashbacks because it seems to be always the #10 somehow, in the very end, fighting with us. But this year the race took a different direction towards the end. Unfortunately for the #10, because we want to win when everyone is on track and fighting. and I think it’s even more special when you get to do it that way because we are fighting against amazing professionals. With Wayne Taylor Racing, Acura, BMW, Porsche – everyone has put up an amazing level this year. So we do want to win on track, fair, not having someone crash. But it does bring back some memories.

“But at the end of the day, I said to myself, ‘I’ve already won a championship whatever comes this year.’ Whatever I have achieved after my first championship, it’s a bonus. So I was quite honestly relaxed the whole week. I put my faith in god’s hands and did the best I could with what I had, and in the end, it worked out well. So I’m really proud of this moment,” said the newly-crowned, two-time IMSA premier class champion.

Once the race got going again, Derani still had to fight his way past the two BMW Team RLL cars on a restart with 30 minutes to go to get to a position that could win him the championship, and he did just that, to get from eighth to sixth and win the title by 21 points, which allowed him to put on the champion’s t-shirt and kiss the Bishop-France Trophy as did co-drivers Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken.

“It has been an amazing 16 months. So much work behind the scenes, obviously, from every manufacturer – but especially us. We were the first ones to get the car rolling, and there has been so much work to get this championship. A big thanks to everyone from Cadillac, who I know spent hours and hours in simulators and development back at the factory. Countless hours, missing sleeps, and it’s so much effort from everyone,” Derani continued.

“And to be here after what I believe is the most incredible season finale of the championship, with four manufacturers fighting for the championship – which shows how tough and how competitive the championship is – to be the one leaving with the first trophy as the Manufacturers’ champion, it’s fantastic. So Laura, congrats to you and your team, and thank you for the support that you’ve given our team. It’s amazing to be a part of that.”

Modest and insightful as ever, Sims also took time to acknowledge the sacrifices made by everyone at GM for putting this programme together. “I think the big thing that my mind goes back to is all the days – through testing that we’ve done last year, we’re on private days away from everyone else, away from the media,” said Sims, who won his first GTP title before taking a step back to GTD Pro next season.

“It’s so much personal sacrifice by every member of the team, time away from their family. It’s the non-glamorous side that really is necessary but hugely, hugely appreciated by everyone that’s put effort into getting that car into a position where we’ve been competitive at every single race.

It’s been a crazy season, as it always is in IMSA

“It’s been a crazy season, as it always is in IMSA. It’s been so many highs, a few lows, as with every team. It’s a really emotional moment to have tied up the championship, and thanks to Cadillac, Action Express, Whelen – and these two guys next to me who have carried me most of the year. It’s been mega.”

Sims is being modest about being ‘carried’ by Derani and MEC co-driver Aitken, but there were unfortunate flashpoints at this race and in other rounds that have left an unfair impression that the British driver was somehow a liability this year. Yes, there was the pit lane exit bungle at Petit Le Mans, where Sims not only got rear-ended but also received a penalty for running the red light at pit exit, leaving himself and his co-drivers to dig out of a one-lap deficit. Road America and Indianapolis didn’t go much better.

Otherwise, he was matching or surpassing Derani’s pace for most of the season, and GM has rightfully kept its faith in Sims by adding a Sebring 12 Hour, Spa 24 Hours, and Nürburgring 24 Hours winner into the fold at Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports next year.

Likewise, many would have looked at Aitken’s first-lap crash at Le Mans and wondered why on earth AXR would have trusted him to drive the #31 car next season, thus overlooking strong performances in the Michelin Endurance Cup rounds – including a great last stint at Sebring that saw Aitken hold his nerve and take the chequered flag while his nearest rivals lost their heads, a showcase of the talent on display from the likeable young driver once touted for F1 greatness beyond just the small cup of coffee he received in 2020.

That win at Sebring would prove to be the critical difference-maker in this year’s championship.

“It’s been a real pleasure to be a part of this new era,” said Aitken, Sims’ full-time replacement in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac. “I think the standard of drivers, teams, machinery that we have competing in the series, and in WEC as well, is just phenomenal. And to have such a close finale after so many ups and downs for everybody throughout the year is really amazing. It was heart-in-mouth stuff pretty much the whole way through the race. I think we’re all still slightly in disbelief, but it’s a just reward for all the hard work that’s gone on in the programme.

“I’m proud to be part of this line-up, this crew, this programme. So in that respect, not a lot changes next year. I’ll be full-time, but the goal will be the same. And I’ll have more opportunities to race with the team, and get to know the car even better.

“I’m gonna miss working with Alexander. But I look forward to what’s coming next, and it’s been a pleasure the whole year – so to get more of that next year, I can’t wait.”

The competition will be harder next year – WTRAndretti, now with two Acura ARX-06s, will be hungrier than ever not to finish second-best. BMW and Porsche have both made strides since a tough start to 2023 which should continue into 2024. Surely, too, the #01 CGR Cadillac won’t fall victim to the proverbial ‘cartoon anvil’ as it did throughout most of 2023.

But Cadillac, Action Express, Derani and Aitken are more than up to the task of building on this year’s success  – and, hopefully, with an end result that comes with a more satisfying climax in 12 month’s time.

Images © Michael L. Levitt, Jake Galstad / IMSA ; Martin W. Spetz / Dailysportscar