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Van der Zande on winning Corkscrew pass

Tuesday, 26 September 2017


By Marshall Pruett (words and images)


From the broadcast...
http://www.racer.com/imsa/item/144528-van-der-zande-on-winning-corkscrew-pass
The Zanardi pass they are all talking about......see post #3 in this very thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNa75TRRyQU
poor choice of music.......and still pics....booooooooo!

The weekend opened in Monterey with an IMSA DPi team owner asking whether he should reach out to Renger van der Zande regarding a vacancy for 2018. After the Dutchman's daring pass on Dane Cameron to take the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship win on Sunday, that owner might need to get in line to secure his services.
"To be honest with you, I've been doing a lot of hard racing in the U.S., and the track here are amazing," the Visit Florida Racing driver told RACER. "And Laguna Seca is the best form of that. It's really hard to overtake, but there are some places that if you nail it, you get the biggest overtaking thrill that you will ever have. That sums up what happened with Dane."
In a move reminiscent of The Pass, the famous exchange from the 1996 CART IndyCar race where Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Zanardi went down the inside of Team Rahal's Bryan Herta for victory at the Corkscrew, van der Zande used the same surprise maneuver on Cameron's Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R to great effect.
"You have the GT cars that become a variable, and you have to push all the time," the 31-year-old continued. "It was crazy in the last 10 minutes of the race; I was only on two new tires and the Cadillac was on four, so I had to manage them a lot. Those last 10 minutes, you're biting the steering wheel, head down, fighting all the way.

"At the moment of the pass, you don't think about it, but the whole race, you see where you're better than the other cars and for sure, under braking in the Corkscrew, I was braking 10 meters later than everyone, so I knew it was the only strong point I had. I planned to use it, but the opportunity has to be there to take it. And I must say, Dane was really surprised, he was delayed in turning to the left, and where was little bit of rubbing, but it was very fair I think, and said so as well."
The reigning IMSA PC champion has been a rocket all season for VFR, but it took a switch to the Ligier JS P217 WEC chassis late in the championship for van der Zande and veteran teammate Marc Goossens to have a shot at capturing an overall win. To say the free agent was showered with praise after the checkered flag would be a sizeable understatement.
"The biggest compliments you can have is from the other drivers, because they know there aren't a lot of moments where you can try this and have it work out," he said. "I've had manufacturers text me, drivers and team owners from IMSA, WEC, GT racing, and it's great to get the respect from them after this amazing win and the pass we made."
Having driven for Zanardi in karts, van der Zande was happy to pay tribute to the Italian hero last weekend.
"I certainly remember his pass, the famous one, which was a lot harder with the open wheels," he said. "It looked a bit out of control but he got through the corner and for sure you think about that when you're wanting to get by someone at the Corkscrew. I'm a big fan; I guess that's why I did it!"

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Visit florida team scores upset prototype imsa win at mazda raceway laguna seca Share Facebook Tweet Pinterest Email The infamous Corkscrew at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca has seen its share of iconic passes over the years, and the winning pass in Sunday’s IMSA Weather Tech SportsCar Championship race definitely made the list. Competing for the Visit Florida Racing team that had its Daytona Beach race shop and equipment damaged in Hurricane Irma just 14 days ago, Renger van der Zande made the bold move with three laps remaining

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The pass they are all talking about:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBthxGThBkc

Unignorable Anomaly


That was a spectacular move, although a little cheeky. He passed him and THEN went off the track after the move was done. Of course he knew he wouldn't stay within the track limits to pull it off.

He did not break any rules in place at the time, and therefore this is a perfectly legal overtake.

This was before Zanardi lost his legs in a later race.
Alex Zanardi still races and still kicks butt!