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Respect Rampant Among GTP Drivers After Hard Fought Battle
May 31, 2025
By John Oreovicz
IMSA Wire Service
DETROIT – It’s a common cliché in motor racing that things can change quickly. Just ask Felipe Nasr. Or Ricky Taylor.
Even better, ask Renger van der Zande, who guided the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 from third to first in the last 13 minutes of the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic, a 100-minute ‘sprint’ race for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on the streets of downtown Detroit.
After taking the lead from the No. 93 Acura – in which Nick Yelloly claimed the Motul Pole Award – during pit stops, Nasr appeared to be heading to the fourth Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class and overall race win in five 2025 starts in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport he shares with Nick Tandy. It would have also kept alive Porsche Penske Motorsport’s pursuit of perfect season with a fifth win in as many races.
Taylor, seeking the first victory of the season for himself, co-driver Filipe Albuquerque and Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing, tenaciously pursued Nasr while wheeling the No. 10 Cadillac V-Series.R and forced the American machine into the lead with a little under a quarter-hour to go. Nasr got freight-trained, because van der Zande and Mathieu Jaminet (No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963) also slipped past to demote the No. 7 to fourth place.
Then things changed again as van der Zande passed Taylor for the win with just four minutes left. The No. 93 Acura led the final three laps and crossed the line 0.947 seconds ahead of the Cadillac, with Jaminet and Nasr taking third and fourth places for Porsche.
It was the first win of the season for Acura, which returned to and also expanded its partnership with the Meyer Shank team this year.
Van der Zande knows Ricky Taylor and his brother Jordan well, having driven for Wayne Taylor Racing from 2018-20 driving alongside Jordan for two seasons (2018-’19). He wasn’t surprised that Ricky made the forceful (and successful) move on Nasr. He also knows Cadillac well, having driven for them from 2018 through 2024 for both WTR and Chip Ganassi Racing.
“Man, I loved it!” van der Zande said. “I saw them going after each other and I think the Porsche in front (the No. 7) had a bit of an issue or burned its tires too much. I know Ricky – Ricky goes for it, right? He’s the nicest guy out of the car, but in the car, you need to watch out for the guy. He was going for it, and I was like, ‘Game on. Let’s see.’”
But van der Zande is also a man known for going for it.
“Renger being Renger, he makes it happen,” Taylor observed.
And sure enough, the Dutchman delivered a race-winning move. Taylor was unable to respond.
“I was very strong every time in Turn 1, and he had some traffic,” van der Zande said. “I thought, ‘If I’m going to have a chance, it’s going to be in Turn 1.’ I asked the team, and they said, ‘Go for it.’
“He had a weaker exit out of the last corner, and just, boom – I went for it. Hey, when you have to go for it, you have to go for it. When I made the pass for the win, I was excited in the car, like a little child. It’s really cool and I enjoyed it.”
It all added up to van der Zande’s 22nd career victory in IMSA competition, his first since his Cadillac swansong with the Ganassi-prepared entry at last year’s Motul Petit Le Mans season finale.
Yelloly now owns a pair of wins, although this marked his first on the road after moving up to win the 2023 Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen with BMW M Team RLL after post-race technical inspection.
“I knew if Renger had a sniff, he’d be able to do it,” Yelloly said. “We’ve had great pace in the car, and it seemed to come alive even more at the end there. Just a great job with a couple of great moves. We got what we deserved this weekend.”
Taylor didn’t allow himself to be too disappointed after securing Cadillac’s 100th podium finish since it began competing in IMSA’s top class in 2017.
“I thought I had a big enough buffer, but he caught me by surprise with a late move,” Taylor admitted. “At the end of the day, I think the best car won.”
Porsche continues to dominate the GTP point standings, with Nasr and Tandy unofficially holding a 70-point cushion over teammates Campbell and Jaminet. The No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 and drivers Dries Vanthoor and Philipp Eng rank third, 297 points off the lead.
The next event for many IMSA drivers (including 18 of the 22 GTP drivers that raced at Detroit) and several teams is the 24 Hours of Le Mans, set to run June 14-15 at the Circuit de la Sarthe in France. The next Round of the WeatherTech Championship occurs just one week later with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, the third of five rounds in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.
