The entry, prepared by Chip Ganassi Racingwas a force in IMSA’s once-around-the-clock endurance classic with Bourdais, Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon at the wheel.
Victory appeared to be within reach during the final stint as Bourdais emerged as the frontrunner for the majority of the final hour. However, the Frenchman was caught and passed by Louis Deletraz with less than six minutes to go, before guiding the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 to the win.
During the post-race press conference, Bourdais admitted the team, which earned its third podium at Sebring in six years, faced some electrical issues during the contest.
“Yeah, I think the whole Cadillac and Ganassi team did a great job,” Bourdais said.
“It was maybe not as simple as we would have liked. We had some electronics at some point. You saw the car slowing down. I was really worried this was going to happen again and maybe that’s it.
“It was a little more simple than that. Everybody did a really good job. I think the moment where the #40 seemed to lose the race, because of the dirty wind stream behind the #10, they had to pit early and out of sync. They proved to be too strong for us. Hats off to those guys.
“It was a good day, good points day, but it’s always disappointing to lose the race like that in the closing laps.”
#01 Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais, Scott Dixon
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
When trying to pinpoint at what point of the race the problems occurred, Bourdais then further explained some of the details the team were enduring and forced to overcome.
“We kind of had an EBS [electronic braking system] failure time and time again,” Bourdais said. “We tried to do some defaults and every time it came back. We cleared it, then the engine stopped coming out of (Turn) 7. That’s where we lost the three spots to the two Acuras and the BMW.
“We got going again. We never heard of it anymore. That was kind of weird. I honestly don’t really remember when it was. It was my second time in the car during my second stint. The rear brakes started to catch on fire, the rear tire pressures took off. It didn’t look pretty for a minute.
“But the guys did a great job. They debugged the problem and found a solution; we got going and are there in the end. That’s all you can ask for.”
