Action Express Racing Cadillac ace Pipo Derani says that muscular maneuvers will be necessary in the GTP-class cars in order to get to the front in Saturday’s race Long Beach.The third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season sees eight cars competing in the GTP class – two Cadillac V-Series.
“It’s one of those races where qualifying matters more than others because it’s just hard to pass, like any other street track,” said the Brazilian ace who won the race with Felipe Nasr in AXR’s Cadillac DPi-V.R in 2021. “We’re getting there with a win already under our belts this season, a pole position and the championship lead, but we’re going to attack the weekend the same way as if we had not won the last race or were not leading the championship.
“Long Beach being one of our shorter races that we have all year makes for a different dynamic, so everyone coming from a long race like Sebring has to quickly switch and go for a completely different strategy in order to achieve a good result. Therefore, a little bit of argy bargy is necessary. Given this is the first year of the LMDh cars that populate the GTP class, Derani admitted that there are unknowns regarding tire strategy on a track where teams are unable to test.
PipoDerani IMSA GPLongBeach Typical Derani driving style, I'm afraid
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