The #31 Cadillac V-Sequence.R shared by Aitken, Alexander Sims and Pipo Derani was the prime beneficiary when each Penske Porsche 963s and the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 have been eradicated in a three-way crash inside the ultimate 20 minutes of the race.
Aitken was on the wheel of the Whelen Engineering-sponsored #31 machine on the time of the crash, and subsequently held off a problem from the one different surviving GTP automobile, the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8, to seal Cadillac’s first victory of the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s new period.
Reflecting on the unimaginable sequence of occasions that allowed he and his team-mates to take the win, Aitken admitted he had given up on beating his rivals on outright tempo, as an alternative prioritising making it to the chequered flag unscathed.
“I noticed the crash and was watching out for particles and different vehicles as a result of there have been vehicles just about all over the place and simply making an attempt to outlive,” recalled Aitken, who was making solely his second IMSA begin following his debut with AXR within the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.
“It was after I acquired by that I used to be ready for the warning and I assumed, ‘That was various GTP vehicles. Perhaps we’re alright right here.’
“It was very, very powerful racing. We have been making an attempt to carry our place nearly as good as we may. The opposite guys have been combating extraordinarily arduous. In some unspecified time in the future, you must notice when it is time to surrender and that is a part of the rationale we made it to the tip.
“All of us drove fairly good in addition to racing as arduous as we may after we had the tempo. I used to be ready just a little bit for an accident to occur in some unspecified time in the future.”
For Derani, the win marked his fourth at Sebring so as to add to his earlier triumphs in 2016, ’18 and 19, and got here after he suffered a coming-together with the Efficiency Tech Motorsports LMP3 automobile at Flip 13 round two hours into the race.
“I’ve had so many unfortunate races for the reason that final win right here so I’ll take just a little little bit of luck,” the Brazilian stated. “I really feel unhealthy for the fellows who crashed. However you must be fortunate just a little bit in motorsports.
“We had a implausible race. We began on pole, had a flawless race after the incident to start with, so we recovered effectively and simply implausible to get quantity 4.”
Derani’s full-time AXR team-mate Sims added: “It was only a bit surreal, truthfully, to look at all that unfold. In your thoughts, you are resigning your self to ending fourth. And so yeah, the feelings undergo a little bit of roller-coaster to comprehend that we’re within the seat to win the race.
“There’s some stage of sorrow for the three forward that did crash out, to be sincere, as a result of we have all been in that scenario and we all know how that feels. Conversely, it advantages you generally and we have got to take it and benefit from the second.”
Frustration and encouragement for Ganassi Cadillac drivers
The opposite Cadillac within the subject, the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing automobile of Sebastien Bourdais, Scott Dixon and Renger van der Zande, was labeled seventh within the GTP class after dropping out of the race with round three hours to go.
Bourdais, Dixon and van der Zande led a field-high 120 of 322 laps earlier than struggling what Cadillac known as a “gasoline distribution system difficulty” that had not reared its head throughout pre-event testing.
The frustration of dropping a powerful likelihood of a victory was tempered by the efficiency of the V-Sequence.R at Sebring, which Bourdais described as a significant step ahead from the automobile’s debut at Daytona.
“It’s clearly fairly disappointing for everyone,” stated the French driver. “The blokes did an amazing job. The automobile was fast. Cadillac appears to have one thing that works fairly effectively at Sebring, in order that’s actually encouraging.
“I believe we made some nice progress from Daytona in efficiency, in order that’s encouraging for the remainder of the season after ending on the rostrum however needing extra tempo at Daytona.”
Dixon added: “The automobile was actually quick and I felt like everyone on the group did an incredible job. We had some ups and downs, however finally, we have been top-three many of the race and led a great majority of it.
“Simply bummed that it ended the way in which it did, and we did not win the race. It is one which’s eluded me, and it could have been nice to take this one. However we had nice pace, nice teamwork and everyone did a hell of a job.”
