CADILLAC NARROWLY LEADS THE WAY
ALEXANDER SIMS/PIPO DERANI
ACTION EXPRESS RACING CADILLAC V-SERIES.R
POINTS 2460 (1ST)
WINS 1
Action Express heads to Road Atlanta with an excellent chance of a sixth IMSA SportsCar Championship title in 10 seasons. Its 2021 champion Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims lead both the regular points and the four-round Endurance Cup with third driver Jack Aitken, who rejoins the duo this weekend as the inaugural season for the GTP class’s hybrid cars draws to a close.
Yet Sims feels “somewhat surprised honestly that we are leading the championship going into the last round”. The Briton, who after one season in the top division will rejoin Corvette Racing next year to campaign its new Z06 GT3.R in GTD Pro, concedes “we’ve left a lot of points on the table in quite a few races”.
At July’s Mosport round, where Sims set fastest lap, “things fell apart strategy-wise” to end up seventh, while shunting on cold tyres in the warm-up at Road America compromised a race they would start from pole. “We had to put a spare rear end on that we didn’t have time to do set-up on – it was rear toe out and odd bits like that, so that was that race gone,” Sims laments. A brake issue then scuppered first practice at Indianapolis last time out, putting AXR on the back foot to require a fightback from eighth to fourth.
“It’s probably just the reality for most if not all of us up and down the pitlane with the new cars that we just haven’t been able to execute a good solid weekend every time,” Sims
