Jordan Taylor

RENGER VAN DER ZANDE Driver Bio There have been stellar moments throughout the 19-year racing career of veteran driver Renger van der Zande. But perhaps none is more head-turning than his Alex Zanardi-like pass for the race lead through the iconic “Corkscrew” series of turns during the waning moments of the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca near Monterey, California. The 32-year-old Dutch driver of the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Racing Prototype put on a gutsy move to squeeze by race leader Dane Cameron in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R through the challenging and tricky left-right combination of steep downhill turns and went on to secure his first victory in just his eighth career Prototype-class race. It was a move that drew immediate comparisons among the worldwide racing community to Zanardi’s legendary, last-lap pass in the 1996 CART Series finale at Laguna Seca, and one that has become a fixture in motorsports highlight reels around the world ever since. Most importantly, it also hammered home the notion in the mind of team owner Wayne Taylor that van der Zande would be the perfect choice to replace his older son Ricky Taylor as full-time co-driver of the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R alongside his younger son Jordan Taylor. The elder Taylor ended a four-year run as his younger brother’s co- driver when he accepted a ride with the all-new, two-car Team Penske Prototype-class effort for 2018. Thus, van der Zande becomes the first co-driver not named Taylor to occupy the cockpit full-time for the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R team since 2013, and the first driver from outside the Taylor “family.” Veteran Italian Max “The Ax” Angelelli was Wayne Taylor’s longtime co-driver and business partner and has essentially been considered a family member since van der Zande was a 3-year-old, and he co-drove the family racecar with Ricky Taylor during a successful run from 2010 through 2012. Add the fact his first order of business in 2018 will be to help successfully defend the driver and team championships won in dominating fashion by Ricky and Jordan Taylor in 2017, and van der Zande is looking at the opportunity of a racing lifetime. “Needless to say, I’m very happy to join the Konica Minolta Cadillac team. It’s a mega opportunity,” he said. “I have to say, for me, being with Spirit of Daytona Racing was a good step up from LMPC, and now joining a Prototype championship-winning team is very special. The atmosphere on the team is great. We are going full speed ahead for the 2018 season, keeping the drivers and the mechanics and everybody else working as a team. It’s like jumping into a warm bath. In the last four years, my career went up from a guy trying to make a name in the sport to someone asked to race in the cars of championship-caliber teams. I feel very privileged to be in that position. Being contacted by Wayne and getting asked to drive for this championship-winning team, that’s the crown for driving all sorts of cars all over the world for so many years. Yes, that means pressure on the track, and even more by replacing a family member. But pressure is always there – it doesn’t matter. I’m the type of driver who’s willing to take the risks. Of course, you have to be smart and do it in a clever way, but I’m racing the way I’m racing and I think it fits very nicely.” Van der Zande didn’t waste any time winning over his brand new teammates at the outset of 2018 when he qualified on the pole at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona. He bookended his maiden voyage with the Konica Minolta Cadillac team by securing a dramatic victory at the season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta with pass for the lead on the last turn of the very last lap. It was a thrilling end to a season that netted third in the championship despite a pair of uncharacteristic DNFs by the team. Along with Jordan Taylor, the pair added podium finishes of second at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, and third on the Grand Prix of Long Beach (Calif.) street circuit. -more- Renger van der Zande Driver Biography Page Two After moving up the ladder in Formula cars, van der Zande elevated his professional career competing with GT and Prototype classes with both private and factory teams. Van der Zande has been a recent fixture on the IMSA WeatherTech circuit, scoring nine race wins, 18 podium finishes and the 2016 championship for the LMPC-class Starworks Motorsport team during a three-year run that begin in 2014. Prior to his arrival on the North American scene in 2013, he had driven in virtually every major racing series worldwide, including Formula Renault, A1GP, GP2, German Touring Car, World Endurance Championship, Porsche SuperCup, and the Blancpain Endurance Series. Last year, van der Zande finished seventh in the driver championship as full-time co-driver with Marc Goosens in the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Multimatic Riley Prototype-class entry. In addition to his dramatic victory at the season’s ninth of 10 rounds at Laguna Seca, he scored a podium finish of third with Goosens and third co-driver Rene Rast at the season- opening Rolex 24 At Daytona. He added a pair of top-five finishes at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International and at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and also was victorious from the pole Callaway Competition in the ADAC GT Masters event at Zandvoort in his native Holland. The previous four seasons, van der Zande was a successful fixture in the Prototype Challenge class of the WeatherTech series, culminating with the class championship in 2016 with full-time co-driver Alex Popow in the Starworks Motorsport ORECA FLM09. They scored four class wins and eight podium finishes in all, the victories coming on Detroit’s Belle Isle Street Circuit, from the pole at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen – both wins for the second year in a row – and at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut and Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. They added runner-up finishes at Long Beach, California, Laguna Seca and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, and a third-place result at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. He also scored a pair of runner-up finishes in Europe – in the AKKA ASP entry at the 24-hour race at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium, and with HTP Motorsport at the 24-hour race at the Nurburgring circuit in Germany. The 2014 and 2015 Prototype Challenge efforts with the Starworks team resulted in finishes of second in the championship with German co-driver Mirco Schultis in 2014 and fifth with Popow in 2015 while also enjoying success with the Car Collection Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG team in endurance races at Barcelona and Zandvoort, as well as a pole and race-winning weekend in the Pirelli World Challenge week at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway in 2015. Van der Zande’s first foray into the Prototype Challenge ranks was a six-race stint in 2013 with Schultis for the Dragonspeed Mishumotors team in the American Le Mans Series. They finished second at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and added top-five efforts at Laguna Seca, Lime Rock and Circuit of the Americas. Meanwhile, van der Zande won the 16-race BRL-V6 oval championship for the Theunissen BRLV6 team with six race wins and four pole positions, and competed in select events in the International GT Open with Seyffarth Motorsport in the Mercedes SLS AMG, earning two wins, one pole, and three podiums. Like most every successful driver van der Zande began his racing career in go-karts at a young age. In 2000, at the age of 13, he spent the bulk of his time competing for the CRG Holland team in his native country, and rose to the Formula Renault 2.0 ranks with Van Amersfoort Racing in 2004 and 2005, scoring four wins, nine podium finishes and four poles the latter season. He drove three races for the A1GP Netherlands team in 2006 and 2007, then raced for the Prema Powerteam in the Formula 3 Euroseries in 2007 and 2008, and made his GP2 Series debut in the second round of the 2008 and 2009 GP2 Asia Series season for Trust Team Arden. Lacking the budget to continue in GP2 in 2009, van der Zande moved into the British Formula 3 Championship, competing for Hitech Racing, and promptly won his debut race at Silverstone. Later that season, after scoring a point in the first of two races during the Barcelona stop on the tour, van der Zande won the second race from pole position. In 2010, van der Zade joined RSC Mücke Motorsport for the debut season of the GP3 series, the feeder series for the GP2 Series, and earned one podium finish. The Dutch driver also competed in the Windsor Arch F3 Macau Grand Prix with Team Motopark Academy, finishing fifth. From GP3, van der Zande advanced to the DTM ranks in 2011 with Persson Motorsport, earning a third-place finish at the Munich Olympic Stadium event.

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