Renger van der Zande: Living the American Dream

2014 has been something of a breakout year for Renger van der Zande.  Having been forced to spend time on the sidelines in 2012 after a disappointing campaign in the DTM, the 28-year old made the move Stateside last season to resurrect his career momentum and landed a deal with Peter Baron’s Starworks outfit for the inaugural United Sportscar Championship in the Pro-Am LMPC class. America is famed for being the land of opportunity and Van der Zande relished in it, finishing runner-up in the points to the dominant CORE Autosport pairing of Jon Bennett and Colin Braun with wins at Laguna Seca, Road America and the season-ending 10-hour Petit Le Mans enduro for good measure.

Schultis and van der Zande celebrate victory at Road America (Regis Lefebure)

“It’s been an amazing season; to finish it off with a big win in such a classic event is a really nice feeling,” he said. “At the beginning of the season it’s always a big question mark where we are and it’s a very competitive class; you look at the top guys like Bruno Junquiera, Colin Braun and Jack Hawksworth, they are all very professional drivers who get their living out of racing and know how to win. With Mirco [Schultis] being my team-mate last year and this year, it’s also a question of how he will do, but we ended up with three wins and six podiums which is amazing.”

However, that’s not to say things have been straight-forward. Mechanical gremlins were a persistent nuisance throughout the year, robbing the team of valuable practice mileage needed to find the optimum set-up for single lap and long runs. That considered, the Dutchman has every reason to be delighted with the progress made over the course of the season, from a difficult run in the Daytona 24 Hours to ending the year on a high note at Road Atlanta.

“We had a lot of car issues this year with the steering, the electronics and so on, which meant we didn’t have a lot of time to set up the car, but during the race we would magic out a set-up out of the blue which worked, the car kept running till the end and we could finish races on the podium. It’s been a season where we struggled with the car, but when the moment was there to do it, we went out and did it.”

van der Zande took his first win in the USC at the iconic Laguna Seca. (Regis Lefebure)

The American style of racing evidently suits van der Zande, and it is in the United Sportscar Series where he believes his future lies. Discussions are ongoing for next season with Baron – who van der Zande credits with being the best strategist he has ever worked with – but it would come as no surprise to see him advance to the ranks of the Prototype category.

“I’m very happy to be there and I love the racing, with so many cars on track, so many different categories, it’s all about survival,” he reflects.  “As a driver, I learned a lot, and it’s also a lot of fun. 

“The relaxed way of how the Americans do their racing is something we can learn from in Europe. I still love racing in Europe; I did a GT Masters race at the Nürburgring and I finished third there which was really cool to do a podium straight away, but for sure my main programme for next year will probably be in America again because I’m enjoying it so much there.

“People say the tracks in America are dangerous, but that’s what we do, right? I haven’t seen any penalties for track limits during the whole season because the track limit is the wall, maybe you have a five inch piece of grass and that’s it. If you exceed the track limits, your car is broken! That makes it very challenging, and you can also see the respect between drivers is phenomenal. I think it’s because of those iconic tracks which automatically demands respect; you do a track walk at Mosport in Canada, or Watkins Glen or Road Atlanta and you’re amazed by the elevation changes. It’s really exciting to go out there and it means there’s more respect among the drivers – okay, we do touch sometimes but we have some really nice battles.” 

With the end of the regular season comes new challenges. Next up on van der Zande’s horizon is the ever-growing Macau GT Cup, against a strong international field consisting of Macau specialist Edo Mortara, circuit lap record-holder Maro Engel and newly-crowned DTM champion Marco Wittman to name but a few. 

van der Zande receives advice from Mercedes legend Bernd Schneider
before the 2013 Macau GT Cup. (Erebus Motorsport)

Macau is a circuit van der Zande traditionally goes well on – he took two fifths and a seventh in his four attempts at the Macau GP and ran competitively in the GT race last year before a final lap collision attempting to pass Alexandre Imperatori’s Porsche ended in the barriers. This time around, a win is the only goal.

“I just looked at an on-board lap from last year to refresh my memory and you can’t really describe the feeling of going there with such a big car," he said. "The SLS has so much power, good grip and good downforce which is really important on the streets of Macau. You’re driving from wall to wall and from the moment as you disconnect the pitlane speed limiter to going back to the garage it’s one big thrill. 

"The adrenaline is so high, you have to really concentrate. It’s always a big highlight of the year to come back there and for the brand, BMW, Mercedes, all the ones at Macau as well, it's the perfect challenge. To win there is something big and my expectations are to go for the win, I think it’s possible. 

"Last year at the beginning of the weekend I didn’t have the setup I wanted, but in the end we sorted out the car, I did P1 in the warmup and the race was very fast as well. I’m quite confident about being there with the GT car, I know have a very strong car to win this race with so I will go for it!”