Van der Zande will race for Chip Ganassi in the Rolex 24 with Kevin Magnussen. Now Van Der Zande will also run WEC races with Inter Europol Competition in the LMP2 class with Jakub Śmiechowski and Alex Brundle.
This marks the eighth season for van der Zande in the IMSA WeatherTech series. He has won at least one race each season, including the last two 24 Hours of Daytona in Wayne Taylor’s No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac.
His 2020 Rolex 24 win set the stage for his endurance effort as he went on to earn the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.
“It’s a great situation to focus on both of the two highest platforms of prototype racing in IMSA and WEC,” van der Zande said in a release. “The prototypes are the cars I have the most experience in now and I just love driving those fast, high downforce racecars. It’s a privilege to be adding this FIA WEC program with Inter Europol Competition to my Chip Ganassi Racing with Cadillac program in IMSA next season.”
The WEC season kicks off with the 1000 Miles of Sebring on March 19, but van der Zande will be in Ganassi’s car for that event. Helio Castroneves will take van der Zande’s seat at Sebring.
Van der Zande’s duties with Inter Europol will commence at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in May before he and the team tackle another twice around the clock classic with the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“Unfortunately I have a clash for the first round of the series at Sebring so I cannot race there in WEC, but I will be watching and hope that Inter Europol has a great run, while I focus on the Ganassi IMSA 12-Hour race,” van der Zande said.
“Inter Europol are a good team; they have been working really hard and have made gains, improved and got better by the season. It’s an honor to be hired by them for the season and for Le Mans, this shows they’re motivated to do well in the series. There’s still work to do, as ever, improvements to be made, so we will be aiming to use the rounds ahead of Le Mans to get fully up to speed, to ensure that we’re very competitive when we get to the 24 Hour race! A good season ahead!”