Renger van der Zande began his competitive life as a Wayne Taylor Racing driver during the ROAR before the 24, and helped his new team-mates Jordan Taylor and Ryan Hunter-Reay had three competitive days at the Daytona International Speedway.
Van der Zande, brought in from the VisitFlorida Racing squad in place of the Team Penske-bound Ricky Taylor, took responsibility for the Qualifying effort during the final day of the ROAR that determined pit and garage locations for the Rolex 24 at Daytona later this month, and set the fourth fastest time.
Van der Zande felt the lap he put in during that session was on the limit, so there is work to do in order to have a competitive actual qualifying session and race at Daytona at the end of January.
“We had a few days of testing and it was interesting for me to get a feel for the car and the proper feel for the set-up changes that we applied a few times,” said van der Zande on WayneTaylorRacing.com. “We got some driver change practice in, worked with the team and all that, blending in, I would say.
“I did qualifying and got P4. For me, that was a bit of the limit, so we need to find what the actual time is, what the other teams found, and that’s what we’re going to work on before the race.”
