You can read Part 1 of this feature HERE…
Here is the second part of the Jota timeline so far, starting with the beginning of the FIA WEC era.
This stretch brought with it the transition to a new-look LMP2 class, GT3 opportunities, and, as you’ll read, much more besides on the journey towards 2025 and the debut of Hertz Team JOTA as the Cadillac factory team.
2012: Jota returned to the European Le Mans Series with the LMP2 Zytek Z11SN Nissan, adding outings at Le Mans and at the Spa-Francorchamps round of the FIA WEC (the team’ debut in the World Championship).
Sam Hancock and Simon Dolan raced for the full season, joined by Haruki Kurosawa at Le Mans.
The team scored a class win at Spa but failed to finish the Le Mans 24 hours, retiring nearly 20 hours in.
Jota ran the Mazda MX-5 GT4 in the British GT Championship in 2012 with Mark Ticehurst and Owen Mildenhall. The best result of the season a third in class at Brands Hatch.
2013: The team continued in the European Le Mans Series with the LMP2 Zytek Z11SN Nissan with a class win at Silverstone and finishing third overall in the championship for Simon Dolan and Oliver Turvey.
Le Mans saw the Zytek finish seventh in class , thirteenth overall with Dolan, Turvey and Lucas Luhr
2014: Jota Sport’s third consecutive year running the LMP2 Zytek Z11SN Nissan saw a new-look driver squad with both Harry Tincknell and Felipe Albuquerque making their LMP2 debuts alongside Simon Dolan, a race win their Championship highlight en route to runners up in the ELMS
Albuquerque was on Audi LMP1 duty for Le mans with Oliver Turvey drafted in instead, the team scoring a first class win at Le Mans with an excellent 5th place overall finish ahead of no fewer than five LMP1s.
Jota was, once again, given a commission by Mazda to design, build and run an MX5, this time for the V4 category for the Nurburgring 24 hours.
Driven by Teruaki Kato, Stefan Johansson, Owen Mildenhall and Wolfgang Kaufmann, the car did not finish due to accident damage.
2015: The Zytek Z11SN gave way to a Gibson 015S Nissan for 2015, but again it was a full season in the ELMS at the core of Jota’s season with the same full season trio returning.
Jota Sport would finish third in the European Le Mans Series, scoring a win and three other podium finishes.
The team would again enter the Spa WEC round as a one-off for le Mans preparation and would (again!) win, Albuquerque on LMP1 dutoies again for Audi would be replaced in the Gibson for both races by Mitch Evans.
Tincknell meanwhile was required for the ill-starred Nissan LMP1 effort at Le Mans and would be replaced by Oliver Turvey, the Jota crew coming home second in LMP2 and tenth overall.
2016: In the final year of the production engine-based LMP2 class Jota Sport adopted another new look, another new moniker and another new car.
They would compete with a car apiece in both the FIA WEC and ELMS, with a new ORECA 05 in the LMP2 class of the World Championship and the returning Gibson in the ELMS, under the banner of Russian fuel company G-Drive.
The full season ELMS line up saw the Gibson 015S, ‘Mighty #38’ return for its final season with the team of Simon Dolan, joined again by Harry Tincknell and with Giedo van der Garde signed for the season. Two race wins bookending the season were enough to see Simon Dolan’s spell with the team end with a championship victory.
The Gibson once again ran in the WEC races at Spa and Le Mans. With Tincknell on Ford GT duty he was replaced by Jake Dennis.
The ORECA 05 Nissan in the full season of FIA WEC was crewed initially by Roman Rusinov, Rene Rast and Nathaneal Berthon. Berthon though would leave the team before Le Mans, replaced there by Will Stevens who would return again, this time to replace Rene Rast for two late season races when the German had DTM and Formula E clashes.
Alex Brundle would step in post-Le Mans for the remainder of the season, the team winning the final three races. However, a retirement at Nürburgring and a brake disc explosion whilst leading in Mexico cost them a shot at the title.
2017: Jota Sport made the transition into the Gibson V8 powered LMP2 era with a two car WEC full-season effort under the Jackie Chan DC Racing banner.
The #37 was driven by Jackie Chan DC Racing founder David Cheng, reigning ELMS LMP3 champion Alex Brundle and Tristan Gommendy.
The “Mighty #38” was entrusted to Ho Pin Tung, Oliver Jarvis and Thomas Laurent.
The highlight of the season was undoubtedly Le Mans where both cars featured on the overall podium after the LMP1 Hybrids from Toyota and Porsche all hit trouble. The #38 led the race overall until just before the final hour. It would be the first time ever that an LMP2 car had led at Le Mans and the first and only time thus far that LMP2s had finished on the overall podium.
Three early season wins were not enough though to fend off a stellar second half of the campaign from the rival Valiante Rebellion effort. Second in the whampionship was all that Jota could muster with the #38, the Le Mans result ending up as the only podium of the season for the #37.
There was a Jackie Chan DC Racing x Jota effort too in the resurgent Asian Le Mans Series (2017/18) with a pair of ORECA 05 Nissans (the Asian Series still running to the older ruleset) and a Ligier JSP3 in LMP3.
The #7 ORECA would field David Cheng and Ho Pin Tung for the opening round, Ho-Pin replaced by Jazeman Jafaar for Round 2 with Jafaar staying aboard for the remainder of the season. He was joined by fellow Malaysian racers Weiron Tan and Afiq Yazid, the trio scoring an overall race win at Buriram.
The title would go to the sister #8 car with Harrison Newey, Thomas Laurent and Stephane Richelmi scoring wins at all of the other three races.
And the squad would triumph in LMP3 too with two class wins for Guy Cosmo, Patrick Byrne and Gabriel Aubry.
2018/2019: It would be a second season partnering with Jackie Chan DC Racing with. two-car ORECA LMP2 effort for the ‘Super Season’ of the FIA WEC straddling 2018 and 2019 and featuring two editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Before that though there was a first, and so far only, outing for Jota (still under the Jackie Chan DC Racing banner) at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.
The #78 car saw Alex Brundle, Ho Pin Tung, Antonio Felix de Costa and Ferdinand Habsburg take fifth overall whilst the #37 was crewed by Robin Frijns, Daniel Juncadella, Felix Rosenqvist and Lance Stroll and came home 15th.
In the FIA WEC the #38 was crewed through the full season by Gabriel Aubry, Stéphane Richelmi and Ho-Pin Tung. The trio took second in the Drivers’ and Teams’ championship with three wins and three additional podiums, including second in class at Le Mans in 2019.
The driver line-up in the sister #37 by contrast changed several times in the season. The all-Malaysian trio of Jazeman Jaafar, Weiron Tan and Nabil Jeffri contested the opening five rounds of the season, including a win at Fuji before David Heinemeier Hansson and Jordan King stepped in for the final three races.
Will Stevens also joined them for two races before Ricky Taylor stepped in for the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours, bringing a one-off Konica Minolta livery with him. The car would finish third in the Teams’ standings over the season after taking a second win at Sebring in 2019, the total included three other podium finishes, including second in class at Le Mans in 2018.
There was what proved to be a one-off for the Jackie Chan DC Racing X Jota effort in Shanghai over in the Asian LMS. The LMP2 effort for the all-Malaysian crew of Jazeman Jaafar, Nabil Jeffri and Weiron Tan with an ORECA 05 Nissan led the race before a lost wheel put the car into retirement. Notably the LMP3 effort under the same moniker had no Jota input.
Jota also began a two-season long programme with R-Motorsport that year, Jota joining Arden Motorport in supporting the Swiss outfit’s Aston Martin GT3 programme in the Blancpain GT Series.
The effort saw a pair of Vantage V12 GT3s race for the season, the highlight a race win at Silverstone for Jake Dennis, Nicki Thiim and Matthieu Vaxivière. The second car was crewed by Marvin Kirchhofer and Maxime Martin for the full season, with Alex Brundle replaced by Dominic Bauman mid-season.
2019/2020: The 2019/20 season would see COVID 19 intervene, with the campaign extended to 15 months to cover cancelled events.
Jota would return to the FIA WEC with a two-car ORECA 07 Gibson effort, this time with a car under its own brand, the first time they had done so for a full season in the World Championship.
Car #37 would still race under the Jackie Chan DC Racing banner and was crewed for the full season by Will Stevens and Ho Pin Tung, with Gabi Aubry missing Spa in 2020 due to a positive COVID test. That weekend Ryan Cullen would step in.
The team struggled for consistency through the season, was disqualified at Le Mans for receiving outside assistance after stopping out on the circuit, but scored a win at the season finale to score fifth in the driver points, third in the teams standings.
The sister #38 Jota Sport car saw Anthony Davidson, Antonio Felix de Costa and Roberto Gonzalez crew through the season (though Davidson would miss the opening round through injury). The crew would come second at Le Mans after a titanic battle with the winning United Autosports car, finishing sixth overall. A win at Shanghai in 2019 helped the squad to second in the teams standings, with da Costa and Gonzalez finishing third in the drivers’ title tally.
2019/20 also saw a second and final season for the team supporting the R-Motorsport Aston Martin effort. Its Pro car was involved in a fantastic dice for the win at Bathurst in 2019 in the final race for the V12 Vantage GT3, Jake Dennis losing out to Matt Campbell’s EBM Porsche in the final 10 minutes.
A single win for Ricky Collard and Marvin Kirchhöfer at the Nürburgring was the brightest point in the 2019 Blancpain GT Series season with the new Aston Martin.
2021: The FIA WEC returned to a regular calendar with a pair of ORECAs once again for the full season.
Car #28 fielded a new-look squad with Tom Blomqvist and Sean Gelael and Stoffel Vandoorne. The line-up had a warm-up programme in the Asian Le Mans Series with Blomqvist racing at Abu Dhabi, Vandoorne at Dubai and Gelael at all four races. During that campaign the Vandoorne-Gelael combo took a pair of wins en route to second in the championship.
In the WEC there was impressive consistency, but no race wins. The highlight was a second place at Le Mans, and that result was matched in the championship standings with Team WRT taking the title. It was the third consecutibve season that a Jota-run LMP2 car had finished as the runner-up.
The sister #38 car was run with Ant Davidson, Roberto Gonzalez and Will Stevens once again, a win at Portimao and three other podium finishes seeing the squad finish third in the season standings.
There was a support role too for Jota as partners with Era Motorsport in the Asian Le Mans Series, scoring an LMP2 Pro-Am title win. It also partnered with the emergent Racing Team Turkey effort, Jota adding LMP2 know-how to TF Sport’s first season in the category.
Jota also rekindled its GT3 programme that year, this time under its own name, and this time with McLaren and a single 720S GT3 for Ollie Wilkinson, Rob Bell and Ben Barnicoat in GT World Challenge Europe.
2022: After three consecutive runner-up finishes in the LMP2 standings for the FIA WEC, 2022 saw Jota come good.
Its #38 car with António Félix da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez and Will Stevens took the title with a season of consistent results, though only one win (albeit at the double-points scoring Le Mans 24 Hours where they finished fifth overall). A further five podium finishes meant they ended the season clear of the chasing WRT effort, despite that car scoring three wins!
The sister #28 car for Oliver Rasmussen, Ed Jones and Jonathan Aberdein finished third in class, seventh overall at Le Mans and finished the WEC season in sixth.
2023: Jota took the plunge into Hypercar with a ground-breaking deal creating Hertz Team JOTA. Its first Porsche 963 was presented in a stunning ‘Hertz Racing Gold’ livery that also incorporated backing from Tom Brady’s new clothing line and from Singer Automotive, whose chief designer was behind the fan-favourite colour scheme.
The car was set to run alongside a solo LMP2 effort for the full year, but with supply chain delays the 963 was not ready for opener at Sebring. Instead, JOTA fielded a pair of ORECAs for that event with the one-off #48 car taking the class win with David Beckmann, Will Stevens and Yifei Ye.
Stevens and Ye would combine from Round 3 at Spa (after missing the Portimao race) with Antonio Felix de Costa in the #38 Porsche. The car would lead overall both at Spa and Le Mans, the team’s best result of the season fourth overall at Bahrain. It finished in a dominant position in the Hypercar World Cup standings, as Proton’s Porsche arrived post Le Mans at Monza.
Meanwhile, team’s full-season LMP2 – the #28 for Pietro Fittipaldi, David Heinemeier Hansson and Oliver Rasmussen – had a topsy turvy season with a win at Monza the highlight en route to sixth in the points.
2024: Hertz Team JOTA doubled up to a two-car Porsche 963 Hypercar effort in the 2024 FIA WEC with its returning #38 car crewed by F1 World Champion Jenson Button, WEC LMP2 Champion Phil Hanson and Oliver Rasmussen. The new #12 car saw its seats filled by the returning Will Stevens, Norman Nato and Callum Ilott.
A strong start to the campaign saw the #12 finish second at Qatar and take an overall race win (the first for a non-factory Hypercar) in the 6 Hours of Spa. All of a sudden the car was in the title race!
Unfortunately the car failed to finish at the sharp end at the Le Mans after Ilott crashed out of practice, damaging the car beyond repair.
Remarkably though, the car made the race as the JOTA squad rebuilt the car from a bare tub in under 48 hours. It would finish eighth and still on the lead lap.
Pics copyright DSC/ RacingSportscars/ Jan Hettler/ Jakob Ebrey Photography/ Dirk Boegarts/ SRO
