With an expanded three-car attack on IMSA’s top class this year featuring returnee Wayne Taylor Racing and stalwart Action Express, it’s clear that Cadillac Racing is taking year three of its GTP programme extremely seriously.
WTR’s switch from Acura to Cadillac in the wake of Chip Ganassi Racing’s split with GM is at the heart of this push for glory. Just a year on from upping the ante with Acura and HRC by adding a second car to its programme, WTR took the opportunity to head elsewhere.
The decision by Wayne Taylor to steer his team back to General Motors after a four-year partnership with Acura promises to inject fresh energy into his IMSA programme. Following a successful stint with the ARX-05, the team amassed just two race wins in two seasons with the ARX-06 since the start of the GTP era. For a team with standards as high as WTR’s, that sort of return isn’t good enough.
For the start of this new chapter, WTR is bringing two cars and a set of star drivers to the field. The #10 sees Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque pair up for the campaign. The sister car #40 meanwhile, will be steered by Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor throughout the year.
And that’s not all, JOTA WEC drivers Will Stevens and Alex Lynn (who has pulled out of the Rolex 24 with a virus) are in for the long races and Toyota Hypercar drivers Brendon Hartley and Kamui Kobayashi are adding further firepower for Round 1.
“The team has always had a reputation of hiring some great drivers, especially for the long races. We’re lucky we have that attractive nature,” Ricky Taylor (above) tells DSC.
“People want to drive with WTR and because of the relationship between the three Cadillac teams, we wanted to share drivers. That’s why we’ve got Alex and Will.”
How long will it take WTR to get up to speed? That’s the million-dollar question. Testing opportunities with its new cars were limited over the short off-season and the level in GTP is sky-high. So is it too much to expect the team to contend for wins right off the back?
The good news is that while the V-Series.R may be new to the team, it is a known quantity. It’s a proven winner which claimed the 2023 IMSA GTP titles with Action Express and has received its first ‘Joker’ update in the form of an electronics upgrade ahead of the new season.
There’s also a ton of track time in the build-up to Rolex for WTR’s staff to play around with set-up options and familiarise themselves with the car’s finer details.
“It’s all quite new, and considering it’s the same rules package for everybody the different manufacturers have definitely gone about attacking the hybrid approach differently,” Taylor continues.
“The approach from GM, Cadillac and Dallara has always been to keep things simple and I think that jumped out to me when I first drove the car. The Acura was nimble and agile, and that was by design with the smallest, lightest engine.
“But the Cadillac it’s simple, it does all the little things right and that’s what you need for endurance racing. We can already see why this car is good at every race track because, with every change you make to the set-up, you feel it. It’s very adaptable.”
Deletraz feels the same, giving DSC a positive assessment of the V-Series.R after winter testing. “It’s (the V-Series.R) more different than I thought,” he said when asked to compare the car to the ARX-06. “The engine, with the sound, is so different, but it’s really cool to drive and open up the throttle on the banking.
“The power delivery is great too and the traction is stronger. We have more control with this car on the accelerator and less lag from the turbo. There may be negatives and I need more time but the traction of the Cadillac has really surprised me.”
The toughest task may come on the human side, as WTR’s crews develop a working relationship again with everyone at Cadillac.
“For us, it’s drag and drop in terms of staff, but from the factory side, it’s all changed so much from the DPi era,” Taylor, who last raced a Cadillac back in 2017, explained. “Back then you would get an engine guy from GM, a performance guy from Dallara and that was pretty much the relationship between the team and those partners.
“Now, it’s a combination of 100-plus people across the different companies. So it’s still a learning curve and in some ways, it doesn’t feel like a homecoming, you feel like a stranger. But it’s interesting to see how everything has evolved, as GM is putting more resources into this than ever.”
If it does take time for WTR to get up to speed, then Cadillac can rely on Action Express. The loyal Gary Nelson-led team returns with a single-car once again and an intriguing line-up.
Since the V-Series.R programme got underway in 2023 Cadillac has strived to create a ‘one team’ environment, with the teams racing in IMSA and WEC working together towards a common goal. And in 2025, with this new-look set-up featuring WTR in IMSA and JOTA in WEC, GM expects the same approach.
In fact, AXR driver Jack Aitken revealed that there’s an active effort to increase the level of collaboration between the teams for this season.
“We’re trying to make it all even more cooperative at Cadillac than it was before,” Aitken says. “That’s not necessarily because of the swap of Ganassi and Wayne Taylor, that’s just what Cadillac is always trying to foster. We are trying to increase data sharing, communication, and general understanding.
“It’s difficult because there are so many people involved, and it’s not easy to act co-operatively on the race track, but that’s the aim going forward. We are Cadillac teams and Cadillac drivers and the goal is for Cadillac to be on the top step above all else.
“We will see how it plays out when we start racing for real, but right now it feels very positive.”
Images courtesy of Andrew Lofthouse, WTR and IMSA
