General Motors is set to the flag for American motorsport on home soil at Circuit of The Americas this weekend during the FIA WEC’s Lone Star Le Mans event, with two of its brands split between the two classes.
Cadillac is in transition, looking to end its tenure with the single-car Chip Ganassi Racing-run outfit on a high in the final three races of the 2024 campaign in Le Mans Hypercar before welcoming Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA as a two-car programme in 2025.
Corvette, meanwhile, has undergone its metamorphosis from 2023 to 2024. As Corvette Racing recently completed its 300th race start as an entity going back to its 1999 inception, the framework of the program is now customer-focused rather than purely factory-run within the LMGT3 class. TF Sport is in its first season with the brand this year.
Both brands have found victory lane in Austin before, and both seek to turn around character-building seasons with great results at Lone Star Le Mans.
Cadillac is one of two Hypercar manufacturers (Lamborghini) running a single car in 2024. With rule changes coming for 2025 requiring all manufacturers to run at least two, Cadillac’s time as a single-car entrant in Hypercar is drawing to a close.
Lone Star Le Mans marks Cadillac’s first prototype start in Austin since 2017, when the brand won its fourth straight race to open the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season with the previous iteration Cadillac DPi-V.R.
Its Hypercar, built to the LMDh ruleset which makes it eligible to race in the FIA WEC and IMSA, features a naturally aspirated, purpose-built 5.5-litre V8 engine developed by GM’s Performance and Racing propulsion team based in Pontiac, Michigan.
Its pace has been excellent in recent races, as the Cadillac is the only Hypercar that has qualified in the top four each of the past three FIA WEC races in Spa, Le Mans and Sao Paulo. But hasn’t translated to a result of significance – yet – but the tides may shift in Austin for drivers Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn in the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R.
The Cadillac was one of several cars that participated in a two-day test after Sao Paulo and feedback from the team suggests it could be a strong weekend.
Bamber also has previous successes to build on at the circuit. He is a two-time COTA winner, once overall in the FIA WEC race in 2017 and in the GT Le Mans class in IMSA in 2016, both times with Porsche as his co-driver, and looks to make his own name at the tricky Texas track next weekend.
“COTA is a very technical track, very difficult to get right,” said Lynn. “There is a lot of lap time to be found with drivers exploiting the kerbs. We don’t drive there a lot, so it’s a tough track to nail. But it’s a challenge we all enjoy. Sector 1 is by far my favourite.
“You’ve got that huge hill to Turn 1, then the big downhill sweeping into what is really a recreation of Maggots and Becketts from Silverstone.
“It really is amazing behind the wheel, and to watch from grandstands and viewing banks. Austin in itself is such a cool place too. Racing in the U.S. is cool, but that city just adds to it. The people there are so welcoming and for that reason, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love going there.”
Cadillac’s wins at COTA stretch to its previous era producing GT3 cars, with a pair of wins achieved by Johnny O’Connell in SRO World Challenge competition at the track.
After years as a factory programme, Corvette Racing has shifted into a customer racing model for 2024, using factory drivers placed throughout the different teams.
The car taking up the task is the new Corvette Z06 GT3.R, Chevrolet’s first car built to global GT3 regulations and heavily influenced by the production Corvette Z06 supercar.
Roughly 80 per cent of the production content from the Z06 carries over to the race car, which features a hand-built, 5.5-litre, flat-plane crankshaft V8 engine in the Z06 GT3.R.
The new car is a winner in both North American series – it took its first two wins with the DXDT Racing outfit in Austin in SRO World Challenge competition at the track in May – and added its first IMSA win in July at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports.
Success seems around the corner for Corvette within FIA WEC, as TF Sport has extracted pace from the new car in qualifying and appears poised to climb within the stacked LMGT3 field.
“In general it’s a fantastic track,” said Charlie Eastwood, driver of the #81 Corvette Z06 GT3 R for TF Sport said of COTA.
“It’s undergone some repaving so it will be interesting to see what happens with that. I have fond memories of COTA. The last time we were there in WEC we won the race, which was a great result. It also was the very first place I got to drive the Z06 GT3.R a year ago in the heat of the summer, which is what we’re going to have. I think it will suit the car very well.
“Degradation will be key, in the middle of summer in Austin, it’s not going to be cool at all – so managing that from the outset will be important. I’m looking forward to it. Brazil wasn’t a great result but we showed some strong pace, which at the minute is what we need to show. We’ve got a bit of confidence going in.”
Tom Van Rompuy scored a pole position for the #81 Corvette Z06 GT3.R on its debut at Qatar and has carried that car’s pace for most of the year, with three Hyperpole appearances in five races. He shares that car with Rui Andrade and Corvette factory driver Charlie Eastwood.
The sister #82 car features fellow Corvette factory driver Daniel Juncadella alongside Sebastien Baud and Hiroshi Koizumi.
While the team’s best results are seventh and eighth, both achieved at the second race of the year in Imola, a top-five or maiden podium appears closer based on the potential shown throughout.
