Next chapter begins at Daytona test days
Expanded Cadillac Racing GTP program kicks off 2025 prep with new, familiar faces
DETROIT (Nov. 12, 2024) – Five weeks after securing the pole and victory to close out the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, Cadillac Racing begins a new chapter where 2024 Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) competition started.
Cadillac Racing returns this week to Daytona International Speedway with an expanded three-car lineup for IMSA-sanctioned test days that will introduce seven drivers to the racecar powered by the purpose-built 5.5-liter V8 engine and lay groundwork for the 2025 season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Scheduled to participate Friday and Saturday on the 3.56-mile, 12-turn road course:
Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing
No. 10 – Ricky Taylor, Filip Albuquerque, Will Stevens
No. 40 – Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz, Alex Lynn
Cadillac Whelen
No. 31 – Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, Frederik Vesti
Brendon Hartley and Kamui Kobayashi, who will drive in the 63rd twice-around-the-clock race in January, are not available to join their teammates this week.
Wayne Taylor Racing returns under the GM umbrella with the goal of renewing the successful pairing that includes an unprecedented five-race IMSA winning streak in 2017 to start Cadillac Racing’s prototype era.
“It’s fantastic to return to driving for GM/Cadillac,” Albuquerque said. “Since I started racing in America in overall class, it was with the Chevy DP in 2016, then I did another four years with Cadillac DPi and now to be back is amazing.
“In the first two seasons of GTP class, I had many fights with Cadillac and saw how consistently strong they were. I just can’t wait to drive the car for the first time and feel what the car can do.”
Added Deletraz: “I can’t wait to start working together. I look forward to understanding how they work and make such fast cars. Since I joined IMSA, Cadillac Racing has always been extremely competitive and hard to beat. I can’t wait to drive the car for the first time and see what made Cadillac so strong.”
Bamber and Lynn, who last drove for Cadillac Racing full time in IMSA in 2022, bring insights of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) Cadillac Racing Hypercar to the respective championship-winning teams.
“I’m looking forward to getting down to Daytona and starting the work to start the new year off on the right foot,” Bamber said.
The 2024 season started well for Cadillac Racing as Bamber’s new team, fielded by Action Express Racing, earned the pole with a track-record lap time and finished a close second in the race. The team concluded the nine-race campaign with a track-record, pole-winning lap and fifth-place finish in the Motul Petit Le Mans. Overall, the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R scored four of Cadillac Racing’s GTP class-high six poles.
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