Hull: CGR “No Question” Wants Second Full-Season Cadillac

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

There’s “no question” of Chip Ganassi Racing’s desire to run a second Cadillac V-Series.R full-time in the FIA World Endurance Championship according to the team’s managing director Mike Hull, who has outlined the benefits of a two-car operation.

The American squad will return to the globe-trotting championship with a single Hypercar entry, under the Cadillac Racing banner, for Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber, despite an initial exploration by Cadillac to increase its WEC commitment.

While there’s prospects of two CGR-entered Cadillacs at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Stephen Mitas-managed CGR WEC program will continue as a single-car effort for the majority of the season.

When asked by Sportscar365 if he’d like to have a two-car program, Hull said: “No question for us.

“We think it’s really, really important because we feel like supporting a global formula in that way with a team structure is the way it should be done.”

Hull confirmed that CGR held dialogue with Cadillac on the prospects of expanding into a two-car effort, a setup that all but one other factory WEC Hypercar team is utilizing for the 2024 season.

GM motorsports competition engineering director Mark Stielow told Sportscar365 late last year that costs was a key factor in the decision not to add a second entry.

CGR also operated as a single-car program in last weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona and will do so for the full IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

“We value being able to run multiple cars because we gain so much between the teammates and between the cars and the share of information and the share of race strategy and the share of people and all of that,” Hull said.

“That’s what our team has always been about.

“It’s unusual for us to be doing what we’re doing but we aren’t stopping how we do it.

“I think that’s probably what we have in common with the past and hopefully in the future we’ll go back to what we’ve always done here.”

Hull said there’s “some commonalities” in working with fellow Cadillac factory squad Action Express Racing in the WeatherTech Championship but indicated that doesn’t extend into a traditional multi-car operation that CGR has benefited from in its decades of motorsports programs.

“I think it’s certainly helped both Action Express and Chip Ganassi Racing to be aligned and be able to share information,” he said.

“Sports car racing is about the share. It’s far different than open-wheel racing, which is like the Jimmy Buffett song ‘Fins to the Left, Fins to the Right’ whereas sports car racing is more about the share and being lifeguards for each other.

“I think having multiple in-house entries, properly managed, has proven over time that you can exceed expectation in a way of creating additional momentum for season after season after season.

“That’s what you really want to be able to do.”

O’Gara: CGR in “ACO’s Mercy” for Second Le Mans Entry

Mike O’Gara, the team’s director of global operations, is hopeful that its second Cadillac will again be granted an entry for Le Mans alongside the already-confirmed No. 2 WEC car.

“We’re at the ACO’s mercy right now,” O’Gara told Sportscar365. “We’re pleading our case. We want to have both of our cars there for sure.

“We’re planning as if it’s going to happen because by mid-February the garage layout and spares and freight and all that stuff, it all already has to be in motion by then.

“So we’re acting as if we’re going to get an invitation because it’s easier to cancel those things than plan late.

“We don’t have anything official from them, but we hope that the Cadillac brand and just having as many Hypercars at Le Mans as possible is in their interest. I’m ready to go back.”

Reigning NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou is understood to be on CGR’s short-list of drivers to fill the lineup in the No. 2 Cadillac should its second car be accepted for Le Mans.

Davey Euwema contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John