JOTA ‘Would’ve Taken’ Top-Five in First Le Mans With Cadillac

Hertz Team JOTA co-founder Sam Hignett says he would have signed for a top-five finish on the team’s first 24 Hours of Le Mans with Cadillac machinery, following a race in which the American marque didn’t live up to its qualifying promise.

The two JOTA-run Cadillac V-Series.Rs locked out the front row for the FIA World Endurance Championship blue riband, but were unable to stay in contention with the three Ferrari 499Ps and the best of the Porsche 963s come the race itself.

Alex Lynn, Will Stevens and Norman Nato finished fifth in the No. 12 car that started on pole, two minutes and 18 seconds behind the winning No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari, while the No. 38 Cadillac was a lap down in eighth with Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais and Jenson Button taking turns behind the wheel.

In the run-up to the race, JOTA had downplayed expectations for its first Le Mans — and only its fourth WEC race — with Cadillac after switching from customer Porsche machinery, and speaking post-race, Hignett said that the team can be satisfied at what it achieved so early in its relationship with the GM marque.

“This will be the first Le Mans of many [with Cadillac],” said Hignett. “Ferrari have had a leg up, running for three years, now with three cars, and have won it three times. You look at what Porsche achieved in year three and how close we got in the first year.

“The support from GM and Cadillac has been incredible. But as JOTA, we have a lot of learning to do to optimize it, to maximize it. It takes time.

“Look at where Penske are. They have edged closer every year and they could have won it this year if things had fallen slightly differently. 

“The best way to practice Le Mans is to do Le Mans. It’s an exciting start to a long-term project. We know what we have to find and we have 364 days to find it.

“We can see from what happened in qualifying, from getting the fastest race lap, that the thing is quick. We have just got to make it quick more often.”

Asked by Sportscar365 if he would have signed up for a top-five, lead-lap finish with one car ahead of the race, Hignett replied: “I think so. It’s crazy competitive. The level of the drivers and teams is unbelievable. It’s something special.”

Amid fears the Cadillac’s straight line speed wouldn’t be enough to make it a viable contender for the win, both polesitter Stevens and Bamber in the sister JOTA car dropped down the order in the opening hour.

Not only surpassed by Ferrari and Porsche, the two JOTA cars also slipped behind what turned out to be the quickest of the four-car Cadillac contingent in the early part of the race, the No. 311 Action Express Racing entry.

“I think we hadn’t optimized a few bits and pieces in the long runs,” explained Hignett on the JOTA cars’ difficult start. “The practice sessions were so disjointed with all the red flags, so we were learning on the hoof a bit.

“It wasn’t until the third stint that we unlocked some things and built some pace in the car.”

Neither the AXR machine or the other one-off Cadillac from the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Wayne Taylor Racing, made it to the finish.

Both cars dropped out with what the GM manufacturer described as a “loss of power” without giving further details, ending up as the only Hypercar DNFs in the race.