WTR Hopeful of Le Mans Invite With One Cadillac

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Wayne Taylor Racing is hopeful of securing an invite to this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans with one of its Cadillac V-Series.R cars according to team owner Wayne Taylor.

WTR, which has returned to Cadillac prototype machinery in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, would be part of a likely four-car Hypercar effort from the American luxury brand, should single entries from WTR and Action Express Racing be granted by the ACO selection committee.

A total of three Cadillacs – spread between two Chip Ganaasi Racing-run entries and a singleton AXR entry, have taken part in the last two editions of the French endurance classic.

The difference this year comes with an increased two-car commitment by Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA, which takes over Cadillac’s FIA World Endurance Championship effort and fulfills the FIA and ACO’s new two-car minimum per Hypercar manufacturer for the entirety of the globe-trotting championship.

When asked if he has submitted an entry request, Taylor told Sportscar365: “We’re leaving all of that to GM.”

“I know they met with Pierre Fillon in Paris last Monday and I think they’ve asked for four entries,” he added.

“Obviously JOTA will get two as they’re full season [WEC]. Then there’s the 31 [car] and one of ours. I’m [hoping] one of our cars will go.”

Taylor downplayed that the team’s switch back to Cadillac after a four-year WeatherTech Championship campaign with Acura was directly influenced by a potential Le Mans program.

“It did and it didn’t,” he said. “I knew in the very early days of talking to them that going to Le Mans was always going to be part of the deal.

“HRC had told me they have no intention of going. This obviously was a big decision-making thing for us as well.”

Taylor won Le Mans as a driver in 1998 with a Doyle-Risi Ferrari 333 SP in the LMP1 class, in a year that a GT1-spec Porsche 911 GT1-98 took overall honors and has never been to the French endurance classic under the WTR banner.

“It’s like the only one [that’s eluded us],” he said. “Jordan and I have both won classes. He won the GTE-Pro class and I won the Prototype class with the Ferrari but not overall.

“It’s really big. But the other thing is that we’ve only just received these cars. We have to be careful we don’t jump in and not be organized enough and know enough to go because I don’t want to embarrass anybody.

“With a longer-term contract, that’s good. But we will try everything if we get that entry, to be there. Our intention is that we want to go.”

When asked what their lineup would be should the team be granted the entry, Taylor indicated that its two longest-serving pilots, Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, would “for sure” be part of the effort.

However, he said it would be a “tough decision” between Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz, its two other full season drivers in the IMSA GTP class, to fill out the roster.

“That’s always the question,” Taylor said of the lineup. “As a team, we would have to go with the group that have been together for the longest, but maybe that changes. You would think that would be the way to go.”

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