WTR Andretti Targeting Expansion to WEC

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport is targeting an expansion into the FIA World Endurance Championship in the “next few years” according to team co-owner Michael Andretti.

The newly formed partnership, which is currently competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with a factory Acura ARX-06 LMDh car, has signaled ambitions to be represented on the grid of the globe-trotting championship as well.

“That’s no secret,” Andretti told reporters Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.

“We’re going to have a satellite facility over in Europe. We already have one that we’re setting up and it’s going to be bigger.

“One of the objectives is to hopefully have a WEC team out of there in the next few years.”

A WEC effort would include a program at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which has been on team co-owner Wayne Taylor’s radar in recent years.

Its current factory Acura GTP class operation has been focused exclusively on the WeatherTech Championship for at least the first year, with Honda Performance Development previously stating that a WEC or Le Mans effort would need the support of Honda globally.

“From my perspective, it’s the one race in the world of sports car racing that we haven’t won overall,” Taylor said. “There’s no doubt this is a major focus for all of us here.

“That’s where we want to be.”

Andretti added: “That is a definite goal for us. With our new partners that we have with Andretti Global, our goal is to be in every major racing event in the world.

“Obviously Le Mans is one of the big ones. Down the road we definitely want to be there.”

Andretti expressed that the partnership with WTR, which officially kicks off with next weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, has been a “marriage made in heaven.”

“One thing we felt that was missing from our racing portfolio was racing here in IMSA,” he said. “Especially with all of the new rules with LMDh and GTP cars, it was just a perfect time to get involved.

“The question is how do you get involved? We were just being very patient on looking for the right opportunity.

“When I got the call from Wayne, it’s like, ‘Jesus, you can’t get into this sport any better than with a team like Wayne Taylor Racing.’

“It was one of those marriages made in heaven. It’s been a lot of fun and we’re just really, really excited about this program.

“We’re really excited for the future of it and growing it. I think it’s going to be one of the mainstays of all our series that we’re in.”

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