WEC Losail
Cadillac to nominate different third drivers for WEC Hypercar entry
Cadillac will fill the vacant seat in its Ganassi-run World Endurance Championship Hypercar entry on a race-by-race basis this season.
Gary Watkins
Edited: Jan 16, 2024, 6:31 PM
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The General Motors marque has revealed that it will not nominate a full-season partner for Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn in the solo Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh .
Laura Wontrop Klauser, GM’s sportscar racing boss, told Motorsport.com that it will instead announce the driver for the seat filled last season by Richard Westbrook ahead of each race.
She gave a clear hint that Cadillac would utilise different drivers alongside Bamber and Lynn in the car entered under Cadillac Racing banner over the course of the season.
Using just two drivers for the shorter six-hour races also wasn’t ruled out by Klauser.
Klauser outlined a plan for what she called “a flexible approach” to the third seat in the WEC car, which will involve dipping into GM’s roster of factory drivers.
“We have a great driver pool within GM sportscar racing,” she said.
“We have some really cool people that we can tap on the shoulder if we need their help.
“We are not going to be announcing a full season driver for that seat; as it makes sense we will announce it race by race.”
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
#31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac V-LMDh Cadillac V- LMDh: Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims, Jack Aitken
Klauser did not elaborate on her comments, but it appears likely that Cadillac will pull in a driver from its two-car IMSA SportsCar Championship assault for non-clashing rounds of the WEC.
Cadillac’s full-season IMSA drivers are Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande at the Ganassi/Cadillac Racing squad and Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken at Action Express Racing.
They will not be available for the Imola and Spa WEC rounds in April and May respectively, which clash with the Long Beach and Laguna Seca IMSA events.
Tom Blomqvist, who has been announced as the third Action Express driver for the IMSA enduros, will not be available because there are also conflicting rounds of the IndyCar Series, which he his contesting with Meyer Shank Racing.
Scott Dixon is driving Ganassi’s V-Series.R in this month’s season-opening Daytona 24 Hours and is expected to retain the seat for the long races that make up the Michelin-sponsored IMSA Endurance Cup, and will be on IndyCar duty with the team on the Imola and Spa weekends.
When questioned on whether Cadillac might run just two drivers in the #2 WEC entry, Klauser replied: “It is allowed, so it gives us an option if that is what we want to do for those races.”
She also didn’t rule out bringing in some new faces to the programme, saying that that “has yet to be determined”.
That would become necessary if Cadillac again expands its WEC assault to three cars for the Le Mans 24 Hours with extra entries from Ganassi and Action Express as in 2023.
It was confirmed that Bamber would remain in the Caddy WEC squad when he was announced as part of the Corvette Racing line-up in the GT Daytona Pro class for Daytona in November, while Lynn was also listed in the car on the publication of the 2024 WEC entry list at the end of the month.
Westbrook will be racing with the JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche LMDh squad in IMSA this season.
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