Road America: Cadillac seeks to ride momentum wave

With back-to-back podium finishes, including a double podium in the most recent IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Watkins Glen International, Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing is riding a wave of momentum.

The two-car Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) team, in its first IMSA season back with Cadillac after a four-year hiatus, will look to continue its upward trend this weekend in the Motul SportsCar Grand Prix at Road America.

📷 © Courtesy of IMSA: Louis Deletraz, and Jordan Taylor with the #40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R

Jordan Taylor: “I think we’re all excited and motivated coming into Road America. Not just coming off our double podium at Watkins Glen, but also the GTD car winning in Mosport. Everyone on the WTR team is feeling quite good. I think we’ve turned a corner the past few races and are much more on top of the Cadillac. With such limited running, it took us a few races to find our rhythm, but with the No. 10 car on the podium in Detroit and then our double podium in Watkins Glen, I think we are quite confident now moving forward. Road America is always a tough event. We were very strong there last year. I think the team knows how to build a strong car for that track, so hopefully we can have a good start to the weekend and be fighting for a win come Sunday.”

Louis Delétraz: “I love Road America. Oe of my favorite tracks on the calendar and the last sprint race of the year. It’s good to be back after a few weeks away from racing. I think the Cadillac V-Series.R will be strong at this track. We just had our best result of the year with the podium at Watkins Glen, that’s positive and we want to keep the momentum going. Let’s keep it clean, execute and hopefully bring back another double podium home.”

The sister #10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, driven by Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, has earned podium spots the past two races (Detroit, Watkins Glen).

Wayne Taylor Racing swept the front row in qualifying for the 2024 race with another manufacturer, with Ricky Taylor and Albuquerque earning the pole and finishing third.

📷 © Courtesy of IMSA at Detroit: #10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, driven by Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque

Ricky Taylor: “Road America is always one of our favorite weekends of the year. The track is one of the best in the world and the race is always unpredictable. Momentum is always important in racing, but we are still focusing on finding on-track performance. Results are nice, but we must keep working hard to keep the pace. It was a great qualifying result last year, but it’s a totally new thing this year for us. We would love to repeat that result, but for us, using our experience of what we’ve learned so far this year seems to be the most relevant.”

Filipe Albuquerque: “Road America is one of my favorite tracks of the year and in the world. I have great memories from Road America in the past with WTR. After two podiums in a row with the No. 10, we want to continue the streak and continue the momentum. I think we are really close to third in the championship with three races to go. So, we will go there and do our job. Again, another podium would be awesome, maybe even a win. We will work hard and see what we get.”

In 2024, the #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R was the highest finisher in fourth, and Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber are also coming off a strong effort at Watkins Glen in which they led a field-high 71 of 168 laps and placed fifth.

📷 © Cadillac Racing at Road America: #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R

Jack Aitken: “Road America is always one of the more enjoyable tracks on the calendar and it’s exciting that next year it’s going to be one of our endurance rounds. For now, it’s a sprint race, which means staying in the front of the race will be key. Traffic is quite a challenge there. It’s not easy to pass, gets very dirty offline. We had really good pace at Watkins and unfortunately just didn’t manage to get a result from that, but the pace should certainly carry over to Road America. I’m optimistic about that and looking forward to getting on to the podium and hopefully the top step at Road America.”

Earl Bamber: “Road America is one of my favorite North American circuits and I’m looking forward to returning with Action Express Racing and the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R. Alex (Lynn) and I had a second-place finish in 2022 in the final year of the DPi and with the pace we’ve shown at Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca we can contend for the victory. It was great for (Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA) and Cadillac to get a 1-2 finish in the WEC race in Sao Paulo. Now we want to get that first IMSA victory of the season.” Source: Cadillac Racing

Schedule (local time = CEST -7 hours)

Friday, 1 August
14:00 – 15:30 hrs: Free practice 1

Saturday, 2 August
09:05 – 10:35 hrs: Free practice 2
16:40 – 16:55 hrs: Qualifying GTD
17:05 – 17:20 hrs: Qualifying GTD-Pro
17:55 – 18:10 hrs: Qualifying GTP

Sunday, 3 August
13:10 – 15:50 hrs: Race

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