Two-time Daytona 24 Hours winner Ricky Taylor will be a part of Jota Cadillac for the World Endurance Championship’s Lone Star Le Mans occasion at Austin subsequent week.
The American will drive the #12 Cadillac V-Collection.R alongside Norman Nato and Will Stevens on the Circuit of the Americas on 4-6 September, deputising for an injured Alex Lynn.
It will mark Taylor’s debut race outing with Cadillac’s manufacturing facility squad Jota, though he beforehand drove for the British outfit on the Goodwood Pageant of Velocity and the Bahrain rookie check final yr.
It is going to even be his first look at a WEC race outdoors the Le Mans 24 Hours, the place he has competed frequently since 2013.
However whereas he will not be so acquainted with common six-hour WEC races or the Jota staff, he has intimate information of the Cadillac LMDh, which he races full-time for his father’s Wayne Taylor Racing staff within the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
“I am actually excited to hitch Cadillac Hertz Group Jota for the COTA spherical of the WEC championship,” stated Taylor.
“I’ve all the time been a giant fan of the staff and it was nice working with them this yr at Le Mans as a team-mate automobile. I do know Will and Norman nicely from their time with WTR. COTA is a tremendous monitor and it will likely be nice to return to Austin.
“Cadillac Hertz Group Jota has been so robust all yr, we have all been watching and cheering them on. I’ll be doing my greatest to assist contribute to a different good outcome at COTA.”
#101 Cadillac WTR Cadillac V-Collection.R: Ricky Taylor
Picture by: Marc Fleury
Jota additional revealed that Lynn will probably be again behind the wheel for the ultimate two rounds of the season in Barcelona and Monza.
In a press launch, it acknowledged that the Briton is “progressing via a structured rehab and car-based restoration programme” after being sidelined from motion resulting from a neck harm.
With Taylor solely showing in Austin, Jota might once more run a two-driver crew on the 6 Hours of Fuji, which takes place three weeks after Lone Star Le Mans on 27 September.
Query marks additionally stay over Jota’s 2027 line-up, with hypothesis mounting that Taylor might be a part of the staff on a full-time foundation subsequent yr.
LMGT3 modifications
Aside from Taylor’s addition, two additional modifications seem on the entry checklist for Lone Star Le Mans.
At TF Sport, manufacturing facility driver Nicky Catsburg returns behind the wheel of the Le Mans-winning #33 Corvette Z06 GT3.R after lacking the Sao Paulo 6 Hours resulting from a conflict with the IMSA occasion in Canada. Nicolas Varrone had taken his spot alongside Ben Keating and Jonny Edgar in the course of the July race.
Eduardo ‘Dudu’ Barrichello will even be making his WEC comeback at Austin, sharing the #23 Coronary heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 with Jonny Adam and Grey Newell. Like Catsburg, Barrichello was additionally unavailable for WEC’s Brazilian spherical final month, with THOR having drafted Kobe Pauwels in his place.
The remainder of the sphere stays the identical because the WEC heads to the US for the beginning of a busy second half of the season.
There’ll as soon as once more be 17 entries within the Hypercar class, with one other 18 in LMGT3 for a mixed whole of 35 vehicles.
With Jota bringing in Taylor, Aston Martin would be the solely staff to subject a two-driver line-up within the Hypercar class. Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble will compete as a duo within the #007 Valkyrie LMH, whereas Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen will share the #009 entry.
WEC Lone Star Le Mans – Full entry checklist
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