Kamui Kobayashi will return to Wayne Taylor Racing subsequent yr when he bids for a 3rd victory in three begins on the Daytona 24 Hours IMSA SportsCar Championship season-opener.
The 2-time World Endurance Championship title winner with Toyota was named within the #40 WTR with Andretti Cadillac V-Collection.R for Daytona in January when the crew introduced an unchanged full-season driver line-up after its swap from Acura.
The regulars within the #40 automobile shall be Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz, who got here collectively when WTR expanded to 2 vehicles this yr, whereas Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque will proceed a partnership that dates again to 2021 within the #10.
The drivers who will be a part of the 2 common pairings are all veterans of earlier WTR campaigns.
Kobayashi drove WTR Cadillac Daytona Prototype worldwide equipment earlier than the crew’s four-season stint with Acura at Daytona in 2019 and 2020, successful the race each instances, with Fernando Alonso amongst his team-mates within the first yr.
The 38-year-old, who can be crew principal of the Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC squad, was unable to drive for WTR on its swap to a different Japanese model and moved to the Motion Categorical Racing Caddy DPi-V.R run along side Hendrick Motorsports below the Ally Cadillac Racing banner in 2021 and 2022.
The road-up within the #40 V-Collection.R shall be accomplished by Cadillac common Alex Lynn, who will race the automobile on the Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans enduros that make up a part of the five-event IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup section of the sequence.
Present Cadillac driver Lynn will be a part of WTR for enduro occasions
Picture by: Artwork Fleischmann
The Briton, who seems sure to proceed with Cadillac within the WEC on its swap of groups from Ganassi to Jota subsequent yr, has a 100% successful report with WTR, like Kobayashi.
Lynn contested the 2017 Sebring 12 Hours with the crew, successful the race aboard a Caddy DPi shared with the Taylor brothers, who’re the sons of crew founder Wayne.
Ricky Taylor, who’s returning to Cadillac after seven seasons with Acura that started at Penske in 2018, and Albuquerque shall be joined by Will Stevens for Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans.
The Briton was a part of the WTR Acura line-up in 2022 at Daytona and Sebring and is anticipated to maneuver over to Cadillac with Jota subsequent yr after racing one in all its buyer Porsche 963 LMDhs within the WEC since final season.
Brendon Hartley, additionally a Toyota driver within the WEC, completes the line-up within the #10 automobile with a one-off at Daytona.
The New Zealander has raced for WTR since 2022 when he joined the crew for the end-of-season Petit Le Mans 10-hour race at Street Atlanta and this yr contested three of the 5 IMSA enduros in one in all its Acura ARX-06s.
Kobayashi described his return to WTR as a “homecoming”, including: “I’ve such an incredible and enjoyable reminiscence of racing together with his crew and likewise with Cadillac Racing.
“I’m actually appreciative not solely to WTR and Cadillac to offer me one other alternative to race for them but additionally Morizo-san [Morizo is the racing alias of Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda] and TGR for permitting me to compete on this historic occasion in america.”
WTR boss Taylor mentioned that Kobayashi’s skills “communicate for themselves”.
