Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA to run WEC factory team starting in 2025
2024-08-06
DETROIT – Cadillac Racing announced today that its FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) Hypercar program will expand to a two-car factory program to be named Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA beginning with the start of the 2025 season.
“Cadillac is proud to be racing against the best in the world as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship, and that includes Hertz Team JOTA,” said John Roth, vice president, Global Cadillac. “We are thrilled to welcome Hertz Team JOTA next year, bringing decades of racing and technical expertise together, to achieve continued success on the track and create new advocates for our brand around the globe.”
Added Sam Hignett, director and founder, Hertz Team JOTA: “JOTA has always strived to become a manufacturer team, so now joining forces with Cadillac is the realization of this goal. Having competed against the Cadillac V-Series.R for the last two seasons, we have experienced how competitive it is and we are genuinely honored to be entrusted with fielding its cars from 2025 onward. We are in the privileged position to have enjoyed record-breaking success in the FIA World Endurance Championship, especially at Le Mans, and we are very much looking forward to continuing this success with Cadillac and Hertz.”
Drivers of the No. 12 and No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R racecars, which are powered by the purpose-built Cadillac 5.5L DOHC V8 engine, will be announced in the future.
England-based Hertz Team JOTA, owned in part by affiliates of Knighthead Capital Management, LLC, sponsored by global car rental company Hertz and seven-time champion and entrepreneur Tom Brady entered the Hypercar class as a privateer in 2023 and currently runs two cars in the WEC with another manufacturer. It registered a historic first overall victory for a private team in Hypercar on May 11 at the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and was runner-up in the season-opening Qatar Airways Qatar 1812 Km. Hertz Team JOTA leads the FIA World Cup for Hypercar private teams.
Highlighting Cadillac Racing’s inaugural WEC season was the third-place finish in the centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans. The No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R started the 2023 season with top-five finishes at Sebring, Portimão and Spa-Francorchamps.
Cadillac Racing, which also runs a two-car Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) factory program in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, swept the 2023 GTP full-season and IMSA Michelin Endurance cup manufacturer, team and driver championships with Action Express Racing and the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R.
Overall, Cadillac Racing has earned nine Manufacturer Championships, five IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup Manufacturer Championships and 69 total sports car victories, including 30 in IMSA prototype competition since 2017.
Cadillac Racing will announce its 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship plans at a later date.
The Cadillac V-Series.R marks the third-generation Cadillac prototype racecar and the brand’s first hybrid electrified racecar. Codeveloped by Cadillac Design, Cadillac Racing and chassis constructor Dallara, the racecar incorporates key Cadillac V-Series production car design elements, such as vertical lighting and floating blades.
About Hertz Team JOTA
Founded in 2000, Hertz Team JOTA is one of the most experienced and successful sports car teams in recent history, having finished on the podium in LMP2 at Le Mans 10 times, including second and third overall in 2017. Championship titles include the 2016 European Le Mans Series, 2017 Asian Le Mans Series and multiple vice championship titles in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Other achievements include overall wins in Blancpain Endurance and class wins in the Spa 24 Hours, Nürburgring 24 Hours and American Le Mans Series. In 2023, in partnership with sponsors Hertz, Singer Group, Brady Apparel and others, Hertz Team JOTA entered the highest level of Endurance motorsport globally and took a historic first victory for a private team in the Hypercar class at the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in May 2024. The 2024 driver line-up features team mainstay Will Stevens alongside Phil Hanson, Oliver Rasmussen, Callum Ilott and Norman Nato, as well as Formula One World Champion Jenson Button.
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