OCTOBER 23, 2024
A lineup of experienced and championship-winning drivers
By Cadillac Racing
DETROIT (Oct. 23, 2024) – Cadillac Racing’s driver roster for the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season includes a lineup of experienced and championship-winning drivers.
Is 2025, Cadillac Racing expands its factory program from two to three cars for the third year of Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) competition that starts January 24-25 with the Rolex 24 At Daytona at Daytona International Speedway. Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing will run two cars, while Action Express Racing will run one car as Cadillac Whelen.
Drivers who will contest all nine rounds of the IMSA GTP schedule in Cadillac V-Series.Rs — powered by the purpose-built Cadillac 5.5L DOHC V8 engine — and endurance race drivers:
Cadillac Whelen (No. 31)
- Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber (full season)
- Frederik Vesti (endurance races)
Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing (No. 10)
- Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque (full season)
- Will Stevens (Daytona, Sebring, Road Atlanta)
- Brendon Hartley (Daytona)
Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing (No. 40)
- Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz (full season)
- Alex Lynn (Daytona, Sebring, Road Atlanta)
- Kamui Kobayashi (Daytona)
Action Express Racing will announce a fourth driver for the Rolex 24 At Daytona at a later date.
The lineup represents seven FIA World Endurance Championship LMP1/Hypercar championships, eight Rolex 24 At Daytona overall victories (six with Cadillac Racing) and 11 24 Hours of Le Mans overall/class victories among other significant accomplishments.
“We look forward to continued success in the 2025 IMSA season with our new roster of V-Series.R drivers,” said John Roth, vice president, global Cadillac. “Racing provides an important testbed for Cadillac to transfer knowledge and technology between racecars and production vehicles, and our drivers are key to enabling this.”
The Nos. 10 and 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing full-time roster is unchanged from the 2024 season in which the team posted two victories and two other podium finishes with another manufacturer. Deletraz and Jordan Taylor teamed for victory in the 12-hour race at Sebring while Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor won the 100-minute sprint on the streets of Detroit.
FIA WEC 2024 full-season Hypercar drivers Bamber, Lynn, Hartley, Stevens and Kobayashi will compete in the season finale November 2 at the Bahrain International Circuit. Kobayashi returns to Cadillac Racing for the Daytona season opener after a two-year absence.
Aitken returns for his second full season and third overall in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R run by Action Express Racing, which recorded four pole starts and three runner-up finishes this past season. Bamber, who has driven the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R the past two seasons in the WEC, is no stranger to IMSA competition. The 2019 IMSA GTLM champion co-drove a Cadillac DPi-V.R to victory in 2022 at Sebring and this past season drove a Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R in GTD Pro class endurance races.
Vesti, the 2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship vice-champion, will make his IMSA GTP debut at Daytona.
Cadillac Racing drivers by the numbers:
- WEC LMP1/Hypercar championships: 7
- WEC LMP2 championships: 2
- Grand-Am Rolex/IMSA prototype championships: 3
- Rolex 24 At Daytona overall victories: 8 (6 with Cadillac Racing)
- Twelve Hours of Sebring overall victories: 6 (4 with Cadillac Racing)
- Motul Petit Le Mans overall victories: 4
- 24 Hours of Le Mans overall/class victories: 11
Cadillac has earned nine Manufacturer Championships in sports car racing since 2005 and five IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup Manufacturer Championships since 2017.
The Cadillac V-Series.R marks the third generation Cadillac prototype racecar and first with an electric motor component. The car – co-developed by Cadillac Design, Cadillac Racing and chassis constructor Dallara – incorporates key Cadillac V-Series production car design elements, such as vertical lighting and floating blades.
Gary Nelson, Cadillac Whelen team manager: “We are all very excited to have such an amazing group of talented drivers lined up for the 2025 season. Everyone here at Action Express has been working very hard to bring together the very best people to create an ideal opportunity to compete for wins and championships for our great sponsors, Cadillac and Whelen. Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber bring a great combination. We will be sad to see Pipo Derani move on after sharing six years of success. Our fond memories and friendship with Pipo will continue.”
Jack Aitken: “On a personal note, I’m happy to be continuing with Cadillac and Action Express Racing. I’ve become pretty comfortable with Cadillac and everyone on the 31 crew and really happy to push on for the overall championship. Having Earl as a new teammate is going to be great because his experience is massive, he’s already a member of the Cadillac family so there’s no getting up to speed process. I’m looking forward to learning from him and he’s going to be a fantastic teammate. I think it’s one of the strongest lineups on the grid and I think we have a very strong racecar.”
Earl Bamber: “It will be an exciting opportunity with the team. I’ve really missed IMSA, driving in America. Hopefully, I can bring experience from the WEC and IMSA and I think it will also bring a little bit of continuity. We have that on the engineering side and hopefully on the driver side that shared information from both platforms brings us forward. Action Express have been one of those benchmark teams, and you only need to look at the side of the hauler to see their success with Cadillac over the years. I’m looking forward to working with the team and I think Jack (Aitken) is showing his speed this year and showing the potential to win races. I’m looking forward to getting down to Daytona and starting the work to start the new year off on the right foot. I think Fred (Vesti) is a really good talent and Action Express’s plans for the future of investing in young talent is a good outlook.”
Frederik Vesti: “I’m extremely happy to be joining Cadillac and the team. Everything here will be new in America, but it will be a cool experience for me to join such a successful team. I’m dreaming about winning and being with a winning team is my goal, and that’s what we have here. That’s a good starting point and I’m ready to put in the work and hopefully we have success and a great time together. I hope I can join the group with a lot of knowledge from Formula One, Formula 2, ELMS and LMP2 that can benefit everyone. I’m excited to work with the team.”
