Cadillac will compete full time in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with the #01 Ganassi-run V-LMDh entry driven by Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande, and the #31 Action Express Racing machine of Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims.
The cars will debut at the Rolex 24 next weekend, where they’ll be joined by the #2 Ganassi entry to be driven by Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook, which will compete full-time in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The challenge of incorporating the common hybrid system into cars to contest the top class of IMSA racing left AXR’s Gary Nelson feeling “the most pumped up I’ve been for many years”.
He said: “This new car, to me, is such a great challenge. My whole career in racing I’ve always wanted the trophy that’s hardest to get.
“They are always harder when you don’t have a logbook or set-up book or all the other things ready to go when you get to the track. We’re going to create pretty much from a blank sheet of paper a program that we’re expecting to win the Daytona 24 Hours.”
By having two teams working in unison – which both have multiple series titles and Rolex 24 at Daytona wins to their names – Cadillac has aimed to reduce the learning curve in the first-ever season of hybrid competition in American motorsports.
“It’s been a pleasure working with Mike and his group,” said Nelson. “I think we’ve advanced the technology a lot quicker because with each test we’ve done, one group would test one series of items and the other another set.
“We were organized on who was doing what and we would get together at the end of each day – or sometimes part way through the day – and say, ‘We were having a little trouble with this part. You might want to check it on your car.’ Or, ‘We just learned this change made a big difference. You might want to try it on your car.’
“We’ve had that back and forth discussion and I welcome it very much.”
O’Gara admitted that welcoming a rival team into its inner circle for data sharing was unusual.
He said: “It’s definitely been a learning experience for both teams and, quite honestly, a bit of a culture shift for Chip Ganassi Racing. We always pride ourselves on how we communicate internally.
“At the Indy 500 last year we had five race cars that were all capable of running at the front, so sharing info is what we do. But we haven’t often shared info outside of this building.
“I think the partnership with AXR has gone really well. We’re figuring out who is better at what things and we divide and conquer.”
Nelson added: “We have such common connections with the GM Powertrain folks, the Bosch folks, the Williams folks, the Dallara folks. If we learn something we want to make sure that the other Cadillacs know it, and if they learn something they pass it to us because at the end we want a Cadillac to win the Daytona 24.
“I’d like it to be our Cadillac, but we still want a Cadillac to be in the winner’s circle.”
