The announcement was made on Tuesday morning, two days after the outfit finished fourth at Laguna Seca with Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor at the wheel of its sole #10 Konica Minolta-sponsored LMDh car.
WTRAndretti also revealed that Albuquerque and Taylor will continue to stay team-mates for a fourth consecutive season, having first joined forces in 2021 - the year the squad made the shift from Cadillac to Acura machinery.
The drivers for WTRAndretti’s second full-season entry, as well as additional drivers that will pilot both it cars in the Michelin Endurance Cup, will be announced at a later date.
The decision to add a second Acura LMDh car is part of WTR and Andretti’s larger expansion plan that includes fighting for outright win at the Le Mans 24 Hours against World Endurance Championship’s LMH cars.
It follows WTR and Andretti begining a partnership at the start of the season to take on increased competition in the new GTP class, with BMW and Porsche joining existing manufacturers Acura and Cadillac.
“It has always been our plan to go to a two-car program,” said Wayne Taylor, Team Owner, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport.
“There are so many advantages in being a two-car team and now, going up against all the other factory backed two-car efforts, it is vital.
“HPD and ORECA have built an amazing race car. When you look back at the season so far, we’ve proved to be quickest almost wherever we go and I believe we now have the car to beat. With the combination of HPD, ORECA, Andretti Autosport and all our corporate partners, we have a really strong organization.”
"Expanding to a two-car program displays the progression and success of not only the WTRAndretti team, but our Acura and HPD relationship in the new GTP era,” added Michael Andretti, Chairman & CEO, Andretti Autosport.
"Our focus at Andretti Autosport, bringing our experience and reach, is to support WTRAndretti in finding the right people and providing the right resources to continue on our winning path."
With this news, there could be three Acuras on the 2024 GTP grid, with Meyer Shank Racing also expected to run a single example of the ARX-06 with which it won the Rolex 24 at Daytona earlier this January. All three cars will receive full factory backing from Honda Performance Development.
