Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing entered their inaugural pursuit in the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans with the hopes to contend for sports car racing glory. The Cadillac WTR entry was one of the four V-Series.R Hypercars competing Le Mans with Cadillac Racing. After an impressive effort to qualify within the top 15 of the 21-car Hypercar field, the Cadillac WTR team was eager to challenge for a stake at history in the iconic 24-hour event around Circuit de la Sarthe.

Starting fourteenth, Ricky Taylor was the first of the Cadillac WTR driver trio to officially start the race once the green flag dropped. As the field took the green flag, Taylor was jockeying for position, trying to get ahead early although he reported back to the team garage that there was contact on the drivers’ side door and rear on the opening lap. As Taylor and the field began to settle into race pace, he was also dealing with a lack of grip on track and fell back a few positions. Once Taylor and the team were able to address the grip struggles in his first stint, Taylor refocused on collecting positions ahead of him. Unfortunately, nearing the first hour completed, Taylor reported that he ran over debris on track and came to pit lane to have the crew examine if the No. 101 had any damage to the bottom of the car. Seeing no damage to the car, the unplanned pit stop continued to shuffle the team down the running order.

With their heads down, the Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing team brought Taylor to pit lane around two hours in for a driver change to Filipe Albuquerque for the next stint. Albuquerque got up to speed in the No. 101 V-Series.R and looked to progress forward as Taylor had to make up for the challenging start. As his stint continued, Albuquerque managed to find the car in comfortable spot and get in a steady rhythm of running with consistent pace.

Just shy of the four hours completed mark, Jordan Taylor hopped into the driver’s seat of the No. 101 V-Series.R Hypercar for his first stint of the 24 hours. During Taylor’s triple stint, most of the time on track seemed to be smooth with no real issues or mistakes which helped the No. 101 Cadillac WTR team gain positions on track. After completing the triple stint on track, Taylor switched driving duties back over to his brother, Ricky, to head back out on track.

With nightfall upon Circuit de la Sarthe, the track seemed to come alive under the stars. Like his brother’s stint on track, most of Ricky’s time on track ran smoothly and more hours continued to click off the clock. Next in the driver cycle was Albuquerque to get back in for his second stint on track.

In Albuquerque’s stint, the team had to serve an additional five-second penalty on their pit stop around Lap 173, but the team still found themselves all the way up in 16th as the midway point approached. During Albuquerque’s stint, the field also saw the first official dispatch of the Safety Car on track and the Cadillac WTR team were running in 14th during the caution period and eager to gain additional track positions with the field running together again with 12 hours remaining.

As the field came to the restart after the first full Safety Car caution in right before the halfway mark, unfortunately, Albuquerque experienced a loss of power in the No. 101 Cadillac V-Series.R and came to a stop on the Mulsanne Straight only minutes after halfway. As a result, the Cadillac WTR team had to officially retire from the race and ultimately finished in the 21st position once the checkered flag flew.

“It has been an eventful weekend,” said Wayne Taylor, Team Owner. “Obviously, everyone came here with a lot of hype and excitement. Family, race team, first time here. If I had to sum it up now, the guys did a heck of a job the entire weekend. I cannot say enough about what they did this weekend to bring us to where we are. To change an engine out in one hour and 27-minutes, which normally takes three to five hours, and be ready to qualify, was amazing! Unfortunately, the race just didn’t start that well. We got hit by someone at the start and caused damage to the car which ultimately affected our performance. Once we got through all the skirmishes in the beginning, we were lapping the same as the leaders so we were feeling pretty good. Everybody worked really hard, and everybody did a great job. Thanks to Cadillac for giving us this opportunity. It is a big deal. The relationship with Cadillac is very, very strong. I am sad for them more than anybody. They put so much effort into this. Listen, I have been doing this for a long time, so I am not leaving here really upset because I know this is what happens. You just have to pick up the ball and run with it. Luckily, we have a race next weekend in Watkins Glen to look forward to.”

With the 24 Hours of Le Mans complete, the turnaround is a quick one for the Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing team as they return back to IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition with both the No. 10 and No. 40 Cadillac V-Series.R GTPs next weekend for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on June 22, 2025.

Ricky Taylor, No. 101 Cadillac WTR V-Series.R: “Long week, long build up to this event. The team prepared and did everything we could to be ready. I made a couple mistakes on my side today, but I think the team learned a lot. It was not the result we wanted. We wanted to complete all the laps and finish the 24 hours. But that wasn’t meant to be. Nice thing is that we have another race next weekend, so if it is going to be busy for the guys, it would be nice to get it behind us. Really proud of this WTR team to pull all this together, to get everything here and compete. I think we showed quite well at times, and the most important thing is that we learned a lot. Looking forward to hopefully having the opportunity next year. It was great to be part of the four-car effort with Cadillac Racing. I feel like the four teams really gelled together and really worked hard. We obviously came into it with the least experience. The other three teams really helped us out a lot and made us feel at home here. I hope we were able to contribute to them as well. I feel like there were unique perspectives on all sides. I think it even helps us on the IMSA side that we got a chance to work closely with Action Express. Very positive experience and something to build on.”

Jordan Taylor, No. 101 Cadillac WTR V-Series.R: “Obviously our first time here. We learned a lot of the two weeks which was great. Unfortunately, this was out of our control to drop out of the race like this. We were learning a lot. We were able to make it through 12 hours, so the guys were able to gather a lot of knowledge on strategy and how the safety cars work and slow zones. A lot of lessons learned and hopefully we can come back and use that information next year. All the drivers were learning as well as it was our first time in Hypercars. We got behind early in the race with some issues, but felt we were clawing our way back having clean stints. Definitely disappointed but looking forward to hopefully coming back next year. It was great to be here with four cars, and it felt like a four-car effort with Action Express and JOTA all working together and sharing information. I felt that really helped our learning process as a team. It is such a tough race so going into the race with four bullets in the gun was great for Cadillac. Hopefully we can do it all again next year.”

Filipe Albuquerque, No. 101 Cadillac WTR V-Series.R: “It was a very positive weekend. We learned a lot about the car. Working with four cars together, different cultures under the same reason was positive for everybody. I am sure that our boys in WTR learned a lot, but I think JOTA learned as well for their championship. We were one team. We were spectacular in qualifying. We had some issues, but we continued and unfortunately, during the race we had an issue, but it is what it is. Let’s hope the other Cadillac continue fighting for a top five and a good result. We were already wounded from the start. We had a little contact with someone and damage on the car was causing a performance issue, but we were trying to survive. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage it.”

About Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR)
Wayne Taylor Racing, part of TWG Motorsports, is a global motorsports enterprise that boasts two IMSA driver championships (2013 and 2017), and back-to-back IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup Championships (2020, 2021) which contributed to nine IMSA manufacturer championships for Acura, Pontiac, Corvette and Cadillac. In its brief 18-year history, WTR has accumulated multiple victories in sportscar racing’s most iconic events: Rolex 24 At Daytona, Twelve Hours of Sebring, Petit Le Mans, Mid-Ohio, Road America and the Six Hours of The Glen. With its back-to-back PRO Class Championship wins (2022, 2023), WTR currently has 14 North America Lamborghini Super Trofeo Championship titles and a Lamborghini World Finals title. For more information, visit www.waynetaylorracing.com.