The various teams that run the Cadillac DPi-V.RÂ in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship are getting some testing days in during the off-season.
Two newcomers to the Cadillac DPi family, Juncos Racing and JDC Miller Racing, ran their new 5.5-liter V8-powered prototypes for the first time during the Michelin on-track opportunity at Daytona International Speedway last week. The two outfits will join the well-established Cadillac teams of Wayne Taylor Racing and Action Express Racing in the GM racing family for 2019 and will help bring the fight to DPi class rivals Mazda, Nissan and Acura.
Will Owen and Kyle Kaiser will drive the sole Juncos Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R full-time next season, with Rene Binder and Agustin Canapino joining them for endurance events. The Juncos squad was continually posting updates of their first ever Cadillac DPi-V.R test on their Instagram page and Owen and Kaiser both had positive things to say about the car.
The No. 84 JDC Miller Cadillac, meanwhile, will be piloted by Stephen Simpson and Simon Trummer, with Chris Miller joining for endurance events and Juan Piedrahita joining for the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January. The No. 85 JDC Cadillac will be driven by Misha Goikhberg and Tristan Vautier, with ex F1 driver Rubens Barrichello and GP3 driver Devlin DeFancesco joining for the endurance events.
Both Owen and Kaiser turned their first laps in the Cadillac last week, as did Trummer.
Wayne Taylor Racing’s Jordan Taylor and Renger van de Vande, who were also in attendance at the off-season Daytona test, will return in the No. 10 DPi-V.R full-time next year. Excitingly, they will be joined by the ex-F1 duo of Fernando Alonso and Kamui Kobayashi for the Rolex 24 in January.
The two Action Express cars will also return. Felipe Nasr, another F1 alumnus, will pilot the Whelen Engineering Cadillac full-time alongside new teammate Pipo Derani. Eric Curran will join them for endurance events. In the Mustang Sampling DPi-V.R full-time will be the familiar pair of Joao Barbosa and Filipe Albuquerque, with Christian Fittipaldi coming back to race the Rolex 24 for one last time.
The Cadillac DPi-V.R teams will be out in full force at the official Roar Before the 24 test, which is to be held at Daytona from January 4th to the 6th.
The 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona is set to go green on Saturday, January 26th, 2019. In the meantime, be sure to stay tuned to GM Authority for more IMSA news as the 2019 season approaches.
Comments
Their racing program is a total waste of money. Nobody shopping for FWD Mommy-mobiles cares about racing. Why hasn’t GM cancelled this frivolous waste of money. The money would be better spend on some XT4/XT5/XT6 ads over at the Oprah TV network.
Read this as Mid Engine Cadillac tie-in. This program was switched to Cadillac for a reason, otherwise it would have stayed as the Corvette DPi program. Cadillac wants to head to LeMans one day and be ready for the new rules.
This is indeed a complete waste of money.
You hit the nail on the head here.
@newdude
A mid engine cadillac?
Talk about a complete and utter failure.
cadillac will have 3 stay at home mom cuv’s and the escalade for the us, and add 2 cars for china (ct5,ct6).
that’s it, until barra pulls the plug and lays cadillac at rest at the cemetery that is detroit.
Guys you have issues. We just signed Alonso, We are hoping to win it.