The 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season wrapped up on November 2nd, 2024 at the Eight Hours of Bahrain. Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, and Sebastien Bourdais wheeled the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R to a seventh-place finish to cap off the year, driving from a deep pack starting position to make it happen.
The No. 2 Cadillac Racing machine rolled off the grid in 12th place after qualifying 13th, gaining a position when a penalty was handed down to a competitor pre-race. When the green flag dropped, tire management became paramount on the 3.36-mile, 15-turn racetrack as its rough surface ate away at the teams’ fresh rubber.
No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R at Le Mans
In the final 24 minutes of the race, Bamber passed the No. 83 AF Corse Porsche 963 and set sights on the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA machine. He completed the pass with just six minutes left, but the 55-second deficit between the No. 2 Cadillac Racing machine and the No. 38 was too great to overcome. They finished seventh, earning valuable points toward this year’s championship.
“It was a good race for us at the end. I think we maximized what we could today. I don’t think we had the best car, but we definitely maximized as a team and to come away with points is a great result,” Bamber said after the race. “It’s definitely building and building each time out. I think if you told we’d get seventh when we started the race I think we’d take it, so I think it’s a good one.”
Bourdais commended Bamber for his performance during his stints, saying, “Given the circumstances because we struggled pretty much all week with rear grip for the most part and weren’t super confident going into the race and starting P13 was certainly a challenge because it’s so hard to pass around here. Earl [Bamber] did a heckuva job, particularly at the end on the medium [tires], and got us back to a very respectable P7 for a tough week.”
He added, “Not super happy with myself. I made a mistake on the full-course yellow and got a [drive-thru] penalty for it. I got the time back, but we still got the penalty. Overall, pretty satisfied with the result from where we started.”
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