Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA
Chip Ganassi Racing and Cadillac are set to part ways following the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship seasons, it has been revealed.
The partnership, which began in the DPi ranks of the WeatherTech Championship in 2021, extended into the LMDh era last year with a factory Cadillac V-Series.R run in both the WEC and WeatherTech Championship.
Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande scored one win in the WeatherTech Championship in the No. 01 Cadillac, while fellow factory squad Action Express Racing claimed the inaugural GTP championship with drivers Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims.
Its WEC program, run by Stephen Mitas out of Germany, meanwhile, has yet to score a victory in the world championship.
The Gary Nelson-led AXR squad has been tipped to expand into a two-car WeatherTech Championship operation next year as a result of CGR’s departure, while a number of teams are understood to be in contention for the WEC program, which could feature two full-season entries, something CGR managing director Mike Hull had been pushing for in both series.
GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser ruled out customer Cadillac LMDh cars when asked by Sportscar365 earlier this month in Qatar, a race that saw the CGR-run Cadillac Racing effort score a fourth place overall finish in the WEC season opener.
Sportscar365 understands CGR was on a three-year contract, beginning in 2022, with the deal not having been extended by the luxury automaker.
CGR had also been previous operators of a GM-backed Hummer project in the all-electric Extreme E series, which came to an end last year. That initial deal was understood to have been packaged with the Cadillac sports car racing program.
A CGR spokesperson told Sportscar365 that they do not have a team statement at this moment regarding the completion of its Cadillac LMDh operations at years’ end.
Cadillac, meanwhile, provided the following statement from Jim Campbell, GM’s U.S. Vice President of performance and motorsports:
“Our GM divisions have had successful partnerships with Chip Ganassi Racing across multiple series – NASCAR, IndyCar, Extreme E, IMSA and FIA WEC – over the years. Together we have won numerous races and have had great success,” he said.
“We remain committed to winning races and championships together in IMSA and FIA WEC this year.
“Our sports car plans for 2025 will be announced at a later date.”
Prior to its factory Cadillac effort, CGR had been operators of the ultra-successful factory Ford GT program, both through it’s in-house WeatherTech Championship effort and in WEC, via Multimatic, from 2016-19, which was highlighted by GTE-Pro class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016.
Ford Performance global motorsports director Mark Rushbrook told Sportscar365 in January that a Ford prototype program “may fit in” in the “right place at the right time” in the future but fell short of confirming any serious evaluations.
