Two-time Le Mans winner Earl Bamber will race for Cadillac in subsequent 12 months’s IMSA SportsCar Championship in what seems to be set to be a twin programme straddling the World Endurance Championship.
Bamber, winner on the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2015 and 2017 with Porsche, was introduced as a full-season driver for the solo Motion Specific Racing Cadillac V-Collection.R LMDh when the Common Motors model took the wraps off its full line-up for its three IMSA GTP class entries on Wednesday.
Cadillac won’t be revealing its roster for the 2 Jota WEC entries till after subsequent month’s sequence finale in Bahrain, however it’s anticipated that Bamber will transfer over to the British staff from the Ganassi squad with which he has raced within the sequence for the previous two seasons.
The New Zealander, who joined Cadillac for an IMSA programme with Ganassi in 2021 after his departure from Porsche, has made no secret of his need to race in IMSA’s GTP class alongside his WEC commitments with the model.
No affirmation of Bamber’s twin programme was forthcoming from Cadillac forward of its WEC announcement, which is known to be due in mid-November.
However Bamber alluded to a joint programme in his statements within the IMSA announcement from Cadillac.
#02 Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-LMDh: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook
Photograph by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Pictures
“Hopefully I can carry expertise from the WEC and IMSA, and I feel it can additionally carry a bit of little bit of continuity,” he stated.
“We have now that on the engineering facet and hopefully on the motive force facet that shared data from each platforms brings us ahead.”
What just isn’t clear is what programme will take priority for Bamber when the 2 sequence have a conflicting date in Could with the Spa WEC spherical and the Laguna Seca IMSA occasion happening on the identical weekend.
The identical would apply to Le Mans ought to Motion Specific return to the double-points spherical of the WEC, which it has contested as a further Caddy entry for the previous two editions.
Bamber is changing four-time Sebring 12 Hours winner Pipo Derani at Motion Specific, winner of the IMSA GTP title in 2024, after the Brazilian introduced his determination to depart Cadillac again in June.
Briton Jack Aitken will stay as a full-season Motion Specific driver for a second season, whereas 2023 System 2 runner-up Frederik Vesti is available in because the staff’s extra driver for chosen long-distance races in Michelin Endurance Cup section of the IMSA sequence.
The 22-year-old Dane, who’s a Mercedes System 1 reserve driver this 12 months, is getting his maiden likelihood with a producer in sportscar racing after taking his first steps within the self-discipline this 12 months in LMP2 within the European Le Mans Collection.
His season with the Swiss Cool Racing squad included two podiums at Paul Ricard and Portimao in Could and October respectively aboard one of many staff’s ORECA-Gibson 07s.
Bamber, who this 12 months contested three IMSA enduros with Corvette Racing in GT Daytona Professional, described the prospect to return to IMSA with Motion Specific as “an thrilling alternative”.
“I’ve actually missed IMSA, driving in America,” he added.
Motion Specific staff boss Gary Nelson stated: “We’re all very excited to have such an incredible group of gifted drivers lined up for the 2025 season.
“Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber carry an awesome mixture and bringing in a younger, gifted Frederik Vesti for endurance races provides to what we’re attempting to perform.”
