Rumor: Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport eyes Le Mans (With Cadillac?) (Update)

The immediate goal for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport is to add a second Acura ARX-06 for next season’s WeatherTech Championship campaign.

It remains to be seen if a WEC and Le Mans effort would be with Cadillac, which will be Andretti’s partner in F1 and is returning to Le Mans this year with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Taylor used to run Cadillacs in IMSA and was part of Cadillac’s effort at Le Mans in 2000 to 2002. As we said below, we spotted Taylor exiting the Cadillac garage on Saturday.  Was he visiting old acquaintances or making new ones?

Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport is targeting an expansion into the FIA World Endurance Championship in the “next few years” according to team co-owner Michael Andretti and rumor has it if not with Acura, then with Cadillac, Andretti’s new partner in F1.

“That’s no secret,” Andretti told reporters Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.

“We’re going to have a satellite facility over in Europe. We already have one that we’re setting up and it’s going to be bigger.

“One of the objectives is to hopefully have a WEC team out of there in the next few years.”

A WEC effort would include a program at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which has been on team co-owner Wayne Taylor’s radar in recent years, however, Acura has only been interested in IMSA and only if Honda of Japan wanted to do WEC would a Le Mans effort happen.

It’s unclear if WTR with Andretti’s proposed WEC program would be with or without Honda/Acura. We spotted Wayne Taylor coming out of the Cadillac garage in Daytona yesterday, so make of that what you will.

Let’s not forget, Chip Ganassi Racing is going to LeMans with Cadillac and Cadillac would like nothing more to have more shots at victory.

A Ganassi spokesman said the team hopes to run its second entry in the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans but only its WEC team is confirmed (an AOC invitation would be required for the IMSA team). The team also is exploring options, but currently plans to have the WEC’s team base of operations in Indianapolis.  So Ganassi may only be going with a single entry and Cadillac would want at least two.

That’s where Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport would come in if rumors are to be believed.

“From my perspective, it’s the one race in the world of sports car racing that we haven’t won overall,” Taylor said. “There’s no doubt this is a major focus for all of us here.

“That’s where we want to be.”

Andretti added: “That is a definite goal for us. With our new partners that we have with Andretti Global, our goal is to be in every major racing event in the world.

“Obviously Le Mans is one of the big ones. Down the road we definitely want to be there.”

“One thing we felt that was missing from our racing portfolio was racing here in IMSA,” he said. “Especially with all of the new rules with LMDh and GTP cars, it was just a perfect time to get involved.

“The question is how do you get involved? We were just being very patient on looking for the right opportunity.

“When I got the call from Wayne, it’s like, ‘Jesus, you can’t get into this sport any better than with a team like Wayne Taylor Racing.’

“It was one of those marriages made in heaven. It’s been a lot of fun and we’re just really, really excited about this program.

“We’re really excited for the future of it and growing it. I think it’s going to be one of the mainstays of all our series that we’re in.”

The questions is whether Acura/Honda want to play and whether the rumor of the team switching to Cadillac has any legs.

Mark Cipolloni (aka Mark C. ) reporting for AutoRacing1.com