Click for more information.
Andretti Autosport* and Wayne Taylor Racing** announced a new, long-term partnership today that will see the championship-contending and winning teams combine to run in IMSA’s top classes.
Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport’s No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 and its No. 93 Harrison Contracting Company Acura NSX Evo22 will make their official debut at the 2023 Roar Before the Rolex 24 and will be on the grid for the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The newly formed team will also compete in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America series. For 2023, Andretti will continue to operate in IMSA’s LMP3 category with Jarett Andretti.
The five-time Indianapolis 500 champions Andretti Autosport competes in six additional racing championships worldwide, including the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, INDY NXT by Firestone, ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, Extreme E, Australia’s Repco Supercars Championship and Mexico’s SuperCopa series. It is also known to be pursuing a spot in Formula One as a team.
The 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season will see day-to-day operations and leadership remain as they have currently operated. However, the long-term goal is to move the programs into Andretti Global’s recently announced 575,000-square-foot headquarters in Fishers, Indiana that is due running in 2025.
“We’re proud to be returning to the IMSA paddock in this way and the opportunity to be part of the launch of the GTP program alongside Wayne Taylor Racing and our friends at Honda Performance Development (HPD). Re-entering IMSA full time, and at this level, has been a goal of mine. I wanted it to be the right opportunity and at the right time – and we’ve found that,” said Michael Andretti, Chairman & CEO, Andretti Autosport.
“It’s an honor to be partnering with a name like Andretti as we enter a new era of racing. I was approached by Michael a year ago and, as we all know, timing is everything, especially as our GTP and GTD programs continue to grow with Acura and HPD. [Honda Performance Division] Having worked with Michael on this for nearly a year, I’m very excited to see it come together. While our 2023 program won’t look much different, there is a lot that Andretti Autosport can offer to us as we continue to build and expand. I’m looking forward to working closer with Michael (Andretti), J-F (Thormann), Rob (Edwards) and the entire Andretti team,” said Wayne Taylor, Team Owner, Wayne Taylor Racing.
AutoInformed on
- IMSA Motul Petit Le Mans – Five Classes Up For Grabs
- IMSA 2023 – Acura ARX-06 GTP Racer Revealed
- IMSA NASCAR Street fight: Bye Road America, Hi Chicago
- IMSA Prototype Challenge Nixed for VP Racing SportsCar Challenge
- Penske Motorsport Heads List of Porsche 963 WEC and IMSA Contenders During 2023. A New Golden Age of Racing?
*About Andretti Autosport
Led by Michael Andretti, who has won a race or two <grin>, the team fields multiple entries in INDYCAR, INDY NXT, IMSA and Formula E; and has collaborations in Extreme E as Andretti United Extreme E, Mexico SuperCopa series as Andretti Jourdain Autosport and Australian Supercars as Walkinshaw Andretti United. Andretti Auotsport is also know to be pursuing a Formula One slot. The global racing enterprise has more than 250 race wins, four INDYCAR Series championships, five INDY NXT titles, one Indy Pro 2000 and one USF2000 championship, a Silver Class GT4 championship. It has also one five times at the Brickyard, aka Indianapolis 500-Mile Race. The team also holds two X Games Gold Medals and five U.S. rallycross championships.
**About WTR
Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) was founded in 2007 by sports car champion Wayne Taylor. Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, though tby some to be the motorsports capital of the world, WTR has built a track record of success in both the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype class and the North America Lamborghini Super Trofeo series.
Corvette Racing is completing its lineup for the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship with young Argentinian driver Nico Varrone joining Ben Keating and factory driver Nicky Catsburg. The trio will team together in the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in the GTE Am category. The combination of Catsburg, Keating and Varrone will contest the full seven-race WEC calendar including the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. The season begins with the 1,000 Miles of Sebring on Friday, March 17.
It’s the second straight full-season program in the FIA WEC for Corvette Racing, which celebrate its 25th season of competition in 2023. The campaign will be the first for the Corvette program in GTE Am, where the sporting rules require at least one Bronze-level driver, as rated by the FIA. One professional-level driver is allowed along with a second Bronze or Silver-rated driver.
Although he’s new to Corvette Racing, the silver-rated Varrone got an early taste of the mid-engine Corvette C8.R during testing following the 2022 WEC finale at Bahrain and in a private test at Sebring in December.
Although his early racing focused on karting and single-seaters, Varrone’s most recent success has come in sports cars with victories in both prototype and GT cars. Among them are wins in the GTE Am category of this year’s European Le Mans Series along with a victory in the 24H Series’ round in Barcelona earlier this season.
This is the second consecutive year that Corvette Racing will compete in multiple GT championships around the world. Its campaign in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship begins in two weeks with the Rolex 24 At Daytona. – From Corvette Racing 13 Jan. 2023.