Ganassi Looking Forward to Home Soil Race for Lone Star Le Mans

Austin, TX (15 August 2024)- The World Endurance Championship (WEC) return to the Circuit of the Americas will see three United States-based teams look to make the most out of the run on home soil as the globe-trotting championship takes to Texas for the sixth round of the 2024 championship this Labor Day weekend.

One team that will have no trouble finding their way around will be the Chip Ganassi-run Cadillac Racing squad. Ganassi’s eponymous team has competed at the 3.4-mile circuit in no less than five different championships since 2013, scoring wins and poles at the Austin-area facility.

The team, which is based in Indianapolis but utilizes a European base for the WEC Cadillac Racing program, will have one entry in the Lone Star Le Mans as Cadillac Racing drivers Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn look to break through for a big result on Chip’s home soil.

Ganassi’s team, which has raced at COTA in Grand-Am, IMSA, Indycar, WEC, and NASCAR, has two IMSA pole positions (2014, 2016 Ryan Briscoe/Richard Westbrook) with the IMSA Ford GT GTLM) and two IMSA victories (2014 Scott Pruett/Memo Rojas), 2015 Pruett, Joey Hand), with the Ford/Riley Daytona Prototype in IMSA competition.

Bamber will arrive at COTA not only knowing his way around the track, but the way to victory lane as well. In five starts Bamber has earned two victories at COTA, with a GTLM win in 2016 IMSA WeatherTech competition as well as a WEC overall victory at the Texas track with his run to P1 for Porsche in 2017.

“I love the fact that we have such passionate fans in America, and I think they’ll enjoy seeing the WEC there again,” Bamber said of the Lone Star Le Mans return to Texas. “The fans make the American races.I think we’ll get a big turnout and Austin is a fantastic city to go to as well. I think there is going to be a lot of ‘America’ at the event. Fans will see titanic battles. We’ve got 17 full-time cars in the top class and the same amount in GT and there is action all over the place all the time. I think it’s some of the best racing in the world right now, especially in the top class, and I think it will be a great spectacle for the fans.”

Bamber’s teammate Lynn also brings WEC experience to the Lone Star State, having raced with Aston Martin at the track in its 2020 visit.

“COTA is a very technical track, very difficult to get right,” said Lynn. “There is a lot of lap time to be found with drivers exploiting the curbs. We don’t drive there a lot, so it’s a tough track to nail. But it’s a challenge we all enjoy. Sector 1 is by far my favorite. You’ve got that huge hill to Turn 1, then the big downhill sweeping into what is really a recreation of Maggots and Becketts from Silverstone. It really is amazing behind the wheel, and to watch from grandstands and viewing banks. Austin in itself is such a cool place too. Racing in the U.S. is cool, but that city just adds to it. The people there are so welcoming and for that reason I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love going there.”

The 2024 Lone Star Le Mans will open with practice sessions on Friday, August 30, with qualifying and the exciting Hyperpole sessions slated for Saturday, August 31. Sunday’s six-hour Lone Star Le Mans will go green at 1:00 PM local time. The event will also feature the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Series as well as the Mustang Challenge series, as well as (two concerts).

Tickets for Labor Day Weekend’s Lone Star Le Mans are available here.