Kamui Kobayashi will return to Wayne Taylor Racing next 12 months, in search of his third victory in three starts within the season-opening 24 Hours of Daytona IMSA SportsCar Championship.
The two-time World Endurance Champion with Toyota was fortieth WTR with the Andretti Cadillac V-Series.R at Daytona in January, when the team announced an unchanged driver lineup for the season following his switch from Acura.
Regular passengers within the No. 40 automotive will likely be Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz, who joined forces when the WTR expanded to 2 cars this 12 months, while Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque will proceed the partnership that began in 2021 within the No. 10 automotive.
All drivers who will join the 2 regular pairings are veterans of previous WTR campaigns.
Kobayashi drove international WTR Cadillac Daytona Prototype machines before the team's four-season stint with Acura at Daytona in 2019 and 2020, winning the race each times, with Fernando Alonso amongst his team-mates in the primary 12 months.
The 38-year-old, who can be the principal of the Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC team, was unable to drive for WTR after switching to a different Japanese brand and moved to the Action Express Racing Caddy DPi-VR in partnership with Hendrick Motorsports under the Ally banner Cadillac Racing in 2021 and 2022.
The No. 40.R Series V lineup will likely be accomplished by regular Cadillac driver Alex Lynn, who will race the automotive on the Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans enduro races, that are a part of the five-event IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup leg of the series.
Current Cadillac rider Lynn will join WTR for the enduro competition
Photo: Art Fleischmann
The Briton, who seems certain to proceed racing with Cadillac within the WEC after switching teams from Ganassi to Jota next 12 months, has a 100% win record within the WTR, as does Kobayashi.
Lynn entered the 2017 12 Hours of Sebring with the team, winning the race aboard a Caddy DPi shared with the Taylor brothers, sons of team founder Wayne.
Ricky Taylor, who returns to Cadillac after seven seasons with Acura that began with Penske in 2018, will likely be joined in Albuquerque by Will Stevens, who has worked at Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans.
The Briton was a part of Acura's 2022 WTR lineup at Daytona and Sebring and is predicted to maneuver to Cadillac alongside Jota next 12 months after racing one in all his customer Porsche 963 LMDhs within the WEC since last season.
Brendon Hartley, also a Toyota driver within the WEC, rounds out the lineup within the No. 10 automotive with a one-off appearance at Daytona.
The New Zealander has been racing for WTR since 2022, when he joined the team for the season-ending Petit Le Mans 10 Hours at Road Atlanta, and this 12 months he has competed in three of 5 IMSA enduros in one in all the Acura ARX-06s.
Kobayashi described his return to WTR as a “homecoming,” adding: “I actually have amazing and fun memories of racing together with his team, in addition to with Cadillac Racing.
“I'm really grateful not only to WTR and Cadillac for giving me another chance to race for them, but also to Morizo-san [Morizo is the racing alias of Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda] and TGR for allowing me to participate in this historic event in the United States.”
WTR boss Taylor said Kobayashi's skills “speak for themselves.”
