How Cadillac Racing earned three 2026 IMSA championship titles
2026-10-08
In the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Cadillac Racing pulled off a hat-trick. Cadillac won the IMSA Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) Manufacturer Championship, the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen team captured the Team Championship, and the No. 31’s Jack Aitken took Driver honors.
This remarkable result is thanks in large part to a comprehensive set of aerodynamic and braking updates introduced on the V-Series.R race car this year.
“We had a lot of focus on improving the car for this season. We wanted an aero package to help make the car more drivable,” explains Cadillac Racing Program Manager Keely Bosn. “At Dayona, we hit the ground running and the update really proved itself. The drivers all spoke very positively about the changes we’ve made. It just shows the strength of the program that we're able to make those changes, make them work, get them on track, and extract more performance.”
The championship hat-trick is also the culmination of work that began at the start of 2025. Last year, Cadillac Racing implemented the “One Team” strategy, fostering and coordinating close collaboration across three partner teams – Action Express and Wayne Taylor Racing in IMSA, and Hertz Team JOTA in the World Endurance Championship (WEC).
“We had engineers and race leads from all three teams attending both IMSA and WEC races this year,” Bosn says. “When we say we have a ‘one team’ approach, we truly mean it.”
That also extended to the driver lineups. Drivers Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber raced in most of the full IMSA and (still-ongoing) WEC seasons, with Jordan Taylor, Will Stevens, Louis Delétraz, Filipe Albuquerque, and Ricky Taylor all making appearances in both as well.
“As a company, we’re working on developing drivers, and what better way to do that than by having them race in both series, bringing their learnings from one team to the next?” Bosn says. “It’s one thing for us on the technical side to be pushing certain methodologies or setups. It’s another thing for that to come from the drivers. The willingness from each team to listen to our drivers and to take those learnings themselves has been phenomenal.”
Cadillac Racing’s IMSA GTP podium streak extends back to last year’s Indianapolis race, with 11 podiums from nine races here. The 2026 season was highlighted by the No. 31 winning both Detroit – Cadillac’s home race – and Watkins Glen, while Wayne Taylor Racing got its breakthrough V-Series.R victory with the No. 10 at Road America. The No. 31 won additional season-wide awards for leading laps, sustainability, pole positions, and for minimizing time on pitlane.
Bosn and the rest of the Cadillac Racing team didn’t have much time to celebrate the IMSA success, though. There are still two more WEC races before the end of 2026, and there’s much prep work ahead for the 2027 IMSA campaign, which kicks off at Daytona in a little over three months.
“We’ll evaluate what went well and what didn’t go well, and how we can make incremental improvements for next season,” Bosn says. “Our development is ongoing. It never stops.”
In the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Cadillac Racing pulled off a hat-trick. Cadillac won the IMSA Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) Manufacturer Championship, the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen team captured the Team Championship, and the No. 31’s Jack Aitken took Driver honors.
This remarkable result is thanks in large part to a comprehensive set of aerodynamic and braking updates introduced on the V-Series.R race car this year.
“We had a lot of focus on improving the car for this season. We wanted an aero package to help make the car more drivable,” explains Cadillac Racing Program Manager Keely Bosn. “At Dayona, we hit the ground running and the update really proved itself. The drivers all spoke very positively about the changes we’ve made. It just shows the strength of the program that we're able to make those changes, make them work, get them on track, and extract more performance.”
The championship hat-trick is also the culmination of work that began at the start of 2025. Last year, Cadillac Racing implemented the “One Team” strategy, fostering and coordinating close collaboration across three partner teams – Action Express and Wayne Taylor Racing in IMSA, and Hertz Team JOTA in the World Endurance Championship (WEC).
“We had engineers and race leads from all three teams attending both IMSA and WEC races this year,” Bosn says. “When we say we have a ‘One Team’ approach, we truly mean it.”
That also extended to the driver lineups. Drivers Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber raced in most of the full IMSA and (still-ongoing) WEC seasons, with Jordan Taylor, Will Stevens, Louis Delétraz, Filipe Albuquerque, and Ricky Taylor all making appearances in both as well.
“As a company, we’re working on developing drivers, and what better way to do that than by having them race in both series, bringing their learnings from one team to the next?” Bosn says. “It’s one thing for us on the technical side to be pushing certain methodologies or setups. It’s another thing for that to come from the drivers. The willingness from each team to listen to our drivers and to take those learnings themselves has been phenomenal.”
Cadillac Racing’s IMSA GTP podium streak extends back to last year’s Indianapolis race, with 11 podiums from nine races this year. The 2026 season was highlighted by the No. 31 winning both Detroit – Cadillac’s home race – and Watkins Glen, while Wayne Taylor Racing got its breakthrough V-Series.R victory with the No. 10 at Road America. The No. 31 won additional season-wide awards for leading laps, sustainability, pole positions, and for minimizing time on pitlane.
Bosn and the rest of the Cadillac Racing team didn’t have much time to celebrate the IMSA success, though. There are still two more WEC races before the end of 2026, and there’s much prep work ahead for the 2027 IMSA campaign, which kicks off at Daytona in a little over three months.
“We’ll evaluate what went well and what didn’t go well, and how we can make incremental improvements for next season,” Bosn says. “Our development is ongoing. It never stops.”
