Last season, the combination of Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims helped the team capture the GTP title in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, with Jack Aitken joining the duo to secure the Endurance Cup.
This year’s full-time line-up will feature Derani and Aitken, replacing Sims, who departed for Corvette’s GTD program.
Additionally, Tom Blomqvist, the 2022 IMSA DPi champion and two-time defending winner of the Daytona 24 Hours, will co-drive at endurance rounds that don’t clash with his upcoming rookie campaign in the IndyCar Series for Meyer Shank Racing.
Entering this weekend’s Roar Before the 24 At Daytona, Chris Mitchum, director of operations for Action Express Racing that runs the factory program #31 Cadillac V-Series.R, believes the team’s program will be significantly different entering the second year of its GTP program.
“There is a huge advantage from where we were 12 months ago to where we are now,” Mitchum said.
“In racing years, if you can make the comparison to dog years, I think we’ve achieved at least three years’ worth of work in one years’ time across the entire Cadillac program. A tip of the cap to IMSA with how they structured everything.
“We’re equally prepared to go to Daytona now as we were in every other championship year we’ve had.
“Everything that we can prepare in the shop – and it’s racing so you’re never done; you can always pick another layer of onion – but I’d say we’re further down the road in preparation not only compared to last year but further down the road in preparation than my expectations the Monday after the ’23 season ending.”
The six-time IMSA champions were already able to knock off some off-season rust and begin working with Blomqvist at last month’s Daytona, too.
Source: Autosport