Cadillac at COTA: home soil, and finally some momentum

Ricky Taylor steps into the No. 12 for the injured Alex Lynn as Cadillac races in front of its own crowd

Jakob van Putten September 3, 2026Last Updated: October 16, 2026

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Cadillac arrives at the Circuit of The Americas this weekend for its home race, and for the first time this season it arrives with something to build on rather than something to explain.

The Lone Star Le Mans runs on 4-6 September, six hours around the 5.513-kilometre, 20-turn COTA layout. For an American manufacturer in the FIA World Endurance Championship, it is the one weekend of the year where the crowd already knows the badge.

The season so far: pace without results

The honest version of Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s 2026 is that the speed has been there and the results have not.

Three opening rounds produced little. Then São Paulo produced a 3-4 finish, which is not a victory but is the first weekend where both cars converted their pace into points at the same time.

Sébastien Bourdais put it plainly: “We showed a lot of pace at the start of the season, including two strong results in Brazil.”

That is the sentence of a driver who has spent months watching a quick car finish nowhere.

Why manufacturer points matter more than they sound

Earl Bamber framed the Brazil weekend in a specific way, and it is worth noticing which currency he chose.

“The team had a strong outing in Brazil, where we picked up a good haul of Manufacturer points,” he said.

Not driver points. Manufacturer points. In a championship where General Motors has committed a global brand to Hypercar, the table that justifies the budget is the manufacturers’ standings. Bamber knows exactly who reads that one.

A changed line-up for the American round

There is one enforced change. Alex Lynn is recovering from surgery, so Ricky Taylor steps into the No. 12 alongside Will Stevens and Norman Nato.

Taylor is not a stopgap name. He is one of the most decorated sportscar drivers in North America, and dropping him into a Cadillac at an American circuit is about as comfortable a substitution as a team could hope for.

“COTA is such a nice circuit to drive, and I’m pleased to have Ricky joining us,” Nato said.

The result is a line-up that happens to look more American for the American race: Taylor in the No. 12, and Bourdais, whose career has been built substantially in the United States, in the No. 38. That is coincidence rather than design, but it does not hurt the weekend.

The No. 38 is still waiting

Bamber, Bourdais and Jack Aitken share the No. 38, and they are still chasing a first podium of the campaign.

That is the more interesting car this weekend. The No. 12 has now shown what the package can do. The sister car has had the same machinery and none of the reward, which in endurance racing is usually a story about luck and traffic rather than speed.

Will Stevens summed up the mood on the other side of the garage.

“It’s always special racing for Cadillac in the US, and hopefully, we can keep the momentum going,” he said.

The bigger picture for Cadillac

Something worth holding in view: 2026 is the year Cadillac is running a Hypercar programme in the World Endurance Championship and entering Formula 1 as a new constructor, with Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas.

Very few manufacturers attempt both at once. It says something about how General Motors is now using motorsport: not as a marketing line item, but as two simultaneous engineering programmes at the top level of two different world championships.

The endurance side is the one with a track record. It has Le Mans results and a car that is clearly quick. A strong home weekend at COTA would be useful for more than the standings.