Cadillac Action Express confirms return to Le Mans next year

Cadillac IMSA GTP team Action Express Racing is planning to return to the Le Mans 24 Hours for a fourth time in 2027, after opting to sit out this year's edition.

Team boss Gary Nelson told RACER that this year the team chose to skip the trip to France in order to concentrate on its form in IMSA and create a longer runway for a future return. This left the door open for Wayne Taylor Racing to represent IMSA at the 24 Hours in Hypercar with a single V-Series.R alongside full-time WEC team Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA.

“This year it was my request to sit the race out,” he said. “We’d raced in Le Mans three years in a row, and they were our worst three years in IMSA, and we didn’t come away with any results at Le Mans really.

“So a year ago we came home from Le Mans after another rough run; we came to Road America fifth in the points, and I came home realizing that we’re used to winning, competing for championships, and we haven’t been able to do that. We wanted to go to Le Mans with a chance of winning, and we didn’t do it very well. I connected those things and said to Cadillac: ‘Can Action Express concentrate on IMSA, then come back to Le Mans in 2027?’

“People looked at me like, ‘Why would you skip Le Mans voluntarily?’ and I just added up some difficult Le Mans and IMSA results and said, ‘We’ve got to be better; let’s start now, get as good as we can in IMSA, then when we get to Le Mans we will have had a year of prep.’”

That strategy has worked well, as the team's full-season driver Jack Aitken leads the drivers’ standings by 118 points, and the outfit is leading the teams’ title race with two races remaining.

Its form since Le Mans last year has been exceptional. The team took its first win of the 2025 season at Indianapolis and went on to finish in the top three in every race up until the Road America round earlier this month, when Aitken crashed out while battling for second after contact with the No. 6 Porsche in the closing stages.

With the team now back to its best in IMSA, Nelson says he’s confident that 2027 will be the right time to take the team back to Le Mans, subject to the team being granted an entry via an IMSA invitation.

“In each of the three years we went to Le Mans, we didn’t have time to prep and only once did we know for sure we were going because we were IMSA champions,” Nelson continued. “The other two years we didn’t know until January or February, and so we had from then until June to throw it together, while we were trying to win Sebring, Long Beach, Laguna and Detroit.

“Now, 13 months later from that decision, I can show that our program got better, and I can say that if we get our entry confirmed and we go to Le Mans in 2027, we will go with a better programme.”

In terms of driver selection, AXR making a guest appearance in the race this year would have been tricky, as both Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber, who compete with it in GTP, also race with JOTA in the WEC. In 2027, the team is open to working with Cadillac to find a solution to create a driver crew from Cadillac’s pool of talent if any or all of its 2027 IMSA drivers are involved in dual programmes.

“We’re a five-car Cadillac team when you think about it,” he said. “Jack, for instance, was discovered by Action Express, and we’ve invested quite a bit, but at the end of the day, what Cadillac thinks is best is how we are going to operate.”

On the other side of the coin, Wayne Taylor Racing is set to sit out the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2027. Team owner Wayne Taylor explained to RACER that the roles between the two teams will essentially reverse next year when it comes to competing at La Sarthe as part of General Motors’ latest bid to win the race overall.

“I would love to go back to France next year, but unfortunately, the way it worked out was that Gary (Nelson) wanted to do next year, and I wanted to do this year because there were certain things that I wanted to see,” Taylor said.

“We were sort of on our own, but together with JOTA, we were able to put all the drivers with each other. Quite honestly, that race made my year prior to this win at Road America, because the guys did a really good job. We just got really unfortunate with the drive-throughs. But you know, we showed the team could execute. We showed the team could be competitive, could run up front. So to me, it was a big success.

“I would love nothing more than to go back this year. But I think it’s Gary’s turn. It’s a little disappointing, but at the same time, they wanted to concentrate on the championship this year, and they’re leading now. So that’s paid off, and the roles will be reversed a little bit for next year.”